Byzantine Blog

Dutch Soldiers from Srebrenica Battalion Offer to Testify in Karadzic's Defense

Some 15 Dutch soldiers of the former Netherlands battalion stationed in Srebrenica during the Bosnian civil war came to Belgrade on Wednesday, offering to testify in the Hague tribunal on behalf of Dr. Karadzic, a member of Radovan Karadzic's defense team Milivoje Ivanisevic told Vecernje Novosti.

"We talked about their possible testimony. They stressed that the Serbs did not commit war crimes against the Muslim civilians when they were passing through several dozen of their villages [in Srebrenica municipality] the Dutch soldiers were securing. They came over at their own expense and said they will testify and invite more of their fellow soldiers to testify too. They left Belgrade on Thursday," Ivanisevic said.

To see how relevant their testimonies would be, Ivanisevic talked to each Dutch soldier who came to Belgrade, individually, about when and where he was and what was he doing. Asked by Vecernje Novosti why haven't they showed up before to say what really happened in Srebrenica, Ivanisevic said he didn't pose that question, but added that Dutch soldiers complained there is a complete repression against them in Holland that had lasted for the past 10 years because they are blamed for allegedly "failing to protect Srebrenica".

"Perhaps the things are finally getting ripe now", Ivanisevic said. "They told me they came here in apprehension and worried, because they expected to be hated in Serbia just like back home. They said in Srebrenica at the time they had to protect themselves from the Muslims, rather than protect Muslims from the Serbs. Serb Army, according to them, was helping the Muslim women and their children, bringing them food and water", Ivanisevic conveyed the conversation he had with Dutch soldiers who were stationed in Srebrenica in 1995.

Orie Out

On Thursday, Radovan Karadzic received another good news -- Serbophobic judge Alphons Orie has been removed from the post of the head judge in the case against him. The decision was brought by the tribunal's president Fausto Pocar who ordered that the case is assigned to another council of judges.

The Hague staff rushed to assure the media Pocar's decision was not a result of Dr. Karadzic's request to exempt Orie from his case due to bellicose Serbophobia Orie had exhibited on numerous occasions. But Pocar's reasons for removing Orie from the process against Republic of Srpska first president are entirely irrelevant, as long as the goal has been achieved.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Hundred Indictments Against Croat and Bosnian Muslim War Criminals

Regional Prosecution in Doboj (Republic of Srpska) has gathered documentation and other evidence for raising charges against some 100 persons of Croat and Bosnian Muslim nationality for the war crimes committed against Derventa (Bosnia-Herzegovina) Serbs during the year 1992.

According to the Republic of Srpska media, the first eight indictments could be issued at the beginning of the next month against Ivica Petkovic, Vinko Belic, Ivan Duspara, Ivan Culjak, Sulejman Alijalic and Ika Stanic.

"These individuals bear most responsibility for the establishment of five concentration camps in Derventa where more than 300 Serbian civilians were tortured and killed, including many women, children and elderly", president of the Association of the War Prisoners of Derventa municipality Drago Knezevic said.

He said that the greatest number of the camp prisoners of Serbian nationality was submitted to the most brutal methods of torture and abuse and that most of them have died of the consequences of torture in the plain sight of the other prisoners.

Members of the municipal association of the Serbian camp prisoners in Derventa expressed their satisfaction with the fact indictments against the Croat and Bosnian Muslim war criminals for the crimes committed against the Serbian population no one has yet faced responsibility for, will be issued soon.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Phillip Corwin: Serbophobia Prevents Reaching the Truth

Interview with Phillip Corwin by Cathrin Schütz, Junge Welt

American Phillip Corwin was the highest UN official in Bosnia from spring to summer of 1995, serving as Civil Affairs Coordinator and Delegate of the Special Representative for the UN Secretary General. Previously, from 1994 to the spring of 1995 he held the same office for the region of Eastern Slavonia in Croatia. Duke University Press published his memoirs: Dubious mandates - A Memoir of the UN in Bosnia, Summer 1995.

Q: Richard Holbrooke, Paddy Ashdown and many other Western representatives who were involved in the Yugoslav tragedy, unanimously assessed the arrest of Radovan Karadzic's as the capture of one of the most brutal war criminals of our time. What is your opinion?

PC: Holbrooke and Ashdown used the wars in former Yugoslavia to build their careers. Their phrases like "one of the most brutal" and "good Nazi" -- that's how Holbrooke characterized Dr. Karadzic just now in the Spiegel interview -- remind us of their terrible bias and the severe harm that they caused as so-called diplomats. They foment the Serbophobia even now, making a fair process against Dr. Karadzic in The Hague impossible.

Q: What do you expect from the trial of the former president of Republika Srpska in Bosnia before the ad hoc tribunal in The Hague?

PC: In any criminal process the question of the intent is of central importance. Based on my personal contacts with Bosnian Serbs, including with Dr. Karadzic, I can only say that I am convinced the issue with Bosnian Serbs was to protect the Serbs, not to kill Muslims or Croats. Incidentally, the Gypsies allied with the Serbs -- they probably still remember all too well the treatment they were given during the Second World War by the "good Nazis" on the Croat and Muslim side. The Serbs were never threatened by the Gypsies and vice versa, the Serbs never undertook anything against the Gypsies. As always in the Hague, Dr. Karadzic can't expect a fair trial. He will be accused of participating in a 'conspiracy' and they will blame him for the deeds of soldiers in the field, whom he didn't know and to whom he never issued any orders.

Srebrenica Takeover: 700 Muslims Killed at Worst

Q: One of the main charges is Karadzic's alleged responsibility for the genocide of 8,000 Muslim males from Srebrenica. At the time Srebrenica was taken over by the Bosnian Serb Army in July 1995 you were the highest civilian official of the UN in Bosnia. What really happened?

PC: What happened on July 11 1995 in Srebrenica is part of a greater tragedy and cannot and must not be taken out of the context. Those who do are clearly doing it with intention to twist things to the detriment of one of the warring parties. What happened in Srebrenica was not a single massacre Serbs committed against the Muslims, but a series of bloody attacks and counterattacks during three years and escalating in 1995. The number of Muslims killed most probably was not higher than the number of the Serbs killed in the region during the previous years in the assaults of the Bosnian Muslim war commander Naser Oric. The number of missing Bosnian Muslims is also exaggerated. All this shows that the official reports are of purely political nature.

In May 1995, two months before the last battle for Srebrenica, the Croat army led the Operation Lightning in which 90 percent of the Serbs who lived in western Slavonia were expelled, i.e. they conducted the ethnic cleansing. A month after Srebrenica, 200,000 Serbs were expelled from their ancestral land in Krajina region [also in Croatia]. The international community remained silent in both cases! Srebrenica must be viewed in the context of events. If there really was a massacre -- and it seems realistic to speak about 700 victims -- then this is a war crime and the perpetrators must be held accountable. But the difference between the 700 and the commonly referred to 8,000 is not numerical -- it is political.

Recommended: Don't forget what happened in Yugoslavia, by John Pilger (NewStatesman.com)

Posted by BBlog Staff at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Slaughter of Serbs near Srebrenica
April 1992 to April 1993

The horror that Bosnian Serbs suffered at the hands of Muslims in the vicinity of Srebrenica is no secret. The Yugoslav State Commission for War Crimes submitted a 132 page study presenting this Serbian suffering as early as May 24, 1993 to the United Nations Security Council. Representatives of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb Republic) were not allowed to submit similar documents because Republika Srpska was not recognized by the United Nations. Yugoslavia, as a UN member state (since 1945) and one of its founding nations, was allowed to submit this document.

The Security Council admitted the study as an official United Nations document. The document was given UN id numbers A/46/171 and S/25635 and dated 2 June 1993.

Many UN documents, crucial for understanding the civil wars in Bosnia in 1990's, were, on American insistence, declared classified. This is how the fact that Muslims -- and not Serbs -- were the ones who committed the infamous atrocities in Sarajevo breadline, and Markale market still officialy remains a secret.

Here presented UN document was not declared classified.. Its distribution was marked "General." Any Western journalist could have stopped by room GA57 in the basement of the U.N. Building at the corner of 46th Street and 1st Ave. in New York and gotten a copy. Or they could just called the U.N. Public Inquiry Office at (212) 963-4475 and ordered it.

Purposely no Western media EVER mentioned this document as it clearly shows that Serbian civilians were victims of the Muslim fanatics in the vicinity of Srebrenica - and not the other way around as Western media claims for more than decade now.

If the contents of this document are false, why didn't the Western media report it and refute it? Its suppression eloquently proclaims its validity and the dishonesty of the media that suppressed the very news of its existence.

We present it in its entirety. More. It is scanned in original form. You can print the PDF files and you will have a photo-copy of the original.

MEMORANDUM ON WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AND GENOCIDE IN EASTERN BOSNIA (COMMUNES OF BRATUNAC, SKELANI AND SREBRENICA) COMMITTED AGAINST THE SERBIAN POPULATION FROM APRIL 1992 TO APRIL 1993

Excerpt from United Nations Memorandum dated June 3 1993, scanned and available for download in PDF format

Massacred Persons

The cruelty and insidiousness exhibited in the attacks on Serb villages, the ruthlessness towards villagers taken prisoner or captured, without distinction as to sex, age, whether they are soldiers or civilians, healthy or wounded and ill, the bestial treatment in prisons in which no water or food is the mildest punishment, represents a special chapter in the events in this region. It is hard to say whether such an attitude stems from the religious fanaticism of Islam, their jihad, or from the aroused basic, animal instincts of their warriors. And perhaps simply sadists, torturers and killers by nature, led the actions and gave the orders. Irrespective of the reasons, the consequences for the Serbian people are horrendous.

Many of the killed, but also of the wounded and even live and uninjured people were burned together with the houses they had been occupying. That happened in Zalazje on St. Peter's Day (July 12, i992), where about twenty people were burned in three buildings. Or in Podravanje, where people were roasted on the spit (on the basis of the found corpses it could not be concluded whether the victims had already been dead or had been tortured thus whde still alive). People were burned in their homes in many villages: Bljeceva, Krnjici, Ratkovici, Jezestica. Tens of family houses ware consumed in flames together with their occupants.

Many of the killed persons who were exchanged or were pulled out in other ways from the place of their death had traces of burns, parts of their bodies were charred, their throats had been slit, skulls smashed, arms and legs broken and in several cases, their heads had been cut off. Not infrequently even the dead were massacred.

A very large number of the victim were killed in very perfidious ways in various ambushes and by individual rifle shots (snipers). Vehicles and passers-by were waylaid not only on local and regional thoroughfares but also in fields, country lanes, forest paths... Everywhere where people moved. Almost a third of those on the attached list were killed in ambushes.

It is not even possible to imagine the number of people massacred, burned, those whose throats were slit, or were killed in other ways in prisons in the Moslem-controlled area. The truth about the fate of imprisoned and detained Serbs will have to wait for better times. It is to be expected that at such a time the documentation which we have will have to undergo radical changes and that the final death and casualties toll will present an even more tragic picture.

On the basis of preliminary insight into the massacres committed over the civilian population or prisoners or detainees, the first findings and results of investigations so far can be given. Victims put to death by torture or massacred, which is testified to by either authentic documentation or witnesses are exclusively in question.

[Followed by the list of then-identified Srebrenica-municipality Serbs tortured and massacred by the Srebrenica Muslims]

The entire UN Security Council Memorandum on atrocities committed against Srebrenica Serbs is available, chapter by chapter, at the Srpska-Mreza.com web site. The most thorough, detailed internet library on the facts regarding Srebrenica "Massacre" is also available on the same web site and highly recommended.

Recommended: The Real Radovan, by Vladimir Volkoff (Stratediplo Blog); Irish complicit in West's war crime, by Prof. J.P. Maher (Irish Independent); "Good Versus Evil": Radovan Karadzic and the West, by Alan Miller (HuffingtonPost.com); Karadzic and Islam’s Northward Push, by Ron Fraser (TheTrumpet.com); Radovan Karadzic in Court: Enemies of Serbia be Careful What you Wish For, by Andy Wilcoxson (Slobodan-Milosevic.org)

Posted by BBlog Staff at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Agreement Richard Holbrooke Offered and Signed with RS President Karadzic on Behalf of U.S. Government

Obligations

1. RK is under obligation to submit his resignation to all the state and [political] party functions. Decision comes to force within 90 days, as needed to settle the necessary issues with the rest of leadership. Resignation has to be irretrievable. Influence the leading party officials in a direction of easing the resignation issue and the change in the hierarchy.

2. Until submitting his resignation, RK will not be reaching political or state decisions, nor will he influence others to reach decisions pertaining to any of the following:

2-1 Combat operations on the territory of BiH [Bosnia-Herzegovina]

2-2 Moving the civilian population

2-3 The international agreements: military, economic, security, regional integrations

2-4 Appointing the state, party, regional, cultural administrations, functionaries

2-5 Relocating the financial means

(in force from 5.11.03:30)

3. RK will withdraw from the public life. This includes refusing to give interviews, statements (in person or through the intermediaries), non-publishing [illegible] of political and current problems.

Obligations 2

1. United States Government is under obligation not to influence, directly or indirectly, the SDS leadership [Dr. Karadzic's political party] to affect dissolution of the party.

2. United States Government is making available the sum of 600,000 USD to RK, in the local currency. The sum is designated to enable RK's support in the 6 year period.

3. United States Government is making residential object available to RK, at the location agreed upon during the earlier verbal agreement.

4. United States Government is providing physical protection for RK, not less than 6 men.

5. United States Government has a duty to inform RK about every possible threat to his safety.

Final stipulations:

1. This agreement is permanent.

2. RK's violations of the agreement will be treated as a serious violation of the informal agreement, in the sense of the article 3 paragraph 25 of the Internal Regulations and in that sense it will be sanctioned with the immediate termination.

3. The agreement can be terminated through a mutual consent, or upon the initiative of United States Government.

Signed by: Radovan Karadzic (on the left) and Richard Holbrooke (right).

Copy of the agreement from Kurir, text of the agreement translated from Glas Javnosti

Posted by BBlog Staff at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)

Uncle Sam and John Bull Love to Stoke Fires (Away from Home)

The ongoing spitting contest, led by the UK and US mainstream media and the Western political apparatchiks, competing who is going to spew more vitriol and throw more napalm over the still-smoldering ruins, while issuing the most damning verdicts to yet-to-be-tried President of Republic of Srpska Dr. Radovan Karadzic, is yielding quick results: old hatreds are fully resurrected and Bosnia-Herzegovina is rapidly sliding back to the 1990s, when Western mainstream talking heads' chorus played exactly the same vile role, inflaming, exasperating and prolonging the carnage in the Balkans.

Bosnian Muslim leaders have once again eagerly jumped on the Western tsunami of malice, to announce that "this is only the beginning" (another one), and to demand the abolition of the Serb republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina, being that Uncle Sam and John Bull keep assuring them Bosnian Serbs deserve to be exterminated -- a threat most certain to push the region closer to another round of bloodshed.

Sarajevo's Victim-Based Politics

Republic of Srpska Premier Milorad Dodik is well aware of the flammable muck poured around him. In the interview given to Belgrade daily Politika, he noted the worrisome escalation of the war rhetorics, bullying and overt attacks against the Serb republic after the arrest of Republic of Srpska first president.

"The main pillar on which the Bosnian Muslim policy rests is to create an impression in the world that Bosnian Muslims were the only victims of Bosnia-Herzegovina war. And once you get the halo of a victim, you then have the right to everything: you have the right to revenge, to make mistakes, the right to hate, to demand whatever pops into your head... While it is non-disputable that many Bosnian Muslims lost their lives in the war, there were also victims among the Croats, and a great number of Serbs were also killed. So, it is impossible to make a victim out of one nation alone, because that is simply not true. The Serbs and Croats [in Bosnia] were not killed by the humanitarian organizations, but by the exponents of the Bosnian Muslim ideology who are even today figuring prominently on the Sarajevo political scene. This ideology is advocating that everything that even reminds of Republic of Srpska must immediately be condemned to extinction," Dodik said.

He added that the "fate of Republic of Srpska will not be decided by Haris Silajdzic, Sulejman Tihic, Zlatko Lagumdzija and the likes, who are allegedly seeking 'justice', while in fact all they want is a showdown with Republic of Srpska".

"Sarajevo is simply boiling out of desire for revenge," Bosnian Serb premier warned.

Bosnian Muslim Leaders Want to Turn Karadzic Trial into a Trial of Republic of Srpska

Q: Theories that the arrest of Karadzic and Mladic will lead to calming down tensions and reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been proven wrong. Why have the events moved in a direction opposite of the expected?

MD: I have already partly responded to that question. Still, I'll remind that Sarajevo political circle is using every opportunity and every instance to exploit the past events for the final showdown with Republic of Srpska and the Serbian nation. That is why Karadzic's arrest also resulted in heightening the political tensions. Even though he is not convicted, Karadzic has already been declared by the Bosnian Muslim politicians and their media a "Bosnian Osama bin Laden" [?!], "Durmitor butcher"... What if he gets released? Someone will say that is impossible. Why would it be impossible when Ramush Haradinaj and Naser Oric were released? It is well known that Karadzic accepted the Lisbon Peace Agreement [in February 1992, before the Bosnian civil war had started] and that he requested from us, the MPs, to support that agreement. [Bosnian Muslim war leader] Alija Izetbegovic accepted it too at first and then rejected it. According to the Agreement architect, José Cutileiro, that is what definitely pushed Bosnia-Herzegovina into the war.

Q: Why are the Bosnian Muslim politicians, first and foremost, trying to turn the trial against Karadzic into a process of abolishing Republic of Srpska?

MD: Because Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina is not the accomplishment of their war aims. And because Bosnia, since Dayton until today, has not found its inner functioning mechanism. So, the fact Bosnia-Herzegovina functions at all is exclusively the result of the engagement of the Western powers which, at times, was extremely rigid, domineering and marked by the threats and punishments of a score of Serbian politicians. All that was done to preserve Bosnia-Herzegovina and to have it form even the most basic logistic framework for functioning. Yet, such politics failed to produce a favourable result. Bosnia-Herzegovina today is still a divided society, not only in the sense of the legal and territorial entities, but mentality-wise: in the way of life, the perception of truth, visions of the future... As it is, this is not the Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnian Muslims want. And that is why they wish to turn the Karadzic trial into a trial of Republic of Srpska.

John Laughland: Idiot's Guide to Bosnia-Herzegovina War

The Plight of the Bosnian Serbs, by John Laughland (Brussels Journal)

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic in Serbia on Tuesday has provided yet another occasion for all the tired old propaganda about the Balkans wars to be taken out of the cupboard and given one last airing. In particular, the war is presented as one between a Serb aggressor and an innocent victim, the Bosnian Muslims, and the former is accused of practising genocide against the latter. Even if one accepts that crimes against humanity were committed during the Balkan wars, it should be obvious that both these claims are absurd.

...As Lincoln was an Aggressor in American Civil War

First, the Serbs were no more the aggressors in the Bosnian civil war than Abraham Lincoln was an aggressor in the American Civil War. The Yugoslav army was in place all over Bosnia-Herzegovina because that republic was part of Yugoslavia. Bosnian Muslims (like Croats) left the army in droves and set up their own militia instead, as part of their drive for independence from Belgrade. This meant that the Yugoslav army lost its previous strongly multiethnic character and became largely Serb. It did not mean that Serb forces entered the territory of Bosnia, or even that the Serbs attacked the hapless Bosnian Muslims.

The accusation of aggression is intended to introduce by the back door an allegation which in fact has vanished from modern international criminal justice. Although the crime of waging an aggressive war was pronounced to be the supreme international crime at Nuremberg, it has been dropped from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia which will presumably try Karadzic once he is extradited to The Hague, and even the new International Criminal Court (also in The Hague) does not for the time being have jurisdiction over it.

The accusation has the effect of condemning the Bosnian Serb war effort at its very origins (in terms of ius ad bellum) independently of any condemnation for the way the war was fought (ius in bello). In fact, the Bosnian Serb war effort was no more or less legitimate than the Bosnian Muslim war effort. The Muslims wanted to secede from Yugoslavia (and were egged on to do this by the Americans and the Europeans) while the Bosnian Serbs wanted to stay in Yugoslavia. It was as simple as that.

Few Simple Facts

In my view, it is not possible to adjudicate such matters using the criminal law since, as political questions, they transcend it. But the fact that the Muslims blatantly cheated by holding the vote on an independence referendum at 3 a.m. after the Bosnian Serb deputies in the Bosnian parliament had all been told to go home, and the fact that the Bosnian Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, remained in office throughout 1992 long after his term had expired and long after he should have handed over to a Serb, meant that the Bosnian Serbs had excellent grounds for believing that the Bosnian Muslim secession was quite simply a coup d’état.

In any case, once the Muslims had seized power in Sarajevo, the Bosnian Serbs sought not to conquer the whole republic but instead simply to fight for the secession of their territories from Muslim control. Of course atrocities were committed against civilians during this period, especially ethnic cleansing. But the same phenomenon is observed, I believe, and by definition, in every single war in which a new state is created, whether it is the creation of Pakistan in 1947 or the creation in 1974 of what later became the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. If the Muslims had the right unilaterally to secede from Yugoslavia, why should the Bosnian Serbs not have had the right unilaterally to secede from the new state of Bosnia-Herzegovina which had never before existed and a state, and to which the Bosnian Serbs had no loyalty whatever?

Redefining Genocide to Suit Muslim/Western Political Agenda

Second, the Bosnian Serbs are accused (and two have been convicted) of committing genocide against the Bosnian Muslims in the massacre perpetrated at Srebrenica. Let us leave aside for a moment the Serb claims that the numbers of people killed in that summer of 1995 has been artificially inflated for propaganda purposes; let us also leave aside the undoubted fact that the Bosnian Muslims were using the UN safe haven of Srebrenica as a safe haven from which to conduct constant attacks against the Serb villages surrounding the town, during which many atrocities were committed against Serb civilians. (The commander of the Muslim forces, Nasir Oric, was released by the ICTY in February.)

What is clear is that the Srebrenica massacre cannot possibly be described as genocide. Even the most ardent pro-Muslim propagandists agree that the victims of the massacre there were all men. The Bosnian Serbs claim that they were combatants (although that is certainly not an excuse for killing them) but the point is that an army bent on genocide would precisely not have singled out men for execution but would have killed women too. The Srebrenica massacre may well have been a crime against humanity but it is impossible to see how it can be categorised as genocide.

The Ulterior Motives and the Ultimate Outcome

Unfortunately, there is a very clear political reason why it has been so categorised. The Muslim president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haris Silaijdzic, said carefully on CNN the day Karadzic was captured that Karadzic’s trial was only the beginning of the process by which justice would be done in Bosnia. He said that there were hundreds of thousands of Muslims who had been ethnically cleansed by “Karadzic and Milosevic” and that their project therefore remained in force. The clear implication of what he was saying was this: if the very existence of the Bosnian Serb republic (the autonomous region within Bosnia carved out from the republic during the civil war) is found, in a court of law, to have been had as its president a man, Karadzic, who is convicted of genocide in the process of creating it, then its status would be illegitimate and it should be abolished. The Muslims continue to claim control over the whole of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, while the Serbs merely want the preservation of their considerable autonomy within it.

In other words, far from bringing peace to the Balkans, it is quite possible that a conviction of Karadzic for genocide will reopen the Dayton settlement and egg the Muslims on to claim control over the Serb republic too. Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that the Bosnian Serbs would try to proclaim formal secession from Bosnia, just as the Kosovo Albanians did from Serbia.

Recommended: Save Serbia -- Kill Yourself, Tadic Boris!, Belgrade football match (YouTube); May the DOS c..ts know: if the General goes, the Undertakers [Partizan Club fans] will each get the gun and kill you all one by one ("Neka znaju picke dosovske, djenerala ako uhapse, grobari ce svi puske uzeti, sve cemo vas redom pobiti!"), Belgrade football match (YouTube); And a Special Message for the Hague "judges", YouTube

Posted by BBlog Staff at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The Hague Circus Gets to Perform Another Day

BBC interview with Srdja Trifkovic

BBC: The fact that Karadzic could face trial at The Hague is causing consternation among those who consider the court to be anti-Serbian. Srdja Trifkovic is one of them. He is an American historian, journalist and political analyst, and an expert on Balkan politics.

TRIFKOVIC: It would be a hugely significant moment if it were to be followed by a fair and just trial that would seek to establish the facts of the case, not only on Srebrenica but also on what came to pass in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. However, in Serbia many people – including those who favor the new, pro-European government – have a very jaundiced view of The Hague Tribunal, especially since the release of Naser Oric, the wartime commander of the Muslim garrison in Srebrenica, came just before the capture of Karadzic. In fact, in Belgrade The Hague Tribunal is universally regarded as a politically motivated tool for providing quasi-legal justification of political decisions made by the powers-that-be back in the early 1990s.

BBC: What about the indictment against Mr. Karadzic? Do you think the war crimes were committed?

TRIFKOVIC: The war crimes were committed, absolutely. What remains to be seen is to what extent the war crimes committed by the Serbs will continue to be treated as uniquely more substantial, more evil and more massive, than those committed by the other two sides. What we have witnessed in the case of Naser Oric in particular, is a truly egregious failure by The Hague Tribunal to connect the commander of Srebrenica with the war crimes which the Tribunal itself does not deny have taken place: thousands of Serbian civilians in the surrounding areas were killed between 1992 and 1995. For Serbia's "European perspective," for Serbia's ability to come to terms with the past in the way that does not provide grounds for fresh resentment and revisionism, this trial would need to mark a new beginning by The Hague – and yet I have no reason to believe that such a beginning will indeed be made.

BBC: And yet this individual, who is charged with such heinous crimes, needs to be brought to justice, even if – as you argue – there are others still out there who haven't been brought to justice. But here's one opportunity to deal with one set of crimes, surely?

TRIFKOVIC : The problem is that dealing with "one set of crimes" in connection with "one individual" is not fulfilling the function of the Tribunal as stated at the time of its establishment in 1993, which was to establish an equivalent of an international "truth and reconciliation commission." Quite the contrary, in the case of Serbia The Hague Tribunal has only generated fresh controversies and provided fresh grist for the mill of the nationalist wing of Serbia's body-politic, which keeps claiming that the cards are stacked against the Serbs' favor.

Interview with Srdja Trifkovic titled "Karadzic and the Hague" was broadcast by the BBC Radio 4, within the special "The World Tonight," on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 22:14 BST

The Verdict is Already Written

"Radovan Karadzic will be found guilty of genocide, because the verdict is already written," Dr. Trifkovic, expert witness in a separate trial in The Hague told Russia Today. “I don’t think he will come out of jail alive,” he said [watch video].

Former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett spoke about his meeting with Dr. Radovan Karadzic in Sarajevo and shared his impressions of a man declared guilty way before the sham trial has even begun. Interview (RAM file, 10:19), also available from CBC.ca Listen Again web page.

Recommended: The Real Face of Evil, by Nebojsa Malic (GrayFalcon Blog); Has Lord Ashdown Heard of the Phrase: "Innocent Until Proven Guilty"?, by Michael Huntsman (Brussels Journal); Collection of Interviews Spanning Radovan Karadzic's Political Career, Slobodan-Milosevic.org; Karadzic's Lawyer Speaks about Arrest, Slobodan-Milosevic.org; Belgrade protests against the new government's appalling inaugural move -- arrest of Dr. Karadzic, YouTube: The New Day is Dawning, Part 1; From Topola down to Ravna Gora, General Draza Mihailovich's song, Part 2; Radovan Karadzic!, Serbia Betrayed!, Part 3; Christ Our Lord, Song of Serbian Heroes, Part 4; Tadic Boris, Save Serbia -- Kill Yourself!, Part 5; Ivica, fagot!, Part 6; Riot police gets in, Part 7

Posted by BBlog Staff at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Abu Hamza to Move From Bosnia to Serbian Kosovo Province

Republic of Srpska daily Fokus reports that the notorious mujahedin Imad Al Hussein, better known as Abu Hamza, who came to Bosnia-Herzegovina responding the jihad call by the Bosnian Muslim wartime president Alija Izetbegovic, will move to another U.S.-carved wahhabi base in the heart of Europe, Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province.

Syrian-born Abu Hamza who, along with tens of thousands of other Middle Eastern mujahedins who were beheading Bosnian Serbs from 1992-1995, was awarded an honorary Bosnian citizenship for his contributions to Bosnian jihad by the Bosnian Muslim leadership, stayed in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the civil war and became an informal leader of Arab mujahedins naturalized in Bosnia, struggling to preserve their Bosnian citizenship and sheltered status.

According to the NATO forces stationed in Bosnia, Abu Hamza recently formed an organization called Ansaria (Serb. Ensarije), providing financial and legal assistance to Arab mujahidins threatened with deportation to their home countries from Bosnia. However, Abu Hamza is now getting ready to escape from Bosnia to Kosovo-Metohija province in Serbia, if the Bosnian court under the American pressure confirms decision to revoke his citizenship.

Hamza's Fellow Cutthroat Hashim Thaci Will Protect him in Kosovo Province

According to the Fokus' source in a foreign intelligence agency, the plans for Abu Hamza's escape have already been made.

"Everything is already prepared for him in Kosovo. Based on the services the mujahedins rendered to Hashim Thaci and Pristina leadership in their independence drive, the plans to make Imad Al Hussein disappear in Kosovo are already set in motion," Fokus source, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

He claims that Abu Hamza refused to escape Bosnia-Herzegovina when he was offered to do so earlier, but once he realized the decision on his deportation could be confirmed, he started the preparations to run away to Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province.

Well Traveled Wahhabi Ratlines Between Bosnia and Serbia

Abu Hamza intends to wait until the last minute and then simply disappear. The secret underground channels through which he and his family will be evacuated have been well traveled and frequently used by the mujahedins and wahhabis connecting Bosnian Muslim parts with Serbia's Raska region and the southern province of Kosovo.

"It is well known that these channels have been used by the greatest number of mujahedins who have had their Bosnian citizenship revoked and who have fled the country in time, so that the official documents about the revoked citizenship couldn't be delivered to them," the Fokus source said.

He revealed that Abu Hamza until recently believed no one can force him out of the Muslim part of Bosnia, being that even the Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg supported him, but there are now indications that Bosnian Muslim leaders who were protecting him are starting to cave in under the pressure of the U.S. and other states.

"When Abu Hamza was informed of this at the recent meeting in Sarajevo, he agreed to have the plans for his escape from Bosnia prepared, along with the falsified identification documents for his formal disappearance in Kosovo", the Fokus source said.

According to the report, Bosnia's naturalized mujahedin should have already been moved to the state's Imigration Center in Lukavica (Republic of Srpska), but he successfully avoided this, claiming it would represent the beginning of the deportation process, which is "contrary to the decision of the Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg".

In Bosnia, Abu Hamza is protected by the Muslim Security Minister Tarik Sadovic, whose job in shielding the Arab jihadists in Bosnia was greatly eased by the temporary placement of Seada Palavric at the helm of the Bosnia-Herzegovina constitutional court. Palavric will remain at the post of court's president until October 3. Before being promoted to this position, she was a high functionary of the ultra-nationalist Bosnian Muslim SDA party, formed by Izetbegovic, the very same political party which has brought Abu Hamza and the other Arab mercenaries to Bosnia to exterminate the Serbs.

Something Bad Might Happen to Hamza in Republic of Srpska

Abu Hamza, a cutthroat who apparently immensely enjoys the media attention, warned few days ago that Bosnia's highest state institutions will be blamed in case "something bad" happens to him in the Immigration Center where he was to be taken, because the Center is situated in the Serbian Republic in Bosnia. This is cited as additional reason for Abu Hamza to accept the escape plans.

Due to the fact Abu Hamza is protected by the Bosnian Muslim leaders in the federation, Fokus source believes Hamza will be informed in time about the final decision of the constitutional court, to make sure he has sufficient time to flee through the wahhabi ratlines created on the territory of former Yugoslavia during the civil wars.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Srebrenica Serbs Mourn Alone

On Saturday, Bosnian Serbs have again gathered to commemorate more than 3,500 Srebrenica Serbs massacred by Naser Oric's mujahedins stationed in the UN "safe haven" during the Bosnian civil war (1992-1995).

Unlike the day before, July 11th, when the world descends on Srebrenica to collectively mourn Bosnian jihadists who lost their lives during the battle for Srebrenica (July 1995), the butchery of Bosnian Serb civilians -- women, children and elderly from Srebrenica and surrounding villages -- went by, this year yet again, without the thunderous expressions of the righteous indignation by the Western ambassadors serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina, without the EU High Representative's moving and thoughtful speeches, without the foreign reporters and photographers hunting the most heart wrenching expression of grief, without the eclectic mix of obscure celebrities and Hollywood stars, eager to show their "human side" to the world, while straining to look pretty under the Muslim head coverings, in the midst of bellowing praises to Allah and ritualistic animal slaughter.

This year's commemoration of the victims of Oric's cutthroats and the tragedy of the Serbian people in this region was additionally burdened by the fact that the appellation board of the Hague tribunal had acquitted the only man thus far accused by the Hague for the genocidal crimes against Srebrenica Serbs, Naser Oric.

Oric Convicts The Hague

"The acquittal of the Bosnian Muslim war criminal Naser Oric is yet another proof of the Hague tribunal's bias, which only confirms the necessity to urgently realize already adopted strategy of terminating this court's activities," Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Friday.

"Oric acquittal fully demonstrates the contempt and lack of objectivity toward one side involved in the conflict and obeisance towards the other participants in the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. It exemplifies the substitution of the judiciary with executing the political diktat," said Andrei Nesterenko, Russian Foreign Ministry official, reminding that Oric organized and participated in the massacres of more than 3,500 Bosnian Serb civilians in Srebrenica municipality, during the Bosnian civil war, from 1992-1995.

"The Hague tribunal has not only failed to tighten and correct the incredibly lenient conviction [two years imprisonment, delivered in the summer of 2006], instead, it completely exonerated the accused! Another puzzling fact is that the Office of the Bosnian High Representative, directly involved in the process of 'Srebrenica reconciliation', this time chose to stay silent, even though Oric did not surrender to the Hague voluntarily, but was arrested and transported to the Hague by the international forces," Nesterenko stressed.

"Russia will insist on shutting the Hague tribunal down, since it had demonstrated the utter lack of objectivity", Sergei Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs said.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Thirteen Years Later, Srebrenica Muslims are Still 5,000 Bodies Short

Thirteen years after the alleged "genocide" against Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica, a UN "safe-haven" Muslim war criminal Naser Oric was using as a base for his 28th mujahedin division, from which he organized murderous raids on surrounding Serbian villages during the entire Bosnian civil war (1992-1995), Bosnian Muslims have yet to present to the world the actual remains of those 7,000-8,000 Muslim fighters they keep mourning in front of the cameras since July 1995.

Furthermore, they are expected to prove to the world that these "Muslim men and boys" were not killed in a battle for the town of Srebrenica, which would be a normal part of any war, however unfortunate, but "executed in cold blood".

Thus far, however, the number of those buried as the Muslim Srebrenica victims is 3, 214 -- nowhere near the magical number of the 8,000 mourned. Moreover, it was discovered that almost 1,000 Srebrenica Muslims of those 3,000 alleged victims of "Srebrenica massacre" which, allegedly, took place in July 1995, have died long before Srebrenica takeover, even before 1994. Digging up and reburying the same remains doesn't really help when it comes to cold, hard facts.

And, thirteen years later, Bosnian Muslims are still "searching for the remains" of another 5,000 Muslim fighters. Where could they be? Where could one find another 5,000 bodies, when the entire Western world and all the Muslims in the world, had spent 13 long years after the war, digging the whole Bosnia inside-out, looking under every rock and turning every stone to find even a fingertip that once rested on a Bosnian Muslim hand?

A normal legal practice adopted throughout the world says that no one can be charged with murder if there is no proof that the crime was indeed committed. If there is no body, and no remains of the body, there is no crime. So, how can the Bosnian Serb Army be accused of killing 8,000 Muslim men when the remains of 5,000 of them are nowhere to be found, thirteen years later?

Many Sheitans will Show Up Today

The ritual annual gathering of Bosnian Muslims in Potocari, near Srebrenica, is seen as a cynical display of Bosnian Muslim hypocrisy by Milivoj Ivanisevic, Director of the Center for research of the crimes against the Serbian people and a member of the Republic of Srpska Senate.

"Those buried in Potocari are the ones who have torched hundreds of Serbian villages and killed thousands of Serbian civilians. While at it, they have plundered all the property from the Serbian houses -- what they couldn't take with them, they burned. And now, their accomplices are coming to bow down to them, to honor their crimes, and to pledge that they will continue the monstrosities," Ivanisevic said, commenting today's ritualistic observances at the Muslim cemetery near Srebrenica.

