As jailed Milosevic readies for trial, his nation suffers

Yugoslavs struggle to live, denying guilt

Their efforts to drive out Milosevic lasted so long that Tamara, the girl whom Zika once carried on his back to demonstrations, is now 16 years old. Five-year old Nikolai rode his father's back during the last push to oust Milosevic. Tamara would like to leave the country.

"Why?" a teacher once asked her.

"Because my father drives a car just a little bit younger than my mother," the teen explained.

The parents know it's hard for outsiders to grasp what happened to Yugoslavia. The closest that Zika Trikic can come to explaining it is his mention of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks against the United States. After the attacks, the government quickly passed laws and amassed power to fight terrorism.

"When people are afraid and insecure, you can easily sell what you want," Zika Trikic says.

That is what occurred, on a far different and more sinister scale, in the Balkans as Milosevic whipped up nationalism and fear, Zika Trikic says. "So, imagine one Milosevic having a war for 12 years," he says. "He made and built the system in 12 years."

And then it collapsed.