ABSTRACT
Civilisation is more than great art and literature. Where basic human rights to life, liberty and justice are not held to be sacrosanct civilisation does not exist. Too often it is taken for granted by those who enjoy its prerogatives. It is fragile; the events that took place in Yugoslavia revealed just how fragile. The reversion to barbarism there was terrifyingly swift and unexpected. For decades Yugoslavia, with its beautiful coastline, had been a popular destination for millions of holidaymakers. No one could have predicted the descent into violence or the horrifying stories broadcast by the Western media – the shelling of medieval Dubrovnik; the deaths of thousands of civilians in the siege of multi-ethnic Sarajevo, whose citizens had prided themselves on their cosmopolitan tolerance; the pictures of skeletal concentration camp victims and mass graves of the thousands who had been butchered in cold blood. Millions of refugees were forced to flee from one region to another or left Yugoslavia altogether.