He added that there are no civilian victims buried in the Muslim Srebrenica memorial and that, thus far, only a single body of a Muslim woman was found in and around Srebrenica.

"Children and women are not among the Muslim Srebrenica victims. If their victims consisted of mostly women and children, then the Muslims could speak about a genocide. Wolfgang Petric and Paddy Ashdown have replaced their imams and built their mezars, to create an impression in the world of many Muslims being killed in Srebrenica. Bosnian Muslims were also given a memorial in Europe, their own Mecca and Medina, like our Jasenovac and the Jewish Auschwitz. They haven't picked the 11th of July by coincidence, because on that day not a single Muslim had lost his life. They have done this only in order to spite and ridicule the Serbs on the eve of the bloody St. Peter's Day [July 12, when Bosnian Serbs commemorate victims of Oric's mujahedins]," Ivanisevic said.

He warned of the possibility that Naser Oric, Srebrenica cutthroat recently proclaimed innocent by the Hague, might show up personally in Potocari on July 11, as he announced.

"All sorts of vampires will show up or, as the Muslims say, the sheitans. Our police should arrest him, just like the Jews are arresting Nazis throughout the globe. We didn't have a single trial to Muslim war criminals in Belgrade, even though countless Sandzaklies [Raska Muslims in Serbia] have been raising hell through Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war", Ivanisevic reminds.

What Led to Srebrenica Takeover is at Least Equally Important

Miroslav Toholj, former Republic of Srpska Information Minister, said that the myth about the alleged Srebrenica Muslim victims was purposely built and kept alive.

"Double standards' is a too gentle term. It is a euphemism for the notorious falsification of the facts regarding the war in Podrinje. Apart from determining the actual facts about the Bosnian Muslim fighters who lost their lives during Srebrenica takeover, it is equally important to determine and acknowledge the facts about the suffering of Serbs in this region, which forced the Bosnian Serb Army to take the town over", Toholj said.

Survivors of Christmas Massacre in Kravica will Not Allow Any Muslim Gatherings

Ahead of tomorrow's commemoration of over 3,500 of Bosnian Serb civilians who were massacred by Oric's mujahedins in Srebrenica municipality, members of the Bratunac Municipal Board (Republic of Srpska) have announced their decision not to allow the gathering of the Bosnian Muslims on July 15 in the village of Kravica, where Bosnian Muslims planned to hold the religious ceremony and "the history lesson" on the 13th year anniversary of Srebrenica takeover.

The Board members requested from the Muslim organizer to exclude that, most provocative part of their program, since it could cause an inter-ethnic incident in Kravica. They requested from the police to ban the gathering.

Bosnian Serb residents of the village Kravica, who have survived the Christmas 1993 massacre by the Naser Oric hordes, have warned that they will not allow any Muslim gatherings in their village.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oric's Acquittal Beyond the Pale

"Based on the Hague tribunal's prior work, I expected that the court's appellation board at least confirms the ICTY verdict, according to which the genocidal criminal, commander of the 28th Muslim division in 'demilitarized' Srebrenica, was found guilty and convicted to only two years imprisonment -- less than he had spent in Scheveningen prison during the trial. Decision by the appellation board to overturn that verdict and pronounce the war criminal innocent is indeed beyond even the most pessimistic expectations," Dr Milan Bulajic, Chairman of the Genocide Research Foundation, told Glas Javnosti.

"Commander of the 28th Muslim division was charged, tried and convicted only for the period between September 24, 1992 and March 20, 1993 -- that is the period of six months alone. This is the time after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Peoples Army [JNA], on May 19, 1992, when the Serbian population [in Bosnia] was left to its own devices, to defend itself on its own from Naser Oric's cutthroats," Bulajic explained.

"The Drina Corps of the Republic of Srpska Army [Bosnian Serb Army] was formed on November 1, 1992. However, Oric's mobs have been committing atrocious crimes all the way through to the mid-1995, up to their genocidal crime in the Serbian village of Visnjica, immediately before the Srebrenica takeover [by the Bosnian Serb Army] in July 1995. And yet, Oric was charged only for the atrocities against the captured Serbs held in Srebrenica prison, and on the basis of 'command responsibility' [but not for the crimes he personally took part in]. Among his accomplices, only some Arif Krdzic is mentioned, while not a word has been said about the proven war crimes of the mob headed by Tursunovic," Bulajic said.

He pointed out that Hague tribunal had mentioned "operations" in some of the Serbian-populated villages around Srebrenica, like Ratkovici, Jezestica, Fakovici, Bjelovac, Kravica, Siskovici and the smaller settlements around.

"But the genocidal crimes, like the one in village Kravica on the Eastern Orthodox Christmas on January 6, 1993, are not even touched by the Hague! In all those atrocities, Naser Oric personally took part. This is not the issue of command responsibility alone," Bulajic said.

Bloodthirsty Oric Sang During Massacres

He emphasized the well-known fact that Toronto Star reporter Bill Schiller described his visit to Naser Oric in his Srebrenica apartment in January 1994, when Oric showed him the shocking video recording of the event he took part in. Oric's mujahedeens have filmed the numerous corpses of the Serbs they slaughtered, the severed heads and the fleeing Serbian population.

"We ambushed them, we launched those guys to the moon!," Oric boasted to Canadian reporter. "We killed 114 Serbs there!" According to Schiller, the video recording also showed post-massacre "celebrations, with singers with wobbly voices chanting [Oric's] praises," quotes Bulajic, appalled by the Hague's selective justice and the willful ignorance of some of the worst mass crimes committed against the Serbs during the Bosnian civil war.

He stressed that Hague tribunal has also completely ignored the crime of arming the 28th Muslim division stationed in the so-called "demilitarized zone" of Srebrenica, where the UN Security Council prohibited the presence of anyone's army and weapons.

"Oric was abusing the 'safe-zone' status of Srebrenica, and kept using the town as his base for the genocidal assaults against the surrounding Serbian villages", Bulajic said.

"Republic of Srpska Association of the former camp-prisoners and the Committee for gathering data about the crimes against humanity have compiled a list of 3,282 victims of Serbian ethnicity from Srebrenica municipality, by their first and last names. For all those war crimes only Naser Oric was convicted. Now, by the verdict of the appellation board, he was acquitted," Bulajic concluded.

Serbs Alone Tried by the Hague

Commenting the mockery of the verdict issued to Naser Oric by the Hague tribunal, Zoran Krasic said at the recent press conference that it is entirely clear that the Hague tries and convicts Serbs alone.

"Judging by the acquital of cutthroat Oric, those 3,300 Serbs -- civilians killed in and around Srebrenica, have either committed a suicide, or they were killed by the other Serbs", Krasic, a member of the legal team for defense of Dr Seselj, said.

He assessed that the Hague tribunal does not care for the truth, but only focuses on convicting as many Serbs as possible, declaring them guilty for all the events in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

"And it suits the [domestic] political bloc which advocated prolonging the bombardment of our country to have the greatest possible number of Serbs convicted by the Hague, since that is precisely why the West installed them in power," Krasic said.

Seselj vs. Hague Prosecution: 33—0

Speaking about the mock-trial against Vojislav Seselj, whose indictment boils down to exercising his right to free speech, Krasic said that the Hague tribunal has failed to present a single evidence to prove the charges against the leader of the Radicals. He said that Vojislav Seselj, simply put, leads with 33-0 against the prosecution, which called 33 "witnesses" thus far.

"The prosecutors used up some 50% of their allocated time to present the evidence against Seselj, but they have failed to prove a single thing," Krasic said.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Republic of Srpska to Sue United Nations and Netherlands

Republic of Srpska [Serbian republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina] Premier Milorad Dodik announced the lawsuit against the United Nations and the government of Netherlands, because the Dutch battalion stationed in Srebrenica has done nothing during the war to protect the surrounding Serbian-populated villages from the slaughter by the Muslim troops under Naser Oric's command.

Shocked by the shameful verdict of the Hague tribunal, acquitting Srebrenica warlord Oric, Dodik said that various Bosnian Muslim associations sued the government of Netherlands and the UN court declared itself authorized to adjudicate in the case against the Dutch troops, which did not protect the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

"Following the same principle, Republic of Srpska will, in the next few weeks, bring up the charges against Netherlands", Dodik announced on Friday.

"We Lost Trust in the International Institutions Long Time Ago"

He explained that Republic of Srpska will request the legal procedure because the Dutch contingent of the UN protection forces (UNPROFOR), stationed in Srebrenica, has failed to demilitarize Srebrenica, as mandated by the UN Security Council Resolution, and has allowed the commander of the Muslim troops in Srebrenica Naser Oric to carry out regular assaults from the protected zone, raiding the surrounding Serbian villages and slaughtering Serbian civilian population with his mujahedin troops for three years prior to Bosnian Serb Army taking the town over.

"Even the superficial observer is aware that there must be a command responsibility for the horrific atrocities committed by Naser Oric's troops. Tribunal has punished people who were not commanding the operations on the ground, like Biljana Plavsic [Republic of Srpska politician]. Unfortunately, tribunal did not see the need to punish Oric, who commanded the assaults against the villages surrounding Srebrenica, even though the international community was under obligation to demilitarize the so-called protected zone in and around Srebrenica," Dodik said.

He stressed that the exact dates and places where Oric was raiding the Serbian villages around Srebrenica are all well documented and that it is entirely incomprehensible that the Hague "did not have sufficient evidence" to determine the responsibility for the atrocities -- confirmed by the Hague tribunal itself -- committed by Oric's mujahedins.

"The foreigners would say that tribunal has the right to reach its own verdict, but we have learned quite a while back that we can't place any trust in the benevolence of the various international institutions. This is the case which proves it to the fullest. Apart from the lawsuit against the United Nations and Netherlands, we shall also determine the venues through which we can renew the process against Oric", Dodik said.

Republic of Srpska Won't be a Collateral Damage of Muslim/Croat Irresponsibility

A week earlier, when the reports surfaced that Muslim/Croat federation in Bosnia faces bankruptcy, with only 221 euros remaining on their bank account, Republic of Srpska prime minister said that his country will not become a "collateral damage" of the irresponsibly governed other half of the state.

The news about excessive spending and astoundingly frivolous behavior of the leading circles at the top of Bosnian Muslim/Croat federation, who even splurged 85,000 euros from the federation budget on a luxurious yacht for their vacations in the government resort of Trpanj in Croatia, all of which has led to bleeding the federation budget dry, was met with resignation in the Bosnian Serb Republic.

Premier Dodik said that there are 170 million of convertible Marks in the budget of Republic of Srpska (around 100 million euros), but much more if the moneys dedicated to the Republic of Srpska development fund are added to the sum.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 01:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Srebrenica Facts and Fiction

In his book "Searching for the Truth", Milivoje Ivanisevic used 65 pages to document the ways in which the western officials deceived the world public regarding the Srebrenica takeover by the Bosnian Serb Army, and another 70 pages to list the names of the Serbs from Srebrenica town and municipality who were tortured and killed by the Muslims.

Expert researcher, Ivanisevic does not rely on his own findings alone, but also cites the contradictory statements by the Bosnian Muslim war-time leaders after the alleged Srebrenica "massacre".

According to his research, the gravest and most numerous crimes in Srebrenica and surrounding villages were committed by the Muslim army, under Srebrenica warlord Naser Oric's command, with the blessing of Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian Muslim war-time president. The protracted project of inverting the facts, orchestrated by the then-UN Secretary General Kofi Atta Annan and the Bosnian Muslim officials, according to the author, had led to misrepresenting the Serbs to the world as the ones who have been torturing and killing Muslim women and children. The book presents facts which point to directly opposite reality.

UN Archives Hide the Truth

Among else, Ivanisevic cites history professor and former Prorector of the Chicago Illinois University, Dr Nikola Moravcevic, who dismantled the charges by the dominant world elite quite a while back, with an astounding revelation.

"While I was a prorector at the university, I was fortunate to meet Boutros Boutros-Ghali [Annan's predecessor at the helm of United Nations], who enabled me to access the UN archives. To say that the data is shocking might be a bit too strong word, but I have gotten in possession of the documents which show that there was a team in the UN Security Council Secretariat which was amending the reports from Bosnia and Kosovo-Metohija province with 'Serbian crimes', while watering down or covering up the crimes committed by the other side. I was very surprised to find that the trail of these informations was, for the most part, entirely obvious, and that the Security Council services were using these falsified bits to 'prove' the 'Serbian monstrosity'. I have determined, and wrote, that they even went so far as to remove from the agenda of the Security Council session the report by the first Bosnia's UN peacekeeping forces Commander Lt General Satish Nambiar, in which he detailed the atrocities committed by the Bosnian Muslim side," Moravcevic said.

Ivanisevic's book also documents the fact that a number of those listed as killed by the Bosnian Serb Army in Srebrenica were registered and took part in voting in Srebrenica municipality in the elections held a year after the alleged "genocide", in 1996.

And then there is also a small problem with the Bosnian Muslims who died way before July 10-11, 1995, and were subsequently listed as the "victims of Srebrenica massacre".

A Shoe that Doesn't Fit

Letter by Professor J. P. Maher

When did commentators first start using the formulation “The Srebrenica Massacre [of x-thousands of Muslim men and boys]”? When did the "Srebrenica Massacre” story break?

No reports from 10 July 1995 and the immediately ensuing days and weeks ever refer to “the massacre of 8000 (or 7000 etc) Muslim men and boys. (Koranically, once boys attain the age of fifteen, they are “warriors” for Islam.)

“Iranian foreign minister [Velayati], in a message to the UN secretary-general, has asked for immediate action to prevent a massacre of the defenceless people of Srebrenica by the Serb rebels. SOURCE: Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1, Tehran, in Persian 0930 gmt 11 Jul 95; Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1, Tehran, in Persian 0930 gmt 11 Jul 95; SECTION: Part 4 Middle East; THE MIDDLE EAST; IRAN; ME/2353/MED. Message to UN secretary-general. Text of report by Iranian TV on 11th July.

Reports from the front in mid-July 1995, e.g. Chris Hedges in the New York Times of 18 July 1995, reported that thousands of armed Muslim fighters “slipped” through Serb lines under fire and arrived safe in Tuzla, held by Muslim forces (and a US garrison).

The lag time between as yet unbaptized “Srebrenica Massacre” on 10-11 July 1995 and the first press reports is over a month.

LEXIS-NEXIS searches now permit us to track down press reports on whatever story. Readers can see for themselves what results turn up in searches dated between 10 July 1995 and the beginning of October 1995, using parameters such as

(Srebrenica AND massacre)
(Srebrenica AND missing)
Srebrenica AND 7000 OR 8000)
(7000-8000 men and boys) ...

David Rohde spearheaded the story that became known as “the Srebrenica Massacre”, but he did not himself use any such phrase or make such a claim. In his story, in the Guardian of August 19 1995 he wrote: “...I saw what appeared to be a decomposing human leg protruding from freshly turned dirt...” He repeated Albright’s fabrication about a massacre in a soccer stadium in a nearby town, [where] human faeces, blood, and other evidence indicated large numbers of people were confined, and perhaps shot.” Also: “United Nations official estimate that 4,000 to 6,000 Muslim men are still missing in the wake of the Srebrenica and Zepa assaults.”

The news would have still been hot when Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote an Op-Ed piece in “The New Republic” of 7 August 1995, under the headline: AFTER SREBRENICA. Zbig Brzezinski says only that something awful “might” happen. Nowhere does Brzezinski mention a “Srebrenica massacre".

That catch phrase does not appear until weeks after the alleged event. It will not be found in the press until the American-sponsored Croatian “Storm” (Oluja) on Serb Krajina in August-September 1995.

(In)Consistency: Madeleine Korbel Albright, whose “Albright Group” now owns the franchise for the cell phone business in Kosovo, brought the earliest allegation of a Serb massacre of Muslims on August 11, 1995. The chief United States delegate to the United Nations told a closed session of the Security Council that 2,000 to 2,700 missing Bosnians from the Srebrenica enclave might have been shot by the Bosnian Serbs. So, the numbers in Albright’s document and subsequent tellings and re-tellings are not consistent.

It's an old story. In the Book of Daniel, chapter 13, Susanna is denounced by corrupt Elders, voyeurs who propositioned her to lie with them or they'd have her brought up on a charge of adultery and a death by stoning. Since their testimonies were inconsistent, as Daniel showed by “debriefing” the corrupt judges separately, the judges were condemned for bearing false witness.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dr Seselj's Friends Help Expose the Kangaroo Court

Prosecution witness against Dr. Vojislav Seselj, Safet Sejdic, a Bosnian Muslim who fought on the side of the Bosnian Serb Army during the last civil war, testified couple of days ago that, on November 9, 1993, he had personally seen Seselj on Nisic hill in Bosnia with Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, as they were "preparing the Bosnian Serb army for an attack".

During yesterday's cross-examination, after documenting he was in Serbia on November 8, 9 and 10 in 1993, at the time Sejdic claimed he had seen him in Bosnia, which happened to be a peak of the pre-electoral campaign in Belgrade, so he couldn't have possibly been physically present both in Belgrade and on the Nisic hill at the same time, Seselj said:

"I have consulted my friend Radovan Karadzic during the weekend and asked where was he on this day [of the battle]. He informed me he was in Belgrade at that time, giving an interview to Reuters."

"This is incredible! Did we understand you correctly?", judge Antonetti interrupted.

"How did you contact him?", the prosecutor inquired.

"I have instructed my associates to contact the certain men who are in touch with Karadzic and I asked them to forward the information about where he was on November 9 to me. I'm thanking my friend Karadzic for his kind response", Seselj said with a smile and added that "since there was no possibility for me to get a written statement from Karadzic, because I don't know who would be allowed to verify it, I have instructed my legal advisers to find the evidence of his stay in Belgrade."

After this, Seselj submitted the photocopies of the articles published in Borba and Vecernje Novosti on November 10 -- a day after the battle in question, which cite that Karadzic, in the interview given to TV Reuters a day before in Belgrade, said that "the Serbs are willing to offer territorial concessions".

"The Information from My Other Friend will Arrive a bit Later..."

"Regardless of the antagonism between you and Seselj, tell us is it true that you have personally seen Karadzic and Mladic with Seselj", the French judge asked the witness suspiciously.

"Yes," Sejdic responded.

"When? It seems that both Seselj and Karadzic were somewhere else on that day...", Antonetti pressed on.

"As far as I know.... this problem...", prosecution witness stumbled.

"Fine, you don't know how to respond. That interview could have been given by the phone," the judges concluded.

"How do you give a TV interview by the telephone?!", Seselj interfered, explaining that, at the time, they couldn't have even been transported by the helicopter, because NATO already controlled the Bosnia-Herzegovina airspace.

The session was immediately closed for the public for an hour, after which Seselj announced he had also tried to get the information from his other friend, General Mladic, on his whereabouts at the time, but that one will only arrive within the next day or two.

During today's cross-examination, Seselj informed the council that his friend Ratko Mladic had told him he does not remember where exactly he was on November 9, 1993, but that he "most certainly was not on the Nisic hill".

"My friend Ratko Mladic also said that the Command of the Serbian army would have never allowed for three of so highly distinguished Serbian military and political greats to be found together in the same place, because a single hand grenade could kill us all, and that would be an incalculable loss," Seselj added.

To the repeated requests by the judge and the prosecutor to give details about the way he gets in touch with General Mladic, Dr Seselj somberly responded:

"I would sooner lay down my life than give the information about my friends Karadzic and Mladic to the prosecutor."

A "Forcefully Mobilized" Volunteer

According to Glas Javnosti, it turned out in yesterday's cross-examination that Sejdic was in no way "forcefully mobilized" into the Bosnian Serb Army as he claimed, but that he was a volunteer in the Bosnian Serb Army during the war. The prosecution witness was enraged by the evidence presented to the court which proved he was a volunteer and which included the written statements by his fellow fighters, members of the Intervention Squad of the Semizevo Batallion in the village Svrake.

Vojislav Seselj responded by listing the statements of Sejdic's Bosnian Serb Army fellow soldiers, who said that the witness has distinguished himself during the battles and that he had even killed some ten Muslim fighters.

"When the Muslims kicked you out in Korita, you went over to the Serbian side and you fought bravely. Everyone praises you! Your neighbor Miroslav Spiric also confirms you were a volunteer and on a paycheck-list of the Serbs. Your father said the same," Seselj said.

In spite of prosecution witness' protests, Seselj produced the photography of the Second Batallion of Semizovo Squad, on which Sejdic recognized himself as the first on the right side, holding an automatic rifle among some 20 Bosnian Serb soldiers.

"Ask your Jovan Colakovic why he gave me a machine gun", the witness said angrily.

"Because everyone loved you in the unit. I already asked them. You have invented everything only in order to justify yourself before your Muslims", Seselj concluded.

Recommended: Seselj in the Hague About the History of Former Yugoslav Nations (YouTube); Some people don't seem to understand any other language -- Seselj's famous appearance in the courtroom, after waiting, imprisoned, four years for his trial to begin.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Ibran Mustafic: Srebrenica was a "Planned Chaos"

Immediately before the April 1, 2008 discussion before the Appellation Board of the Hague tribunal in the case of Srebrenica warlord, commander of the Bosnian Muslim army stationed in Srebrenica Naser Oric, a written testimony which reveals some of the previously unknown details about the "lord of life and death in war-torn Srebrenica" was published.

Ibran Mustafic, the author of the book "Planned Chaos", for which most Bosnian Muslim leaders wish it was never written, was an MP of the Party of the Democratic Action (SDA, headed by the Bosnian Muslim war leader, Alija Izetbegovic) in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliament constituted after the 1990 elections and just before the start of the civil war, and President of the Executive Board of Srebrenica Municipal Assembly.

At the start of the Bosnian civil war he clashed with, as he calls it, "Naser Oric Junta", which resulted in the series of attempts of his assassination. In the third assassination attempt on May 11, 1995, Mustafic was heavily wounded and it was deemed a miracle that he survived. Assaults by Bosnian Muslims against Mustafic became more frequent after his book was published. The latest took place on April 25 this year, when he was attacked and severely beaten by a group of thugs in Srebrenica downtown, in broad daylight.

"They call me a traitor," Mustafic says, "claiming I invented Naser Oric's crimes, but that kind of stupidity doesn't bother me in the least. The purpose of my book was not to defend the Serbs, but I will by no means defend the members of my nation who committed atrocities! Criminals are criminals, regardless of their name and ethnicity. I categorically claim that Naser Oric is a war criminal without a par!"

Atrocious War Crimes Against Srebrenica Serbs

"Planned Chaos" sheds a new light on Srebrenica events during the war and represents first admission and a testimony by a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica about Serbian suffering in Srebrenica region. Apart from describing the crimes committed by the Bosnian Muslim army under the command of Naser Oric against the Serbs, Mustafic also testifies about arming of the Bosnian Muslims prior and during the civil war, including the period when Srebrenica was declared a demilitarized zone under the UN protection. He also describes the mutual clashes between Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica municipality, lorded over by the Naser Oric mafia.

According to Mustafic, Srebrenica warlord Naser Oric idolized Ustasha movement from the early youth, choosing his heroes among the notorious Croat Nazi cutthroats Jure Francetic, Kadrija Softic, Nurif Oric and other members of the Ustasha "Black Legion" and Bosnian Muslim 13th SS Handzar Division, indoctrinated with the contempt and hatred against the Serbs.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of widespread atrocities and war crimes committed by Oric and his gang in the town of Srebrenica and surrounding villages populated by the Serbs, the Kangaroo Court in Hague acquitted him of direct involvement in the murder and cruel treatment of Serbs, and of responsibility for the wanton destruction of entire villages, churches, homes and property. While he was convicted of “failing to prevent men under his command to kill and abuse imprisoned Bosnian Serbs,” and sentenced to two years in jail, he was immediately released, since he has already spent three years in the Hague during the charade of a trial.

Naser Oric is a Monster, a War Criminal Without a Par

However, Mustafic's book offers additional evidence about Oric's direct involvement in some of the most macabre war crimes committed on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the civil war.

Probably the most shocking chapter of the book is the one with Naser Oric's personal admission of the first Serb he killed by his own hands, murder of the Srebrenica Judge Slobodan Ilic.

"When we took that group captured in Zalazje from [Srebrenica] prison to take them back toward Zalazje, and when the slaying begun, Slobodan Ilic came into my hands. I climbed on his chest. He was bearded and hairy like an animal. He looked at me without saying a word. I took out the bayonet and jabbed it straight into one eye, and then turned it back and forth. He didn't let the single sound out. Then I hit him with the knife in the other eye... I couldn't believe he's not reacting. Frankly, that's when I got scared for the first time, so I cut his throat right after that", Oric described his 'feat' to Mustafic word-for-word during one evening Mustafic visited him.

Oric's admission is followed by the testimony of Mustafic's uncle Ibrahim, who witnessed the same slaughter.

"Naser came over and told me to get ready at once and go with the flag in front of Srebrenica prison. I dressed up and went over. When I came in front of the prison, they took out all those captured in Zalazje and ordered me to drive them towards Zalazje. When we reached the depot, they ordered me to stop and park the truck. I moved to a safe distance. But, when I saw their savagery and when the slaying begun, I felt all the blood drain from my head. When Zulfo (Tursunovic) ripped the knife down the chest of the nurse Rada, while asking her where is her radio-station, I couldn't watch any longer. I came back to Srebrenica on foot from the depot, and they drove the truck over afterwards, which I took from Srebrenica to go home to Potocare. The inside was all bloodied up", Mustafic cites the testimony of his uncle.

The above mentioned medical nurse Rada Milanovic stayed in Srebrenica even after her family moved away. Srebrenica territorial defense headquarters assigned her to medical field group and to a local hospital.

"The Whole Bridge was Floating in Serbian Blood"

Mustafic also recounted other crimes against the Serbs from the town of Srebrenica which were more or less well known. He mentioned that, after the assault against the village Jezestica "Kemo from Pale [near Sarajevo] was carrying a severed head around with him, scaring people".

The murder of the Stjepanovic family is also described. Stjepanovic family members were taken out of their apartment in the Srebrenica Battalion Street by Oric's butchers in July 1992, and taken to nearby Potocare.

"Andjelija Stjepanovic (74) and her son Mihajlo (50) were among those brutally slain then. One Bosnian Muslim from Potocari described afterwards how the whole bridge where these poor people were slaughtered was literally swimming in blood. The killer of Stjepanovic family is Kemo Mehmedovic from Pale, Naser's loyal follower in atrocities. The executioner today lives in Austria, and there are tons of similar examples from Srebrenica. It is a shame that not one of these monsters in the human form have faced responsibility for their crimes, and their main organizer and the one who ordered them to kill, Naser Oric, is today parading in freedom," commented one of a handful of Bosnian Serb civilians who survived the hell of Srebrenica imprisonment.

The previously little known details about the torture and murder of the severely ill Krsto Dimitrovski and his wife Velinka, from Srebrenica, were also revealed in Mustafic's book, charging Ejub Golic, former commander of the "Independent Hill Battalion" from the village Glogovo. Golic was freed of charges raised against him for this crime.

Hague Tribunal Rewards Bosnian Muslim War Criminals

Apart from recounting these and many other savage tortures and murders of the Serbs who had the misfortune to remain in the town of Srebrenica occupied by Oric's butchers, Mustafic also describes how his testimony against the Srebrenica Muslim monsters in the Hague tribunal was turned down, and why he had no opportunity to tell the court what really went on in "Srebrenica safehaven" before General Mladic took the town over.

"I was, indeed, called to testify before the Hague tribunal as a Prosecution witness [in the trial against Oric], and I believe I was supposed to be the last witness for the Prosecution. After three days spent in the preparatory procedure, there was a major clash between the Prosecution representative and myself. First of all, the indictment against Naser was entirely ridiculous. He was charged for the things he wasn't guilty of, but not for any of the things he was guilty for. Secondly, the Hague tribunal was more and more starting to look like Carla Del Ponte's parade, so a number of processes turned into circus. Finally, I was most offended when they tried to blackmail me, by threatening me with up to seven years' imprisonment or the 200,000 Euros fine. I couldn't stay silent when I saw that paper, and I told the prosecutor: 'That's right! the whole purpose of me coming here to testify was to actually get a more severe punishment than Erdemovic [another Bosnian Muslim war criminal], who was rewarded by the Hague tribunal for admitting he personally took part in over 140 murders!' After all that, when I came in front of the courtroom, I was waiting for two hours, but they finally informed me that the Judges decided not to let me testify and that I can go back home," Mustafic wrote.

Srebrenica as a Safehaven for War Criminals, Thugs and Mafia

Regarding the situation in the "Srebrenica safehaven", Mustafic wrote that, when the region was declared a demilitarized zone and placed under the UN protection, there were no "provocations" by the Bosnian Serb Army. Despite that, according to Mustafic, Oric's Muslim troops kept digging the trenches around the town of Srebrenica and, alongside the humanitarian aid, weapons were being delivered to the "demilitarized zone" -- all in the plain sight of the Dutch UNPROFOR battalion.

Mustafic writes that, even though the boards were placed around the town of Srebrenica declaring it a "Demilitarized zone, every military operation is strictly prohibited, Article 60, Protocol 1 of Geneva Convention", delivery of weapons, ammunition, uniforms and explosives was never interrupted. The military equipment, despite the UN Resolution prohibiting the flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina, was delivered by helicopters. Likewise, the agreement signed by General Ratko Mladic on the Bosnian Serb side and Sefer Halilovic on the side of Bosnian Muslims, stipulating that "not a single soldier who finds himself within, or wishes to enter the demilitarized zone, except for UNPROFOR members, is permitted to carry arms, explosives, or ammunition", was deemed completely worthless by the Bosnian Muslim Srebrenica troops.

Mustafic writes that there were 18 flights carrying weapons, with most of deliveries carried out at the time Srebrenica, as a supposedly demilitarized zone, was under UN Peace Corps protection [UNPROFOR].

Mustafic lays a great deal of blame upon the Dutch troops stationed in Srebrenica, claiming they were fully aware about all the violations daily committed by the Oric's gang, but chose to silently observe, hoping to pass their service unscathed.

"Obviously, the Dutch accepted to patrol the lines together with our troops only in order to take responsibility off themselves, and to show the world that Srebrenica was not a demilitarized zone. Indeed, at the time, the Dutch battalion which was supposed to have some 600 troops, had around 250 soldiers, while [Oric's] 28th division was comprised of 5,500 allegedly demilitarized men," Mustafic wrote.

"When the battles for Srebrenica begun, one of our thugs, probably on order, killed a soldier from the Dutch battalion. This helped dissolve the entire system of Dutch responsibility," Mustafic revealed.

Foundation of the Muslim State Sealed by the Sacrificial Blood of the Innocent

He also notes that Srebrenica Muslim troops kept staging ambushes from the UN "safehaven", killing the members of the Bosnian Serb Army, and that they used the Srebrenica protected status to launch assaults against the surrounding Serbian villages, such as the raid under the Oric's commanders Ekrem Salihovic and Ibrahim Mandzic of the Bosnian Serb village Visnjica, where they killed civilians and torched the village.

"When I told Madzic that such attacks would justify the Bosnian Serb Army attack on Srebrenica, he said: 'This was not an action initiated by us. We received the orders from Sarajevo'," Mustafic testifies, adding that he later learned that "the order for the attacks on Serbian villages around Srebrenica was signed by General Enver Hadzihasanovic [of the Bosnian Muslim army, from their Sarajevo HQ].... Clearly, they wanted to provoke the response, to solve the Srebrenica problem".

However, it turned out that the "problem" Bosnian Muslim leaders and their foreign sponsors wanted solved was far more profound than the issue of one town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that is how to take over the rule over the entire Bosnian republic after the destruction of Yugoslavia, even though Bosnian Muslims are just one of three large nations living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and even today not a majority. The only way they thought this could be done, was if Bosnian Serbs were entirely exterminated or, failing that, if the entire Serbian nation is pinned with charges of "genocide", which would enable the complete assimilation of all the Serb-owned land and property in state.

Ibran Mustafic confirmed this claim back in July 1996:

"According to our [Bosnian Muslim] custom, when someone finishes the foundation for a house, an animal must be slaughtered on top of it. It seems that Srebrenica was a sacrificial lamb for the foundation of this [Muslim] state."

Posted by BBlog Staff at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Archduke Assassination Used as a Pretext to Try to Wipe Serbia Off the Map

Part 4 of late President Slobodan Milosevic's opening statement at the Hague, August 31, 2004 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

[Continuing the expose on Germanic bloc's efforts to destroy Serbia since before the WWI] Here's one more quotation from the German archives, which reveals what the German ambassador conveyed to his government, regarding the content of his conversation with Count Berthold, Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister. Minister said, according to the ministerial archives, that he considers it his duty not to leave the German Government unaware of the seriousness of the position of the monarchy. "The Southern Slavic issue, in the sense of the unhindered possession of the provinces populated by Southern Slavs, is the vital issue for the monarchy, as well as for the Three-Sided Pact [Trojni Pakt]. The Southern Slavic provinces of the monarchy cannot be held against the country such as Serbia, which is superior in the Balkans. Accordingly, the monarchy could be forced to undertake an intervention, in case Serbia defeats Bulgaria and conquers the territories beyond the territory of the old Serbia. To my question what does he think would be the right time for that intervention, the minister noted that the opportune psychological moment could be found."

And the pretext showed up soon after — the assassination, the well-known Sarajevo assassination, when Gavrilo Princip, member of the organization Young Bosnia [Mlada Bosna], assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand. The fact that 20 young men took part in the conspiracy and the assassination, members of both Serbian, Croat and Muslim nationality, is never even mentioned. This was that Young Bosnia. Although no involvement of the Kingdom of Serbia in this assassination was ever established, it was Serbia and Serbian nation that were immediately accused, while in Austro-Hungary and Germany a tsunami of total anti-Serbian hysteria was launched.

In the already quoted book, Ambassador Harman says: "A fierce anti-Serbian campaign was launched in Austro-Hungary and Germany, which overshadowed everything seen by then, and it motivated the German ambassador to London, Duke Karl Max von Lichnovsky to remind the German State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gottlieb von Jagow, that the entire Serbian nation, as the nation of evil and murderers, must be branded." He is obviously jeopardizing your copyright on this indictment here and its approach. And for few decades already.

So, in fact, the essence and the meaning of that evil above all evils, the Greater Serbia, is something no one wished to examine or go into. It has been adopted so arrogantly and with such ease, that it is being used here as well. No-one has investigated its meaning, background, the origins, because had they done so, this whole propaganda exercise would burst like a soap bubble.

It is well-known that on July 23, 1914, an Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to the Serbian Government, after the false accusations about the involvement of Serbian state in the assassination. Serbia was conditioned with the series of demands no sovereign state in the world could have accepted. Shocked with the text of this ultimatum, non-fulfillment of which was expected and the only purpose of which was to actually cause a war, the same way as in Rambouillet, but entirely shocked back then, British Minister of Foreign Affairs Sir Edward Grey characterized that text as, I'm quoting Grey, "the most shocking document diplomacy has ever produced".

Series of the Most Shocking Ultimatums to Serbia Follow the 1914 One

The most shocking document diplomacy has ever produced. Grey probably never could have imagined that in the same century, Serbian nation and Serbian state will be exposed to a whole series of similar, and perhaps even more brazen and more shocking ultimatums and that his country, Great Britain, will share the authorship of those new ultimatums with Germany, Austria and some other Western states, including some of the Serbian allies from his time, like France and, somewhat later, United States. Just as it would share the authorship and participation in the realization of the murderous conquests against Serbian nation towards the end of 20th century, conducted through the unscrupulous lies which will be dismantled here publicly and clearly, through the merciless economic sanctions and finally bestial military assaults against their former Serbian allies, whose greatest sin consisted of attempts to protect their state and their people, and preserve what was acquired through great hardships, with the help of the allies in two world wars. It is hard to imagine the kind of shame Sir Edward Grey would have felt if he knew about the great role his country played in sealing the decade-long crime committed through all those events toward the Serbian nation at the end of 20th century — the role which is being acted out precisely here, in front of this institution, formed through the flagrant violation of the international law and the basic human ethics.

Because it might be the very resolution by which this illegal tribunal was established that Sir Edward Grey would define as "the most shocking document diplomacy has ever produced."

Instead of "Greater Serbia" it was Offered, Serbia Chose to Drown its Statehood in a Common State with Croats and Slovenes

It is well known how the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was established, the Kingdom which was later given the name Yugoslavia, as a common state of Southern Slavic nations, creation of which the Germanic bloc fiercely wanted to prevent. And, as the part of failure from the First World War, and afterwards the Second, it was designated to be wiped off the face of the earth. The old myth of Greater Serbia remained, as one of propaganda tools for obscuring reality and covering up one's own crimes by someone else's invented sin.

