yeah…and Loyd quotes how they looked after him and gave him enough pension money to keep him in brandy and a plot of land…
There were some amount of mercanries with the Bosnian Croats allright…murderous bastards
Yeah it seems like he lived out his time in Bosnia after returning to Dublin disabled initially. Probably felt more camaraderie and fellowship fighting over there alongside his fellow mercenaries and the Croat soldiers than he would ever feel in a team sport or having a few pints down in the local with his friends. Their life is in your hands and your life is in theirs. Amazing when you think about it. I’d say the adrenaline rush of being in such a situation must be in some way intoxicating for some, almost addictive.
Imagine being in your early 20s and saying “fuck this, I’m off to the Balkans to sign up”. You’d want to have more than a few screws loose upstairs.
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dosent he (Loyd) write about as well an interview that he had with a soldier on the Croat front line about the emotions what it is like when you first kill someone?
Its a brilliant book, he never i think got close to to Arkan or any of the Serb paramilitaries but seemed to spend a lot of time with the HVO ( Bosnian Croat army) … some of the barbarity that was going on was horrific, the Croat - Moslem war in central Bosnia is overlooked by most who only see the Serb v croat and serb v moslem side based on the siege of sarajevo… what happened in parts of central bosnia that went unreported such as Croatian forces massacring Moslem villages ( read the bit on Stupni Do) was absolute savagery…
Id have any Croat general up there with Mladic to be honest in terms of an absolute monster- what was the name the fella who poisoned himself again in the hague, Mladic tho was the worst of them all, after his daughter committed suicide he seemed to absolutly loose it- what happened in Srebenica is up there with any atrocity the Nazis committed… there’s a Sabra and Shatilla element to it to be honest - that was when Ariel Sharon stood back and let a Lebanese Catholic militia massacre a load of Palestinians in a refugee camp in the 80s
I cant remember was it in Loyd’s book now or in Janine Di Giovani’s wonderful book “Madness Visible” where the converstion between the swedish / dutch UN generals and Mladic is documented, Mladic ordered his forces to shell the UN positions, He met the Swedish general, dropped a set of car keys from head height and grabbed them before they touched the ground… " that close" he said to yer man from the UN and walked off… The UN fucked off out of Srebenica and Mladic killed 8k civilians in 48 hours
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its a fucking masterpiece tho - what a story
Slobodan Praljak was the Croat General
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There is a video of Mladic and the Dutchbat commander below in the Hotel in Srebenica after the Serbs rolled in. The Dutch lad looks ready to shit in his clogs.
It must have been the first war which was really played out on television all over the world. There was cameras everywhere; I suppose all sides had the cameramen out trying to control the ‘narrative.’ Even the negotiations amongst politicians were all in the presence of the cameras.
Good book alright so far. Not really into any of the massacre stuff yet.
You’d look at some of these YouTube videos and there would be many comments written in Serbo-Croat and you wouldn’t have to understand the language to know that the hatred is still there, as well as the reverence the Serbs would hold Mladic in still today.
I’m reading Mayflies by Andrew O Hagan and greatly enjoying it. The fairly rare kind of book that when you put it down, you look forward to getting back to it.
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Susan McKay’s new book ‘Northern Protestants on Shifting Ground’ has just come out in Ireland. Looking forward to reading it when I can get a copy. I read the original book which was superb.
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The BBC documentary on the break up of Yugoslavia is great …you’ll get it on YouTube …4 or 5 episodes
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I’ve been reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I’m at about 2/3 the way through and I give up on it, didn’t enjoy it at all, which I think is really unusual for a Booker prize winning book.
I’m going to start the new Irvine Welsh book instead.
I find most booker prize winners dreadful. Apparently they’ve tweaked the jury, adding in people like Lee Child, much to the horror of some, to try and pick books with wider appeal.
Milkman by Anna Burns was the last Booker Prize Winner I read. It was superb.
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I’ve been debating purchasing that book but I will put it on the list now.
Shuggie for me. Top drawer. I’ve failed to finish about three prior to that.
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There have been some awful Booker winners. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, only given to him because the jury felt guilty for not letting Atonement win. Last Orders by Graham Swift I didnt finish.
Decent audio book
I hate being the prick to do this, but you have that wrong , Amsterdam was published long before Atomement and it is a fantastic read, albeit not as accessible (or good) as Atonement.
The Booker winners have been hit and (mostly) miss for me. I personally thought Milkman was shit but I loved Shuggie Bain.
I have yet to finish Wolf Hall, just found it really dull.
I find that the Pulitzer for fiction winners tend to be a more reassuring measure of quality
McEwan is an extraordinary writer
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I’ve completely lost the will to carry on with it.
Couldn’t get into WolfHall at all.
Thought Milkman was very good, as mentioned Shuggie Bain is fantastic
Remember starting Vernon God Little but never finished it
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My conflicted opinions on McEwan are too wide to discuss here. On Cecil Beach - good. Saturday - shite.