(Most of these titles are available used, online, for just a few dollars.)
Balkan War of the 90’s
Probably the most useful book to begin with is:
To Kill a Nation, the Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti. A very clear argument is made, with thorough documentation, that the “humanitarian intervention” of NATO in the Balkans of the 90’s was in fact bold-faced aggression meant to dismantle a former Soviet-bloc country and transform it into a Third World cog in the capitalist wheel of the West.
Persecution of Serbs and Ethnic Cleansing of Croatia, 1991-1998. Dabić, Lukić, Perović, Šalić. It’s impossible to read details of this persecution and extermination without hearing echoes of Jim Crow terrorism.
Travesty, the Trial of Slobodan Milošević and the Corruption of International Justice, John Laughland A passionate critique of Milošević’s trial and the PR machine at the heart of international “justice.”
The New Military Humanism, Lessons from Kosovo Noam Chomsky In my to-read pile. I’m eager to see what this renowned author has to say on this subject.
Offensive in the Balkans, Yossef Bodansky. The potential for a wider war as a result of foreign intervention in Bosnia-Herzegoniva.
Media Lies and the Conquest of Kosovo, Michel Collon. The degree to which our media is biased is more than alarming.
World War II Era Extermination
Ustaša, Croatian Fascism and European Politics, 1929-1945, Srdja Trifkovic. Hitler is, as are many other Nazi officials, on record expressing disgust with the sadism employed by the fascists of Croatia in WWII in the extermination of their Serb minority. It’s believed this sadism was carefully thought out strategy – the crimes were to be so terrible that the Croats and Serbs could never be friendly neighbors ever again. Trifkovic is likely the leading Serbian historian writing in the English language.
Excerpt of novel based on Vrginmost testimonies. Based on >Sela Kotara Vrginmosta u Narodnooslobodilačkoj Borbi or, “Vrginmost District During the People’s War of Liberation (WWII).” It is difficult to find primary source accounts of the persecution of Serbs in Croatia. I did get help in translating one such account and used it in my novel. I‘ve uploaded an excerpt of the novel based on that translation here.
Ustasha massacre of Serbs at Prkos, 1941 Another translation, basically me translating Google translating Serbian. from the Vrginmost book cited above. This is an incredibly brutal attack on the Serbs of this village. Over 350 people were killed in one day, all Serbs, each one is listed here, with details on how they died. Most all were herded to a pit, their throats were slit or their heads were bashed with mallets. Fifty of them were Roknic, my cousins.
Wiki on Persecution of Serbs as of this date (7/12/15) is fairly accurate. There is a problem with Wiki accounts being overwritten that are unfavorable to Croats (the Vatican is said to be funding that censoring). That being said, Wiki has not been a reliable source of information concerning the extermination of one-fourth the Serbian population of Croatia in World War II. What I am seeing today does look reasonable. There is a discussion at the end on how egregiously Franjo Tudjman, former President of Croatia, whitewashed the history, and was essentially a holocaust denier, behavior the United States supported during the Nineties. If that’s still there when you read this, presumably it’s still reasonably accurate.
Croatian Nazis – The Worst Monsters the World Had Known. Youtube documentary tying the Ustaša of WWII to the nationalist extremists who destroyed the Yugoslav nation in the 90’s.
Weight of Chains – a classic on the invasion and destruction of Yugoslavia by the West. There’s also an overview of the history. The filmmaker is a young man with a style much like that of Michael Moore. If you only have a couple hours to get the gist of this complicated history, this is a great way to go.