It is precisely here, in this institution, where that very lie of Greater Serbia has found its natural roots and grew up into a monstrous creation of unprecedented magnitude. To make the irony and the absurdity even greater, and so that the lies and the injustice against Serbian nation are made even more horrific and malicious in contrast to their Balkan neighbors, it was in fact only the Serbian nation in that part of the world which, even though it had ample opportunities, and much better opportunities than the others, has not been trying to extend its state. It is well known that, in 1915, Serbia's allies have offered Serbia through the London Agreement, to expand its territories after the victory in the war onto Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Dalmatia and Slavonia [present-day Croatia], and so on. All this is well documented. Serbia chose not to do so. Instead, Serbia accepted and embraced Serbs and Croats and Slovenians alike from the former Austro-Hungarian territory, and that is how the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes came to life, which would later be called Yugoslavia.

Now, this choice of Serbian Kingdom to create a common Yugoslav state, instead of Serbian state, has in this way offered a protection to Slovenian and Croat brothers from territorial fragmentation and turned them, from the parts of the defeated state, into the members of the victorious camp. But, despite this, since the last throes of the rotting Hapsburg monarchy until today, Serbs have remained branded as the Greater Serbia nationalists. This historical falsification is being kept alive all the while.

German Verdict: Serbia Must Die!

In order to understand the whole issue, it is useful to take a look at the other side of the World War I front. Namely, in 1915, German theoretician Friedrich Naumann published his book "Middle Europe" ("Mitell Europa"), where he laid out a project of reorganization of Europe. This was, of course, at the time it was expected that Germans will win the war. The reorganization of Europe meant creation of Greater Germany which would encompass the entire Central Europe, and which would be surrounded by the small weak states Naumann calls 'the satellite states'. These satellites of Greater Germany would be completely dependent on the great and powerful German state. Naumann doesn't mention Serbia even as a satellite state, because according to him, quote: "Serbia, as the fortress which is an obstacle in this part of the world, must be wiped off the map."

Let me stress that this creator of the Greater Germany project, which presupposes wiping Serbia off the map, in accordance with the anti-Serbian propaganda waged at the time under the notorious slogan "Serbia must die" -- "Serbien mus terbien", with an 'i' added to the word "treben", so that it rhymes with "Serbie" -- this theoretician is regarded as an the ideologue of the German Liberal Party [FDP, Die Liberalen], a political party which has long served to balance the German political scene and which, for more than two decades, has held in its hands the German foreign policy at the time of Genscher and Kinkel. The same Kinkel who in 1993 felt compelled to reveal the concept of German revision of historical processes, and who said: "Towards the outside world, something Germany has failed to do twice, must be accomplished."

German Present-Day Liberals Uphold Naumann's Death Sentence to Serbia

The importance German Liberals, especially the two mentioned leaders of German diplomacy, attach to the ideas and work of Friederich Naumann is best exemplified in the fact that the Liberal Party's Foundation is called the Friederich Naumann Foundation -- "Friederich Naumann Stiftung". The same name was also given to the party's headquarters, while the loyal and pedantic following in the vital issues is best reflected in the mindlessly destructive Genscher's and Kinkel's diplomatic efforts in regards to Yugoslavia and Serbia, and in the drive to confirm and ensure German domination in Europe through the fragmentation of the Central Europe and East Europe, which is precisely what took place. You have an example of Czechoslovakia, not to mention the example of destruction of USSR, the leading winning power in the World War II.

When Serbia, sentenced to death in this perverted approach by the exponents of the Greater Germany hegemonic tendencies, drowned its statehood in the newly formed state of Southern Slavs, denying by this act in a most eloquent way the propaganda about the Greater Serbia aspirations, it was only natural for this death sentence to be carried onto the newly formed state, Yugoslavia.

Two War Criminals, Hitler and Clinton, Share the Same Views on Serbs

It is well known that in Serbia, in protest of its government's decision to form a pact with Hitler's alliance, the massive demonstrations erupted which have overturned the government. At that time, Winston Churchill said: "Yugoslavia found its soul again." This was said on the one side, the side of the Allies; on the other side, on the very day the attack against Yugoslavia was launched, Hitler said that his military assault on Serbia was, quote, "directed against the very same criminal clique, the very same creatures who, through the assassination in Sarajevo, pushed the world into the unspeakable misery."

The claim incredibly reminiscent of the one a new fuhrer uttered 58 years later, ahead of the new round of bombardment of Serbia and Yugoslavia. Namely, Bill Clinton, then-President of the United States, while explaining to the American TV audience the decision to start, as he called it "the air campaign" against Yugoslavia, on the night of March 24 [1999], stressed: "No, the Serbs did not only cause the World War I, no -- without them, there would have been no holocaust either." So much for the knowledge and acknowledgment of history by these two criminals.

Germany Recycles Goebbels Propaganda for Present-Day Wars

It remains written in the German archives, from the Hitler's meeting: "The Fuhrer is determined to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a state." This part on "destroying Yugoslavia as a state" can be easily linked with the report notorious by the evilness and cynicism, by then-President of the SFRJ [Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia] Presidency Stjepan Mesic, given to the Croat parliament on December 5, 1991. Quote: "Thank you for honoring me with your trust to fight for the interests of Croatia in the part assigned to me. I believe I have performed my task: Yugoslavia is no more."

As far as these efforts and the crime which was committed against Yugoslavia, just like against the other countries that were the subject of the assault, prior to the attack against Yugoslavia, directives were given for propaganda issues in Germany. Ambassador Ralf Hartman speaks about the familiar, traditional outlines of the German propaganda for the Balkans. These outlines are as follows: "a) German opponent is exclusively the Serbian Government which fanned the flames of struggle against Germany; b) Since the Serbs implemented a ruthless dictatorship primarily against the Croats and Macedonians" -- all of which is entirely absurd, "they are to be clearly made aware that the German Vehrmacht is not coming to their country as an enemy of the Croats, Bosnians and Macedonians. Furthermore, in this way, they [Croats, Bosnians and Macedonians] will be protected from the slaughter by the Serbian chauvinists."

German Willing Satellite, Croatia, Also Preserves the Old Course

And protection "from the slaughter by the Serbian chauvinists" in the German puppet creation of Independent State of Croatia [NDH] has resulted in the genocide against the Serbs, Jews and Gypsies which, on the territory of that monstrous state, exterminated a million of Serbs, more than half of whom were driven to death through the most horrific sufferings. This gruesome undertaking was certainly aided by the Joseph Goebbels directive, which later remained alive and still active in the German political practice, "the Croats should be flattered so that they fan the hatred against the Serbs".

It is more than obvious to what extent this same approach was employed in the German relation towards the Balkans at the end of 20th century. But the continuity of the invariable German policy is perhaps best illustrated by the following statement by the Croat fuhrer Ante Pavelic from 1941: "I am fully aware that we owe gratitude for the freedom of Croatia exclusively to the power of Fuhrer, Reich and Europe". This continuity is particularly visible once this statement is compared with the musical one, "Danke Deutchland", from the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992 [a Croat hit-song], or with the Stjepam Mesic's assurances of the especially significant role Genscher and Pope John Paul II played in dismembering Yugoslavia.

Vatican: Serbia Must be Destroyed as the Orthodoxy Stronghold

When it comes to the second key international participant, according to Mesic, in destruction of Yugoslavia -- the Holy See, it is also characterized by both the historical continuity in the anti-Yugoslav orientation and activities, on the one hand, and by the stability of the alliance with those who fought against the creation of Yugoslavia, before and after the WWI and who fought throughout its existence, especially in WWII against it, on the other.

The deep roots of this policy of Vatican and its anti-Serbian warmongering activities are attested by the following quotation from the report Austro-Hungarian envoy to the Holy See wrote in Vienna, back in July 27, 1914 -- before the war was declared against Serbia. Describing his conversation with the Cardinal's State Secretary Marie Del Vallo, he said, quote: "During the past year, His Holiness expressed several times its regret that Austro-Hungary has failed to punish its dangerous Danube neighbors. The Pope and the Curate regard Serbia as a putrid disease, which is slowly eating away the marrow of the monarchy, causing it to become extinguished. For the church, the destruction of this bastion would represent the loss of the firmest stronghold in its struggle against the Orthodoxy, and the loss of their strongest veterans. The Cardinal's State Secretary expressed hope that the monarchy will go all the way, to the end."

So, according to the official Vatican position, Serbia was to be destroyed in order to strengthen the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the geopolitical support of the Roman Catholic church in that part of the world, and especially as its base for spreading to the East. It is more than evident to what extent all of this is entirely removed from the Christ's teachings, but it is also more than evident how much all of this is connected with the "teachings" Hitler was spreading two decades later, obsessed with the insane and blood-soaked idea about his own divine mission to achieve the German "Drang nach Osten".

Genocide Against the Serbs in Hitler's Satellite Croatia Unprecedented

This is why it was not surprising that the alliance of the Holy See, headed by the Pope Pius XII, with the Axis powers, headed by Hitler, was very easily established. In Croatia, this alliance was implemented through the close ties of the Roman Catholic church with Pavelic's Independent State of Croatia. Pavelic's Minister of Education Mile Budak stated in Gospic: "We shall destroy part of the Serbs, expell the other part and convert the others to the [Roman] catholicism, turning them into Croats. In this way, we shall eradicate their traces and the only thing that shall remain, will be a bad memory of them."

Professor Edmund Paris in his book "Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941-1945", [published in] Chicago 1961, said that the "greatest genocide during World War II, in proportion to nation's population, took place not in Nazi Germany but in Nazi-created puppet state of Croatia."

Professor Helen Fein in her book "Accounting for Genocide", New York, The Free Press, 1979, said that Croatia, quote, "The Croat state planned and executed massacres against the Serbian Orthodox minority and Catholic clergy approved these massacres". According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, pages 323-328, quote: "In the Independent State of Croatia more than half a million Serbs were killed, a quarter million were expelled and another 200,000 were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism".

Vatican and USA Rescue of Croat Ustashas the Best Kept Secret of 20th Century

The genocide against the Serbian population in NDH is one of the best kept secret of 20th century, as concealed as the rescue of the Ustasha criminals to avoid facing justice, conducted through the cooperation of Vatican, United States and the other Western states. In fact, after the defeat of the Axis powers in the WWII, and the Ustasha NDH along its side, the Roman Catholic church played the extremely important and extremely sinister role together with the American and British secret services, in organizing and conducting the rescue and fleeing abroad -- primarily to the South, but also North America -- of the large number of Ustashas, especially the highest ranking ones, including Fuhrer Ante Pavelic himself.

The reasons for the rescue of Ustashas and the other Nazis, and their organized transfer through the Vatican "Ratlines", was the interest shared by the USA and Vatican to fight against the USSR and the communist threat in which no methods were spared. Apart from that, Vatican also wanted to rescue the criminals, the loyal Roman Catholics it gave its blessing to during the war. This rescue of the criminals and concealment of the crimes was also a consequence of the fear that, in case the role of Vatican and Pope Pius XII in the WWII crimes was publicly revealed, the communists could win the elections in some of the main Roman Catholic countries in Europe, where the communists had strong support after the war, especially in France and Italy. These criminals were later used to weaken the communist countries in Europe and to carry out terrorist actions.

Vatican Finally Succeeds to Establish a Secret Alliance with the US Leadership

Vatican's constant efforts to establish the closest possible ties with the main Western power among the WWII winners, the United States, was finally rewarded at the beginning of the 1980s, when after the meeting between Reagan and Pope, the only thing that was leaked to the public was that they talked about the solutions adopted in Yalta in 1945. What followed was the series of meetings in the presence of the associates, in the course of which the strong ties were established, the kind of ties Richard Allen, White House Security Adviser, characterized as one of the most secret alliances of all times. There is a book by Carl Bernstein... [statement interrupted by the judge]

About the nature of this alliance, Professor Smilja Avramov said the following in her book "Opus Dei": "Even though the three fervent Roman Catholics [Zbigniew] Brzezinski, [William] Casey and [Vernon] Walters prepared the ground for alliance forming while having in mind the Roman Catholic imperative, even though President Reagan placed the Roman Catholic activists to the most prominent post in the administration -- for example, Alexander Haig, whose own brother was a bishop -- it would be wrong to claim that the Roman Catholic faith was the decisive factor in the United States policy of that period. The US Administration did not see the expression of the religion in the alliance, but the power of the church as an institution placed within the realpolitik context.

"Washington instrumentilized the Holy See, i.e. the Roman Catholic church, in the same way it will, a while later, try to do with the Islam. Through this alliance, the geopolitical map of the world was reshaped, the style in conducting policies was changed, and a clero-political bloc was created as a decisive factor in the US foreign policy, which will have the most fatal consequences for Yugoslavia."

The cited words of the intellectuals regarding the key role the Holy See plays in the global changes are also confirmed by Mikhail Gorbachev, who told the Italian La Stampa on March 3, 1992: "Everything that happened in the East Europe during the past years could not have been possible without the involvement of the Pope John Paul II".

In those few years, in East Europe, Yugoslavia was being dismembered in the pool of blood, the very state Vatican wanted to prevent from being created during the WWI and destruction of which and the great bloodshed which followed that destruction it already took part in once before, by supporting Hitler and the Ustasha state and Ustasha crimes during the WWII.

Pope John Paul II Justifies Ethnic Cleansing of Serbs from Croatia, Calling it a "Humanitarian Intervention"

The policy of Vatican towards Serbia has been shaped, as shown by the cited letter from 1914, from before the time Yugoslavia was formed. After the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created in 1918, this multi-confessional state was labeled as the main obstacle to spreading the Roman Catholicism to the east. Apart from that, Vatican viewed Balkans as its key region for proselytizing. Due to all this, the policy of Pope John Paul II and of the Roman Catholic church in general during this pope's reign towards Yugoslavia represented only the final phase of the activities of the Roman Catholic church in destroying Yugoslavia. I will skip the series of examples of the meetings held in 1991 and 1992 which confirmed this, but I will include this in the submitted text, because the time doesn't permit me to quote all this.

After recognizing Slovenia and Croatia, and then also Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vatican suddenly switched to a peace-making policy, expressing, in 1994, a desire for pope to visit Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo. The expulsion of Serbs from the territories in Croatia they populated for centuries, in the "Storm" and "Flash" operations, the Vatican diplomacy dubbed the "recapturing of the territories", and I will remind you that Lord Owen has stated that Operation Storm was the biggest ethnic cleansing on the territory of former Yugoslavia.

On October 19, 1995, in regards to that, pope said that in certain situations the use of force is not ruled out if this is necessary for defense of the justified right of one nation. In such situations, at issue is a "humanitarian intervention" for protection of human lives. No human lives were threatened at the time, nor were there any attacks from the territories of UN protected zones of Krajina [Serbian region in Croatia] to the surrounding areas. Unlike, for example, another UN protected zone of Srebrenica, from which during all those years the attacks were continuously conducted resulting in hundreds of Serbian villages being razed to the ground, Serbian population slaughtered and their villages burned.

US Army Chaplain: Vatican Responsible for the Bloodshed in Former Yugoslavia

A retired chaplain in the US Army, Colonel Biegler, said in Pittsburgh on January 1999 that the Vatican is guilty for all the misery that took place in the territory of Yugoslavia and that he had personally seen the Vatican bank accounts, confirming that the Roman Catholic church, together with the German Government, has destabilized Yugoslavia and instigated a decade of bloodshed. Biegler said that Vatican had 'pumped in' millions of dollars to separatists in Yugoslavia, and that the Roman Catholic church was very active in the events which took place in Croatia and Slovenia.

It is well known that Vatican and the press supported Albanian demonstrations in Kosovo and Metohija in 1989, and the same was done by the Ljubljana and Zagreb archbishops. During the visit to Albania in 1994, Pope supported demands of Albanian separatists in Kosovo and Metohija. Pope was the first to request the energetic action against Serbia in 1998, and then turned into a peace-maker once again, first on March 30, when he called the meeting of the ambassadors of the NATO member states and the Security Council, to start the initiative for ending the war against Yugoslavia. In April 1, he wrote the first letter to Clinton, asking to stop the bombing during the Easter holiday.

Once all these Vatican activities aimed at destruction of Yugoslavia are taken into account, pope's message on March 12, 2000, sounds frightfully insincere: "We cannot fail to admit the betrayal of the Gospel committed by our brothers, especially in the second millennium. The admissions of the mistakes in the past leads to awakening of our consciousness and to the compromise in the presence". Recalling this pope's plea for forgiveness of the sins of the Roman Catholic church, Professor Smilja Avramov in the earlier cited book Opus Dei, on pages 170-171, reminds to critical reactions to it, especially emphasizing the following words of the Dutch catholic thinker Leo Lyndaker, quote: "Pope expressed regret for what was done in the past, but there are no indications that he might be considering to change his behavior in the presence."

To be continued...

Posted by BBlog Staff at 05:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Germany's Big, Empty Words

Part 3 of late President Slobodan Milosevic's opening statement at the Hague, August 31, 2004 (Part 1, Part 2)

On September 12, 1990, in Moscow, at the time foreign minister of what was then a Democratic Republic of Germany, along with French, Great Britain, Soviet and United States' foreign ministers signed an agreement about the final state order of Germany, Genscher, among else, said: "We don't want anything else, except to live in freedom, democracy and peace with all the other nations. The state unity is for us the greatest responsibility, but it does not represent the aspirations for greater power".

Chancellor Kohl, on October 3 [1990], the day of German reunification, sent a message to all the governments in the world, among them also to a Yugoslav Government, which states: "From the German soil, only the peace will emanate in future. We are aware that the inviolability of borders, the respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all European states are the key preconditions for peace. We are also bound by the moral and legal obligations, which stem from the German history."

Big words and big promises given to the rest of humanity, particularly to Europe, at the moment German nation was finally permitted to take off the heavy burden of the division, imposed precisely as a result of the darkest era of German history. Big words and big promises, but at the same time, empty words and empty promises.

Because, how did the top German leadership view the moral and legal obligations arising from the German history which they cited, in reality, and what is their relation to the inviolability of borders, respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of all European states, as they said themselves is the main precondition for peace, one could observe at the time very clearly on the territory of Yugoslavia — that is, on the territory of that very state onto which the German history, only in the 20th century, inflicted a cost of three million lives: 1,247,000 Serbian victims in the First World War and 1,700,000 victims in the Second World War.

Because, precisely in that October of 1990, in the month of German reunification, the Yugoslav Army Security Services have found and even managed to secretly film the activities of the illegal import of weapons to Croatia, aimed at facilitating the armed secession of Croatia. Therefore, at issue was an outright destruction of the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.

This arms-import went through Hungary, but the bulk of the weapons came from now reunified Germany, which turned the cited promise of Chancellor Kohl that "only peace will emanate from the German soil in future", to the pure irony. The arming of secessionists was neither the only, nor the first form of German meddling in Yugoslav internal affairs, contributing to the deepening, if not the very instigation of the crisis in Yugoslavia.

Germany Promises to Croat and Slovenian Secessionists that More Bloodshed will Grant their Wishes

The entire activities of Slovenia and Croatia on violently gaining independence were not only supported and aided by Germany, they were also largely encouraged by the highest [German] state functionaries. Namely, within the efforts to stop the conflict in Croatia, and to end the attacks against the JNA (Yugoslav Army), Yugoslav Presidency and the leaders of the Yugoslav republics have gathered in Belgrade at the meeting on August 20 and 21, 1991. At that time, they have adopted a number of decisions aimed at stabilizing the situation. A programme on the minimal political and economic cooperation was adopted; a commission for drafting an agreement about the future shape of the multi-national state was formed, and also an agreement was reached regarding the meeting between the leaders of the JNA and Croat republic.

On August 20, the extraordinary ministerial session of the European Political Cooperation was held, where the foreign ministers of the European Community member states concluded they are welcoming the readiness of all parties to embark on negotiations about the future of Yugoslavia, and requested that all the sides conduct these negotiations between themselves in goodwill. On the same day, Genscher held the consultations with Slovenian and Croat foreign ministers. And on August 24, 1991, he invited Boris Frlec, a Yugoslav Ambassador to Bonn, a Slovenian by the way, which ensured that the message sent to Yugoslav authorities will also be carried to Ljubljana and Zagreb, and told him: "In case the bloodshed continues, and in the case the policy of violence does not end immediately, the [German] Federal Government will have to seriously consider recognizing Slovenia and Croatia in the existing borders. It will also conduct the appropriate review on these matters within the European Community."

The question is whether those who have already declared secession and who have already used weapons in order to carry it out, needed a better and greater endorsement and encouragement, whether the greater push could have been given in order to violate the cease-fire, than this message, that precisely the continuation of the bloodshed will produce the recognition of those states. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened. The message has produced the desired effect, because the Croat paramilitary formations refused to honor the already agreed cease-fire and escalated the conflict.

Finally, Lord [David] Owen also spoke about the German readiness to support Slovenia and Croatia in their unlawful secession also through the recognition of those republics, even at the cost of serious clashes with their [German own] European Community partners, USA and the United Nations. You have admitted into evidence his book here and I'm reminding you, he said: "Genscher's letter to Perez de Cuellar, written in German, invoked the public statements which have been raising tensions in Yugoslavia and the Paris Charter. But, as Perez de Cuellar reminded him in his reply, Genscher has forgotten to mention a European Community declaration published in Rome on November 8, 1991, which said that the prospects for the recognition of independence of those republics who wished so can only be reviewed within the frameworks of the overall solutions."

Diplomats: Germany Bears the Greatest Responsibility for the Bloodshed in Former Yugoslavia

Still, the German position was finally prevailing. Once the Pandora's box was opened, once the unlawful secession was recognized at the cost of human lives, the blood-soaked process was difficult to stop, because the things were not ended with Croatia and Slovenia, again without any consideration for the consequences. A further step was made.

At the end of the first passage, on the page 384 of his book, Lord Owen says: "The European Community's mistake regarding the recognition of Croatia could have been overcome had the situation not been further complicated by the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, irrespective of the consequences. United States which, in December 1991, were against the recognition of Croatia, in the spring of 1992 became a very active advocate of recognizing Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, there was no need to regard it as unavoidable, nor was it logical to move on decisively and recognize Bosnia and Herzegovina, an inner Yugoslav republic which consisted of three large constitutive nations, with very different views on independence."

So, one mistake followed the other. One brazenness followed the other, and human lives were the price. And when human lives are the price, than those mistakes and those brazennesses turn into the crime. In this case, that is the crime against peace. Precisely the type of crime that this illegal institution, probably not by chance, does not have the jurisdiction over.

That Germany is the main guilty party for the escalation of the Yugoslav crisis was also stressed by the US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in the interview to US Today, also carried by Die Welt, from June 18, 1993. Christopher said: "During the overall process of recognition and, first of all, on the occasion of the premature recognitions, grave mistakes were made, and particular responsibility for that belongs to the Germans. Many experts share the view that the problems we are facing today stem from the recognition of Croatia, and later Bosnia."

Christopher's French colleague Roland Dumas, in the statement carried by Süddeutsche Zeitung on June 21, 1993, criticized the European Community because of recognizing Slovenia and Croatia in, quote, a "hasty and precipitous manner", which paved the way to breaking up Yugoslavia. He emphasized, quote: "The responsibility of Germany and the Vatican for the escalation is clearly enormous".

Another participant in these events, the then-Dutch Premier Ruud Lubbers, spoke in 1997 about the fact that German Chancellor Kohl pressured the European Community and thus changed its position that Croatia's independence ought not be recognized in order to avoid further fanning of the civil war, and said, I quote: "Foreign Affairs Minister [Hans] Van den Broek and I might as well have turned on our heads. The other Europeans could do nothing but look around in astonishment. Germans have moved into this business on their own and that was a catastrophe." This is [Amsterdam] Volkstrant, quoted according to the DPA, on December 21, 1997.

When all the above described German support to Croat and Slovenian, but also to the other secessionists aiming to realize their plan, is taken into account, then those statements by Sjepan Mesic from the TV appearance regarding the role of Genscher and Pope John Paul II are not surprising.

A Constant in German Foreign Policy in Three Wars: Anti-Serbian Drive

However, as the Germany's bully-like support for destruction of Yugoslavia and for recognition of the secession of its republics is something evident and widely known, the question remains in the minds of many what were the motives of such behavior and such stubborn persistence of the top leaders of just-reunited German nation.

This question is answered by one of the world's leading geopolitical experts, General Pierre-Marie Gallois who was a close De Gaulle's associate, who stated the following for Die Zeit on July 23, 1993: "Dismemberment of this state and closely tying Croats and Slovenians to the German industry has brought about the emancipation of the nations which were once associated with the empire in the heart of Europe, and afterwards with the Third Reich. On the other hand, this meant punishment of the Serbs who have persistently, in both world wars, stood by the Allies. Thirdly, this has led to the wiping of the last remnants of the treaties with which Germany was twice punished for its defeats."

And although many would regard these claims by the old French general and the prominent anti-fascist with suspicion and displeasure, trusting that Germany's historical ambitions are nothing but a distant past and that the new historical circumstances and the catharsis German nation went through are a sufficient guarantee for the peace-loving insurances given by the German politicians at the time these events took place, on the occasion of German reunification, one only needs to recall an article by Klaus Kinkel, titled "German Foreign Policy in the Light of the New World Order", published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 19, 1993. In this article, the task of German foreign policy is expressed in the following way: "Towards the outside world, something in which we have failed twice before, has to be realized".

Everyone understands -- there's probably no one in the world who doesn't know what was it that Germany failed in twice before, vis-a-vis the outside world. So, according to the German Foreign Minister himself, the task for this country's foreign policy is to use its potentials to realize what it failed to achieve in two world wars, and the only question that remains is whether that will be achieved by the old or by the new means.

Kohl himself said in a TV programme, on the day of the recognition of Croatia secession: "There is a particularly intense affiliation between the Germans and the Croats, which is largely related to history." This historical vertical line pointed out by Kohl, like the historical vertical line in the German foreign policy and the actions pointed out by Kinkel, and finally also a similar vertical line in the actions and policies of their Croat satellite, is sometimes startlingly reflected in almost identical actions and words of the key figures from the time of two world wars, and the time of war against Yugoslavia in the 1990's. Therefore, from the three wars in which the constant staple of the German policy in the Balkans were the anti-Yugoslav pressures.

Myth of 'Greater Serbia' Used as Propaganda Tool for 150 Years

First, there were the blood-soaked efforts to prevent the creation of the Yugoslav state and then even bloodier to destroy that state and wipe it off the face of the earth. The red thread tying the overall rhetoric and the rhetoric of the Germanic bloc of Austria, i.e. the Austro-Hungary, and Germany in the Balkans is the thesis about the danger of creation some kind of Greater Serbia. This danger, this key thesis, has taken the central position also in this false indictment against me -- Greater Serbia. This thesis, this myth, is a creation of Austro-Hungarian propaganda since the second half of the 19th century. It is an integral part of the efforts by the rotting monarchy to keep its occupied Southern Slavic territories.

About this fear that the Southern Slavic nations, shackled under the Austro-Hungarian occupation, carried by the wave of a broad European process of national emancipation and the liberation from the occupier's binds of a score of European nations, as well as reunifications of the divided territories into one state, just as was the case with Germany itself, this fear from realizing such aspirations, although they were natural and historically legitimate in the case of unification of the Southern Slavs, one more German, Ambassador Ralf Hartman, describes in the following way in his book "The Honorable Mediators", on the page 31.

This illustrates the depths of this fear and how far back it goes into the past. I'm quoting him: "Already in 1876, when the Serbian Prince Milos backed the rebellion of the Christian population in Herzegovina and Bosnia against the Turkish rule and when he declared the war to Constantinople, the Russian State Chancellor Prince [Alexander Mikhailovich] Gorchakov, German Chancellor [Otto Von] Bismarck and the Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister [Gyula] Andrassy, upon the Hapsburg pressure, in the so-called Berlin Memorandum, agreed that in the case the Serbs win" -- he quotes: "The Powers will not tolerate creation of the large Slavic state".

The Natural Aspirations Allowed to Everyone, Forever Denied to Serbs

The thing that in 19th century represented for every one — Germans and Russians, Englishmen and Frenchmen, Spaniards and Italians — the most natural and understandable right to a life in a unified state, was to remain forever denied to the Southern Slavs, or rather, to Serbs. Their aspiration towards the state unification was declared heretical and turned into a threatening apparition. The name of this apparition was "Greater Serbia" and that is how it has remained in Vienna, Berlin and elsewhere ever since, without calming down till today, even though the Serbian Kingdom was too small and weak in comparison to the big European powers, and even though the Serbian population never exceeded 10 million.

This indictment is the best proof how correct all of this is, because it is the apparitions that are being discussed here. What is particularly striking is the fact that way back in the Austro-Hungarian propaganda, the liberation from the centuries-long yoke of Ottoman and Hapsburg occupation, and the unification of the Southern Slavs, not only the Serbs, was treated and referred to as the aspiration for creation of the Greater Serbia, or the expansion of the Serbian state. Such formulation implicates the existence of some conquering, expansionist tendencies among the Serbs, as opposed to the formulation on creation of the state of the Southern Slavs — not only the Serbs, but all the Southern Slavs, which points to the fact that part of the Southern Slavic peoples were under the foreign occupation and which leads to understanding the roots of the idea of Yugoslavia.

Someone's Aspirations to Dominate the Balkans Covered Up by Anti-Serbian Propaganda

And the roots of the Yugoslav idea have sprung within the Croat nation. But in spite of that, when the Serbs accepted that idea in order to help their enslaved brothers under Austro-Hungarian rule, it was labeled as the Greater Serbia idea and the sign of equality was always put between the two terms which are absolutely not the same: between Yugoslavia, the common state of the Southern Slavic peoples, on the one hand, and some kind of Greater Serbia, on the other, as the product and the tool of anti-Yugoslav and anti-Serbian propaganda.

Therefore, both then and now, someone's aspirations to dominate and control the territories inhabited by the Southern Slavic nations and to keep those nations enslaved, had to be covered up with the propaganda smokescreen, that it is in fact Serbia which has precisely such intentions, to spread into the territories which belong to others, which is the bare-naked lie.

To be continued....

Posted by BBlog Staff at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Western Collusion with Terrorists, Secessionists and Criminals in Destruction of Yugoslavia and Serbia

Second part of late President Slobodan Milosevic's opening statement at the Hague, August 31, 2004 (first part available here)

On the basis of Smithson's Declaration from January 7, 1932, United States obligated itself not to recognize the states created through the violent changes. This principle first became the regional rule for the American states, and then entered the universal rules of the international law.

This time around [in destruction of Yugoslavia], the United States trampled their own law. Back in July 1991, before the war begun, [German] Minister of Foreign Affairs [Hans-Dietrich] Genscher advocated the immediate recognition of Slovenia and Croatia. The parallel action was led by the Vatican. According to the US Ambassador with the Holy See, Thomas Patrick Milady, already in the mid-1991 Vatican undertook an action which was unprecedented in the history, placing itself at the helm of the process of recognition of the secessionist republics.

Vatican was exerting a permanent pressure on the European states to recognize Croatia and Slovenia. In August 1991, Pope John Paul II has sent Archbishop Torano to Yugoslavia, who reported upon his return that Serbia is an undeniable aggressor. One more substitution of the thesis, one more shameless lie and hypocrisy, this time on behalf of a spiritual leader. The aggression to one's own country — a construction that can only come to life in an extremely malicious undertaking. But the press accepted it. According to Milady, there was a perfect coordination between Vatican and Germany.

Mesic—Genscher—Vatican, the Old Nazi Ties are Thicker than Blood

In mid-December 1991, Genscher visited Vatican and, upon return, on December 19, he announced that Germany will recognize Croatia and Slovenia, regardless of the positions of other states. This was realized on December 23. But Vatican has done so on January 13, 1992.

Germany and Vatican were guided by their historical geostrategic interests. They have been working on destruction of Yugoslavia for years. This was explicitly stated by Helmut Kohl in the reputable magazine "Politique Internationale", [edition] 1994/1995, #66, stressing that the history of present-day Germany and the one that preceded it represents an indivisible whole.

The decisive period started when [Klaus] Kinkel become the head of the German security services [BND, Bundesnachrichtendienst]. He established the closest ties with Ustasha emigration. The key figures who worked on destruction of Yugoslavia from within, according to the well-known American analyst Eric Schmidt-Birnbaum, were Josip Malovic, Josip Boljkovac, Franjo Tudjman, Stjepan Mesic — current president of Croatia. Mesic confirmed his role also on Slovenian television, stating, and I quote: "I wanted to convey the idea of breaking Yugoslavia up to those who had the greatest influence on its destiny, Genscher and pope. I met with Genscher the entire three times. He enabled me to get in contact with the Holy See. Pope and Genscher agreed to a total break-up of Yugoslavia". End of quotation.

After this, the recognition by the other European Community members followed in January 1992, while Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized on April 6 of the same year, on the very day Hitler attacked Yugoslavia -- April 6, 1941. The federal units have been recognized, as written in every individual act of recognition, "within the internationally recognized borders". That's what it says. But the fact is that never, not in a single international act, have the administrative borders [between Yugoslav republics] been recognized as the international ones. There isn't even an internal document about these borders. And, most importantly, the recognition is a one-sided political act, whereas the problem of determining the borders is a complex, multilevel legal procedure. Therefore, what was recognized were the fictitious, not the real states. The subjects that were recognized did not have the basic prerequisites for statehood.

An Exercise in Political Hypocrisy: Unprecedented Recognitions in the Midst of Bloody Civil War

There is a unified position among the experts that the recognition of statehood requires a legitimate state apparatus, the stability of the political and legal structures, a monopoly over armed forces within the territory in question and the full control over the use of force. Most importantly, the state has to demonstrate the strength and readiness to fulfill the international obligations and to ensure the internal safety.

None of that existed at the moment of the recognition. The recognition was given at the time of a bloody civil war, which will remain recorded as the unique case in the modern history, but in an entirely negative sense.

In the legal circles throughout the world, the recognition of the separatist forces caused astonishment and condemnation. This was also the case with the other circles. Cedric Thornberry, head of the civil sector of the UNPROFOR [United Nations Protection Force] stated in his memoirs, and I quote: "When Ambassador Cutileiro [Jose Cutileiro] informed us about the decision on recognition, General Morillon [Phillipe Morillon] and I were horrified." End of quotation.

The high-circulation French "Figaro" called this an exercise in the legal hypocrisy. General MacKenzie [Lewis MacKenzie] said in his memoirs "Even though we were not diplomats, all of us in uniform were certain that the fighting would break out all around us as soon as the recognition is announced." The UN Special Envoy Cyrus Vance said that the recognition of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina on behalf of the European Community and the USA has, I quote, "led to the war which is being waged on the Yugoslav territory". He said this in September 1992.

The recognition of the fictitious states in the midst of a civil war represents an indirect form of aggression against the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Supported by the powerful media campaign and the deception of the world public, through the flagrant violation of the international law and the United Nations Charter, the secessionist republics have been accepted into the United Nations membership. To the remainder of Yugoslavia, which was in fact the core of Yugoslavia, sanctions were imposed in May 1992 and the country was placed in isolation, only because we did not accept to have the existing state in which we lived erased by the stroke of a pen.

Joint Criminal Enterprise Indeed Existed, but Not in Belgrade

In this legal chaos and the moral decline of the leading powers of the post-Cold War world and the Vatican, the road to madness and lawlessness was opened, from the north borders down to Kosovo, to the furthest south. This ad hoc tribunal was also formed, with only one objective, to cover up the piled-up mistakes of the Western politics and to justify the crimes, the destruction of the state and the highly technological barbarism committed by the NATO countries in their three-month bombardment of Yugoslavia, [to cover up] the mass crimes against its citizens, the destruction of the medieval heritage of the Serbian nation in Kosovo, and so on.

Through the instrumentalization of the extremely complex events on Yugoslav territory, and by switching the blame onto Yugoslavia as the aggressor, and onto me personally, a very transparent tactic was employed, with the purpose of closing the circle and preventing the logical thinking based on the empirical evidence.

The ridiculous, I'd say even vulgar theories about the "bad guys" and "rogue states" can't obscure the historical facts and historical responsibility for the tragedy of a European state. The "joint criminal enterprise" indeed existed, but it did not originate in Belgrade, nor has it ever existed in Belgrade. To the contrary, it existed in the joint forces of the secessionists, Germany and Vatican, and then the other European Community countries and the United States.

Kangaroo Court, Another Tool of NATO Propaganda

At my first appearance in this place and from then on, on several occasions, I denied the legality of this so-called "tribunal". During the procedure, you provided me with the countless arguments in support of my position. I shall not dwell upon the lack of the legal basis for the establishment of this court. I would only remind you that the source of the judicial power can solely be the international agreement, and not the resolution, as was concluded by the UN Secretary General himself, in his statement to the UN Security Council on May 3, 1993.

