Slobodan Snajder, an Author,

... If one day there was a plane above Belgrade - which, of course, I do not wish to happen - a plane with "serious intentions", I suppose that in the heads of those people who think that all this is happening to someone else a turn-point would occur. It is what happened to 95% of citizens of Zagreb. I am talking about the time of air-raid alarm. It was something we knew about only from movies and books... The fear paralyzes critical mechanisms, you know. I mean, there is no doubt that in Croatia a defence homogenization is taking place. Ideological differences don't matter any longer. Neither is there room for criticizing the authorities. At that moment it is very difficult to draw a line between the power as a political category, susceptible to criticism in every civilian society, and the homeland which has been attacked. I bag of you to understand: it is not that an intellectual, who has until now been critical about all around him, becomes a conformist. But, the necessary quantity of criticism is suddenly suspended. This is very dangerous for a civilian society. But, on the other hand, we are faced with a banal dictatorship, there is no doubt about that, with the elements of uncontrolled military power. I think it has nothing to do with marxism or communism. I think that we are dealing with a machinery which has almost overnight adapted itself ideologically and which is defending its economic and social position. I don't even think it has much to do with Serbian nationalism. Although it seems, at first sight, that the aims of the Army and the present Serbian regime are the same, I believe that they harm the aims of any politics, since they are making it impossible. I think that both warring sides have for a long time now been living under total narcosis...

It has to be understood that the terrible experience with Jasenovac (a concentration camp in Croatia during the Second World War) is - the Croatian experience. Serbs are of marginal importance here, they are the victims. But it is our business. We must deal with it, just like the Germans did with Auschwitz. There is Croatian fascism and Croatian anti- fascism, and that's our domestic problem. ..

... It would be best if a hundred Croatian fanatics would clash with a hundred Serbian fanatics. I would write an epic poem about it!

My daughter, who is nine years old, has started using words like "the refugee", "alarm", "chetnic"... Of course, she doesn't know exactly what they mean. She sees the refugees, she hears the air-raid alarm. A few months ago, she came back from school and she said: "Listen, dad, it is quite clear to me that we should all be afraid of Serbs". There was a moment of silence, and then she asked: "And who are these Serbs?" It is of great importance to realize how the people are getting used to stereotype coloured vision... There is no significant difference between Serbs and Croats. The explanation that Croat belong to the Western culture and Serbs to the Byzant is pure nonsense.

... The international recognition of Croatia is regarded here as an issue of paramount importance. But the recognition itself won't solve a thing! At least not for as long as we don't realize that the aggression in general is meaningless, that it leads nowhere... I don't care much about states. This whole national fervor seems ridiculous to me... A few days ago,

I've heard an interesting formulation: "We all need Yugoslavia, but nobody wants it"...

... Everybody is so enthusiastic about the idea of independent states ... It is just like plague in the Middle Ages. Nobody knows why Marseille, for instance, was hit by plague and 100.000 people died. And nobody knows how it suddenly stopped. When will this plague of ours stop? Who will pay for it? And whoever needed it? There is no way for Serbia to be bigger than it is, or for Croatia to be either bigger or smaller. It is clear from the overall situation that we must reach an agreement. Nobody ever said we were in war, and there were more casualties than during the Iraq-Iran war. I am the army conscript of the third call-up, the last to be killed. Am I supposed to eventually shoot at my Serbian colleagues? I'd rather kill myself.