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Kind: captions
Language: sl

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I remember the jets flying over Republik Square 
as independent Slovenia’s flag was unfurled.

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Naively I thought “is that the best they can do?” 
guessing, wrongly, that a show of force would be

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all the Belgrade government led by Slobodan 
Milosevic would do because Slovenia would be

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no threat to his grand plans. 
The next day I knew differently of course.

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On that next morning, I remember the airport at Brnik, where I filmed a confrontation

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between a Slovenian officer and one from the JNA about who was in charge

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a rather polite confrontation to begin with, 
until the JNA tanks arrived from Vhnika.

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I remember the crushed truck trailers 
those tanks drove over.

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I remember the border post at the Loibl 
crossing point into Austria.

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Slovenian defence forces had already 
taken control of the main crossing points overnight.

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I remember speaking to one of the officers at the border post who was supremely confident

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that his men would hold it.

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I wasn’t so sure, the JNA was one of Europe’s largest armies. But his confidence was justified because,

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as we know now, it doesn’t matter how many 
big tanks and guns an army has,

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it needs to believe in its mission.

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Many of the soldiers in the JNA units sent to “take back control of Slovenia” had no clear idea

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of what they were fighting for.

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Some of those soldiers were Slovenians anyway, 
and many of them simply changed sides.

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I remember interviewing Gen. Blagoje Adžič,
 some time later of course.

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He blamed the politicians in Belgrade for not letting him mount a full-scale invasion.

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I truly believe his forces 
would still have been heavily defeated.

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The death toll would have been horrifying.

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As it was, too many died in the conflict, many non-combatants like the truck drivers hit by JNA rockets

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and Norbert Werner and Nik Vogel, 
Austrian journalists killed by JNA fire at Brnik airport.

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Sadly I was to see far too many other innocents killed in the wars that followed in Croatia and Bosnia.

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Above all, I remember the commitment of Slovenians to prepare for war,

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hoping to avoid it but if necessary to win it.

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I’m not going to name names, there are too many

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– well okay, I must mention Jelko Kacin and his superbly professional press centre in 1991.

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And I would be stupid to talk about today’s politics - but surely all Slovenians

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are grateful for the tactical planning and secret armament programme that gave the JNA such a fright.