However, you owe a response to the international public as to from where does the Security Council draw a right to suspend legally binding treaties from being implemented. I'm referring to the Geneva Conventions from 1949 with the amended protocols and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948, which assign the authority to adjudicate the war crimes' cases to the national courts. The international court can have the authority only when the document about its establishment has been reached lege artis, and only if it is of the general nature.

This so-called "tribunal" lacks both elements. The act on establishing this "tribunal" is of an individual nature, therefore, it is a political document. The basic legal principle is the equality in the eyes of the law, so there is a question why haven't the tribunals for all the wars which took place and are taking place throughout the world been established, at least in this, last decade of the 20th century, since there are no principled reasons for something like that, if it's legal, not to be applied to all.

In other words, this "tribunal" represents the most serious form of discrimination against one country and the grave violation of the conventions regarding the prohibition of all forms of discrimination.

At the very beginning, I requested that this institution exercises its right from the Article 96 of the UN Charter, to seek approval from the UN General Assembly to address the International Court of Justice [ICJ], the legal and the highest judicial body of the United Nations' institutional system, authorized to interpret the Charter, requesting their advice on whether the Security Council resolutions through which this so-called court was established are in compliance with the United Nations Charter or not.

No Court Can Determine Its Own Legality

The fact that this "tribunal" gave itself the right to decide on its own whether it was established in the legally valid way or not, and the fact it has, as could have been expected, determined that it is legal, does not mean such a conclusion is either correct, nor that it had a right to reach such a conclusion. Namely, this so-called "tribunal", just like any other court, is not authorized to evaluate its own legality. Therefore, its decision on this issue is legally worthless.

The courts are, in fact, authorized to evaluate whether they are competent to adjudicate on certain issues or not. But the issue of the jurisdiction of a court and the issue of its legality are two entirely different questions. The issue of legality has the precedence over the issue of [the court's own] jurisdiction, because if the court is illegal, than the question of its jurisdiction becomes pointless. Unlike the issue of [court's own] jurisdiction, not a single tribunal, nor any other institution, is authorized to determine its own legality, because the law traditionally does not allow one to be the judge in one's own case — nemo judex in sua causa.

On the other hand, this illegal court has no right to deprive the persons before it of a response to a question whether they are before the legal or illegal institution, especially if there is a legally valid way I have pointed to for resolving this issue. Because, by refusing to resolve this issue, the person in question is being denied justice, deni de justice.

Tribunals Don't Get Their Legitimacy through Resolutions

But I'm afraid that it is exactly the people in authority in this institution who are aware that the opinion of the International Court of Justice would be in accordance with the opinion of its previous president Mohamed Bedjaoui, who, in his book "The New World Order and Control of the Legality of the Acts of the Security Council", among the acts listed as questionable, also cites both resolutions pertaining to this "tribunal".

Therefore, this "tribunal" is not international, and it is even less an independent institution, as you wish to present it. An ideological fiction has been launched into the public, an "international community" which, allegedly, stands behind this "tribunal", and that is, of course, a complete deception.

Madeleine Albright, the "Mother of the Hague Tribunal" (with Soros and NATO as the Fathers)

The idea to establish this "tribunal" came from Kinkel, after he succeeded Genscher, the main war criminal in regards to destruction of Yugoslavia. This idea was taken over by Madeleine Albright, and the funding of preliminary actions and later expenses was taken on by the Soros Foundation. George Soros also founded the "Coalition for International Justice", as a non-government organization, with the aim to offer "assistance" to the "tribunal". Please, put the "assistance" under the quotation marks, I'm addressing those who are writing the transcript.

Members of these and some other so-called NGOs of which some are present here today, in this "tribunal" as the [female] employees, have been engaged way back in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they were collecting the alleged evidence about the Serbian crimes. Albright presented this to the US Congress, she employed various lobbies and media in order to fabricate a show which would impress the public. The US Congress nicknamed her the "Mother of the Tribunal".

Drafter of the Hague's Statute: Tribunal is the Political Institution

And, as far as the authenticity of the "evidence" the NGOs produced goes, one can take a look at the scandal surrounding the false material presented by the [female] representatives of those organizations, which also served as the basis for the indictment against me for the alleged crimes in Kosovo.

"New York Times" reporter who wrote an article based on their false information was forced to resign due to professional and ethical reasons. I have that issue of New York Times here, but I have no time to present it to you.

A man who wrote the statute of this "tribunal" of yours, Michael Scharf, gave a very precise evaluation of the "tribunal". In the interview to the "Washington Post" on October 3, 1999, he emphasized, I quote: "Tribunal is a useful political channel which serves to diplomatically isolate the rogue leaders and to strengthen the political will in the world for imposing sanctions and for using force".

In other words, this "tribunal" is an instrument of war, not of justice. This was confirmed by Marcus McGee, who said for the reputable Canadian weekly "Globe and Mail" on April 21, 1999, that the "tribunal", I quote, "is a part of the NATO war strategy".

NATO's War-Waging Tool

At issue, therefore, is a kind of private justice known only to them, to a war coalition, and regression of the judiciary back into the early middle ages. The world's eminent legal experts refer to this "tribunal" as NATO's propaganda weapon, so there can be no talks of any degree of independence.

It should also be noted that, since 1996, there is a constant communication link between the NATO Secretary General and your chief prosecutor. On May 9, 1996, a memorandum was signed by the chief prosecutor and the Supreme Commander of NATO for Europe, about the modalities of cooperation. Obviously, it is NATO, and not the United Nations, that has taken over the role of "tribunal's" policeman. That is why this "tribunal" cannot be regarded as an international institution in any way, but only as an institution of the NATO.

Another confirmation for this claim: your own Article 32 of the Statute, which anticipates that the "tribunal" expenses will be covered from the regular United Nations budget. But, in practice, the money comes from rather morbid sources, like the Soros Foundation and various foundations from different Islamic countries. The bulk of the money comes from NATO itself. According to the NATO spokesman Shea [Jamie Shea], I quote: "NATO is the biggest financier of the Tribunal". He said that on May 17, 1999, in Brussels.

One should also recall that Soros also finances the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA], which is in fact a terrorist UCK organization, and their main propaganda outlet, daily "Koha Ditore".

To be continued...

Posted by BBlog Staff at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Poetic Justice

There is plenty of divine poetic justice in the fact that the late President Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, after the latest parliamentary elections, has been suddenly and unexpectedly promoted both by the EU officials and Serbia's Yellow bloc as the most desirable, entirely ideal government "partner" precisely for those who have been openly destroying Milosevic's party during the past eight years, by mercilessly tearing Slobodan Milosevic down as the devil incarnate, guilty of everything since the Great Flood until this very day.

For those who enjoy a healthy dose of prickly political satire, punctuated with a number of eggs-on-the-faces of the most despised quislings and state thieves, the fact that the men who took part in handing their state's former president over to the Kangaroo court, those who have thunderously announced "Hell for Milosevic!" after his murder in the Hague, who declined to even consider a state funeral for the man elected to lead their state three times in a row, with an overwhelming majority of more than 80 percent of votes, those who organized a party in Belgrade when late President Milosevic's family and party officials were burying him in the backyard of his parents' home in Pozarevac, those who were outraged by the slightest expression of sorrow over the great man's premature and untimely death, rushing to foreign reporters to feverishly profess they are "ashamed" of Serbian citizens who went to pay last respects to their murdered president -- those very same people are now praying and begging to form a partnership with the political party Slobodan Milosevic brought to power and made the most popular political party in former Yugoslavia.

They are now willing to become greater Socialists than the Socialists themselves, they are proposing to enter the "Socialist International" (!), according to Tadic's own words, shoulder-to-shoulder with Milosevic's Socialists, and are offering tens of thousands Euros to their former mortal enemies they couldn't hide detest for until recently, just to shake hands with Milosevic's associates in the tiny local parliaments scattered throughout the municipalities in the Serbian interior.

According to the President of the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija Milan Ivanovic, Tadic's sleazeballs would now gladly go to Pozarevac to dig up the remains of the late president personally, with their own hands, and move them to the Alley of the Greats, thus far—during their poisonous reign—reserved only for themselves and their personal friends and heroes. Just another proof how far they took the "privatization" issues in robbed, war-torn and ravaged Serbia.

"Even though [Tadic's] DS until recently blamed Slobodan Milosevic and his political party for all the miseries that befell Serbia, they are now willing to form the Government precisely with this party. They have now switched to blaming the Radicals for everything, but not the SPS any longer. Obviously, due to the countless affairs they got themselves enmeshed in, they are afraid to be left outside, with no power," said Ivanovic, adding that "Tadic's 'democrats' are not only willing to move the remains of Slobodan Milosevic over to the Alley of the Greats in Belgrade, but also to rename the boulevard they named after Zoran Djindjic to a Slobodan Milosevic Boulevard."

Javier Solana Wants to Keep Getting Provisions from Dinkic's Shady "Privatization" Deals

And, to complete the shameful burlesque, another archenemy of Milosevic's Socialists, the EU troll Javier Solana who has been claiming for a decade that he bombed Serbia only because of Milosevic (and, at the helm of the NATO pact at the time, he actually tried to assassinate Yugoslav president), while all the while he loved the Serbs with all his little heart, now says he would be perfectly happy with Milosevic's party getting to power once again and forming Serbian Government, as long as they enter alongside his kickback buddies, Tadic, Dinkic, Djelic, Sutanovac and the rest of the thieving, lying, conniving slime. So much for Solana's principles.

"Solana is their partner in getting the commission kickbacks for some foreign investments that are coming to Serbia. He only wants that government [Yellows with Socialists] because of his cut in the deals", leader of the New Serbia Velimir Ilic revealed to Vecernje Novosti.

Personal Sacrifice is What Makes One Great

On the bright side, this sudden turnaround of the Socialist-hating, thieving "reformers" and their foreign employers offers a perfect opportunity to remember how Slobodan Milosevic made Serbian Socialist Party great: through his own brilliance of a great statesman, through his righteousness and truthfulness, and through his personal sacrifice during the last chapter of his life spent in the Hague prison cell, while defending his nation and state against NATO.

Starting today, we shall publish the entire opening statement late President Milosevic gave in the Hague on August 31 and September 1, 2004. The hope to simply copy and paste transcripts for the said dates from the Kangaroo court's web site was crushed after a superficial comparison of the English translation of the transcripts to the Serbian original: the English translation is not only missing the entire passages and sentences, it is also decidedly incorrect in a number of instances. Believing it a shame to have nothing but a badly mutilated English translation as a historical record of one of the best, most comprehensive overviews by an important state leader, summing up the entire history of the civil wars in former Yugoslavia and the events surrounding them, we decided to translate anew the well recorded Serbian original, i.e. President Milosevic's own words, making sure to stay loyal to the original, even at the cost of overly-long, clumsy English sentences.

One should also keep in mind that President Milosevic spoke based on his personal notes, and did not have a written "speech" to simply read it out. Which, again, might offer another glimpse into the man's brilliance, power of concentration and knowledge and understanding of the history, world politics and described events.

Slobodan Milosevic: The Truth is Entirely Different
A European State, One of the UN Founders, was Brutally Destroyed

Late President Milosevic's opening statement in the Hague, August 31, 2004

In the international public, for a long time and with clear political intentions, an untruthful, distorted picture was being created about the events which took place in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

These accusations represent entirely unscrupulous manipulations with lies, mutilation of the law, defeat of morals and completely irresponsible rewriting of history. Everything has been presented in a lopsided manner, in order to protect those who are truly responsible for the tragic events and in order to draw the wrong conclusions through the interpretations of the events, as well as conclusion about the true nature and the background of war against Yugoslavia.

There is a fundamental historical fact from which one must proceed in order to understand these events. This fact has been the source of everything that went on in the territory of Yugoslavia since 1991 until the present day, and it is the fact that what took place is the violent destruction of a European state, Yugoslavia, which was derived from the statehood of Serbia, the only ally of the democratic world in that whole region over the past two centuries.

There can be no doubt that this fundamental historic fact is going to leave an imprint on the European history in the times to come.

A multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-confessional state that had its historic and international legal legitimacy was destroyed in order to create in its territory, according to the diktat of Germany and Vatican, assisted by the United States and the European Community, pure national mini-states. The state which was a founding member of all the universal international organizations, starting with the first Universal Postal Union in 1874, through the League of Nations, the International Labor Organization, the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and all the other specialized agencies of the United Nations, all the way up to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE] — thanks to which the catastrophe took place, the destruction of a sovereign state which, according to the Nuremberg Principles represents the worst international crime, the crime against peace; [OSCE] thanks to which the war took place in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands were maimed, more than million people were expelled and turned into refugees — mostly Serbs — while the material damage is practically unappraisable and reaches hundreds of billions of dollars, not to even mention the ecological catastrophe.

The international community will have to face up to the truth. The problem of responsibility is even greater since it was not only one state that was destroyed. The legal system of the United Nations was destroyed, the corpus of moral principles upon which the world civilization was based has been destroyed. In addition, never in the history has a state disappeared by sheer coincidence.

The official rhetoric surrounding the events in the Yugoslav territory from the beginning till today, also adopted by this so-called "prosecution" here, crumbles in the light of the bear facts. The problem is that Yugoslavia did not "fall apart", nor has it miraculously vanished, as Mr. Robert Badinter tried to explain, resorting to a form of legal metaphysics. This country was destroyed according to a plan, violently, and through the war which continues to be waged, in which a series of war crimes were committed.

Yugoslavia Headed by All-Non-Serbian Political and Military Leadership at the Start of the Civil Wars

A reputable American theoretician Stephen John Steedman appropriately noted in 1993 in the periodical Foreign Affairs, that at the beginning of the war, and I am quoting: "There was no Slovenia or some other state. There was only the state of Yugoslavia." So it is logical to take this as a point of departure in any kind of legal analysis.

Yugoslavia was headed at this most critical period of time by a representative from Croatia, Stjepan Mesic, its Prime Minister at the time was also from Croatia, Ante Markovic, as well as its Foreign Minister, also from Croatia, Budimir Loncar. In the entire top echelons of the military, of which we could also be informed here, among the 16 top generals only 2 were Serbs; most were Croats, Slovenians and of other ethnic backgrounds.

This state had a strong and well organized armed forces at its disposal, the one which could control the conflict and prevent the catastrophe altogether. However, this government allowed the paramilitary formations, arms smugglers, criminals, even the narco-mafia—when we look at the end of this process in Kosovo—to take over the terrain. But the said government acted in concert with the European Community, most notably with Germany and the Vatican.

As early as the end of June 1991, the European Community demanded that the legitimate armed forces must stay closed within the army barracks, and that they must refrain from any action — therefore, a voluntary transformation of the army into a detainee in their own country, which has, naturally, opened the doors for the activities of the paramilitary formations of the secessionists.

Slovenian Paramilitary Formations' War Crimes Faithfully Recorded by Austrians

The armed confrontations were started by the secession of Slovenia in 1991, which was accompanied by the armed actions. In June 1991, Slovenian paramilitary formations, without any cause, killed in cold blood the JNA [Yugoslav People's Army] soldiers who were securing the border towards Hungary and Italy, and took over the border posts. From the point of the Yugoslav Constitution, the United Nations Charter, and the general legal principles recognized by the civilized nations, this was a textbook example of the armed insurrection against the state, which obligates the state to undertake all the necessary measures in order to restore the law and order.

And we know that, acting upon the order of the Federal Premier Ante Markovic, the Commander of the Fifth Army, Slovenian General Konrad Kolshek informed the government of Slovenia that the Yugoslav People's Army will regain control over the borders and that this task will be carried out.

Instead of allowing the peaceful implementation of the decisions by the Federal Government, Slovenian leadership said that it accepts the challenge and that it will resort to force in order to oppose it. And that's what they did. Using the paramilitary formations which at the time had 36,000 illegally armed fighters, Slovenia launched an offensive. They all knew perfectly well that the Yugoslav People's Army, brought up in the spirit of brotherhood and unity, will not shoot at Slovenians whom they considered their own citizens.

So, the killing of the JNA soldiers represented a mere premeditated crime, and not a war in any sense of the word. The grave war crimes have been committed, and not even the military medical institutions were spared. The European Community Troika toured the terrain and described a dramatic situation. The list of crimes is long, and there is also a documentary footage about the crimes committed by the Slovenian paramilitary troops, filmed by an Austrian TV company.

Due to the time constraints you have imposed, I don't have the possibility of playing these tapes now, but I shall use the testimonies of certain witnesses to show them.

On July 10, 1991, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning not the rebels, not the secessionists, but the legal armed forces, the Yugoslav People's Army. An inversion of the executioner and the victim was performed, wholeheartedly supported by the American and world media, which have employed themselves in the service of war and became its fuel. I stress this because the substitution of the thesis when it comes to the events on the territory of Yugoslavia has, since then, become a formula which was profusely used in the further process of destruction of Yugoslavia.

Croatia Resurrects Ustasha Phraseology, Insignia and Methods

In Croatia, the crimes against Serbs started even earlier, before the announcement of secession, using the same methods, in the same regions where the genocide against the Serbian nation started in 1941, by the Ustasha units in the so-called Independent State of Croatia [NDH, Hitler's ally during the WWII].

The world experts who have been researching the genocides that took place in different times and in different parts of the world, like Leo Cooper, Peter Drost, Ted Gertz, Louis Horowitz, George Cram and the others, arrived to a conclusion that the genocide against one nation can be committed only once. Every second attempt inevitably turns into a civil war. This thesis has been confirmed in Croatia.

The genocide committed against the Serbs in Croatia in 1941 started by putting together the lists and inviting the groups to submit personal data, but instead of submitting informations, the Serbs were being killed or taken to the concentration camps. This time around, to the similar invitations and similar actions, the Serbs responded by resistance, feeling seriously manipulated by the politicians who, up until the day before, spoke about protecting the ideals of brotherhood and unity, and who were now calling to a war in the name of national ideals.

Within somewhat refurbished packaging, the old Ustasha formulas were resurrected, along with the Ustasha symbols, and through the hurriedly rewritten laws, Serbs have lost the status of the constitutive nation. Without any prompting from the outside, without the Belgrade support, without the protection of the army isolated in the barracks, Serbs in Krajina were prepared to risk death through the struggle, but not a new genocide.

Long before the 1991 secession, the armed groups operated through Croatia, the so-called "Voluntary units of the people's protection", which acted within the HDZ [right-wing political party headed by Franjo Tudjman] frameworks, and under the different names: "Zebra", "Black Legion", "Vukovar Wolves" and so on.

On May 28, a month before the secession, a military parade was organized in Zagreb. It showcased the weapons received primarily from Germany. These were the psychological preparations for what was to follow. The groups of Croat paramilitary troops were, in those days, transfered to Bosnia, since President Tudjman had announced the renewal of "Croatia down to [river] Drina".

After a decision to withdraw the JNA troops from Croatia was reached on July 18, 1991, the armed actions of the paramilitary formations in Croatia turned into a frontal war. From July 20 to August 4, 75 attacks against the JNA units were recorded, 23 attacks against the military barracks, 13 attacks against the planes, using the most up-to-date weapons from the NATO arsenals.

Serbian houses were being torched and the individual crimes against the Serbs were replaced with the mass executions. In the cornfield near the village Jankovci 65 Serbs were slaughtered. They have all been identified. In the village Svinjarevo, 25 Serbs were slaughtered, and so on. The entire villages were destroyed in the regions of Papuk and Slunj. The most widespread form of terror against the Serbian population were the forced expulsions, which represents the strongest link between the years 1941 and 1991.

These activities begun in Western Slavonija right after the HDZ victory in the elections. A psychosis of fear was created in order to prompt people to move out. Various methods were being employed, like orchestrated mocking of the Serbian children in schools, arresting people and taking them to the police stations, turning off the phones, mass dismissing of Serbs from their jobs, dynamiting of their homes.

On October 29, 1991, the Crisis Office in Slavonska Pozega issued an order on eviction of the Serbian population from 24 villages: Oblakovac, Orjaca, Slatina and so on, and within the next 48 hours. The order was made public through the radio and press. Those who refused to comply were taken to concentration camps.

The first major exodus of Serbs from the regions of Podravska Slatina and Daruvar took place. From July 1991 to August 1992, 193 villages populated by the Serbs were ethnically cleansed. Reliable documents regarding all of this have been submitted to the European Community.

Bosnia-Herzegovina Muslim Leader Starts Implementing his "Islamic Declaration"

The war operations have been carried over to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ideological foundations were laid way back in 1970, with the publishing of the "Islamic Declaration" by Alija Izetbegovic, and later, in 1984, the book by the same author was published under the title "Islam, between the East and West", while the "Islamic Declaration" was republished in 1990. It is well known that it states that "there can be no peace and coexistence between the Islamic and non-Islamic faith". This is repeated in both of the books mentioned many times.

During the session of Bosnia and Herzegovina parliament on December 21, 1991, Izetbegovic said: "I am prepared to sacrifice peace for the sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina". Based on the principles of the "Islamic Declaration", the mobilization of the masses took place and the civil war started, generously financed by the moneys sent from Saudi Arabia, Iran and the other Muslim states. The arrival of the large number of mujahedins followed.

At the 6th Summit of the Islamic Conference which took place between December 9-12 in 1991, therefore, prior to the war breaking out and before Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized, the full support was declared to the "brothers in faith" and to their "struggle for the integrity of the first Islamic state in Europe". Even today Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a majority of the Muslim population. Alija Izetbegovic was officially honored in addition to receiving the overwhelming financial aid. Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of the main subjects at another meeting too, an extraordinary Ministerial meeting of the Islamic Conference held in Djeda, on December 1 and 2 in 1992. This time around, they also extended their attention to two regions in Serbia itself, to Kosovo and the Raska region, or Sandzak, as they call it.

The first "holy warriors", mujahedins, arrived from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Morocco and Pakistan. They were armed with the weapons CIA provided for the Afghani rebels. A group of 400 Hezbollah members also arrived to Sarajevo, in the role of military instructors. Following the Second World War tradition of the joint participation in the military units within the Nazi Germany forces against the democratic coalition Yugoslavia belonged at the time, the two leaders of the paramilitary formations, Tudjman and Izetbegovic, signed an agreement in Zagreb stating, among others, that the armed forces of the Croat Defense Council would be part of the unified armed forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The expulsions of the Serbian population from the regions controlled by the Muslim troops followed. Tens of thousands were expelled from the town of Mostar, 2,500 from Gorazde and so forth. Just like in Croatia, to Bosnia and Herzegovina were also sent allegedly retired American army officers, as instructors for the Croat-Muslim army.

A Simple Strategy by the Foreign Colonizer: Use the Local Thugs and Terrorists Prior to the Final Frontal Assault, NATO Aggression

Combat operations had their line of development and were moving from the north towards south, to be finally transferred to the territory of Serbia, that is to Kosovo. The very pattern along which the destruction and the war against Yugoslavia was planned, Kosovo being the last phase, is quite simple. It was based on the paramilitary secessionist formations, the criminal groups and terrorists, and in Kosovo also a narco-mafia, all the while blaming the legitimate armed forces — at the time of Slovenia and Croatia secessions JNA, and later, at the time of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Army [VJ, Vojska Jugoslavije].

In the open aggression against the remainder of Yugoslavia, i.e. Serbia and Montenegro, tens of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped, with depleted uranium, tens of thousands of projectiles with depleted uranium were fired and with, up until now, unknown poisons. According to the findings of the world experts, in the 1999 NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, five to six times more poison was dropped than on Hiroshima.

Western involvement, first and foremost that of Germany and Vatican, was obvious from the very start of the war. Renowned American commentator Donald Horowitz provided solid evidence in his study "Ethnic and National Conflicts", that the national and ethnic conflicts turn into the cruelest form of war when one or both sides get the international support. And this is precisely what happened in former Yugoslavia.

The war in this territory was a synchronized action by the secessionist forces and the external forces which, during the preparations for the full-blown bloodshed, have been massively infiltrated into Yugoslavia. We are talking about the Ustasha extremists and Nazis, Islamic fundamentalists and Albanian terrorists, whose role was to be the detonators for the outbreak of the conflicts in the existing tensed climate.

And the external forces on their behalf have, in the initial stage, acted behind the scenes, supplying the secessionists with weapons and money, and infiltrating the mercenaries into the country. The final destruction of Yugoslavia was implemented through the institutional deceptions.

Europe and USA Openly Support Destruction of State of Yugoslavia

By signing the Helsinki Final Act, the European countries and the USA have obligated themselves to respect the territorial integrity of all the signatory states. Accordingly, they have an obligation to refrain from any act aimed against the territorial integrity, political independence and unity of any of the signatory states. This is the Article 4.

These principles were ceremoniously verified in Paris in 1990, with the signing of the Paris Declaration. Only a year later, the European Community openly stepped onto the political stage as the key force behind the destruction of Yugoslavia.

On July 7, 1990, the "Declaration on Peaceful Resolution of the Conflict Between the SFRY Federal Units" was signed. By initiating these documents I just mentioned, the European Community has obligated itself to respect the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia—from which, as the only legally protected subject, it was given a mandate to mediate, searching for the peaceful and lasting solution to the crisis between Yugoslavia's federal units.

In the history of the civilized world, the process of mediation would start from determining the causes of the conflict, and would run through offering several options for the possible solution, down to listing the concessions that could be taken into the account.

Lord Carrington Issues an Ultimatum in Place of Mediation

Instead of all that, at the extraordinary meeting of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia on October 18, 1991, Lord Carrington issued an ultimatum to do away with Yugoslavia as a state and the subject of the international law, without alternatives, and to redraw the territory of former Yugoslavia according to the Adolf Hitler's model from 1941. The Nazi values have won the day. The right to destroy the state, the right to separatism, was given priority over preserving the state and over the right to preserve the state which is the original UN member.

The paradox is in the fact that the right to separatist rebellion is being denied by those very same states in their own countries — the Englishmen to the Irish, the Spaniards to the Basks, the Frenchmen to the Corsicans and so forth. It is also interesting to remember that, at the time when the Serbian soldiers fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Allied Forces during the Second World War, at that time the units of the so-called Independent State of Croatia, as well as some from Bosnia, though also within the NDH formations, have been fighting alongside the Nazi troops. The notorious Handzar Division was sent from Bosnia, alongside the Nazi punishing squads, to France, where they committed the unprecedented crimes. But, let's get back to the Carrington paper which dealt the first blow to the sovereignty of Yugoslavia.

At issue here is an evident deception committed through the Carrington document. Further negotiations have been transformed into a farce. What followed were the recognitions of the secessionist republics, under the strong pressures by Germany and Vatican, contrary to the basic principles of the international law, the United Nations practice, but also contrary to the practice of the leading power, the United States of America.

To be continued...

Posted by BBlog Staff at 05:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Western MSM Keeps Bending Reality to Suit Official Agenda

CNN was the only official media outlet in the West that has properly reported that around 100,000 people gathered Tuesday in Banja Luka, capital of Serbian Republic (RS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, at another rally in protest against the unilaterally declared independence of Pristina separatists.

The figure of "more than 10,000" protesters in Banja Luka, cited by other Western news agencies (AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC, DPA et al.), could mean even the 100,000, because 100,000 is indeed "more than 10,000", but one would still expect that they wouldn't sink so low as to cut the number of protesters down to a mere 10 percent, or less, of the actual number of demonstrators.

The exact same thing occurred less than a week ago, when a huge rally organized in Serbian capital saw Belgrade being flooded by demonstrators from all over Serbia, as well as from Montenegro and Republic of Srpska. The first reports on CNN stated that over 2,000,000 people poured into Belgrade, blocking entire downtown and branching off onto the surrounding bridges, simply because the plateau in front of the National Parliament and St. Sava Cathedral was too small to accommodate so many people.

Then BBC World reporter told his TV station half a million people took part in Kosovo is Serbia protest and the common prayer afterwards, which the AP, Reuters and all the others quickly cut down to 150,000. From thereon that became an official figure faithfully repeated everywhere. Because, who can know that it was ten, maybe 20 times more people than that?

Those who flatly lied throughout the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, multiplying the number of non-Serbian victims by 50, 100 and 200 (remember the alleged 100,000 and 500,000 "massacred Albanians" in Kosovo province during NATO aggression on Serbia?), should not be expected to start telling other inconvenient truths at any point in time. Not that CNN is any better, but slips like this simply reveal the duplicity and manipulations Western MSM constantly uses to warp and distort every issue, imperceptibly bending reality to suit the official agenda.

Kosovo is Serbia, and So is the Republic of Srpska

As the Serbian students in Kosovo-Metohia province enter the 10th day of continued protests against illegal declaration by Pristina separatists, the support for their struggle is growing around the world and especially in the region.

Yesterday's protest of Bosnian Serbs was another massive rally sending a loud and clear message into the world that Kosovo is Serbia and will remain Serbia forever.

Carrying Serbian flags, Kosovo is Serbia banners along with signs reading “We want independence of Republika Srpska”, the demonstrators chanted "Kosovo is Serbia" and "We will not give the Serbian soul to the devil."

Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik also appeared at the protest organized by the Serb Movement of Non-governmental Associations (SPONA). He said the gathering was "a democratic, human revolt" and that Bosnian Serbs will never accept amputation of Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohia.

Referring to the recent assessment by the Bosnian Serb Parliament that recognition of the unilateral independence by the US and Western powers sets a new international precedent which enables unilateral secession of Republic of Srpska from Bosnian federation, Dodik said:

"We only have a little patience left and this will not last for very long."

Disturbances erupted at the end of the peaceful rally as several hundred of young people tried to reach the US consulate. The building had already been evacuated and closed after the previous week's attack at earlier rally in Banja Luka.

As police cordons prevented them from reaching the US consulate building, protesters – mainly high school students – pelted the police with stones and water bottles. Police responded by firing tear gas to disperse them. Six people were lightly injured, including four policemen, and 20 people were arrested after the protesters broke away from a rally. According to the reports from Republic of Srpska, fifteen of the arrestees are minors.

Bosnian Serb National Assembly last week adopted a resolution that said that severing of southern Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohia is unacceptable, and that Republic of Srpska itself has a right to hold a referendum on independence.

Serbian Army Reservists Clash With Albanian Terrorists-Turned-Policemen

A day before, Tanjug reported that 19 Kosovo Albanian terrorists-turned-policemen (from KLA to KPS, by the virtue of US State Department edict) had been injured in a clash with Serbian army reservists who were holding a protest at the Mutivode administrative line crossing, between central Serbia and its southern province of Kosovo, on Monday.

According to the reservists' representative Dejan Milosevic, several hundred reservists from central and eastern Serbia protested against the unilateral declaration by Pristina separatists. The clash followed when, after a verbal exchange, one of the Albanian KPS members charged at Serbs and tried to grab the Serbian flag from one protester.

The clash between the unarmed reservists and Albanian KPS lasted between 3.50 and 5.15 p.m. Two Serbian reservists sustained light injuries in the incident. They dispersed after KFOR fired tear gas.

One Spark Away from Another Balkan War

Contrary to the attempts of US, UK and other Western politicians to present their governments' unlawful recognition of the mafia state on Serbian territory as a "way forward" and the move that will "bring stability and peace" to the region, we are witnessing the very opposite taking place. The region is becoming more unstable with each passing day, with dangerous sparks flying all over the place, so it is just a matter of one wrong turn and a single additional drop of oil to have Balkans burst into flames once again.

Advisor to the Serbian prime minister Branislav Ristivojevic assessed late on Sunday that “America will today or tomorrow understand that Serbia's opposition would last until the United States annuls its recognition of the sham state of Kosovo.”

“The United States made a completely wrong assessment that Serbia's opposition would last only one day, that it would be expressed through minor resentment and that everything would be all right after that,” Ristivojevic told Tanjug.

He said that “due to its completely wrong assessment of the situation in the Balkans, the United States brought about a crisis by recognizing a sham state in the territory of Serbia” and added that the region can now be stabilized by “the United States annulment of the illegal decision on the recognition of the sham state of Kosovo.”

The Real Resistance Ushers in the Real Revolution

It is interesting to note how Western MSM and Soros-outposts in Serbia, such as B92, "Danas", "Vreme" etc, though they believe they are helping by tooting the same State Department horn, are actually doing a terrible disservice to the Western governments they wish to serve, deceiving them with unfounded daily assurances that the riots, clashes and outbursts of violence are no big deal, no more than "Serbs venting their anger", and expected to pass any day now. Nothing could be further from the truth: the situation is extremely serious and Balkan is on the verge of another war.

If one reads the Soros-employee's claptrap, one gets a completely false and distorted picture: that Serbs (still!) want to join the EU, that they want to "leave the past behind" and "move forward" into the bright and sunny Prozac future in European Utopia, that they just want peace, health and wealth, "like all the normal people", so it's all good, don't worry, everything's cool here... The problem is that such misleading signals are being sent from a virtual handful of moral lepers, marginal amateurish inept politicians nobody ever votes for and quasi-reporters and quasi-analysts despised by the greatest majority of Serbs everywhere, who are paid to castrate and spread misinformation among their own people. At the same time, most Serbs are not buying any of it and have entirely different views and perceptions one can't even glean from B92 (which censors out every dissenting view, including the critical comments).

The problem is that West has been operating on wishful thinking for far too long and simply dislikes facing the less-than-pleasant realities, so it prefers to listen to the echo of its own wet dreams, rather than learn the truth. Simply put, Western power centers are constantly falling into the trap of buying their own lies.

The problem is that the most vigorous protesters and the most numerous ones throughout Serbia, in Bosnia, Montenegro and around the world are not late President Milosevic's generation, but youth and students who have been born after the Dayton Agreement was signed and many even after the Kumanovo Agreement—this is clearly not the old and depressed, but the very young, vibrant, spirited new Serbia which refuses to trade Kosovo-Metohia for Western visas, and will not lay down its arms for the sake of couple excursions to Brussels and London. Unlike the previous, tired and defeated "transition generation" which, to some extent, allowed itself to be persuaded it's better to give in and go along, this brave new Serbia has rejected the counterfeit "history" and empty promises, for the sake of truth, justice and its right to national pride, inheritance and heritage.

The problem is that the old "Otpor" was a CIA-funded sham and an asthmatic imitation of a "revolutionary" with a very short breath that allowed it to play in just one episode, and it is right now faced with the actual, rock solid and real Resistance. The problem is that B92 and the fake "Otpor" have grown too old, too fat and flabby, and they are currently being bulldozed over by the real deal. While no one was looking, and away from the media lenses, Serbia has risen.

Posted by Svetlana at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Serbian Victims of Srebrenica Mujahedins Denied Justice

Oric’s Srebrenica mujahedins were killing every Serb they could get their hands on during the entire Bosnian civil war (1992-1995). Slavka Matic found the mutilated body of her husband next to their massacred daughter Snezana (29) on a doorstep of their house, while the remains of the other daughter aged 27, brutally killed after the most gruesome tortures, awaited her in the bathroom.

Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti reports that Bosnian Serbs have submitted lawsuit against Oric’s Srebrenica mujahedins, accompanied by the extensive documentation about Serbian victims in Srebrenica region, to the special War Crimes Prosecution office in Belgrade.

ICTY’s Carla Del Ponte Sent Documentation About Serbian Victims Back to Sarajevo

“All the documentation we sent to Carla Del Ponte, including more than 300 individual cases, has been returned by the Hague’s ICTY to a Bosnian court which, to this day, has not opened a single case. We have submitted documentation about suffering of Serbs in torture camps on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, but Carla Del Ponte returned everything to Sarajevo, where she established a court in the very building where one of the most infamous camps Sarajevo Serbs were being tortured in was housed during Bosnian civil war,” said Branislav Dukic, head of the Society of Internment Camp Survivors in Republika Srpska.

“We must shed light on the truth about suffering of Serbian people on the territory of former Yugoslavia. And we shall never forget the atrocities committed over our kin by the Muslim death-hordes, led by the monstrous Naser Oric,” Dukic told Glas.

Documentation About 3,562 Srebrenica-Region Serbs Tortured and Killed by Oric’s Muslim Hordes

“On Friday, we have submitted to the special War Crimes Prosecutions’ office in Belgrade documentation about 3,562 Serbs killed in Srebrenica region, between 1992-1995. The collected evidence pertains to 52 Bosnian Muslims who were either giving the orders or have committed the crimes themselves, and who are responsible for the ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide in Srebrenica. I hope this material will throw a new light on Srebrenica. We are convinced that the special prosecution will find the way to move things forward from the dead end,” explains Dukic, pointing out that, when it comes to Bosnian Muslim Srebrenica victims, the list includes those who are declared dead, but are alive and well, presently living in United States.

“We demand that those who are responsible for the crimes face justice. No amounts of money can compensate such a loss, but we are seeking emotional and moral satisfaction that everyone who committed those crimes gets properly punished, instead of the atrocities committed over the Serbs being treated as if killing a stray animal or a Serb is the same thing,” Dukic said.

