Father Voyislav Charkich is an orthodox Serbian priest who left the city to join the Serbian army. He voluntarily went into the war because his assumptions were that the Orthodox Church and the Serbian nation were in jeopardy. In the film he states that, "If we did not enter this war, within 10 years we would no longer be living on these lands. Even though the oldest object in the former Bosnia-Herzegovina is the old church in Sarajevo, which dates back to the 10th or 11th century." .
I understand Father Charkich's mentality. I think if you do not go to war, or find some way to take a hold of things you value, such as land, these possessions will be taken from you. It's a sad fact, but if your enemy or the person interested in taking your land is willing to force you off that land by going to war, you can either refuse to go to war, and give up your land, or enter that war and fight for your land. .
I do not advocate violence and feel that war is a horrible thing. It tears families, economies, and societies apart. However, I cannot make up my own mind about whether war is necessary. It would have been horrible to stand by and allow the Jewish holocaust to continue and to not speak up and act out against it. Actions do speak louder than words and I'm not entirely convinced that there were peaceful effective means of putting an end to the killings of innocent civilians. .
Another assumption that the priest has is that it's better for the Croatians and the Bosnians to just live among their own people. The priest assumes that after the war, the two ethnicities will separate and future generations will not encounter the same conflicts and wars. The priest claims, "This is the last opportunity for accounts to be settled." Personally I do not think this is the war that will end all future conflicts for Croatians and Serbs. I think the solution is not to separate the ethnicities but to allow them to learn to live with each other.