Bosnian Srebrenica Muslims Tortured and Killed 109 Serbs in Slavka’s Village in a Single Day

Slavka Matic from the village Bjelovac was also among the members of the Republika Srpska delegation which came to Belgrade to submit the lawsuit. Slavka has lost in one day, on December 14, 1994, two daughters, Snezana and Gordana, and husband Radivoje.

“I was away that day. When I came back I found them massacred at our doorsteps. What can I do now? Everything I worked for for 25 years those monsters have destroyed in one day. I want all the perpetrators punished. They were killing everything they could get their hands on, no matter whether female or male, old or young. They were killing children too. In one day, they killed 109 people in my village. Naser Oric’s troops are behind that. I want the truth to be known about the suffering of our loved ones. So that it is known how many of them have been murdered and in what manner,” explains her tragedy Slavka Matic.

According to the testimony of the survivors of the slaughter in Slavka’s village, Radivoje Matic was awaken by the shooting. As soon as he crossed his doorstep he fell down wounded. His daughter Snezana (29), ran to help him when she heard her father’s cries. Slavka Matic found husband Radivoje mutilated and, next to his body, remains of massacred Snezana. She found the body of the other daughter, Gordana (27), in the bathroom. Before they killed her, Oric’s mujahedins tortured her in a most monstrous way.

Chicken Coop Slaughter

President of the Society of Bratunac and Srebrenica Serbs, Milka Kovacic, who represents 82 mothers who have lost their loved ones, only wants the cry of the Serbian martyred women to be heard.

“No one has yet been called to account for the crimes committed over our kin from 1992 to 1995 in Srebrenica region. We have entire families that have been wiped out, and no one to report that they are all gone. Oric’s Muslims were killing the paralyzed, mothers and their children in the most gruesome manner. Oric’s men cut my husband’s throat in the chicken coop, where they slaughtered members of 80 families. Oric received only two years of [already served] imprisonment. It is painful to see the smile on the face of that ogre,” Milka Kovacic said.

Posted by Svetlana at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Srebrenica Christmas Massacre Remembered

Memorial Service in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and laying wreaths at the central monument in Kravice near Bratunac, Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), marked the 15th annual commemoration of the killing of 49 Serbs, executed on Christmas day, January 7, 1993, by the Bosnian Muslim forces from Srebrenica, who on the same day also wounded 86 persons.

Muslim forces from Srebrenica, under the command of the Hague convict Naser Oric, attacked Kravice and neighboring Serbian villages from several directions on the dawn of Christmas Day and massacred all the inhabitants who did not manage to escape, at their doorsteps.

Over 1,000 Serbian villagers, carrying children and their wounded, managed to reach river Drina on foot, through the heavy snow and mountainous inroads, from where they were carried to Serbia on boats.

Srebrenica Mujahedins’ Bloody Campaign has Taken 3,500 Serbian Lives

“The attack on Kravice was the continuation of the bloody campaign of the 28th Muslim division under Oric’s command, which begun in May 1992. In two years, members of this division have killed over 3,500 civilians and soldiers for no other reason, but because they were Serbs,” the President of the Republika Srpska Veteran organization Pantelija Curguz said, addressing the gathering at the monument in Kravice which is under construction in memory of 3.262 thus far identified Serbs killed in the Srebrenica region in 1992 and 1993.

At the central monument, the flowers and wreaths were laid by the representatives of veteran organizations of Republic of Srpska and Bratunac municipality, by the families of the killed, the organization of camp survivors, Bratunac municipal officials, as well as by the representatives of Serbian democratic and Serbian Radical Party.

Like in previous years, not a single international representative attended the commemoration.

Ethnic Cleansing of Bosnian Serbs Nonpunishable

Before the Bosnian civil war (1992-1995), Serbian Kravice municipality had around 2,500 inhabitants. During the war it was continuously targeted by the Bosnian mujahedins from the nearby Srebrenica and Bratunac. In the area encompassing 64 square kilometers surrounding Srebrenica, where Oric’s mujahedins were stationed until 1995, Bosnian Muslims have destroyed all the villages — 30 in total, leveling to the ground each of 688 apartment buildings and 27 community objects.

Out of those 30 villages, 26 are today completely empty and destroyed. An insignificantly small number of people have returned to only four of these villages.

For the ethnic cleansing and atrocious war crimes committed against the Serbian population in Kravice municipality, except Naser Oric who was charged by the Hague Kangaroo Court (ICTY) to two years imprisonment and is already free, no Bosnian Muslim has faced any charges.

Posted by Svetlana at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Bosnian Serbs: Independent Kosovo Paves Way for Independent RS

The Serb Popular Movement (SNP) "Izbor je nas" ("The Choice Is Ours") on Thursday sent an open letter to European Parliament Delegation to South East Europe Chairwoman Doris Pack, informing that a possible proclamation of independence by the Kosovo Albanian provincial parliament would pave the way to the Republika Srpska (RS) National Assembly automatically proclaiming the RS an independent state.

“The RS and Kosovo-Metohija have nothing in common, provided Kosovo-Metohija remains within the composition of the state of Serbia, since that is in keeping with international law and justice. But there is a connection if the Kosovo Albanian parliament proclaims independence, because that would give the National Assembly the right to proclaim the RS an independent state,” SNP President Dane Cankovic told a press conference at the Tanjug Press Center in Banjaluka, capital of Republika Srpska in Bosnia.

Serbs in Bosnia Should Exercise Their Right to Self-Determination

The RS can take advantage of its right to self-determination, guaranteed under the United Nations Charter, because Serbs are a constituent nation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, while Kosovo-Metohija Albanians do not have that right, Cankovic said.

Kosovo-Metohija “Albanians are a national minority, and they have created the demographic majority in Kosovo through illegal ways during the communist times, when Serbs had been banished and banned from returning to the ancestral Serb lands - Kosovo and Metohija,” Cankovic said.

The letter was sent to Pack on the occasion of her statement that the RS has no interest in leaving Bosnia-Herzegovina, and on the occasion of the letter by RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik to Pack, telling her that the outcome of the status talks regarding the southern Serbian province has nothing in common with the RS, Cankovic elaborated.

Posted by Svetlana at 01:31 PM | Permalink

Big Lie... was defined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf as a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Charges of “systematic mass rape,” “concentration camps,” “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” used against Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars, and of the “weapons of mass destruction” used as a pretext to invade Iraq fall into this category of propaganda techniques.

‘Big Lie’ and Breakup of Yugoslavia

By Leslie Feinberg, Workers’ World

The Pentagon is not a vehicle to liberate women or same-sex love, and it is certainly not a rape-crisis intervention force. But these truths get blurred when there is a war in progress.

When U.S. imperialism is gearing up for war, ad agency spin doctors are put on the payroll to sell the aggression as defensive or humanitarian.

U.S. and German imperialists used a public relations psychological operation to cover up their violent covert and overt war to destabilize and dismantle the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia from 1990 to 2000. That media agitation, broadcast by the imperialist monopoly news industry, helped to isolate the peoples of Yugoslavia from the world solidarity they deserved.

After finally undermining and breaking up the Soviet Union, U.S. imperialism no longer needed to tolerate non-aligned Yugoslavia.

Some of the countries of Eastern Europe had already acceded to all the privatization and austerity measures drawn up by imperialist bankers. The Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia was the last of the Eastern European workers’ states trying to hold on to what was left of its planned, socialized framework of production and its collective ownership.

In a Jan. 2, 1996, New York Times opinion piece headlined “The Third American Empire,” Jacob Heilbrunn and Michael Lind, two editors of the right-leaning magazine The New Republic that supported the Clinton administration’s war on Yugoslavia, wrote: “Now, in the years after the cold war, the United States is again establishing suzerainty over the empire of a former foe. The disintegration of the Soviet Union has prompted the United States to expand its zone of military hegemony into Eastern Europe (through NATO) and into formerly neutral Yugoslavia. And—most of all—the end of the cold war has permitted America to deepen its involvement in the Middle East.”

Heilbrunn and Lind argued that Bosnia should become the western border of a new U.S. imperialist empire in the Middle East “encompassing the regions once ruled by the Ottoman Turks.” That’s a swath of territory from Iraq to the Balkans—a geo-strategic area that Britain, Germany and France ruled over before World War I, the first world conflagration caused by inter-imperialist rivalry over economic “spheres of interest.”

It would take a “Big Lie” propaganda campaign to cover up this imperialist dismemberment of the multinational Yugoslavia federation.

Using Charge of ‘Mass Rape’ to Sell the War

The imperialist pro-war campaign—covert and overt—was based on two charges, repeated often and loudly: “systematic mass rape” and “ethnic cleansing.”

The very suggestion that U.S. imperialism and its military are a rape-rescue team, and that they bring equality and peace between nationalities, should give immediate pause.

Rape has been a constant feature of class-divided societies—a weapon of mass terror and reinforcement of patriarchal ownership and control. Rape, the violence and the threat, has enforced enslavement, racist domination, oppression of women and punishment for those who bridge or blur the partitioning of the sexes.

U.S. finance capital is bloody with the “ethnic cleansing” that facilitated stealing the labor and land of African and Native peoples. “Defense of white Southern womanhood” was the white-supremacist ideological cover for mass lynching of Black men. At the same time, the white slaveocracy and those in its hire were carrying out mass rape of African peoples.

The U.S. military—from its early Cavalry to today’s high-tech Pentagon—has brought rape, prostitution and sexual enslavement in the wake of its invasions and the establishment of its bases, from the Philippines to South Korea.

Women GIs are survivors of mass rape in the Pentagon’s own ranks.

The U.S. and German ruling classes, their politicians, and their embedded media and public relations demonstrate cruel and callous contempt for the lives of all women—particularly Muslim women—and for all rape survivors, when they use the charge of “systematic mass rape” as a pretext for imperialist aggression.

Croats and Bosnian Muslims Feed the Stories of “Systematic Mass Rape” by the Serbs to the West

Mass rape is a serious charge that warrants meticulous and thoughtful attention.

Between the fall of 1992 and spring of 1993, imperialist corporate news sources carried coordinated reports that an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 Muslim women had been systematically raped by the Bosnian Serb Army.

The public accusation came first from Haris Silajdzic, then foreign minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who stated that 30,000 women and girls had been raped.

A cover story in Ms. magazine charged that Bosnian Serb forces were raping women in order to make pornographic films. No films were ever discovered. And even the findings of Helsinki Watch and Human Rights Watch—which are often in accord with U.S. imperialist interests—did not support those charges.

The Warburton Report in January 1993, authorized by the European Community, got big headlines when it released its estimate that 20,000 Muslim women had been raped. But Simone Veil—a former French minister and president of the European Parliament—got virtually no air time as a dissenting member of the Warburton report group. Veil disclosed that the estimate was based on interviews with only four individuals. The New York Times admitted on Oct. 19, 1993, that the Croatian Ministry of Health in Zagreb was the source for the Warburton Report figures.

Newsweek reported in its Jan. 4, 1993, issue that up to 50,000 Bosnian Muslim women had been raped. This estimate, according to Tom Post, a contributor to the article, was based on interviews with 28 individuals.

French television reporter Jerome Bony summed up his pursuit of the charge of mass rape: “When I was 50 kilometers from Tuxla, I was told: ‘Go to the Tuxla [Tuzla] high school grounds. There are 4,000 raped women.’ At 20 kilometers this figure dropped to 400. At 10 kilometers only 40 were left. Once at the site, I found only four women willing to testify.”

The point of these facts is not to diminish the impact of rape on a single life. Rather, the pattern in these facts demonstrates how cynically, callously and contemptuously the real “butchers of Belgrade”—in Washington and in Bonn—can create rumors of tens of thousands of rapes in order to re-shackle the peoples of the former Yugoslav federation to exploitation and steal the rich natural resources and industries that were once the collective property of all.

Raped Serbian Women Not News-Worthy

Nadja Tesich—Serb writer, filmmaker and professor of film—went back to Yugoslavia when the civil war started in 1991. In response to misreporting by corporate news accounts, Tesich wrote that she contacted PBS, Nightline, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, the Times magazine section, women’s magazines, Mother Jones, Harper’s, the New Yorker and other media. She concluded: “They wanted to hear about rapes. (Got any rape stories, we want to hear about rapes.) But the moment I mentioned Serb women raped, they were not interested.”

Posted by Svetlana at 05:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Dismantling of Yugoslavia: A Study in INhumanitarian Intervention (and a Western Liberal-Left Intellectual and Moral Collapse)

Four Part Study by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, Monthly Review

The breakup of Yugoslavia provided the fodder for what may have been the most misrepresented series of major events over the past twenty years. The journalistic and historical narratives that were imposed upon these wars have systematically distorted their nature, and were deeply prejudicial, downplaying the external factors that drove Yugoslavia’s breakup while selectively exaggerating and misrepresenting the internal factors.

Western Inflaming and Exploiting Yugoslav Civil Wars: The Tsunami of Lies

Perhaps no civil wars—and Yugoslavia suffered multiple civil wars across several theaters, at least two of which remain unresolved—have ever been harvested as cynically by foreign powers to establish legal precedents and new categories of international duties and norms. Nor have any other civil wars been turned into such a proving ground for the related notions of “humanitarian intervention” and the “right [or responsibility] to protect.” Yugoslavia’s conflicts were not so much mediated by foreign powers as they were inflamed and exploited by them to advance policy goals. The result was a tsunami of lies and misrepresentations in whose wake the world is still reeling.

Realpolitik Creates an Utterly Risible Caricature

From 1991 on, Yugoslavia and its successor states were exploited for ends as crass and as classically realpolitik as: (1) preserving the NATO military alliance despite the disintegration of the Soviet bloc—NATO’s putative reason for existence; (2) overthrowing the UN Charter’s historic commitments to non-interference and respect for the sovereign equality, territorial integrity, and political independence of all states in favor of the right of those more enlightened to interfere in the affairs of “failing” states, and even to wage wars against “rogue” states; (3) humiliating the European Union (EU) (formerly the European Community [EC]) over its inability to act decisively as a threat-making and militarily punitive force in its own backyard; (4) and of course dismantling the last economic and social holdout on the European continent yet to be integrated into the “Washington consensus.” The pursuit of these goals required that certain agents within Yugoslavia be cast in the role of the victims, and others as villains—the latter not just belligerents engaged in a civil war, but evil and murderous perpetrators of mass crimes which, in turn, would legitimate military intervention. At its extreme, in the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Yugoslavia has been cast as one gigantic crime scene, with the wars in their totality to be explained as a “Joint Criminal Enterprise,” the alleged purpose of which was the expulsion of non-Serbs from territories the Serbs wanted all to themselves—an utterly risible caricature, as we show below, but taken seriously in Western commentary, much as Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” were to be taken early in the next decade.

The Freak Gallery of Western Propagandists and Warmongers

While the destruction of Yugoslavia had both internal and external causes, it is easy to overlook the external causes, despite their great importance, because Western political interests and ideology have masked them by focusing entirely on the alleged resurgence of Serb nationalism and drive for a “Greater Serbia” as the root of the collapse. In a widely read book that accompanied their BBC documentary, Laura Silber and Allan Little wrote that “under Milosevic’s stewardship” the Serbs were “the key secessionists,” as Milosevic sought the “creation of a new enlarged Serbian state, encompassing as much territory of Yugoslavia as possible,” his “politics of ethnic intolerance provok[ing] the other nations of Yugoslavia, convincing them that it was impossible to stay in the Yugoslav federation and propelling them down the road to independence.” In another widely read book, Misha Glenny wrote that “without question, it was Milosevic who had willfully allowed the genie [of violent, intolerant nationalism] out of the bottle, knowing that the consequences might be dramatic and even bloody.” Noel Malcolm found that by the late 1980s, “Two processes seemed fused into one: the gathering of power into Milosevic’s hands, and the gathering of the Serbs into a single political unit which could either dominate Yugoslavia or break it apart.” For Roy Gutman, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina “was the third in a series of wars launched by Serbia....Serbia had harnessed the powerful military machine of the Yugoslav state to achieve the dream of its extreme nationalists: Greater Serbia.” For David Rieff, “even if [Croatia’s President Franjo] Tudjman had been an angel, Slobodan Milosevic would still have launched his war for Greater Serbia.”1

In a commentary in 2000, Tim Judah wrote that Milosevic was responsible for wars in “Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo: four wars since 1991 and [that] the result of these terrible conflicts, which began with the slogan ‘All Serbs in One State,’ is the cruelest irony.” Sometime journalist, sometime spokesperson for the ICTY at The Hague, Florence Hartmann, wrote that “Long before the war began, Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and, following his example, Franjo Tudjman in Croatia, had turned their backs on the Yugoslav ideal of an ethnically mixed federal State and set about carving out their own ethnically homogeneous States. With Milosevic’s failure, in 1991, to take control of all of Yugoslavia, the die was cast for war.” After Milosevic’s death in 2006, the New York Times’s Marlise Simons wrote about the “incendiary nationalism” of the man who “rose and then clung to power by resurrecting old nationalist grudges and inciting dreams of a Greater Serbia...the prime engineer of wars that pitted his fellow Serbs against the Slovenes, the Croats, the Bosnians, the Albanians of Kosovo and ultimately the combined forces of the entire NATO alliance.” And at the more frenzied end of the media spectrum, Mark Danner traced the Balkan war dynamic to the Serbs’ “unquenchable blood lust,” while Ed Vulliamy asserted that “Once Milosevic had back-stabbed his way to power and had switched from communism to fascism, he and Mirjana set out to establish their dream of an ethnically pure Greater Serbia cleansed of Croats and ‘mongrel races’ such as Bosnia’s Muslims and Kosovo’s Albanians.”2

Ignorance, Gullibility and Purposeful Misrepresentations Unite to Create a Myth of Serb Villainy

This version of history—or ideology under the guise of history—fails at multiple levels. For one, it ignores the economic and financial turbulence within which Yugoslavia’s highly indebted, unevenly developed republics and autonomous regions found themselves in the years following Tito’s death in 1980, the aptly named “great reversal” during which the “standard of living whose previous growth had muted most regional grievances and legitimized Communist rule declined by fully one-quarter.”3 It also ignores the geopolitical context marked by the decline and eventual dissolution of the Soviet bloc, just as it ignores the German, Austrian, Vatican, EU, and eventual U.S. interest in the dismantlement of the socialist as well as federal dimensions of a unitary Yugoslav state, and the actions that brought about that result. Furthermore, it underrates the importance of Albanian (Kosovo), Slovene, Croat, Macedonian, Bosnian Muslim, Montenegrin, and even Hungarian (Vojvodina) nationalisms, and the competing interests of each of these groups as they sought sovereignty within, and later independence from, Yugoslavia. Perhaps most critical of all, it overrates the Serbs’ and Milosevic’s nationalism, gives these an unwarranted causal force, and transforms their expressed interest in preserving the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and/or allowing Serbs to remain within a single unified successor state into wars of aggression whose goal was “Greater Serbia.”

Standard Narrative: Western Interventions Were Humanitarian in Purpose

The standard narrative also fails egregiously in claiming the Western interventions humanitarian in purpose and result. In that narrative those interventions came late but did their work well. We will show on the contrary that they came early, encouraged divisions and ethnic wars, and in the end had extremely damaging effects on the freedom, independence, and welfare of the inhabitants, although they served well the ends of Croatian, Bosnian Muslim, and Kosovo Albanian nationalists, as well as those of the United States and NATO. Furthermore, NATO’s 1999 bombing war against Yugoslavia, in violation of the UN Charter, built upon precedents set by NATO’s late summer 1995 bombing attacks on the Bosnian Serbs. More important, it provided additional precedents which advanced the same law-of-the-jungle lineage under the cover of “human rights.” It thus served as a precursor and a model for the subsequent U.S. regime’s attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lies that enabled them.

Western Intellectuals and Journalists Exasperate the Suffering and Injustice

Another notable feature of the dismantling of Yugoslavia was the very widespread support for the Western interventions expressed by liberals and leftists. These intellectuals and journalists swallowed and helped propagate the standard narrative with remarkable gullibility, and their work made a major contribution to engineering consent to the ethnic cleansing wars, the NATO bombing attacks, the neocolonial occupations of Bosnia and Kosovo, and the wars that followed against Afghanistan and Iraq [...]

Entire study »

Posted by Svetlana at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dodik: Republika Srpska Representatives will Withdraw from BIH Institutions

If High Representative in BIH Miroslav Lajcak and influential international factors continue to apply force in politics, Republika Srpska (RS) representatives will leave offices in the central parliament and government of BIH, RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik warned, according to Radio Serbia.

The RS leadership still wants to give chance to talks on the recent disputed decisions of Miroslav Lajcak, Dodik said and added that their patience has limits and that all the representatives of the Serb entity will leave central institutions if Lajcak does not change his stand on the new manner of decision-making at the BIH level.

Leadership of Serbian Republic in Bosnia finds absolutely unacceptable the possibility of an outvote in central institutions, as BIH as a state is based on the very fact that no single entity can impose its will on any of the three constitutive nations or two entities, Dodik said.

According to Tanjug, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Dodik said that it is not true that the present crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not connected with the resolution of the status of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, TV Pink reported late on Thursday.

High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina Miroslav Lajcak would not even mention that connection if it did not exist, Dodik added.

Meanwhile, David Chandler posed the essential question:

What About Democracy for Bosnia?

By David Chandler, professor of international relations at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster; article published at Spiked-Online.com

Western commentators fret about dictatorships in Burma and Pakistan yet turn a blind eye to the EU's colonial rule in 'over-emotional' Bosnia.

While international attention has focused on the political instability in Burma and Pakistan in recent weeks, few commentators have picked up on turmoil in one small corner of Europe. Last week, the Bosnian government collapsed in a series of protests and recriminations over the role of the international High Representative, demonstrating that 12 years of international bureaucratic rule has done little to bring social and political cohesion to this tiny state.

Bosnia in the Midst of Most Serious Political Crisis Since Dayton

Bosnia seems to be in the midst of its most serious political crisis since the Dayton agreement brought the civil war to an end in November 1995. Senior officials of EUFOR, the European Union peacekeeping force, have for the first time openly discussed the possibility of renewed conflict (1).

On Thursday 1 November, Bosnia’s Serbian prime minister Nikola Spiric resigned in protest at the international High Representative’s meddling with the country’s constitutional framework. Following Spiric’s resignation it seems possible that no new Bosnian Serb prime minister will be appointed, making new parliamentary elections necessary and further delaying the process of European Union-orientated reforms (2).

The crisis has been brought to a head by the actions of the international High Representative, Miroslav Lajcak, who represents the international community and is also the EU’s Special Representative in Bosnia. He has the powers to dismiss elected politicians and to directly impose legislation. Last month, he brought in new measures to streamline the operation of the central governing institutions by drastically reducing the quorum needed, preventing the requirement of a consensus of support from all three of Bosnia’s segmented ethnic communities (Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs) (3).

Mandarin Lajcak Undermines Dayton Accord

This measure fundamentally questions the post-Dayton constitutional framework based on consensual decision-making and effectively means that state institutions no longer have to take into account the opinions of Serb representatives of the Republika Srpska entity. From the perspective of the bureaucratic mandarins running the tiny country, avoiding the need to reach a tripartite consensus on every issue certainly facilitates the policymaking process. However, it clearly makes little sense to understand this reform, which the High Representative has sought to impose without consultation, as purely a technical administrative measure.

Nevertheless, this is exactly the tack publicly taken by the international overseers of Bosnia. The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (the ad hoc international body which formally appoints the High Representative) stated that ‘the only objective of the [High Representative’s] measures is to streamline the decision-making process in the Council of Ministers’. Lajcak himself argued that: ‘It is paradoxical that the Chairman of the Council of Ministers should resign over measures that are designed to make the Council of Ministers, the body that he chairs, more efficient.’ (4) Presenting the imposed constitutional changes as merely designed to facilitate efficient governance makes Lajcak appear to represent the rational interests of Bosnian citizens, and it has enabled him to denounce Spiric’s concerns with consensus and representational legitimacy as ‘over-emotional, irresponsible and insufficiently rational’ (5).

Arrogant EU Bureaucrats Want to Rule Bosnia by Edicts

Considering Lajcak’s views of the irrational nature of those who disagree with his edicts, it is little surprise that he has appeared to be unmoved in the face of widespread Bosnian Serb opposition. This has included protests across the Republika Srpska (RS) entity by as many as 10,000 Bosnian Serbs on 29 October, and the threat by the members of the leading Bosnian Serb party, the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by the prime minister RS Milorad Dodik, to resign from all governing posts (6).

High Representative Lajcak is so confident in his executive authority over the ‘over-emotional’ and ‘irrational’ Bosnians that he has publicly stated that the constitutional changes should really be of no concern to Bosnian politicians or the Bosnian public: ‘It would be better if people in this country did their job, concentrated on their own work. It is interesting that when we were working on police reform everyone here saw it fit to interpret the European principles themselves, and today they are all interpreting the Dayton peace agreement. I think that both those subjects are my mandate, and the politicians have a different mandate – to do their jobs, to go to work and fulfil the commitments and obligations they have undertaken.’ (7)

According to the EU’s bureaucratic bagman, it is his job to interpret the Dayton agreement and to lay down the reforms necessary for European membership; it is the job of Bosnian politicians and the Bosnian people to fulfil their ‘commitments and obligations’ of abiding by his decisions on these issues.

Bosnian Government Institutions — A Mockery of Democracy

It is little wonder that Bosnia’s resigning prime minister Nikola Spiric has stated that ‘Bosnia-Herzegovina is absurd’. It is clear that elected institutions and titled government posts are a mockery of democracy if politicians have no real power to set the policy agenda, let alone any genuine capacity to debate and discuss the policies put in front of them by the international administrators. Spiric argues that: ‘If the international community always supports the High Representative and not the institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, then it doesn’t matter if I am the head of that state, or Bart Simpson.’ (8)

Bosnia’s governing framework is absurd because there is little point in having executive powers vested in an international bureaucrat and then pretending that Bosnia is governed by Bosnian politicians. As Spiric rightly has pointed out, executive powers ‘cannot be held by the international community while I’m supposed to be taking over responsibilities’ (9). Spiric observes that Bosnia-Herzegovina ‘is unfortunately not a sovereign state’ over a decade after the war’s end and the declaration of Bosnia’s formal independence: ‘Twelve years after Dayton, foreigners have exclusive rule over this country and I believe this isn’t good for this country or its citizens.’ (10)

Autocracy as the Key Problem: Imposing Reforms while Rejecting Public Debates

One of the key problems of bureaucratic rule over Bosnia since 1995 has been the tendency of international actors to seek to impose reforms over the heads of the Bosnian public. Rather than engage in public debate, international administrators have sought to argue that every reform is essential in order to fulfil Bosnia’s obligations under the Dayton agreement or in order to meet EU membership requirements. This has meant that Bosnian political institutions have been reduced to rubber stamps for externally decided policies or have degraded into nationalist grandstanding in an attempt to convince voters that politicians are standing up for their interests.

Unfortunately, the absolute powers which the High Representative wields have meant that the international bureaucracy has been effectively able to act autonomously. Often, the High Representative’s Office has reinterpreted politically sensitive questions as merely technical bureaucratic issues and then sought to force through preferred solutions. One key example has been that of police reform: former High Representative Paddy Ashdown insisted that the centralised management of the police should be forced through as a condition for EU membership negotiations.

Lajcak Eager to Follow in the Dictatorial Ashdown’s Footsteps

Because police reform was politically divisive and not open to a pre-decided solution, negotiations on the basis of Ashdown’s proposals were much more problematic and drawn out than they might have been had there been more room for a freely negotiated settlement. Many EU member states voiced doubts over Ashdown’s handling of police reform because attempting to force through reform using the conditionality of EU membership threatened to undermine Bosnia’s reform process by adding unnecessary conditions. This was seen as an entirely artificial connection as there was no EU requirement for centralised police control, with several EU states, such as Germany and Belgium, having long-established federal police administrations (11).

It would appear that Lajcak has followed the confrontational approach of his predecessor Ashdown in seeking bureaucratically to enforce major policy reforms. It is a sad indictment of 12 years of international rule over Bosnia that Lajcak would rather reform the Dayton constitutional settlement by bureaucratic edict than through a process of public debate and consultation. It is the absurd dictatorial powers of the High Representative which are irrational and have resulted in corroding and undermining Bosnia’s representative bodies - institutionalising Bosnia’s wartime political divisions rather than allowing Bosnian people the opportunity of overcoming them.

David Chandler is professor of international relations at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster and editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

(1) EUFOR Ready to Intervene in Bosnia, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, 31 October 2007

(2) Bosnia presidents ask PM to reconsider resignation, Reuters, 2 November 2007

(3) Decision Enacting the Law on Changes and Amendments to the Law on the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Office of the High Representative, 19 October 2007

(4) Bosnia-Herzegovina Council of Ministers to Function in Technical Mandate, Office of the High Representative, Press Release, 1 November 2007

(5) Press Conference by the High Representative Miroslav Lajčák, following the PIC meeting, Office of the High Representative, Press Release, 31 October 2007

(6) Anes Alic, Dangerous rumblings in Bosnia, ISN Security Watch, 2 November 2007

(7) Press Conference by the High Representative Miroslav Lajčák, following the PIC meeting, Office of the High Representative, Press Release, 31 October 2007

(8) Bosnia prime minister resigns amid tension, Financial Times, 2 November 2007

(9) Bosnia prime minister resigns amid tension, Financial Times, 2 November 2007

(10) Bosnian PM quits over EU reforms, Al-Jazeera English, 2 November 2007

(11) See Thomas Muehlmann, ‘Police Restructuring in Bosnia-Herzegovina: An Example of an Internationally-Led Security Sector Reform Process’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol.2, No.1 (forthcoming March 2008)

Cartoon by Toso Borkovic (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bosnian Government Topples

The Chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers Nikola Spiric has resigned, heralding the fall of the Bosnia-Herzegovina government.

Nikola Spiric, the Republic of Srpska (RS) representative, has issued his official resignation after the imposition of the measures by the international community’s High Representative Miroslav Lajcak which are violating the Dayton Peace Accord and jeopardizing the status of the Serbian entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska.

Chairman Spiric informed the head of the Bosnian Presidency, Croat Zeljko Komsic that, as of today, Bosnian Government is merely technical until the appointment of a new president and members of the Council of Ministers.

Spiric: My Resignation is the Only Possible Democratic Response

The Chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers told RTS that his resignation is the only democratic response, since he was presented with the situation in which any other move would be plain “rolling in the mud.”

“I want Bosnia and Herzegovina to overcome the crisis and if the High Representative Miroslav Lajcak firmly believes his decisions are right, I'll revel in the Bosnia’s success from the benches. But I do not want to be at the steering wheel contributing to the failure of the country as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers I presided over the past year,” Spiric told RTS from Banja Luka.

He considers Lajcak’s decision to be not only anti-Serbian, but also anti-state measure which has only worsened the situation and further soured the relations.

Twelve Years After Dayton Bosnia is a Mere Colony

“I fear that Lajcak’s decision was aimed at raising the political temperatures in Bosnia, so that the crisis creators could continue their work,” Spiric assessed. “I refuse to be a part of that scenario. Twelve years after Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia is yet to attain sovereignty, whereby the representatives elected by the people would lead the country and the international community would help the process, so that we could join the European integrations as soon as possible,” Spiric said.

“Unfortunately, twelve years after Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia is still not a sovereign state, it is being ruled by the foreigners, who are charging the domestic leaders with the responsibility for their own actions,” said Spiric.

“This is the time when all of us in Bosnia-Herzegovina need to seriously think about what should be done so that the country does not remain afloat and to make sure it doesn’t end up shipwrecked upon the international community’s good intentions,” Spiric said.

According to Spiric, “it seems that the Serbs are the only nation on Earth, and in Bosnia, obviously expected to accept the high representative’s interpretations of the law as the law.”

“I believe that there was an honorable way out, I have suggested it — the only possible way out was if everyone involved took a step back, including the high representative, so that the political crisis would be avoided,” noted Spiric.

“Unfortunately, here we have the pursuit of spite, both within Bosnia-Herzegovina and by the international community. We are the small country, we are aware of our strength and of the international community’s power. Everything is clear to us, but I do believe that dictate is not the solution. No one is infallible, neither Nikola Spiric nor Miroslav Lajcak, but the international community is not infallible either,” said Spiric.

He said that the call for dialog should be heeded by all and assessed that Lajcak should have supported the already existing government institutions, instead of taking on a dictatorial role and imposing his opinion as the final and ultimate law.

Kostunica: Lajcak Responsible for the Current Political Crisis in Bosnia

Thursday afternoon, following the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that High Representative Miroslav Lajcak is responsible for the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that it would be more natural if he resigned instead of imposing his measures and thus deepening the crisis.

In a written statement, Kostunica said that the Serbian government fully supports all institutions of Republika Srpska in their principle-based position that Dayton Accord must be respected.

Serbia, being the signatory and the guarantor of the Dayton Accords, is fully entitled to insist that this international document be duly implemented and not be violated to the detriment of the Serbian people, the Prime Minister stressed.

He also warned that attempt to annul the Dayton Accords can have unforeseeable consequences and hence it is now necessary that the international community corrects the mistakes that produced the serious crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Russia: Lajcak’s Measures Contrary to the Spirit of Dayton Agreement

Russian representative in the Council for Peace Implementation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko warned on Thursday that the latest decisions of the international community’s high representatives are irritating and worsening the relations in Bosnia, instead of leading out of the political crisis, the statement by the Russian Embassy in Bosnia said.

“Due to the political reasons, Russia does not approve the latest measures of the High Representative [Miroslav Lajcak] which, without the necessary support of the political leaders, institutions and both entities, are only contributing to the rising tensions in Bosnia,” the statement says.

As a member of the Russian Federation’s delegation that took part in Dayton negotiations, Botsan-Kharchenko warned that the high representative’s measures are contrary to the spirit of Dayton Agreement, since they are not rooted in the consensus of all parties.

“At the meeting with all political leaders, I said that this is not the time for impositions. That time is behind us, now is the time for political negotiations which are vital. At the same time, this is the approach that can clarify our position and our view that Lajcak’s measures are contrary to the spirit of Dayton Accord,” Botsan-Kharchenko said.

Adding that each measure has to be analyzed based on its consequences, he reminded that Russia extracted its assessment from the joint statement by the Council for the Peace Implementation in Bosnia (from the Western part of the “international community”) and expressed concern for the possible consequences, in view of the negative reactions of the Republika Srpska.

Posted by Svetlana at 08:02 PM | Permalink

Serbian President Calls on Lajcak to Reevaluate his Measures

“The voice of Republic of Srpska (RS) must be respected because the Dayton Accord stipulates that changes to any principles have to be supported by the consensus of all three of the constituent peoples. As a signatory of the peace agreement, Serbia is dedicated to that principle,” Serbia’s President Boris Tadic told Tanjug today.

“We respect the territorial integrity of every state, Bosnia-Herzegovina unambiguously so. Bosnia’s constitutionality is based on the principles of the Dayton Accords, and no decisions can be made at the expense of one of the constituent nations,” said Tadic.

Diplomats Ought to be Able to Refrain from Threatening With Their Country’s Swift Revenge

Serbian President called on Lajcak to reach a compromise with RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, and to react to inappropriate messages that certain officials in Bosnia had been issuing to Serbs.

Inappropriate and undiplomatic remarks containing threats were not a solution to the dispute, Tadic said, and called on the international community and Bosnian officials to temper their passions, and to respect the Dayton Accords as a guarantee of peace and stability.

Serbian Government Fully Supports Republika Srpska Premier

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic has said that Serbian government firmly supports Republika Srpska Premier Dodik in his attempts to ensure the functioning and status of the Serbian republic, in keeping with the principles enshrined in the Dayton Agreement.

“As a signatory of the Dayton Accords, Serbia insists on their verbatim implementation and the preservation of Republika Srpska,” Jocic told Tanjug today.

The interior minister added that the high representative had to be mindful of the fact that under the accords, Bosnia-Hercegovina was not a unitary state, but a state made up of two entities, and that the Republika Srpska status was guaranteed by the treaty.

Not Free to Violate Laws When Hurting Serbs is the Objective

“Lajcak’s measures have already provoked a serious crisis and they have to be immediately withdrawn. It has to be said that the entire responsibility for the possible worsening of the relations in Bosnia lies on [Bosnia’s High Representative] Lajcak, due to his attempts to impose his dictate and abolish Republika Srpska,” Minister Jocic said.

He stressed that Serbia insists on the respect for Dayton Accords and preservation of Republika Srpska the same way it insists on respect for the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that is preserving its southern province of Kosovo-Metohija.

“The international agreements and laws cannot be violated only when the violations are aimed at hurting the Serbian nation,” Jocic said.

If it’s OK for Portugal to Have a Say on Bosnia, Why is it Not OK for Serbia?

Meanwhile, responding to the Western mainstream media accusations that Republika Srpska representatives are being “spurred” to oppose Lajcak’s dictate by Russia and Serbia, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Dodik said that his government talks no more or less with Moscow and Belgrade than with any other state officials.

“Serbia, as one of the signatories of Dayton Agreement, has additional responsibilities and I don’t see why would someone think it’s normal for Portugal to comment and have its say on Bosnian relations, but Serbia should not have the same right,” Dodik said.

Cartoon by Nikola Volas (Serbia)

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Lajcak’s Decision Unacceptable to Republika Srpska

Premier of the Serbian republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Republika Srpska) Milorad Dodik said that Serbian Republic’s leaders will not accept the latest decision imposed by the Bosnia High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, at the price of sanctioning the Serbian entity in Bosnia.

“Simply put, this is not a residence of a bunch of obedience-trainees and blind followers of the international community, even if United States is that International Community,” Dodik said in the RS TV interview. He was responding to the statement by the American ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Charles English in which he called Republika Srpska leaders to accept Lajcak’s measures, or suffer the wrath of U.S.

Prime Minister Dodik said that RS leaders “cannot accept the violation of the Dayton Agreement and the Constitution” and therefore will not give up their position.

Revealing to the public that he has been holding intense talks with Ambassador English for the past few days, Dodik said he can “hardly believe ambassador would show such contempt for their discussions in this manner,” i.e. issuing a public demand for compliance followed by the threats in case Bosnian Serbs fail to obey Lajcak’s dictate.

American Ambassador’s Threats to Bosnian Serbs Unheard of in the Past Decade

Premier Dodik said that RS leadership has not caused any conflict, nor has it done anything contrary to the democratic practice. “Republika Srpska people must know that this generation of politicians is only striving to govern responsibly and that is why we cannot accept such arrogant trampling of the Constitution and Dayton Accord. Especially unacceptable are rude threats coming from the American ambassador, regardless of the fact that he is American ambassador,” said Dodik.

American Ambassador in Bosnia Charles English invited Serbian republic’s Premier and RS representatives to accept Lajcak’s measures “as they are.” “Conflict with the High Representative is the conflict with USA. The safety and stability of Bosnia-Herzegovina is in the interest of United States and we are prepared to defend it,” said English in an interview to Bosnian news agencies.

He warned that “if the path of the conflict continues, the reaction of United States will be swift and powerful.”

Premier Dodik responded that “there will be no withdrawal and that RS government will not back down,” adding that the entity leadership has been trying to establish a dialog with the High Representative Lajcak during the past few days.

Regarding the American Ambassador’s statement, Dodik said that “such a boorish threat hasn’t been heard around here in the past ten years.”

“They are insinuating, weaving stories about the non-existent conspiracies, they are trying to deny our right to think for ourselves, because they believe that sheer pressure will help them resolve some issues, including this one,” said Dodik.

Pointing out that he respects the United States, though it is “not his fault that a number of issues in the world are not going their way,” Dodik said that Republika Srpska officials are defending their basic right to a democratic choice.

Stressing that “not a single window has been broken in Republika Srpska,” he said that RS has the right to democracy, which includes a right to opposition. He said that his party, the Association of the Independent Social-Democrats (SNSD), will step over into the opposition on the state level (of Bosnia-Herzegovina state) in case they fail to persuade the international representatives to change their attitude.

Lawyers Associations: Lajcak Grossly Violates Both Bosnian and RS Constitution, Along with the Score of International Laws

High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina Miroslav Lajcak is in gross violation of the BiH Constitution and the Constitution of Republika Srpska with his decision on the changes and amendments to the law on the BiH Council of Ministers and the binding directive for changing the regulations on the work of the Parliamentary Assembly, lawyers’ associations of Serbia and the Republika Srpska announced on Friday.

In a joint statement issued by the Serbia and RS lawyers associations, Lajcak’s decision is additionally characterized as the violation of a whole score of the highest normative acts of the United Nations and other international organizations which, according to the Bosnian Constitution, have the precedence over all the other legal acts.

“High Representative’s authority to interpret the existing laws does not include the power to supersede the Constitution and legislative bodies. At the same time, his decisions must not violate the human rights, individual and collective rights, as determined by the international legal acts,” reads the statement.

Serbia’s and RS’ lawyers warned that, in the light of the above mentioned, enforcement of Lajcak’s decision “could lead to unforeseeable, heavy, even tragic consequences for the region.”

Lajcak is Striving to Abolish Republika Srpska

“High Representative’s decision is essentially, through the general procedural measures, revoking Republika Srpska status of the legal state entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was established and guaranteed by the Dayton Peace Agreement,” the statement says.

Associations of lawyers of Serbia and Republika Srpska have issued the joint appeal, especially addressed to the participants of Dayton Peace Accords, to revoke Lajcak’s decision, respecting all the legal and legitimate democratic principles and the rule of law.

Association of Lawyers of Serbia and Republika Srpska have started the initiative for preservation of culture of peace, legal, political, economic and social safety on the territory of RS as a formative state entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. They called for respect and strict adherence to adopted international laws, especially those that pertain to the right of self-determination of the nations that freely govern their political status and freely provide the economic, social and cultural development.

Posted by Svetlana at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Preservation of Kosovo and Republika Srpska Top Priorities for Serbia

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Thursday that Serbia will decisively defend Resolution 1244 and the Dayton Peace Accords, since the preservation of Kosovo and Republika Srpska [Serbian republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina] were “the top-priority goals of our country and our national policy.”

“The measures of (High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina Miroslav) Lajcak and the Ahtisaari plan have the aim of annulling Resolution 1244 and the Dayton Agreement, so that an independence of Kosovo could be proclaimed and Republika Srpska be abolished. This is an open violation of the basic interests of the Serbian nation,” the prime minister said in a statement for the media.

Kostunica stressed that “Serbia, as a signatory of the Dayton Agreement, will give all possible support to (RS Prime Minister Milorad) Dodik and the institutions of Republika Srpska in preserving the status granted to the Serbian republic by the Dayton Accords. The preservation of Kosovo and Republika Srpska are now the top-priority goals of our country and our national policy.”

“I have informed Prime Minister Dodik that he can count on Serbia’s full support, and that together we will decisively defend both Resolution 1244 and the Dayton Peace Accords,” Kostunica said.

Lajcak’s Dictatorial Decision Leads to Abolition of Serbian Entity in Bosnia

The new High Representative for Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak imposed Friday a decision on amending the law on the Bosnian Council of Ministers, enforcing a decision that the Council of Ministers can hold a session if “a majority of its members are present.” This is effectively cutting out the participation of the representatives of the Serbian republic, since it enables the Muslim majority to impose decisions on Serbian entity in Bosnia.

Noting that it is unacceptable that Serbian entity be excluded from this majority, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Dodik explained that the Council of Ministers adopts series of decisions which are not forwarded to the Parliamentary Assembly, and that acceptance of Lajcak’s amendments would lead to Bosnia’s centralization and eventual abolition of Republika Srpska, taking away the right of the Bosnian Serbs to have a say in decisions that concern their very existence.

Komsic’s Belligerence and Primitivism Highlights the Problem

Serbian Prime Minister Media Adviser Srdjan Djuric criticized the statement of the Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency Zeljko Komsic, who threatened Serbian Premier to “keep his fingers away from Bosnia, because he could get both his fingers and his nose slapped.”

“Such primitive, boorish and belligerent statements by Komsic confirm the necessity for the most determined defense of the Dayton Agreement which guarantees the status of the separate entity and preservation of Republika Srpska,” Djuric told Beta news agency.

According to Djuric, as one of the guarantors of the Dayton Accord, Serbia has an obligation to ensure its implementation.

“Therefore, Serbian government fully supports Republika Srpska Premier Dodik to ensure the status of the Serbian entity is in compliance with the Dayton Agreement,” Djuric said. He added that “Komsic’s primitive vocabulary only deepens the crises created by Lajcak’s dictate.”

Posted by Svetlana at 02:19 PM | Permalink

Srebrenica Manipulations: 954 Bosnian Muslim Fighters Killed Before the End of 1994 Listed as “Srebrenica Victims”

Association of Camp Prisoners from Republika Srpska (Serbian Republic in Bosnia) cites an example of Munira Subasic, President of the Bosnian Muslim Association of Srebrenica Women, who reported her son as one of Srebrenica Muslim victims. It was later discovered her son lives in United States under a new name.

By Boro Maric reporting from Banja Luka in Bosnia, Politika

Republika Srpska Veterans Association has reported on Wednesday they have the list of 954 Bosnian Muslim fighters, members of the Muslim army, who have lost their lives before the end of 1994 in the battles during the Bosnian civil war (1992-1995), but have nevertheless been listed as the Muslim victims of battle for Srebrenica, fought in July 1995.

The news about the list has triggered strong reactions in the Serbian republic in Bosnia.

On the one side, the information has thrown renewed suspicion at the report of Bosnia’s Commission that was supposed to determine the facts about Srebrenica events. The Srebrenica Commission was formed according to the order of former Bosnian High Representative from Great Britain, Paddy Ashdown, by the Government of Republika Srpska. On the other side, the list provided by the Serbian Veterans Association has reopened the issue of exaggerated numbers of Bosnian Muslims who have allegedly lost their lives in Srebrenica. The continuously overblown figures are constantly parroted both within the Bosnian Muslim circles of high officials and Muslim NGOs operating in Bosnia, and by the Hague Tribunal.

Muslim Commander and War Criminal, Naser Oric, Compiled the List Himself

“I can’t tell you who provided us with the list of 954 names. I can only say that these are the reports submitted to the Command of the Second Corps of the Bosnian Muslim army before the end of 1994, by the Muslim commander of 28th division stationed in Srebrenica, Naser Oric,” said the President of the Republika Srpska Veterans Association, Pantelija Curguz.

Beta news agency today reported that the President of the Camp Prisoners Association of Republika Srpska Branislav Dukic said that Serbian camp prisoners will demand the revision of the report submitted by the Srebrenica Commission. He said that Bosnian Serbs interned in the Muslim and Croat-run prison camps during the Bosnian civil war suspected the authenticity of the commission’s report from the very beginning.

Have Any Bosnian Muslims Died Before Srebrenica?

“We now have to ask if anyone lost his life in Srebrenica from 1992 until July of 1995 [for the duration of the civil war, before Srebrenica takeover]. Every single Muslim who died in Srebrenica during the entire war was listed as killed in July of 1995,” said Dukic, adding that the Association of the Camp Prisoners has been posing this question to both Paddy Ashdown and Carla del Ponte, but has never received a response.

As an example of manipulations with Srebrenica, Dukic mentioned the President of the Muslim Association of Srebrenica Women, Munira Subasic. He said that Subasic reported her son as killed in Srebrenica, while he was alive and well in United States, only living under a different name.

“Srebrenica Commission” Was Unaware of the List

Director of the board of Bosnia’s Missing Persons Commission and the president of the Srebrenica Commission whose report is now questioned, Milan Bogdanic, said that Srebrenica Commission was not aware of the list of 954 Bosnian Muslim fighters who died before July 1995, that the association had presented. He also claims Srebrenica Commission was not trying to assess the number of victims, but was working on putting together the list of missing persons.

“At the time when Srebrenica Comission was working, we had no knowledge about the information recently published by the Veterans Association. We have asked them for a copy of the list, so we can compare it to ours. I’ll repeat for the N-th time that we were not determining the number of the dead, but the number of missing and we came up with the final list of all the missing after comparing the data from various data-bases which together contained over 150 thousand of different names,” Bogdanic said.

Serbian Veterans Association’s Data Basis for the Serious Investigation

Speaking to the Politika reporter over the phone, head of the Republika Srpska Secretariat for Hague Tribunal Relations, Jovan Spajic said:

“We shall compare our lists and data with those of the Veterans Association. Given that the Bosnian Muslim Sarajevo center run by Mirsad Tokacha concluded that in 1995 6,975 Muslims lost their lives in Srebrenica, I’m convinced we have good foundations to start a serious investigation based on the data collected by the Veterans Association. If the list they have is correct, we shall inform the lawyers of the Serbs accused of Srebrenica ‘genocide’ in the Hague and the Hague Tribunal prosecutors.”

Ivanisevic: Muslim “Srebrenica Victims” Have Been Voting Since the End of War

According to Tanjug, Director of the Belgrade Center for Investigation of crimes committed over the Serbian people, Milivoje Ivanisevic said that no one should be surprised to learn that Bosnian Muslim politicians have been constantly inflating and manipulating the numbers of the Muslim victims, especially those in and around Srebrenica.

“Already next year, at the Bosnian Muslim elections held in 1996, more than 700 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica whose names were on the list of those killed in July 1995 showed up to cast their votes,” said Ivanisevic.

Cartoon by Cox & Forkum (USA)

Posted by Svetlana at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Western Miracle Workers

In the latest news, a Bosnian Muslim who tried to enter the U.S. Embassy in Vienna with a backpack filled with explosives and nails was arrested Monday. You can learn the terrorist is “Bosnian” (this time around, no mentioning of conveniently invented “nation” of “Bosniaks,” supposed to signify Muslims in former Yugoslav republic) and that part of his deadly backpack-content was “Islamic literature,” so feel free to draw your own conclusions. But Western mainstream surely won’t put two and two together for you and simply say that the guy who tried to blow up American embassy in Vienna is a Bosnian Muslim, one of those Americans were saving from Serbs during the Bosnian civil war.

Another Bosnian Muslim terrorist with ties to Al Qaida, was smuggled through the Western MSM as a “Yugoslav.” Apparently, Western news editors turn into miracle-workers at will and resurrect Yugoslavia whenever there is a need to cover up for their Bosnian and Albanian Muslim allies (i.e. “Bosniaks” and “Kosovars”).

The UN Police in southern Serbian province of Kosovo is now investigating the involvement of the UN-created and funded Kosovo Albanian police force (KPS) in a bomb blast last week that killed two people and injured twelve. Basically, when you hire terrorists to masquerade as policemen, like Albanian terrorist KLA in Kosovo province was magically turned into a KPS, you shouldn’t expect any better. But Western powers are too eager to claim omnipotence for themselves, so they keep screwing things up and then scurry around in attemtps to control the damage.

Clinton Called to Pay for His Own Statue in Kosovo

New Europe warns about Wahhabism tightening grip over the Serbian Kosovo province, while Kosovo Albanians themselves seem consumed with figuring out the ways to milk more money from rich Westerners, now for the Bill Clinton statue. According to the reports, they need between 85,000 and 100,000 dollars to finish the homage to the man most responsible for the sinkhole they ended up in.

Perhaps Billary could donate a paycheck from one of his lectures on “How to screw the remote parts of the world up, while pretending to be concerned for the human rights.” It should cover both the statue and another box of hand grenades to finish the remaining redecorations of his boulevard.

Reactions to Hague Verdicts: Croats Attack Serbs, Serbs Write Letters

Croats decided to vent their rage at the Hague which failed to hang Serbs by pinning three former members of the Yugoslav People’s Army with genocide, by attacking more Serbs. Belgrade media reports that “on Sunday night, unknown attackers demolished six restored Serb houses near Benkovac [...] Electrics, sanitary equipment, doors and windows were all damaged, according to Zadar police.”

Serbian politician in Croatia Milorad Pupovac said the homes “were broken into and, from what I hear, almost everything inside was destroyed. These are new homes that had been restored in the returnee program this year and last.”

He said that the motives behind the attacks were more than likely what has been perceived as the lenient verdicts handed out to Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miloslav Radic by the Hague last week. Pupovac said Croat politicians “who have been manipulating the verdict during the election campaign, and creating an atmosphere where such acts can occur,” are ultimately responsible for the new wave of anti-Serbian violence in Croatia.

“Once you let the cat out of the bag and send the message, ‘If the Hague won’t decide, then we will,’ then you can’t be sure where it’s going to stop and who that ‘we’ will be,” Pupovac said.

Instead of following their neighbors’ example and demolishing Albanian-owned businesses and houses in Belgrade or anywhere else in Serbia after Hague has let two notorious KLA war criminals walk out free as birds, in Serbia, families of the KLA victims had sent a protest letter to Carla Del Ponte.

If those Serbs were any nastier... there’d be no more of them left.

Cartoon by Mica Miloradovic (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Fascists Banned in Serbia, Hailed in Croatia and Bosnia

When a non-registered group consisting of some twenty self-proclaimed neo-Nazis announced they intend to organize a march on October 7 in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, all of Serbia stood up in revolt: apart from the town’s Jewish community, various NGO’s, Serbian Anti-Fascist League and Jasenovac Survivors, leaders of every single political party in Serbia (including the maligned Radicals) unanimously condemned the event, demanding that it gets banned.

Novi Sad mayor Maja Gojkovic, a prominent member of the Serbian Radical Party, said that Novi Sad, a town which was the scene of a 1942 massacre of about 800 Jews and 400 Serbs by the German and Hungarian Nazi occupiers during World War II, “bears heavy wounds the Nazis inflicted and considers such an announcement as the most offensive provocation.” The “march” was banned without the further ado, and rightly so.

And, while nobody seems interested in taking a closer look into the ethnic composition of the neo-Nazi group that was prevented from marching through Serbian town, it would be instructive to learn how many of the hooligans happen to be ethnic Croats. It is a well know fact that northern Serbian province of Vojvodina has a large Croat community, beside a large Hungarian and Romanian population. Besides, it seems highly unlikely for ethnic Serbs to call themselves by the resoundingly Croat Ustasha terminology — “Nacionalni stroj”.

Serbia is decidedly the most multi-ethnic country in the Balkans, so the fact something is happening within Serbia’s borders doesn’t necessarily mean that the Serbs are behind it.

Canonization of the Ustasha Spiritual Father to Proceed With No Obstacles

However, around the same time when the world was intensely focusing upon the “rise of nationalism” in Serbia, head of the Croat state, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit Croatia for the “canonization ceremony of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac,” the spiritual father of the dreaded Ustasha movement during the WWII, which took over 1,5 million mostly Serbian, but also Jewish and Roma lives in the most ghastly fashion. But that failed to register a bleep in any of the Jewish or Western papers and went entirely unreported.

For some reason, the offensive actions of the head of state which is all but openly fascist since the 1990s are considered less threatening than announcement by the group of twenty anonymous hooligans in Serbia, where they keep being arrested, banned and condemned by the Serbs.

Ustasha Extravaganza in Bosnia Goes On as Planned

Today, Serbian press reports that thousands of Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina were on their way to Mostar to see Croat neo-Nazi, proud Ustasha Marko Perkovic, aka Thompson, in concert that was not banned by either the Bosnian or Croat police, despite the Serbian and Jewish protests.

The singer who reportedly couldn’t sing if his life depended on it, but is rather “braying” and screaming, whose “poetry” harbors extremely sinister fascist overtones, has divided the ethnically mixed Croat/Muslim city of Mostar in the Croat/Muslim federation in Bosnia, and opened up unhealed wounds of war.

In the city, already deeply split along ethnic lines, Thompson’s arrival marked some kind of return to the war, with the last night’s concert serving as a parade of fascism, such as cannot be seen anywhere else in Europe. Fascist insignia, songs glorifying torture and war crimes, hundreds of youths in Ustasha uniforms are all part and parcel of any Thompson concert wherever he goes.

Remaining Mostar Serbs and Jews launched a protest against last night’s event — a “musical extravaganza” in the words of the organizers — which they see as nothing but an excuse for fascist revelry.

A respected member of the town’s Jewish community, Zoran Mandelbaum, feels that to hold such a gathering is, “to say the least, politically inappropriate.” Moreover, no-one in Mostar can deny the fact that such an event glorifies fascist ideology.

A representative of the city’s Muslim community, Mufti Seid Smajkic said that the problem with this concert is “not just the promotion of fascist ideas,” but also the already long-established habit of audiences at Thompson concerts, exhilarated by battle-cries from the concert, “to go on a spree of chaos and destruction.”

Jews and Muslims Invited to Ustasha Parade — It Was Only Calling for a Slaughter of Serbs Anyway

According to the Belgrade reporter, “as views on Thompson’s life’s work have been known for a long time, it is truly frightening to hear the opinions of certain Mostar Croat associations who, as they say, do not understand ‘what Bosniaks and Jews have against Thompson singing songs about killing Serbs’.”

Serbian reporter surmised that “listening to Perkovic, one would say that he revels in the controversy. He even goes so far as to say that he believes ‘the Bosniaks have been hypocritical towards him’, as his well-known song ‘Chavoglave’ — which includes the line ‘Listen you gang of Chetniks, Our hand will reach you in Serbia itself’ — at the very beginning of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was effectively adapted and remodeled for the Bosnian Muslims, and was so popular that everyone knew it and sang it, from schoolchildren to old-age pensioners.”

Perkovic remembers Bosnian Muslims loving his braying when the verses were adapted to signify a Muslim call for a slaughter of Serbs, so he wonders why are they pestering him with this sudden outrage.

But some of the Bosnian Muslims appear willing to shake off the head-severing policy, so to them, calls from the organizers of the Perkovic’s Ustasha extravaganza for the representatives of the local Jewish and Islamic communities to attend the concert, together with the Bosnian Muslim army veterans’ associations, sounded like a pure provocation.

Posted by Svetlana at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Macabre Terrorist Kitchen: Albanians Masquerading as Yugoslav Soldiers During Kosovo War

Geza Farkas, former chief of VJ (Vojska Jugoslavije — Yugoslav Army) Security Administration, testifying at the Kangaroo Court in the defense of the former chief of General Staff, General Dragoljub Ojdanic accused of responsibility for war crimes Yugoslav Army allegedly committed in Kosovo-Metohija province during the 1998-1999 Albanian insurgency war, said that the Yugoslav military leadership “did all it could to prevent the crimes in Kosovo and punish the perpetrators as soon as it learned about them.”

Mr. Farkas also revealed that a number of war crimes in Kosovo province during the war were committed by the Albanians wearing VJ uniforms who had been infiltrated into southern Serbian province of Kosovo from the neighboring Albania.

From the Sense Agency reporting from Kangaroo Court:

In late 1999, there were suspicions of crimes against Albanian civilians, Farkas said. Ojdanic sent him and a group of military intelligence officers to Kosovo. After a two-day visit to the province, he came back to Belgrade and told General Ojdanic that some of the Army personnel had been involved in crimes, but that 95 percent of the perpetrators had been prosecuted or are under investigation.

[...] Milosevic demanded the withdrawal of all irregular units from Kosovo, the witness claims. He also demanded that all the perpetrators be punished and new crimes prevented, even if it meant to ‘close off the border on the Drina’ to prevent the infiltration of the paramilitaries [from Bosnia] who then went on to commit crimes in the name of the military and police.

Apart from the problem of the paramilitary formations infiltrating from across the Drina river, the [Yugoslav] army faced the problem of crimes committed by the armed groups from Albania masquerading as the VJ [...] As he explained back at the Milosevic trial [in 2005], they spoke perfect Serbian and committed the crimes wearing VJ uniforms.

Medak Pocket, Croatia: Serbian Woman Impaled Alive

Meanwhile, in Zagreb, retired Croatian Army medical corps colonel Marko Jagetic testified at the trial of Croat generals Rahim Ademi [an ethnic Albanian, just like war criminal Agim Ceku, also accused of atrocities over the Serbian population in Croatia] and Mirko Norac for war crimes committed in the Medak Pocket region of Krajina, inhabited by Serbs for centuries. He said that many of the corpses of Serb civilians he was ordered to collect had marks of torture and massacre.

“Almost all the executed [people] were civilians and no weapons or documents were found on any of them,” said Jagetic, an army doctor in charge of the team that collected the bodies of the dead after the slaughter. He explained that “many of the injuries pointed to heavy torture and a massacre of civilians,” and gave an example of the body of Andjelija Jovic, where he saw injuries caused by the victim being impaled alive.

In the field, Mr. Jagetic testified he saw traces of torture, two men hanged from a tree with a chain and a rope, and that he discovered remains of a human spine and pelvis on a site where a house had burned down.

According to the Croat report, he also heard about the crimes from soldiers, like one that recalled they had “roasted a lamb under the bodies of the two hanged civilians.”

“When UNPROFOR started entering the area, they excavated ‘a chetnik leader’ who had been cut to pieces alive for two hours. He was then put in a trench, covered with earth and a mechanical shovel passed over him,” testified Jagetic.

He also said that Serbian houses were pillaged and burned down, while the cattle was taken away.

Alija Izetbegovic and the Rest of “Secular” Bosnian Muslims

In Belgrade, Justice Minister Dusan Petrovic has today rejected the Bosnian request to transfer the Tuzla Column war crime case to the Bosnian judiciary.

Ilija Jurisic, former president of the Tuzla municipal government in Bosnia, has been charged by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution for taking part in the offensive launched against Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) troops on May 15, 1992 during their withdrawal from the city, in a case known as the Tuzla Column.

Bosnian Muslims attacked a JNA military convoy, killing more than 200 retreating conscripts and officers and detaining 140, who were subsequently tortured and killed. The event was being broadcast live on a local television station. Part of that footage, including abuse and murder of the conscripts by the Bosnian Muslims is shown in the documentary “Truth.” While the local Muslim television was showing the burning column of Yugoslav Army vehicles, the studio commentator asks for cold beer and then informs the viewers they ought to go and “help out” one conscript he saw reaching the entrance of a nearby building.

A survivor of the Tuzla Column assault describes how one of his unarmed friends that was lightly wounded in the arm managed to hide in the entrance of a building, only to be handed over in a body bag six days later.

Jurisic was arrested in Belgrade in May this year, while trying to escape to Cologne (Koln), in Germany. He is charged of having directly participated in ordering the grisly attack.

And for a quick reminder of what the Serbs were facing in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war and beyond, see this YouTube clip by the British Sky News: The Story a Lot of People Don’t Want to be Told.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:33 PM | Permalink

Bosnian Mujahedins: “Yes, We Are Terrorists!”

According to the RTS and Tanjug news agency, a Bosnian TV station has broadcast part of a new tape showing the activities of a mujahedin unit during the Bosnian war. The tape shows some of the crimes committed by the unit against Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 war in central Bosnia.

The footage shows mujahedin sharpening axes which they later used to behead a Serb soldier, and a speech is also recorded of a jihadist saying, “They call us terrorists. We are terrorists and we will destroy all the enemies of Allah.”

In addition to the hair-raising scenes of corpses and mutilation, there are also pictures of living prisoners of war that the mujahedin had tied up and tortured, Tanjug described the scenes broadcast on Bijeljina’s BN TV.

There is also footage of the Bosnia mujahedins playing football using, instead of a ball, a decapitated head.

Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic, an Al Qaida Mercenaries Recruiting Agent

The El Mujahed was a military unit consisting of Bosnian Muslims and fighters from Islamic countries who, as they say on the tape, came to Bosnia to “fight for Allah,” with the approval of the then Bosnian Muslim war council headed by Alija Izetbegovic, under whose command they fell, as part of the Muslim army in Bosnia.

This unit was formed in 1993, even though the groups of Afghan, Palestinian, Egyptian, Libyan etc. jihad mercenaries started pouring into Bosnia only a month after the war broke out, in 1992. According to the mujahedin testimony reviewed during the Hague trial to Bosnian Muslim general Rasim Delic, “This was done under the leadership of Sheikh Abu Abdul Aziz from Saudi Arabia,” joined by other veterans of Afghanistan’s jihad.

According to the clips shown yesterday on Bosnian TV, the same year El Mujahed unit was formed, an order was read out saying that they formed part of the Bosnian Muslim Army, and had the approval of the then Muslim leadership.

The footage also shows the arrival of then Bosnia President Alija Izetbegovic at the mujahedin camp.

The tape shows the camp from the inside, their training, life, religious practices and preparation for war in the “name of Allah”.

Mujahedin war cries can be heard, while there is also footage of the reading of an order from August 13, 1993, that they are recognized “by the Bosnian state and are part of the the armed forces of the Muslim state of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” and that they are there “in the name of Allah.”

“I Have Never Denied El Mujahed is Bosnian Army Unit” (Until I Was Indicted for War Crimes)

This tape was found by the Council of Concentration Camp Victims of the Republic of Srpska (Serbian republic in today’s Bosnia), whose president, Branislav Dukic, says that it came from the Bosnian Muslim side.

Dukic said that even among the Bosnian Muslims, there are “those who wish to prove the presence of mujahedin in Bosnia and the war crimes they committed on the territory of central Bosnia.”

Women were among those seen living in the mujahedin camp, dressed strictly according to Islamic dictates, as well as children, dressed in military gear, while one little girl is shown holding a “Scorpion” pistol.

Parts of the video material - titled “Jihad in Bosnia” - that was broadcast by BN TV will, according to the RTS report, be shown on the Republic of Srpska Radio-Television’s news program this evening.

Recently, another tape cropped up on the internet of a farewell ceremony for the mujahedin, featuring addresses given by the Chief of Bosnian Muslim Army Headquarters and Hague accused General Rasim Delic, and Commander of the Army Third Corps Sakib Mahmuljin.

The Hague prosecution will this week call new evidence at the trial of the former commander of the Bosnian Muslim Army Rasim Delic, who is charged on the basis of command responsibility for the crimes the mujahedin committed in central Bosnia. The prosecution will seek to admit into evidence a recording of Delic’s speech at the farewell ceremony, where he said:

“I have never concealed that this unit [El Mujahed] exists, that this is a unit of the Bosnian army, that it is incorporated in the Bosnian army control and command chain.”

Allah’s Shades of Green

According to the evidence of the Hague prosecution, Rasim Delic has also signed documents promoting and decorating mujahedin commanders and citations for special merit for the El Mujahed unit. The Bosnian Muslim Defense Ministry paid out 16,000 German Marks to each of El Mujahed unit members, as “compensation for their contribution to the war effort.”

Curious, since they claim they fight for Allah who, apparently, materializes in many shades of green.

More images of Bosnian Muslim atrocities available at Serbianna.com

Posted by Svetlana at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Serbian Major in British Army: Gallant Officer Treated Disgracefully

Army officer sues for £1m over spy claim by Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph

A former Paratrooper whose career was destroyed after he was falsely accused of spying is to sue the Government for record damages.

Milos Stankovic, who was decorated by the Queen for bravery, will claim in the High Court that he was forced to leave the Army by a “malicious investigation” by Ministry of Defence (MoD) police acting on false information.

Mr Stankovic, 44, who at the time of his arrest held the rank of major in The Parachute Regiment, is seeking more than £1 million compensation for the loss of his career, salary and pension, and unpaid legal fees, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Mr Stankovic was arrested under the Official Secrets Act on suspicion that, while serving as a Serbo-Croat interpreter for senior British Army officers in Sarajevo, he passed secret information to the Bosnian Serbs. The major was taken into custody while attending the Joint Services Staff College in Bracknell, Berkshire and subjected to two criminal investigations, one by the Ministry of Defence police, the other by the Royal Military Police.

Neither investigation, which had a combined cost of more than £250,000, found any evidence of espionage, which had been claimed to have taken place in 1994.

More than 100 witnesses were interviewed in Britain and the investigating team traveled to United Nations headquarters in New York in its search for evidence against Mr Stankovic.

His legal team intends to call high-profile former Army officers who will testify to Mr Stankovic’s good character and reject the suggestion that the former Army major was a Bosnian spy. Witnesses due to attend the three-week hearing in October include Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the former chief of the General Staff; Gen Sir Michael Rose, whom Mr Stankovic served as an interpreter during the Bosnian War, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former SAS commander and now private secretary to Princes William and Harry, and Martin Bell, the former MP and BBC war reporter.

Bosnian Muslims and Americans Wanted Stankovic Removed

At the time of his arrest in 1997, Mr Stankovic was described by Martin Bell, then MP for Tatton, as a “gallant British soldier” who “had been treated disgracefully”.

Mr Stankovic said he was unable to speak freely about the forthcoming case for legal reasons but added: “This is not about vengeance. But I want to get compensation for my loss of earnings and loss of pension. I had a good career in the Army to which I was dedicated and that was wrongfully taken away from me.”

He said it would also represent compensation for the lawyers who have represented him on a “no-win, no-fee” basis for the past 10 years.

[...] Mr Stankovic, whose father [and mother are] Serbian but who was brought up in Britain, was a regular figure in Pale, Bosnia-Herzegovina working on behalf of UN commanders. When UN troops were sent to the Balkans in October 1992, he was one of only two fluent Serbo-Croat speakers in the British Army and was initially attached to the Cheshire Regiment and Col Bob Stewart. He proved his value both in his knowledge of the language and in his understanding of the people and the ethnic problems between them.

When the Cheshire Regiment returned to the UK after six months, Mr Stankovic remained and became attached to Gen Rose’s staff in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The work was often dangerous and Mr Stankovic took to wearing two flak jackets. He was known as Mike Stanley by colleagues because his real surname marked him out as a Serb.

It was not long before some on the Muslim side complained privately that his relationship with Mladic and Karadzic was too close. It is widely believed that it was partly the concerns of the Bosnian [Muslim] authorities, passed on to the Americans, that triggered the investigation which led to Mr Stankovic’s arrest.

UK’s Ministry of Defence Took Away Milos’ Entire Career

After returning to the UK, he was awarded the MBE in recognition of his work in Bosnia. He received his medal from the Queen during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Qaiser Khanzada, Mr Stankovic‘s solicitor, said they would be suing the MoD for abuse of public office which caused him to lose his career.

Mr Khanzada said: “We will be seeking significant damages to cover loss of earning, loss of pension rights, false imprisonment and a myriad of other issues including legal costs. We are saying that the actions of the defendant (the MoD) caused Milos to sustain the loss of his career.”

“Trusted Mole”

Book by Milos Stankovic, illustrated; HarperCollins Publishers Limited, 476pp, ISBN 0006530907. Buy this book at Amazon

Praised by the Sunday Times as “by far the best book to have come out of the Balkan wars,” description of Milos Stankovic’s book reads:

“Fuelled by outrage at his arrest in December 1997 by MoD police, Milos Stankovic, a major in the Parachute Regiment of the British Army and the son of a Royalist [Chetnik] Serb, decided to write his extraordinary story: a dramatic tale of life on the edge in war-ravaged Bosnia. His life was constantly at risk; nevertheless, he ran a ‘Schindler’s List’ operation, smuggling families (Serb, Croat or Muslim) out of besieged Sarajevo. His arrest came as a thunderbolt. What lay behind it will be revealed in the book and will ignite an international controversy.”

Posted by Svetlana at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Biggest Ethnic Cleansing of the Entire Yugoslav Conflict

“On Aug. 5, 1995 the army of the newly independent European state of Croatia attacked its own citizens, expelling its undefended Orthodox Christian population in what it called ‘Operation Storm’.

“These Orthodox Christian Serbs had earlier survived the slaughter of three quarters of a million Serbs, Jews and Roma (Gypsies) in the Holocaust conducted by Nazi-allied fascist Croatia in World War II. Only some Serbs, who were forcibly converted to Catholicism at gunpoint, were spared.

“Modern-day Croatia completed the crime it started in World War II. On Aug. 5, 1995, in front of CNN cameras and an inexplicably silent international community, Croatia completed the biggest ethnic cleansing of the entire Yugoslav conflict, expelling over half a million Orthodox in four years,” reads the announcement of the STOP Coalition’s protest against the “Operation Storm” on the anniversary of Croat mass ethnic cleansing of Serbs twelve years ago, held today in front of the Croatian embassy in Washington.

Memorial Services for Victims of Croat “Operation Storm”

Memorial services were held yesterday in Serbia and Republic of Srpska (Bosnia-Herzegovina) for victims of the Operation Storm in which over 2,500 Serbs were killed and more than 250,000 people of Serbian nationality banished.

The service in Belgrade’s Church of St. Mark was held by Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije and bishops Atanasije and Nikanor. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Minister of Religion Radomir Naumov, Minister of Infrastructure Velimir Ilic and Commissioner for Refuges Dragisa Dabetic were among those who attended the service.

Metropolitan Amfilohije said that a train of refugees who sought shelter in Serbia 12 years ago is no different or less horrifying than trains of Serbs who were taken to Jadovno and Jasenovac in World War II to be tortured and slaughtered.

The ordeal of Serbian people on the territory of Croatia continues today, said the Metropolitan, and invited all exiled Serbs to return to their hearths where their ancestors had lived for centuries.

Following the memorial service, over 1,000 people set off for Nikola Pasic Square where a gathering was held in memory of victims of Operation Storm.

Serbs Will Never Forget

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that Serbs will never forget the terrifying scenes of ethnic cleansing of twelve years ago when an entire population of Serbs from Krajina was banished from their homes and land.

Kostunica said that the longest train of forcibly expelled people Europe had seen since World War Two will forever remain a testimony of the defeat of all those who committed this crime and are responsible for it.

“It is our duty as a people to pay tribute to all innocent victims of Operation Storm, which is what we are doing today,” stressed the Prime Minister.

He emphasized that in the course of the entire previous century a number of crimes were committed against Serbian people and added that Serbia must do all it can so that none of those victims is ever forgotten and crimes like those repeated.

President Tadic: Croatia Must Honor Its Responsibilities Towards Expelled Serbs

Serbian President Boris Tadic underscored that those responsible for the murders and expulsion of over 250,000 Serbs during the Operation Storm alone have to be brought to face the justice. “I will keep reminding and demanding that everyone who committed crimes has to be held accountable in the court of law,” said Tadic after lighting a candle in St. Mark Church in memory of the Operation Storm victims.

Press service from the President’s cabinet stated that during his conversation with the representatives of the Family Association of Missing and Killed During Operation Storm, Tadic reiterated his firm dedication to establishing the responsibility and prosecuting those who committed crimes. He also assured them that during his conversations with Croat president Stjepan Mesic he insisted on Croatia’s responsibility for securing the safe return of Serbian refugees, guaranteeing their rights to employment and reinstating the score of other rights they were stripped off during the war.

The Crime Without Punishment

Saturday morning, Representatives of Family Association of the Victims and Missing Persons During Operation Storm and Serbs expelled from Croatia gathered in protest in front of the Croatian embassy in Belgrade. The protest was dominated by the gigantic banner with names of the missing Serbs, along the messages “Croatia’s Still Hiding 2,650 Killed Krajina Serbs” and “The Crime Without Punishment—Through Storm to NDH” (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska, Independent State of Croatia, a fascist — Ustasha — state during WWII, notorious for one of the most gruesome chapters of holocaust in the human history).

A resolution that condemns continued crime and genocide over the Serbs in Krajina and Croatia was read by the Minister of Serbian Krajina Government in Exile, Ratko Licina.

The document demands that Croatia ends its policy of national, ethnic and religious discrimination, that Croat officials put an end to indiscriminate arrests and rigged political trials, and that it stops celebrating the Operation Storm as a national holiday, since the operation was a criminal undertaking of a genocidal nature, aimed at purging the country’s territory from each member of Serbian ethnicity.

The resolution also calls on Croatia to reinstate the status of a constitutive people to Serbs and for granting political and cultural autonomy to Croatian Serbs.

The document to be sent to the Croatian president and parliament, also demands restitution of Serb-owned property in Croatia, while urging the Serbian parliament to pass a law on refugees, and monitor implementation of bilateral and other agreements related to the plight of those exiled in August 1995.

700,000 Serbs Expelled From Croatia in 1990-1995

Serbian refugees from Croatia addressed the so-called “international community” at the gathering in front of the Croat embassy in Belgrade, saying that even after 12 years official Zagreb has not honored its responsibilities regarding the return of the expelled Serbs who are still stripped of all their civil and human rights in Croat state. “Croatia is deeply mistaken if it believes it has solved ‘the Serbian question’ by expulsion and ethnic cleansing,” said Rade Cubrilo, president of the citizen association “The Return of the Expelled Krajina Serbs.” He stressed that Croatia keeps failing to honor three legally binding documents, mainly demanding the safe return of all expelled and reinstating their rights.

Cubrilo reminded that up until 1990 Serbs had the status of constitutive nation in Croatia, adding that they will not relinquish that status, but demand to have it reinstated. From 1990-1995 Croats have expelled 550,000 Serbs from Krajina and another 150,000 Serbs, most of whom declared themselves as Yugoslavs, from cities and towns and other parts of the country, said Cubrilo.

During the war some 20,000 Serbs were killed, captured and went missing, while up until today the destiny of 2,650 Serbs remains unknown, said Rade Cubrilo. He added that during the WWII, in what was then a fascist “Independent State of Croatia” (NDH), over one million Serbs were killed, concluding that such Croatia will not and should not be allowed to join the EU.

Representative of the expelled Serbs called on USA, Canada and other states to request that Croatia reinstates the civil rights it took from Krajina Serbs, emphasizing that they are sorely mistaken if they hope to find someone to sign off on Croatia solving “the Serbian question”, since no one has the mandate or the right to wipe from memory the entire nation turned into homeless refugees.

Posted by Svetlana at 02:38 PM | Permalink

The ‘Successful War’ we lost in Kosovo
America has itself to blame for giving terrorism a toehold in Europe

By Julia Gorin, American Legion Magazine

Until an Albanian plot to massacre American soldiers at Fort Dix was foiled in May, most eyes would glaze over at the mention of the obscure, forgotten war zone of Kosovo, currently a UN protectorate whose 90%-plus Albanian-Muslim majority is about to be handed independence from Serbia by the international community. Few Americans understand that, between Kosovo gaining independence and not, America’s soul hangs in the balance.

Nor is it widely known that the explosives used in the Madrid and London bombings, as well as those used in the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Greece, came from Kosovo, a state-in-progress led by the violent, jihadist, narco-terrorist mafiosos of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The KLA was supposed to have disbanded and disarmed after the 1999 conflict. Instead, it has continued arming itself in the event that the province isn’t granted independence this year. It is a bin Laden-trained army of local clansmen, Marxists, university students and jihadists with whom the United States allied itself in 1999 against Serbia, an ally both in World War I and World War II.

“Balkan blowback” is a term often used today to frame a problem that has not gone away but has grown more threatening and complex, with an independent Kosovo looming darkly on the horizon of the global war on terrorism. The blowback includes the Fort Dix plot, Madrid and the 2005 London Tube attack that was coordinated in Bosnia. It also includes the fact that Kosovo, like Bosnia, has become a one-stop terror shop, a haven and thoroughfare for wanted terror suspects, a source of “white al Qaeda” volunteers, and a world capital in drug and slave traffic. This would be reason enough to deny the majority-Muslim Albanians independence, which they’ve threatened to seize by force in any case.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that a Serb a day is killed in Kosovo. Amid two million Albanians, the 100,000 Kosovo Serbs who haven’t yet fled, or have fled and returned, live in barbed-wire-enclosed, KFOR-guarded perimeters of a few kilometers—beyond which they dare not venture. When shot at by Albanians, NATO troops are directed to flee rather than return fire, which would draw attention to the province as unstable, exposing that there is the threat of violence should Albanians not get what they want. It all leads to the question, “Why are the people we went to war for shooting at us?”

NATO troops in Kosovo, to which a contingent of 1,500 National Guardsmen was added in November, know to avoid doing any real policing that could result in a firefight. This is how Serbian nuns continue to be killed and how Serbian property continues to be seized by Albanian squatters, how churches and monasteries continue to be destroyed, as Saudi-financed mosques take their place. In Kosovo, we didn’t fight to end racism and ethnic cleansing, as we were told. We enabled it.

Advocates for rewarding the violence with statehood tout the Kosovo Albanians as being “the most pro-American lot” there is. It’s a dubious endorsement for America if ever there were one.

Entire article...

Letters from the (Kosovo) Front

By Julia Gorin, Front Page Magazine

After my article “The ‘Successful War’ we Lost in Kosovo” came out in this month’s American Legion Magazine, I received a letter from an American soldier who deployed there last year. He was stunned that anyone was talking about Kosovo, even more that someone was aware of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Kosovo and of the jihadists passing through there freely. “With all the attention on Iraq,” he told me by phone, “everyone underestimates this region. No one understands that what happens here will play a key role in European security for the next 10 [or more] years.”

Following is the most recent of a series of letters from this soldier, revealing the devastating effects on our troops when the United States allies itself with Iran and al-Qaeda in a given area. In the coming days, he has promised to send additional letters that will demonstrate our troops’ confusion about their mission in Kosovo -- something that NATO troops have been grappling with since they first arrived in Kosovo in 1999.

Entire article...

The Bosnian Connection
The civil war that inspired both liberal hawks and Islamist jihadis

By Brendan O’Neill, The American Conservative

In a recent Vanity Fair feature, Christopher Hitchens bemoaned the transformation of London into “Londonistan.” He wrote about Finsbury Park, a shabby, multicultural corner of the capital, where the old sights of Irish immigrants staggering from dingy pubs and Greeks trying to hawk kebabs have been replaced by young Muslim men sporting beards and women cloaked in the black hijab.

Then there is the notorious Finsbury Park mosque. Abu Hamza al-Masri, the hook-handed, one-eyed former Mujahi-deen of the Afghan-Soviet War, was the imam there until his arrest and imprisonment in 2006 for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. The 7/7 bombers were inspired by Hamza’s rancid rhetoric. Other visitors to the mosque included Richard Reid, the failed shoe-bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the French-Moroccan found guilty of being the “20th hijacker” of 9/11.

For Hitchens, the transformation of this once lively mixed suburb into a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, where the “the scent of Algeria … now predominates along the main thoroughfare,” is symptomatic of a broader shift in British society. “How did a nation move from cricket and fish-and-chips to burkas and shoe-bombers in a single generation?” he asks.

Hitchens also revisits the curious case of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. As British as they come, he was brought up in a leafy suburb in northeast London, where he was privately educated, and later attended the London School of Economics. Now he is in prison in Pakistan for orchestrating the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl. According to Hitchens, Sheikh’s shocking journey, from burying his head in books at the LSE in the early 1990s to crudely removing the head of an American writer in Pakistan in 2002, shows the lethality of the radical Islamist bug sweeping the British Isles.

Yet Hitchens omits one important fact about Sheikh. You see, Hitchens and Sheikh—the celebrated journalist and the imprisoned murderer—share a striking feature. Both were radicalized by the same issue: the civil war in Bosnia of 1992-95, and both were set on their current political trajectories by their deep sympathy for the Bosnian Muslims and their loathing of the Bosnian Serbs. Indeed, while they may have ended up worlds apart, with Hitchens writing pro-interventionist articles for the American press and Sheikh a crazed killer in Pakistan, one might argue that, politically, they are cut from the same cloth.

Entire article...

Posted by Svetlana at 07:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad

Book by John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and a former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer. Zenith Press, 368pp, ISBN 0760330034. Buy this book at Amazon

Editorial Reviews: Bosnia — a Battleground for Mujahidin Supported by the Clinton Administration

This book provides the missing piece in the puzzle of al-Qa’ida’s transformation from an isolated fighting force into a lethal global threat: the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995. John R. Schindler reveals the unexamined role that radical Islam played in that terrible conflict--and the ill-considered contributions of American policy to al-Qa’ida’s growth. His book explores a truth long hidden from view: that, like Afghanistan in the 1980s, Bosnia in the 1990s became a training ground for the mujahidin. Unholy Terror at last exposes the shocking story of how bin Laden successfully exploited the Bosnian conflict for his own ends--and of how the U.S. Government gave substantial support to his unholy warriors, leading to blowback of epic proportions.

The Bosnian conflict of 1992 to 1995 has been largely misrepresented in the West ...until now. In Unholy Terror, John R. Schindler—professor of strategy at the Naval War College and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer—reappraises the war in Bosnia, illuminating its pivotal role in the development of radical Islamic terrorism.

The long hidden truth is that Bosnia played the same role for al-Qa’ida in the 1990s that Afghanistan did in the 1980s, providing a battleground where mujahidin could learn to wage holy war. Schindler exposes how Osama bin Laden exploited the Bosnian conflict for his own ends and the disturbing level of support the U.S. government gave to the Bosnian mujahidin—just as had been done with the Afghan mujahidin. Repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan contributed to blowback of epic proportions: Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (the mastermind of 9/11) and two of the 9/11 hijacker pilots were veterans of the Bosnian jihad.

Unholy Terror is a compelling and meticulously researched step toward finally learning the lessons of Bosnia, which can only help in the continuing battle against Muslim extremists and their global jihad.

Back Cover: America’s Bosnian Allies Widely Connected with Radical Anti-American Regimes

Al-Qa’ida. In the 1980s they were in Afghanistan, supported by the United States as they fought the Soviets; by the new millennium they were responsible for the deadliest attack on American soil in the history of the republic. Where were they in between, and how did they transform themselves from scrappy Afghan rebels to worldwide threat? This enlightening new book, Unholy Terror, provides the frightening answer: the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995 was the core of Osama bin Laden’s growing global jihad. It is frightening not so much because of the tragedies of that war, but because those tragedies occurred under the nose of the U.S. government—at times with U.S. complicity.

John R. Schlinder served for nearly a decade with the National Security Agency—work which took him to many countries in support of U.S. and allied forces operating in the Balkans—and was NSA’s top Balkans expert. He is uniquely qualified to demonstrate

• how the Bosnian conflict has been misrepresented by the mainstream media, covering up the large role played by radical Islam and al-Qa’ida;
• how Osama bin Laden used Bosnia as a base for terrorist operations worldwide—including attacks on the United States from the Millennium Plot to 9/11;
• how veterans of the Bosnian jihad have murdered thousands of Americans and conducted terrorist attacks around the world;
• how the Clinton administration, in collaboration with Iran, secretly supplied Bosnia’s mujahidin, including al-Qa’ida, with millions of dollars of weapons and supplies;
• how America’s Bosnian allies have been in covert alliances with radical anti-American regimes in several countries;
• why Bosnia and its secret jihad matter to America and our War on Terrorism today.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Why Haven’t You Heard of Bratunac?

Have you ever heard of Bratunac? How about any of the non-Serbs you know? Ask them. I’ll bet you nobody has. Now ask those same people if they have heard of Srebrenica.

And there you have it: the accomplishment of 20 years of unrelenting media cleansing and the most brutal propaganda assault since the end of the cold war, designed to emblazon the mind of every single Westerner with the firm belief that Serbs are subhuman villains, deviant monsters who have committed The Holocaust over the European Muslims 50 years after the WWII.

A Very Simple Script

It is a very simple script: archaically nationalistic primitive Serbs [version 1], or mighty powerful SS-like Serbian Borg armada [version 2], led by their own Hitler (Slobodan Milosevic), suddenly decided to replace Yugoslavia with the Greater Serbia, so they launched multiple aggressions on few randomly chosen Yugoslav republics — Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and their own province of Kosovo-Metohija, in order to ethnically cleanse them of all non-Serbs. Thankfully, the “international community,” led by the US and UK, has gotten involved in time to prevent the genocides Serbs would have committed over Slovenes, Croats, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims. The “international community” has, inexplicably, failed in one small place only, the town of Srebrenica, where the Serbian army (controlled by Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic) massacred [version 1] or executed in cold blood [version 2] up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, after, for unspecified reasons, sending their elderly, women and children to safety.

As with every badly written story, the motivations are murky and sketchy, the characters are cartoonishly two-dimensional, there is no context that would help explain any of the alleged events and the inevitable happy-end is resoundingly triumphant: the good guys win and get to punish the bad guys many times over, in a number of ways (sanctions, bombardments, “reversed ethnic cleansing,” “revenge killings,” “revenge destructions” of the churches and monasteries, seizure of the territories, the “International Tribunal” One and the International Tribunal Two, among others). As in every poorly written script, facts, logic, history and laws of gravitation are suspended and even the unresolved problem of no bodies to support the crux of the story — the alleged genocide of 7 or 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica is glossed over, so as not to confuse the audience.

Atrocious fiction is as abundant in our world as certain type of spores that suffocate trees — one has to wonder why no one has launched an environmental campaign of saving the Rain Forest by prohibiting printing thousands of tons of garbage every year, for decades, that has so far destroyed at least one continent of forests and polluted the untold number of minds.

But there is another problem with this particular script: the propaganda authors are not writing merely another bad story, but the history.

Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

Eastern Orthodox Church today celebrates Saints Peter and Paul, Chiefs of the Holy Apostles recognized as pillars of the Church, both martyred by the Roman emperor Nero, a macabre madman and cruel Christian enemy.

Fifteen years ago on the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, Bosnian mujahedeens based in Srebrenica and led by Naser Oric stormed Serbian villages of Zalazje, Biljaca, Sada and Zagoni in Srebrenica region, massacring and killing 69 Serbian civilians and soldiers, wounding more than 70 men, women and children, while 19 Serbs from these villages are still listed as missing. On the 1992 Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, during the day’s bloody orgy, Bosnian Muslim army has pillaged, destroyed and burned all four Serbian villages. Village Zalazje still hasn’t been rebuilt and, fifteen years later, its sole inhabitants are a frail old Serbian couple, left without electricity and with no means to communicate with the outside world.

During 1992 and 1993 Bosnian mujahedeens under the command of Naser Oric have used Srebrenica “safe haven” to kill in the unimaginably monstrous ways (thus far positively identified) 3,282 Serbian civilians in the region of Srebrenica, Bratunac and Podrinje. Unlike the fictional 8,000 Srebrenica Muslims allegedly executed few years later, in July of 1995, Serbian Srebrenica victims have been identified through the DNA matched with their closest family members, and each has the first and last name, dates of birth and death, physical remains and cause of death determined by an official autopsy.

Unlike the fictional 8,000 Srebrenica Muslims, Srebrenica-Bratunac Serbs are remembered and commemorated by the Serbs alone, in a quiet ceremony neither Western media representatives, nor the “international community” officials have attended.

Like every year, Bosnian Serbs have marked the 15th anniversary of the crimes committed against Serbs, after the entire world joined the commemoration of the fictional 8,000 Srebrenica Muslims with all the pomp, pathos and righteous speeches. Serbs have gathered at the Bratunac Memorial, held a Service, laid their wreaths and flowers and remembered their dead silently, in the shadow of a massively advertised Main Event.

Then again, the Serbs have probably deserved that too.

Posted by Svetlana at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The Informed “Fringe” Lays It All Out:

What Would it Take To Open a Debate on Perilous Balkan Interventions?

Ending the Balkan Quagmire at American Thinker by Julia Gorin

For the past eight years, I’ve been in a lonely place politically. I don’t mean the kind of lonely that conservatives generally find themselves in. I’m talking about utter desolation, for there are just as few conservatives as liberals where I’ve been. One of the only non-Serbian Americans to do so, I watched with steady interest for the better part of a decade the clockwork predictability of the fallout from our forgotten Kosovo intervention, a bombing campaign against an emerging post-Communist democracy rooted in Judeo-Christian values--on behalf of tribalistic, blood-code-following nominal Muslims claiming oppression and no less than genocide and ethnic cleansing.

It Began With a Lie

Watching the Albanians predictably move on to terrorize Macedonia within a few months of our intervention that would “contain” the conflict, and then watching Albanians turn their weapons on NATO peacekeepers within 18 months, I wondered what it would take to get a national discussion going about that huge, self-destructive debacle. What would it take to have the debate that, it must be said despite my hobby of mocking Europeans, the German public had in 2001 when it put its politicians’ feet to the fire after learning the hoax that their country had been party to, thanks to a German documentary unapologetically titled “It Began with a Lie.”

In sharp contrast to every other cynically reported war, this time not only were our peacenik presses on board, but conspicuously they didn’t try to ingratiate us to the enemy perspective by letting us hear incessantly from the other side, as they’re otherwise fond of doing. Something was off. Even the evolving “alternative media”—self-tasked with policing the mainstream press and usually very wary of “facts” coming from the mainstream media and of cause celebres—were either silent on this or on precisely the same page as the New York Times, with its Sontag yentas for the first time explaining the concept of “just war”. I found that, aside from Serbian-Americans (and Serbian-Canadians), who would later describe 1999 as a surreality they observed as if outside themselves, the only other people who as a group understood that our action meant something awful for the free world were the Russian-Jewish community that I myself had come from-a cartoonishly patriotic and capitalistic immigrant group with less than zero feeling for “Mother Russia” (if we’re talking about the 70s and 80s wave).

Fabricated Genocide and PR Campaign Started a War

Every now and again, a glimmer of hope that the fraud would be revealed surfaced, first in March, 2000 with a Washington Post article titled “Was it a Mistake? We were Suckers for the KLA” and then in April, 2001, with a Toronto Sun article titled “The Hoax that Started a War”. Now, I thought, the story of the century—a fabricated genocide and PR campaign starting a war—would finally “break.”

Albanian al-Qaeda Connections Blacked Out

But the silence persisted, and none of the rare newspapers giving the occasional op-ed space to the dissenting perspective was interested in actually investigating. Nothing changed in this regard after the attacks of September 11th. Not even after a Washington Times article titled “Hijackers connected to Albanian terrorist cell” came out a week after 9/11, reading:

Albania is one of several places U.S. intelligence agencies are focusing their resources...Islamic radicals, including supporters of bin Laden, have been supporting Albanian rebels fighting in the region, including members of the Kosovo Liberation Army...KLA members have been trained at bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan...As of last year, the group operated a residence in Tirana, and the CIA has been pressing Albania’s government to expel all associates of the Islamic terrorists.

Meanwhile, every one of my own articles attempting to expose the hoax-relegated to a small segment of the alternative media because of a near blackout on the subject everywhere else-dropped with a thud. As did an article coming out two months after 9/11, titled “Al Qaeda’s Balkan Links” (which appeared only in the European edition of the Wall St. Journal). Same thing with a March 2002 National Post article titled “U.S. Supported al-Qaeda Cells during Balkan Wars, Fought Serbian Troops”:

Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network has been active in the Balkans for years, most recently helping Kosovo rebels battle for independence from Serbia with the financial and military backing of the United States and NATO...In the years immediately before the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the al-Qaeda militants moved into Kosovo...to help ethnic Albanian extremists of the KLA mount their terrorist campaign against Serb targets in the region.

Even after another National Post article in 2004 by Canadian former UN General Lewis MacKenzie, titled “We Bombed the Wrong Side?”, came out, Kosovo remained off the media’s and public’s radar-something that vested politicians were counting on.

The Silence Grew Louder

But then came March 2004, when rumors, proved false, that Serbs drowned three Albanian boys, were used as a spark for the orchestrated pogroms of March 2004, leading to the deaths of 19 people, the displacement of 4,000 Serbs, the destruction of dozens of churches and medieval monuments plus hundreds of homes. Surely people would demand to know what on earth was going on over there, I thought, and what are these people whom we “rescued”. All the questions that weren’t asked in 1999 would finally be asked, I thought.

They weren’t. And the silence grew louder. The questions still weren’t asked even when the 9/11 Commission found that Bosnia, with our help, had been the breakout event that transformed al Qaeda into a truly global network; they weren’t asked even when the Commission found that two of the 9/11 hijackers had fought alongside Bosnian and international forces against the Serbs, and that five of the hijackers had been trained in Bosnia, and that Australian David Hicks trained in a KLA camp. But the national dialogue that the issue demanded remained absent, and the media maintained its blackout, one door after another slamming in my face every time I proposed a piece on the repercussions of our Balkans intervention.

Balkan Muslims’ Terror Attacks in States Rehashed

What o what would it take, I wondered, for people’s eyes to stop glazing over at the mention of the words “Bosnia”, “Kosovo” and “Balkans”. The answer came a few days before Valentine’s Day this past February, when a Bosnian immigrant shot nine Americans at a mall in Salt Lake City, an incident that raised some American eyebrows. But the media were prepared, quickly taking the story right back to Bosnia and rehashing the same “Serb-sparked Balkan-wars” explanation that brought us in on the Muslim side in the first place. The story died soon enough, after a round of the familiar “Bosnians aren’t all like that” and “Community fears American Backlash” articles. However, the seed for the long-awaited questions had finally been planted, so that three months later when four Albanians were arrested for plotting to massacre American servicemen in New Jersey, the public finally wanted some answers.

Entire article.... (continues from the subtitle “Conservative Confusion”)

Cartoon by Toso Borkovic (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Russia: EU’s Colonial Governor in Bosnia Violated Dayton Agreement

By imposing the law on the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, the EU’s outgoing High Representative violated the peace accord for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The decision of the outgoing High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling to impose the law on the Srebrenica – Potocari Memorial Center, which takes the center out of the jurisdiction of Republika Srpska and places it under the jurisdiction of the [Muslim dominated] state, is a serious violation of the peace treaty for Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Russian Foreign Ministry representative Mikhail Kaminin.

“The decision of the High Representative is a serious violation of the peace accord for Bosnia-Herzegovina because it involves taking a part of the Republika Srpska territory without its consent and with the use of the special Bonn powers,” stressed Kaminin.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling’s move was met with fierce protest of Republika Srpska officials and residents, causing the breakup of communications with the dictatorial EU High Representative and leading to more tensions in the complicated situation in Bosnia.

“We expect the new High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, who assumed the office on July 2, to correct his predecessor’s move based on the decision of the UN Security Council, to be consistent in looking for compromise between the Bosnia and Herzegovina sides, to follow the passing on of the responsibility for the situation in the country and to avoid using the Bonn powers, especially in instances that are not directly related to the implementation of the peace accord for Bosnia,” warns Russian Foreign Ministry’s official representative Mikhail Kaminin in his response, provided by the public relations office of the Russian Federation Embassy in Bosnia.

Al-Qaeda Protected in Muslim Part of Bosnia and Among Kosovo Albanians

According to report by the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, carried by BBC, former al-Qaeda officer Ali Hamad has said that the Bosnia-Herzegovina state still protects members of al-Qaeda, adding that members of this terrorist organization are also to be found in Kosovo-Metohija province where they are supported by Albanian Muslims.

In an interview with Belgrade daily Glas javnosti, Hamad said that some of his former colleagues from al-Qaeda occasionally visit Bosnia-Herzegovina, adding that the state still protected them.

“I also have a dispute with this state, because I claim that they exist, but they try to deny it. Al-Qaeda has its presence here, but I do not know exactly how many people it has. It is even present across Europe,” Hamad said.

Spain and Italy Next?

He said that al-Qaeda had established control over Europe via Bosnia-Herzegovina, assessing that Spain and Italy would soon suffer a terrorist attack similar to what had happened in the United States.

“These days, al-Qaeda believes it is attacked by the whole world. They may even do something here in Bosnia as an act of vengeance. Had al-Qaeda’s people not sheltered and enjoyed protection here, they would have surely not had such a large number of people in Europe,” Hamad said.

He said that, according to his knowledge, al-Qaeda after Bosnia had the largest number of its people in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province where Albanians supported them.

“They especially hate the Serbs. In some FBI reports, it has been demonstrated that al-Qaeda has its people in Kosovo, and that domestic people from Kosovo are among them. I believe that [training] camps also exist, because where al-Qaeda plants its people, there must be camps, too,” Hamad said.

Incomparable Atrocities

Speaking about the murder of Serbs and other non-Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hamad said that the mujahedeen had used to kill using bullets, knives, strangling wires, chainsaws, axes, small knives, etc.

He cited an example of the murder of a Croat boy in Guca village near Travnik whose head had been cut off in front of his father. The father had to watch all this, and then he was himself killed along with 20 other civilians from the village.

“This man cried, sought help, begged, and when he saw them cutting his son’s neck he turned his head away, but he was forced to watch. They held him, opened his eyes and held him,” Hamad said.

Hamad said that he would rather hang himself than stay to live in Zenica, adding that he must forget Bosnia. He also said that he was currently trying to find a place somewhere in the West via US authorities and the Hague tribunal.

Dossier: 3,500 Bosnian Muslim and Croat War Criminals Still Free

From Tuesday, July 3, Glas Javnosti has started publishing within its Dosije (Dossier) section the names of some 3,500 Bosnian Muslims and Croats, including Middle Eastern mujahedeens stationed in Bosnia, who are still free after committing war crimes against the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia. The list is in alphabetical order and includes the concrete charges against each perpetrator.

Posted by Svetlana at 05:05 PM | Permalink

Croat Parliamentarians and Minister of Education Plunge Into Zagreb Ustasha Fest

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its sense of outrage and disgust in the wake of a massive show of fascist salutes, symbols and uniforms at a rock concert by popular ultra-nationalist Croatian singer “Thompson” attended by 60,000 people in Zagreb last night.

In a letter sent today to Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff noted the presence of Croatian dignities, including the Minister of Science, Education and Sports, at the event and called for the banning of concerts by singers like Thompson who glorify fascism and racism.

The letter states:

“According to the Croatian media, the concert turned into a massive fascist demonstration with tens of thousands of people shouting the infamous Ustasha salute of ‘Za dom spremni.’ In addition,… numerous participants came wearing Ustasha uniforms and symbols. To make matters worse, in attendance last night were officials and members of Parliament, as well as the Minister of Science, Education [!!] and Sports.”

“Under the current circumstances, I believe that the time has come to prohibit public concerts by those who write songs of nostalgia for Jasenovac and inspire the show of Ustasha symbols, which constitute open and blatant incitement against all the minorities in Croatia,” writes Wiesenthal Center Director.

“I believe that only if someone of your stature and outstanding anti-fascist credentials will lead the efforts to combat this ugly wave of revived fascism, can this extremely dangerous new trend be stopped before it engulfs Croatia.”

Stjepan Mesic Wrong Person to Complain To

For some reason, Dr Zuroff seems unaware that Mesic’s beloved uncle was Ustasha and that Stipe Mesic’s record during the decades after the WWII is everything but “anti-fascist.” In fact, like any red-bloodied Ustasha, Croat president has asked to have “no Serbs” anywhere around or near him for the duration of his last presidential visit to Austria. According to Tanjug, Austrians were dully accommodating and responded to Mesic’s sensitivities by giving all the Serb employees few days off.

Croat RC Priest Organizer of Thompson’s Concerts and his Greatest Fan

Couple of months earlier, Ustasha Fest by the same Croat Nazi Thompson was canceled in Sarajevo, after the Association of Bosnia-Herzegovina camp prisoners, Bosnian Serbs and the local Jewish community condemned the announced concert by Marko Perkovic. Simon Wiesanthal Center Director Efraim Zuroff supported their stance:

“The question is this: what is he going to sing about? Killing Serbs, killing Muslims? I don’t see why a person like that should be welcome in Sarajevo or anywhere for that matter,” Zuroff said, adding that Thompson does not do Croatia credit.

The organizer of the concert, Don Anto Jelic of the Croatian Roman Catholic Charity Society, was embittered by Zuroff’s statements:

“I think such statements are malevolent. Let him prove that Thompson ever sang against Serbs, Muslims or Jews,” said Croat Roman Catholic priest Don Jelic in April this year, adding that he had not heard a recording of Thompson singing the notorious “Jasenovac and Gradiska Stara” song, and telling Croat media that the question about that song should be put to Thompson.

More by Julia Gorin

Posted by Svetlana at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice by John Laughland

Buy this book at Amazon.com

Book review by Tara McCormack, a doctoral student researching post-Cold War security theory at the University of Westminster. Earlier review by the Spectator’s Anthony Daniels available here.

The vast majority of what passes for analysis of the Yugoslav break-up and wars, and later events such as the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), is marked by a blatant disregard for either evidence or accuracy. In stark contrast, John Laughland’s excellent book on the ICTY and the trial of Slobodan Milosevic is a powerful critique based upon a detailed analysis of both the procedures and rules governing the ICTY in general, and Milosevic’s trial in particular.

Utter Arbitrary Lawlessness

It is difficult to do justice to the utter arbitrary lawlessness of the ICTY. In the first place, the ICTY is not a court as is generally understood nor can it be compared to apparently similar bodies like the International Court of Justice. The ICTY is an explicitly prosecutorial institution, in which the Office of the Prosecutor is part of the Tribunal and is set up, in its own words, for the ‘sole purpose of prosecuting persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia’.

Laughland shows us an institution staffed by judges who often have little experience of criminal law, let alone international criminal law. For example, American judge Gabrielle Kirk Macdonald was amazed to be asked to serve on the ICTY. When she protested that she did not know anything about international war crimes, she was told that that was immaterial and that she would learn. We can only speculate as to how much experience British judge Richard May (who presided over Milosevic’s trial) garnered in international criminal law and international relations from his experiences as a crown court judge on the Midland and Oxford Circuit. Other judges have been entirely without any kind of judicial experience but have been law professors, legal advisers or even, in the case of the Turkish judge, a diplomat.

Astonishing though this is, it is perhaps the least shocking aspect of the institution, when considering both the gravity of the charges laid against the defendants and the entirely novel nature of the Tribunal and its aims. The rules of procedure of the ICTY, for example, have been changed every three months since the ICTY was set up. Incredibly, the ICTY judges make the rules themselves, overturning the fundamental distinction between a judicial and a legislative role. ICTY judges are in essence making international law. Furthermore, the Tribunal is a pick and mix patchwork of the two main systems of law, the adversarial system and the inquisitorial system, overturning, as Laughland points out, the checks and balances inherent in each system.

ICTY Would Make Stalin Blush

The rules of procedure of the ICTY would have made Stalin blush. The processes of the ICTY are in effect a rejection of everything that differentiates law from arbitrary rule. Secret indictments are used, hearsay evidence is often permitted and the fundamental legal principle of ‘no crime without a law’ - ie, that an act should not be made a crime after the event - is overturned. Anonymous witnesses are commonplace, contravening the fundamental principle of criminal law that the accused has a right to know who the witness is and to cross-examine them. The ICTY also overturns the ‘double jeopardy’ principle, whereby one may not be tried for the same crime twice. The ICTY allows the prosecutor to appeal against the acquittal of a defendant who has been found innocent and to obtain their continued detention. These procedures contravene existing international conventions, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, and the ICTY’s own statute (1).

In order to prosecute Milosevic, the ICTY relied upon a legal principle which it had invented on the hoof, that of ‘joint criminal enterprise’. This concept does not appear in the ICTY statute nor anywhere else, nor even in the original ‘indictments’ of Milosevic. As I have argued previously on spiked, this novel principle essentially allows the ICTY to convict someone in the absence of any evidence whatsoever (2). Although the prosecution had originally issued three ‘indictments’ of Milosevic (regarding Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo), this was then changed into a sort of ‘super’ indictment. Here, the prosecution attempted to make the political case that Milosevic had orchestrated a vast ‘joint criminal enterprise’, beginning in Croatia and concluding in Kosovo, to create a ‘Greater Serbia’. In keeping with the general ad hoc procedures of the ICTY, this idea of ‘Greater Serbia’ had not featured in the original separate indictments.

Indictments for President Milosevic Based on BBC Documentaries

The idea of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’ was based primarily on BBC documentaries and misquoting Milosevic’s speeches. The prosecution’s own star witnesses — including employees of the Office of the Prosecutor — failed to offer any proof of such a conspiracy. The trial spent a lot of time listening to anonymous witnesses who could shed no light on who might have committed the alleged crimes or who could only offer hearsay evidence. Finally, after three years of the trial and to the shock even of the ICTY judges, the prosecutor, Geoffrey Nice, was forced to admit that Milosevic had never even used the words ‘Greater Serbia’. The decision to continue the trial after the resignation (on grounds of ill-health) of Judge May, the imposition of defence counsel on Milosevic against his will and, when Milosevic was ill, trial in absentia, are all aspects of what Laughland calls the fundamental lawlessness of the Tribunal. Milosevic’s death brought an end to the farce, which was surely a relief to those running the ICTY.

Laughland’s book is excellent for his critique and analysis of the ICTY and Milosevic’s trial in itself, but he also engages with broader shifts in post-Cold War international relations. For example, Laughland examines the erosion of the fundamental distinction between war and crime. The idea that war, as the act of a state, should be viewed in political rather than moral terms has increasingly been called into question in much post-Cold War security theory and international security policy. Laughland also highlights the dangerous implications of ethics and morality as a basis for international relations.

Laughland tackles some crucial theoretical questions. He argues, for example, that state sovereignty, as properly understood, clarifies and renders accountable the exercise of power (3). This is particularly problematic when the criminal justice system is detached from the state. As Laughland points out, the ICTY is in no way accountable to the people over whom it claims jurisdiction in the way that a normal legislative system, however bad, would be.

Trial By the Unaccountable and Non-Existent ‘International Community’

Laughland shows that the common argument that the ICTY is a continuation of Nuremberg and existing international law is false. In the first place, this ignores the central charge of Nuremberg, ‘aggressive war’ (as also codified in the UN Charter). Furthermore, Laughland points out a more important and crucial difference between Nuremberg and the ICTY: whilst the ICTY is established in the name of an unaccountable and non-existent ‘international community’ and international morality, the Nuremberg trials were grounded in the explicit assumption of sovereignty over Germany by the Allied powers. Nuremberg was a highly problematic entity. Nonetheless, the lines of both responsibility and accountability were clearly drawn at Nuremberg, something that cannot be said about the ICTY.

While there are some points on which I would disagree with him — for example, I don’t think there is an all-powerful, crusading and ideological supra-nationalism at work today — these are largely tangential to Laughland’s central argument. Travesty is a powerfully argued book based upon compelling analysis that should be widely read.

(1) See also: Sellars, Kirsten (2003) The Rise and Rise of Human Rights, (Stroud: Sutton) chapter 9, for an excellent discussion of the ICTY

(2) How did Srebrenica become a morality tale?, by Tara McCormack

(3) See also Bickerton, C, Cunliffe P, Gourevitch, A (2007), Politics Without Sovereignty, A Critique of Contemporary International Relations Theory (London: Routledge)

Posted by Svetlana at 04:33 AM | Permalink

Nazi War Criminal Dies After Rich Career At the Top of the World

“Waldheim - how his friends would prefer that they didn’t read these words this morning - was based at a town called Banja Luka, a market town where Serbs and Jews and communist Croatians were murdered en masse, hanged like thrushes from mass gallows or raped to death in the nearby Jasenovac extermination camp. Waldheim would have us believe that he knew nothing of all this, that he was a mere intelligence officer for Army Group E of the Wehrmacht, whose commander, Löhr, just happened to be tried for war crimes after the Second World War” — writes Robert Fisk in today’s Independent.

As Waldheim’s compatriots mourn the loss of “a great Austrian,” lowering the flags outside the presidential palace in Vienna to half-staff, among the Serbs, former Austrian president and UN Secretary-General “will be remembered primarily as a Nazi officer involved in atrocities against Serbs and Jews in western Bosnia,” writes Nebojsa Malic, reminding that Waldheim was a “war criminal who not only ‘escaped justice’ but eventually rose to the highest office of the UN, the very organization which later (overstepping its already generously broad mandate) established the illegal ‘tribunal’ for political persecution of Balkans leaders,” overwhelmingly of Serbian ethnicity.

Kurt Waldheim was an embodiment of Western injustice and duplicity, the representative of a self-styled Aryan Race that seized the uncontested right to reign, destroy and hold judgment over the “lesser races” of Slavs and Jews, among others, treating them as savages in need of an Enlightened Master who’ll pillage their resources and wealth, while rooting them out one way or the other — nowadays in a more “civilized,” politically correct manner, by crushing their spirits, humiliating and starving them at the doorsteps of the Aryan Empire.

U.S. Mainstream Far More Dangerous Than Totalitarian States’ Press

Commenting the CNN-AP obituaries to “a great Austrian,” Carl Savich said:

They did it again. Like with the “Albanian” vs. “Yugoslav” controversy over Fort Dix Six, the US mainstream media manipulates the facts to cover-up the actual context. In the obituary for Kurt Waldheim, they say that he was involved in the Kozara operation that killed “23,000 children”. They leave out that the 23,000 children killed were Serbian. They also leave out that the 68,000 people killed were almost all Serbian. Again, when convenient for propaganda purposes, the victims are “Yugoslav”.

Also left out is the fact that the Kozara operation was conducted with Croatian Ustasha forces, a genocidal ultra-nationalist regime and ally of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. After the war, the US helped the Croatian war criminals escape prosecution for genocide and war crimes in the Ratlines.

In 1991, a resurgent Croatia became a proxy and ally of the US. The new Croatia revived the Ustasha past.

This is just another example of how the US media is in many ways far more dangerous than the one in totalitarian states. The mainstream media is brainwashing us and manipulating us and we don’t even know it.

Historical photos provided by Carl Savich

Posted by Svetlana at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Genocide Croats Committed in WWII Must Be Fully Acknowledged and Punished

Participants of the Fourth International Conference on Jasenovac, held in the city of Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, have adopted a Declaration requesting a lawsuit to be brought against the state of Croatia for genocide committed over Serbs, Jews and Gypsies during the Second World War.

Declaration demands that Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia bring up charges against Croatia for the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Roma committed in the Jasenovac system of death camps in the fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

The document recommends that Council of Ministers of BiH, RS and Serbian government seek compensation for victims of Croat genocide and for their descendants before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. It further requests the governments of Croatia, Republika Srpska and Serbia to start a procedure for unifying the Jasenovac Complex, currently divided between Bosnia and Croatia, and to put it under UNESCO protection.

Conference participants also requested immediate investigation of the Ustice area — the location of the mass grave of more than 12,000 Roma victims, according to the document.

With the adoption of the Declaration the two-day Fourth International Conference on Jasenovac in which over 170 members participated, submitting more than 50 reports and documents, has ended.

Jasenovac Holocaust, First Day of the Conference

“The numbers are important, but holocaust can be a one, single victim. My mother was suffocated and then burned in Auschwitz for no other reason but because she was Jewish. Isn’t that horrendous in and of itself?” — Arie Livne, representative of the World Jewish Congress, addressed the present with this testimony on Wednesday, on the first day of the Fourth International Conference on Jasenovac, held in Banja Luka’s Ban Court. His reminder about the horrific fate of any of hundreds of thousands of Jasenovac martyrs was a comment on the discussions over the past years, mainly between Serbs and Croats, regarding the numbers and scope of the Jasenovac holocaust.

During the two-day conference of historians, theologians, politicians and survivors of the Croat death camps, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik warned that this massive crime was never officially condemned or punished.

“Spreading the falsities and distorting the facts about Jasenovac is part of the vile campaign to politicize and minimize the victims of these monstrous death camps,” said Dodik.

On Wednesday, the Orthodox Christian and Jewish religious services were held for the souls of the cruelly slaughtered Jasenovac Complex prisoners. Memorial Liturgy was served by the Serbian Bishop of Bihac-Petrovac Diocese Chrysostom, and the prayers for the killed Jews were read by the Belgrade Rabbi Isak Asiel.

Vladimir Umeljic, Belgrade historian and theologian, has put forward a proposal to send a resolution to the European power centers demanding that Croatia’s EU membership be conditioned by the full acknowledgment of the Croat Jasenovac genocide.

Croat Government Keeps Covering Up the Genocide

“The new Croat government is using different means in an attempt to do the same as Franjo Tudjman: cover up their crimes committed in the WWII,” said Professor Srboljub Zivanovic, President of the British Department of the International Slavic Academy of Arts and Science and one of the regular guests of the international conferences on WWII genocides, in the interview with Vecernje Novosti.

“They are now presenting Jasenovac as a ‘labor camp’ or, as they say ‘concentration and labor camp’,” notes Zivanovic. “This, of course, is only an interim stage and in a year or two it will turn into a nice and clean ‘labor camp’ only.”

“The entire cover-up campaign started when, during the operations ‘Flash’ and ‘Storm,’ Croats re-captured Jasenovac, but also since the Republika Srpska government headed by Milorad Dodik handed over to Washington all the archives and material from Jasenovac kept in Banja Luka, without even listing the inventory. Americans gave everything back to Croats, and we now have the entirely new ‘exhibit’ setup where, for example, there are no Roma victims at all.”

Jasenovac Death Camp Took More Than 730,000 Lives

“Out of 80,000 Gypsies who lived in the fascist Independent State of Croatia, only 422 were left in Croatia and 457 in Bosnia-Herzegovina!”, said professor. “In five or six books published in Croatia recently, one author claims no more than thousand people were killed in Jasenovac, the other that there may have been two thousand Jasenovac victims and the third one cites these two and concludes this is not quite correct, that there could have been up to 5,000 people killed in Jasenovac death camps.”

“Is it possible for anyone to be that brazen, when I held in my own hands at least that many children skeletons and only from the few graves,” asks professor Zivanovic who, in 1964, was a member of the team of court’s forensic anthropologists, assigned to determine the approximate number of the Croat genocide victims buried in Jasenovac mass graves.

“Our report was first published only in 1992 and it clearly states: 730,000 human skeletons on the territory of this death camp,” says Zivanovic, explaining that this research did not include the scores of victims whose bodies were sent to Serbia down the rivers of Sava and Danube, that he had personally seen as a six year old child in Serbian city of Smederevo.

The Full Truth is Only 50 Inches Below the Ground

Srboljub Zivanovic notes that the commission was set to fail, so all of the Belgrade and Zagreb professors refused to take part in it and he, as a young assistant professor was assigned to work with another three young men, two from Slovenia and one from Croatia.

“Before us, there was a group of court-assigned medical doctors from Ljubljana (Slovenia), who drilled the soil with electric drills and would mark as the grave site each place where they found human remains. Our group of forensic anthropologists opened parts of those grave sites, and that is how we established the number of 730,000 skeletons. On average, there were 27 skeletons per 2 square meters/yards,” says professor Zivanovic, adding that the sophisticated modern methods allow for much more precision, since “the full truth is no further than 120 centimeters [47 inches] below the ground.”

Vatican Policy of Exterminating Orthodox Serbs Alive and Well Since the 19th Century

“In the 19th century Vatican made a decision to exterminate the ‘heretical, schismatic’ Eastern Orthodox Serbs,” says Dr. Zivanovic. “The same policy is still in force, since the Serbian nation has to be in numbers, militarily and economically weaker than the Roman Catholic Croats and Slovenes. The common state was imposed on us two times, because we had to save these Roman Catholic nations twice from paying reparations after their defeat in two world wars,” stresses Oxford professor.

“Serbian teachers do not teach our children that this same policy is being enforced since the First Serbian Uprising [against the Ottoman Turks]; nowhere in Serbian textbooks is it written that Serbia was under Western sanctions since the Balkan wars until the First World War... Everyone is surprised when I tell them that France had sent 3,000 of its well-armed soldiers who, with La Marseillaise on their lips, were helping Muslim Turks to wipe out Karadjordje’s rebels freeing Serbia from Muslim occupation.”

Vatican’s Saints of Croatia

Recently, Vatican has proclaimed three Croats the saints of Roman church, says Dr Zivanovic.

“The first one is ‘blessed’ Dominik Mandic who headed the Croatian Confraternity of San Girolamo in Vatican. The entire work of this ‘saint’ was dedicated to the destruction of Yugoslavia and he seemed to have been successful. This man was one of the main organizers of the transport of Pavelic, Artukovic, Sakic and the other Croat WWII war criminals through the so-called ratlines to safety, to South America and United States,” says professor Zivanovic.

“The second major ideologue of the Croat slaughterhouse, who was continuously blessing ustasha bloody hands, was Alojzije Stepinac. He is now declared ‘blessed’ by the Vatican [by the previous pope Karol Wojtyla], he is being bowed to and people kneel in front of his grave in Zagreb.”

The Unspeakable Swineishness

“The third, latest Croat ‘saint,’ is Ivan Merc who educated butcher-friars, as a teacher in the monastery Petricevac near Banja Luka. In that very monastery Merc’s student, the infamous evil-incarnate known as Father Satan Majstorovic, organized a group of 12 ustashas headed by himself as the 13th, like Christ, and took them to a Serbian primary school to an unimaginable slaughter.”

“He asked teacher to bring forward her smartest pupil and when the little girl started to recite a poem, the Merc’s student slowly cut her throat in front of her teacher and all the other children, instructing his ustashas: ‘See how I am baptizing Serbian bastards. Let this blood fall on my soul, and I will forgive all of your sins for everything you do today.’ And more then 1,400 children, men and women were butchered by their knives during that day alone.”

Croat Genocide, Since Ustashi Were Croats

Slavko Goldstein, the president of the Croat whitewashed Jasenovac memorial who recently determined offhand that the final number of the victims in this death camp complex is 80,000 at the most, asked professor Srboljub Zivanovic during the Third International Conference on Jasenovac held in Jerusalem to stop using the term “Croat genocide” and speak about “Ustasha genocide” instead.

“I told him that Ustashi were Croats, not Nazis. Nazis were in Germany, Nazis were in Serbia because they occupied Serbia. There were Nazis in Croatia too, but only in the region occupied by Mussolini. Therefore, the Croat genocide is the correct term, and I am very sorry that it is so,” said Oxford professor.

Jasenovac in pictures, genocide against Serbs during the 1990s civil wars.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Selling Out Christian Serbs to Muslims in Bosnia

NewsMax article “U.S. Selling Out Bosnian Christians to Muslims, Serb Leader Says,” by Kenneth R. Timmerman

The man who helped overthrow Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic says the State Department is pressuring him to hand over Christian Bosnia to its powerful Muslim neighbor, threatening the delicate balance that ended the Bosnian War.

The Bosnian Serbian entity was created under the 1995 Dayton peace accords.

“At the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, I was threatened that if I did not agree to these U.S. demands, I would have problems,” Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told NewsMax in an exclusive interview.

In a meeting on Wednesday at the State Department, Dodik said that Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried didn’t repeat the threats, but insisted that Dodik and the Christian Bosnian Serb government agree to dissolve its independent police force and parliament, and merge them into Muslim-majority federal institutions.

“The United States is trying to assimilate us into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which is a Muslim entity,” Dodik said. Today, Dodik will be meeting with Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is expected to reinforce these demands. Dodik told NewsMax, “I will refuse.”

Asked why he was coming to Washington if to be read the riot act, Dodik said it was “hard to refuse when you’ve been summoned.”

Forced to Accept U.S. Designed Dayton Accords, Now Being Forced by U.S./Muslims to Scrap Dayton

Nearly 1.4 million Serbian Christians live in the Republic of Srpska, the autonomous Serbian entity that Serbs say was “forced down [their] throats” under the 1995 Dayton agreement.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. official who negotiated the 1995 agreement, told a forum marking the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords in November 2005 that among his “mistakes” were the words “Republika Srpska.” He called for the Serbian entity to be dissolved into Muslim Bosnia.

Dodik said that while 99 percent of Bosnian Serbs would prefer to live in an independent state, the Dayton accords had achieved a “balance” and that it would be a mistake to change them now.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey was taken by surprise when a reporter asked him at the daily briefing on Wednesday about the visit of Dodik and BiH president, Sulejman Tihic, a Muslim.

“I can confirm for you that we will have some Bosnian officials here in the building today,” he said. “They’ll be meeting here with Dan Fried. It’s an opportunity for us to talk about our longstanding desire to see Bosnia move forward with some of the necessary constitutional reforms that we have long been advocating and that many Bosnian leaders have long recognized as being necessary for the country to finalize the Dayton process.”

The only Bosnian leaders seeking the “reforms” Casey mentioned are Bosnian Muslim leaders, Dodik said.

State Department Creating Radical Islamic Republics in the Heart of Europe

“If the U.S. project of turning BiH into a single government controlled under one man one vote, in 10 years there will be no more Serbs in the area. All I want is for the U.S. to leave us alone.”

Under the current arrangement, the Bosnian Serbs have 22 members of the federal parliament, and the Bosnian Muslims have 24 members. Simple majority rule, as advocated by the United States, would allow the Bosnian Muslims to transform the Bosnian federation into an Islamic Republic.

In addition, the assimilation of the independent Bosnian Serb police force into a single, federal force “would mean we must accept terrorists who have been recruited into the police by the Bosnian Muslims.”

Muslim Bosnia — White al-Qaeda’s Haven

Dodik and several advisers who also spoke with NewsMax in Washington warned that Muslim Bosnia has become “a platform for attacking the United States and Europe using ‘white’ Al Qaeda members who look like Europeans.”

“When I was asked by [former State Department official] Bob Gelbard why we have to stay in Bosnia, I said it was to prevent the creation of a Muslim state in the heart of Europe,” Dodik said.

Well before the Dayton accords, the Bosnian Muslim authorities forged a close relationship with Osama Bin Laden, even providing him a Bosnian diplomatic passport after his Saudi passport was revoked by the Saudi government.

Five of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were trained in Bosnian Muslim al Qaeda camps.

During the Clinton administration, “the U.S. gave its blessing as 4,400 jihadis came to Bosnia from Afghanistan,” Dodik said.

“The areas where these jihadis operated were also the scenes of horrible crimes against Christian Serbs,” he added. “Until now, there is no data on crimes against Serbs in the UN human rights data bases.”

Only a handful of the jihadis who came to Bosnia during the 1990s have been extradited to the United States and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. More than 700 of the original group of jihadis have been given Bosnian passports and are still based in the country, Dodik said. Among them are 87 Egyptians, 75 Algerians, 80 Jordanians, 28 Lebanese, and 108 Syrians.

U.S. State Department’s Policy Based on Lies

Dodik acknowledged that the war between Muslims, Croats and Serbs took a heavy toll. “But the figure that you always hear — that 300,000 Bosnian Muslims killed — is just not true,“ he said. “Nevertheless, that has always been the basis for State Department policy.”

The real casualty figures, he said, were closer to 56,000 Bosnian Muslims and 35,000 Bosnian Serbs.

Dodik also warned of the involvement of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran in Bosnia.

“The Saudis have funded and built more than 1000 new mosques” in the Muslim areas, he said. “These mosques serve as bases for training Muslim extremists.”

Many of the humanitarian organizations funded by the Saudis in Bosnia have been identified as key elements of the Wahhabi jihadi movement. “Thirty percent of the Bosnian Muslims approve of or are directly involved in the Wahhabi movement,” Dodik said.

Asked where Bosnian Serb military leader General Mladic, who is wanted for war crimes, Dodik said he would “like to get rid of this issue,” but didn’t have a clue where he was hiding.

“Nick Burns should ask our federal head of intelligence. He talks to the Americans more than he talks to me,” Dodik said.

Posted by Svetlana at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Galbraith: Croat Army and Leadership Responsible for Atrocities

Nobody can deny atrocities were committed after the “Operation Storm” (“Oluja”) — ethnic cleansing of more than 300,000 Serbs in Croatia in 1995 — which included the crime of taking steps to prevent the return of Serbian refugees, said former American ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, stressing that not some paramilitary troops, but regular Croat army was responsible for the atrocities and that Croat leadership was behind the crimes.

As a guest of the Croatian TV show “Sunday at 2,” Galbraith said that during and after “Storm” Croat forces were pillaging, torching and killing, that it was clear Croat army had full control of the carnage and that everyone who wished to join the massacre could do so with the approval of Croat army and police.

American Embassy Staff Saw Croat Soldiers Torching Serbian Houses

Pointing out that staff members of the American embassy have seen with their own eyes Croat soldiers torching Serbian houses, Galbraith asserted the involvement of the Croat government was undeniable, although the level of the Croat leadership which ordered, encouraged and supported the carnage remains to be determined.

Former American ambassador did not wish to say if the entire “Operation Storm,” celebrated in Croatia as the liberation, represents a war crime of forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbian population from Krajina region, assessing that an answer to that question should be left to The Hague, which will adjudicate based on the existing evidence. This reluctance to pronounce judgments is a novelty on behalf of Mr. Galbraith, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the Croat military offensive on Krajina and Slavonija Serbs during his diplomatic appointment.

He confirmed that Clinton Administration was fully aware of the transfer of weapons from Iran through Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina mujahedeens during the civil war, violating the international embargo on weapon imports, but did not object.

Galbraith admitted that, when Croat president Franjo Tudjman asked him about the American stance on illegal weapon shipments, Galbraith told him the U.S. have “no instructions” on that issue.

Disturbing images of Croat atrocities are available on Serbianna.com Krajina section.

Posted by Svetlana at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Was ‘Srebrenica genocide’ a Hoax?

WorldNetDaily article by Aleksandar Pavic

For more than 10 years, the term “Srebrenica” has been used to denote the slaughter of “innocent Muslims” at the hands of Christians — more specifically, the Bosnian Serb army, alleged to have slaughtered, according to the version currently accepted by most major media, “between 7,000 and 8,000 Muslims” when it captured that small town in eastern Bosnia in mid-July 1995. As the story goes, the Bosnian Serbs captured this “U.N.-protected zone” and proceeded to take away and execute thousands of men, women and children in the space of several days, subsequently burying them in mass graves that are still being dug up almost 12 years later.

1. Rigged Numbers

Belgrade-based historian and researcher, Milivoje Ivanisevic, who has been documenting Yugoslavian civil war casualties for more than a decade, has recently challenged the claims in a new booklet, “The Srebrenica Identity Card,” which documents hundreds of bodies buried at the Srebrenica Memorial that were not killed in July 1995, when the alleged genocide took place, including cases of people who died natural deaths a full 13 years before the event took place.

The newest evidence offered by Ivanisevic indicates a number of those buried at the Srebrenica Memorial Complex not only were not killed in July 1995, but actually died much earlier, even in the early 1980s — more than 10 years before the civil war in Yugoslavia even started.

2. Dead Men Voting

According to Ivanisevic, as of March 2007, more than 12 years after the event, a total of 2,442 bodies have been buried at the Memorial. Among those, a total of 914, or over 37 percent, were on the voting lists for the 1996 elections in Bosnia — over a year after the alleged “genocide.” The voting lists themselves were approved and checked by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE], which supervised the elections.

3. “Massacred” Muslims Who Died of Natural Causes

A second even more significant find involves the fact that “at least 100 people” buried at the Memorial died of natural causes. Ivanisevic claims that the numbers would be even larger if he’d been allowed access to the death books in Srebrenica and the surrounding towns. Nevertheless, several names with dates of birth, death and place of demise are provided: Fetahija (Nazif) Hasanovic, b. 1955 — d. Dec.15, 1996, Srebrenica; Sukrija (Amil) Smajlovic, b.1946 — d. May 2,1996, Zaluzje; Maho (Suljo) Rizvanovic, b.1953 — d. Jan. 3,1993, Glogova; Mefail (meho) Demirovic, b.1970 — d. May 10, 1992, Krasanovici; Redzic (Ahmet) Asim, b.1949 — d. April 22, 1992, Bratunac.

4. Alleged “Srebrenica Victims” Killed Before Srebrenica

Thirdly, Ivanisevic charges that several hundred soldiers as well as civilians were transferred to the Srebrenica Memorial from other cemeteries and reburied, with Muslim burial rituals. One of these is the body of Hamed (Hamid) Halilovic ), transferred from the nearby cemetery in Kazani, who apparently died a full 13 years before the Srebrenica “genocide.” Other bodies transferred from Kazani to the Srebrenica Memorial include those of Osman (Ibro) Halilovic ), Nurija (Smajo) Memisevic ), Salih (Saban) Alic ), Mujo (Hasim) Hadzic ), Ferid (Ramo) Mustafic ) and Hajrudin (Ismet) Cvrk ).

Fourth, using captured records of the Bosnian Muslim Army, Ivanisevic lists more than a dozen names of soldiers whose families were granted housing and social benefits due to families of soldiers killed in action before Nov. 11, 1993, when the documents were captured by Bosnian Serb army forces.

Fifth, on the basis of similarly captured documents, Ivanisevic provides several dozen names of Bosnian Muslim army fighters killed before March 7, 1994.

5. Jihad Butchers Turned Into Innocent Victims

Ivanisevic goes on to provide names of Bosnian Muslim soldiers buried at the Srebrenica Memorial who were implicated in numerous massacres of Serbian civilians in the vicinity between , in which a total of over 3,000 Serbs were killed. Interestingly, the commander of the Srebrenica Bosnian army forces, Naser Oric, was given a two-year sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, or ICTY, in June 2006 for his participation in these killings, some of which he captured on video and showed to Washington Post reporter John Pomfret, who visited him inside the “U.N. Safe Zone” in 1994. [And to Bill Schiller of Canada’s Toronto Star]

Clinton’s State Department — Still In Power — Upholds the Myth

During the 1990s, the Clinton administration used the “Srebrenica genocide” claim to enter the Bosnian civil war on the side of the Bosnian Muslims and enforce the subsequent Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina in November 1995, with mutual recognition between Yugoslavia (now Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia). More generally, Clinton’s State Department bureaucracy used the “Srebrenica genocide” — as it has since been referred to as a result of controversial verdicts pronounced by the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague — to justify its support for Muslim-dominated political movements not just in Bosnia but in Macedonia and Serbia’s Kosovo region, which is currently seeking independence. And, since most of Clinton’s State Department appointments, headed by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, have continued running the U.S. Balkan strategy, the policy has remained intact to this day.

Thus, even as the current Kosovo Albanian independence drive is provided heavy U.S., British and German support, the Bosnian Serbs, unhappy at the prospect of being locked inside a Muslim-dominated Bosnia, are being denied independence, with the “Srebrenica genocide” being used as the chief argument — i.e., that wartime gains achieved through “genocide” cannot be sanctioned. Many observers, including a recent G2 Bulletin analysis, link Western support of Balkan Muslims at the expense of Christians as part of a broader policy of appeasing “moderate” Sunni-controlled regimes in the Middle East, as part of an anti-Iranian Shiite coalition.

Srebrenica Turned Into a Jihad-Rallying Shrine

Among radical Bosnian Muslim elements, the Srebrenica narrative has been used not only to rally support to the general cause of jihad, to arouse Muslim feelings of having been oppressed and persecuted by non-Muslims, but to build what some have called the “first Muslim shrine in Europe,” a gathering place for Muslims from the world over with anti-Western, anti-European and anti-Christian grievances. The Memorial Complex in Srebrenica now serves as a place of pilgrimage, where Muslims can see firsthand the results of what they believe is an unprecedented atrocity against their fellow believers.

Western Mass Media Perpetuates the Myth

The entire Srebrenica narrative has been provided key support by Western mainstream media, headed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and the mainstream British, German and French media, who have laced their Balkan reporting throughout the years with references to the “Srebrenica genocide,” calling it, among other things, the “worst atrocity in Europe since World War II,” a “stain on the conscience of the West,” etc.

From the very beginning, numerous dissenting voices both in the West and in ex-Yugoslavia have contested both the Western mass media claims and the ICTY Srebrenica-connected verdicts, but have received almost no publicity whatsoever.

Srebrenica Research Group Demystifies the Hoax

In the summer of 2005, on the 10-year anniversary of the event, the “Srebrenica Research Group,” composed of mostly American and British media and academic figures, as well as former U.N. civil officials and military observers with ex-Yugoslavia experience, put up a website in which the entire “Srebrenica massacre” account was reconsidered and demystified. Instead of the 7-8,000 figure, U.N. officials and U.S. Congress experts were quoted giving figures of “700-800,” “the low hundreds,” “about 2,000 Muslims and Serbs total,” etc. Henry Wieland, head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, who spent days interviewing Srebrenica refugees in July 1995, is quoted as saying that he did not find “anyone who’d seen any atrocity committed with their own eyes.”

Forensic Findings and ICTY Verdicts Challenged

The forensic findings were taken to task as well, with claims that the entire process of excavation and identification of bodies was controlled by an organization founded by the late Bosnian Islamist leader, Alija Izetbegovic. And, a Canadian international law professor deconstructed the Srebrenica-connected verdicts at the ICTY, showing, among other things, that Bosnian Serb Gen. Radoslav Krstic, sentenced by the court to a 46-year term, was, in the court’s own verdict, absolved of participation in — or even knowledge of — the alleged massacre, instead being sentenced according to the ICTY’s own construction of “command responsibility.” The prosecution’s star witness, Drazen Erdemovic, a Bosnian Croat who mysteriously appeared in the ranks of the Bosnian Serb army after previously fighting in the Bosnian Muslim army ranks, claimed participation in the execution of 1,200 Srebrenica Muslims, was exempted from cross-examination, deemed by the court itself as “mentally unstable” and, ultimately, given a five-year sentence for his “cooperation.” Yet, the mass media, without exception, have ignored the group’s findings, even those quoting the very same mass media’s own reports from the ground at the time.

Netherlands Institute: Srebrenica Was a Safe Haven for Several Thousand Armed Bosnian Muslim Troops Raiding Surrounding Serbian Villages

The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation issued an extensive report in 2002, “Srebrenica, a ‘Safe’ Area,” detailing, among other things, that Srebrenica, although declared a “U.N. Safe Zone,” was in fact never demilitarized, and that several thousand armed Bosnian Muslim troops were stationed in it between , organizing numerous lethal raids against Serbian villages in the vicinity. This claim was additionally corroborated by the U.N. secretary-general’s report to the U.N. General Assembly of Nov. 15, 1999.

Ivanisevic’s book will soon to be translated into English. It remains to be seen whether the Western corporate mass media will continue ignoring this and other evidence debunking the claim that an anti-Muslim “genocide” took place in Srebrenica in July 1995. Some public figures in the Balkans have called for an international commission on Srebrenica, which would re-examine the evidence and make a new, more balanced and independent assessment of what took place in eastern Bosnia during the last stages of its civil war, in the summer of 1995.

Posted by Svetlana at 05:57 PM | Permalink

Croat Blood Spattered Flash

Memorial service was held in Belgrade Church of St. Mark on Sunday for Serbs killed in the Croat offensive Operation Flash on Western Slavonija, in 1995. The memorial service was organized by the families of Serbs killed and missing in Republic of Serbian Krajina and Croatia.

According to the data collected by the fact-finding center Veritas, during the purge that began at dawn on May 1, 1995, in 36 hours 283 Serbian civilians were killed or went missing, including 57 women and 9 children. Over 70,000 Serbs were purged from Western Slavonija region. At the time of the Croat military offensive, the territory of Western Slavonija was under the UN protection.

War Crime No Bosnian Muslim Was Charged With: Bodies of Another 17 Yugoslav Army Members Identified

The Republic of Srpska Office for Missing and Detained Persons identified the bodies of 17 Yugoslav Army members. The bodies were recovered from the Memorial Crypt in Bijeljina, which is said to contain 80-odd bodies of Yugoslav Army conscripts killed in the Tuzla Column, all buried as unidentified persons.

The assault occurred on May 15, 1992, at the onset of Bosnian civil war, when a Bosnian Muslim organization known as the Patriotic League in co-operation with local Muslim authorities in Tuzla, attacked the column of unarmed Yugoslav Army conscripts as they were retreating from Tuzla in a previously agreed move to evacuate Yugoslav Army barracks and reach Serbia.

200 Conscripts and Officers Retreating from Tuzla Killed, 140 Detained and Tortured

Before the civil wars, Yugoslavia had army consisting of conscripts from all parts of the country and of all nationalities. These ethnically mixed units were serving throughout former Yugoslavia, in the military posts located in almost every city of each of the republics, including Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, etc. When the wars for secession broke out, first in Slovenia, then in Croatia and Bosnia, the Yugoslav political and military leadership decided to evacuate each of the Yugoslav Army posts where mostly young conscripts age 18-25 served, in order to avoid thrusting them into the civil war. A number of those young men lost their lives in these retreats, through attacks on their columns retreating from Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. But the attack on the Tuzla Column was the bloodiest.

The attack on Tuzla Column had been broadcast live on a local television station, where it could be clearly seen that the shots came even from the hospital building in Tuzla. As many as 200 Yugoslav Army conscripts and officers were killed, and another 140 were detained and subsequently tortured.

Bijeljina-based Association of Missing Persons’ families chairman Zarko Radic said it was almost impossible to precisely assess the number of persons buried in the Crypt since the coffins often contained remains of several persons.

The Bosnian Prosecution says the investigation into the involvement of then Tuzla municipal authorities was underway. Nonetheless, no one has yet answered for the onslaught.

Part of the attack on the Tuzla Column, abuse and murder of the conscripts by the Bosnian Muslims is shown in the documentary “Truth.” While the local Muslim television was showing the burning column of Yugoslav Army vehicles, the studio commentator asks for cold beer and goes up another notch on the morbid sarcasm pole, informing the viewers they ought to “help out” one conscript he saw reaching the entrance of the nearby building.

A survivor of the Tuzla Column assault describes how one of his unarmed friends that was lightly wounded in the arm managed to hide in the entrance of a building, only to be handed over in a body bag six days later.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:16 PM | Permalink

Marlise Simons, Loyal Servant of Total Propaganda

One of the most loyal servants of total propaganda this side of Atlantic, Marlise Simons of New York Times, apparently decided she won’t let the 15 United Nations Judges off the hook as long as there is a trace of agility left in her fingers.

Despite the World Court’s ruling that exonerated state of Serbia of involvement in the Bosnian war, Comrade Simons — who figures she knows better — is doing her very best to “prove” Serbia IS guilty for the Bosnian war and nobody will tell her otherwise. And if she can’t actually prove a thing, the least she can do for NY Times/State Department cause is to try to smear the Court and make a lot of noise while doing the dirty work someone (fer chris'sake!) has to do.

Comrade Simons has found a loving home in New York Times Politburo which, for years “has been riding a [...] propaganda bandwagon on the wars and dismantlement of the former Yugoslavia — but in contrast to its performance over Iraq’s non-existent WMDs, once the Times climbed aboard this bandwagon, in the early 1990s, it never climbed back down again.”

A dedicated Dark Arts practitioner, New York Times is known for militant weeding of its insufficiently obedient servants. Strict observance of the party discipline even KGB would be envious of means occasional sacrificing of their finest reporters, such as David Binder, an actual journalist, who wrote some of the best articles on the former Yugoslavia he was covering for many years. Nevertheless, Binder “had been largely removed from this assignment by the end of 1993, quite obviously because he did not toe this party line but had continued to file reports that overstepped it, writing more complex analyses that did not focus simply on Serb villainy.”

Hence, Marlise Simons it is.

ICJ Ruling is Good!

As soon as the ICJ’s exonerating ruling for Serbia was read, attempting to spin the verdict that must’ve been terribly disappointing, the New York Times and their head anti-Serb propagandist Simons tried to make it look like Serbophobes, after all, did have something to celebrate too.

The New York Times and Marlise Simons headlined her initial article “Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide,” adding the subhead “Serbia is Faulted but Cleared of the Crime” (February 27). Simons’ lead sentence affirmed that “The International Court of Justice…for the first time called the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 an act of genocide….” The Times editorial later repeated the line that “The World Court…concluded that genocide did take place…” (March 5). And in her first follow-up article, Simons again repeated the line that “The judges ruled that Bosnian Serb troops committed genocide against Muslims in 1995 in Srebrenica” (March 6). Similar assertions about what the ICJ declared or determined or ruled or found (etc.) comprise the main frame describing the Judgment, and its ubiquity is fairly close to total.[further examples of the same spin throughout Western mainstream, Herman-Peterson study, footnote 22]

But this framing of the decision is dishonest for many reasons. One is that this case was about Serbia’s responsibility for the Srebrenica killings, which the ICJ denied but the Times did not feature. A second reason is that the “declaration” of the ICJ that this was a case of “genocide” was not based on any independent investigation by the ICJ itself, but was derivative—in fact, the ICJ imported from the ICTY’s rulings in its Krstic and Blagojevic cases, as well as the UN Secretary-General’s 1999 report The Fall of Srebrenica, an already-existing determination to this effect,[23] and undertook no investigative effort to confirm or disconfirm it. This resulted in large measure from the fact that, by the date the oral pleadings were heard by the ICJ in 2006, Serbia’s defense strategy was to bypass all questions related to the fate of the Srebrenica “safe area” population, which are complex and would have required a major research effort, and to focus on the narrower question of Serbia’s responsibility for whatever actions the Bosnian Serbs themselves may have taken. Since Serbia addressed only the so-called “evidence of attribution” produced against it by Bosnia, the ICJ avoided the more fundamental matter before it, and merely quoted the ICTY’s findings of “genocide,” employing them contextually in an ex cathedra fashion without itself opening this critical question. Although this was the only case ever to be argued before the ICJ under the Genocide Convention, and though the Judgment is replete with mentions of “genocide,”[24] the 15 voting-judges at the ICJ produced no finding on whether the Srebrenica-related killings constituted genocide—as anyone who checks paragraph 471 of the Judgment can plainly see.

The ICJ’s exoneration of Serbia from responsibility for the events at Srebrenica was especially important because the entire case against Milosevic that had been before the other court, on which Simons and the Times lavished such great attention, turned on his alleged master-minding and control of the indigenous Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia. As John Laughland immediately pointed out, “Slobodan Milosevic was posthumously exonerated… when the international court of justice ruled that Serbia was not responsible for the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.”[25] Even former ICTY President Antonio Cassese—clearly unhappy with the Judgment—understood what it meant: “Serbia was not responsible under international law,” he wrote; “Nor was Serbia guilty of complicity.” Most important of all, Cassese added that “if former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic were alive, he would be absolved of the charge of genocide.”[26]

ICJ’s Ruling is Bad!

When an effort to spin the Court’s decision to something it simply isn’t by turning the exonerating verdict into a guilty one failed to produce results, the Politburo reached for another black propaganda tool: invention.

In their April 9 Manifesto, Simons and Times triumphantly declare: “Genocide Court Ruled for Serbia Without Seeing Full War Archive.” In a crafty piece that needs to be studied as a blueprint of black propaganda, it turns out Serbia was indeed exonerated by the International Court of Justice (renamed by the NYT Politburo into a “Genocide Court” for more thorough propagandizing), but only because it lied. In other words, since NY Times has already established thousands of times that Serbia is a state of lying, conniving, dishonest, malicious, nearly-demonic, violent thugs, rapists and “murderous assholes” (Holbrooke), it is only natural to proceed by asserting such a state used “a catch” to sneak by the UN judges and avoid the rightful punishment.

Making it appear as if she’s plunging into the depths of evidence the ICJ judges had before them, Comrade Simons emerges utterly shocked to discover some of the documents submitted to the ICTY on behalf of Yugoslavia that “contained minutes of wartime meetings of Yugoslavia’s political and military leaders” had parts marked “confidential” and “state secret.” Even though she admits, under the same breath, that “confidentiality rules to protect ‘national security interests’ have often been invoked at the tribunal, including by the United States,” the fact that it is a common practice and a state’s right to protect its national security by preventing public access to sensitive documents doesn’t preclude her from dedicating few days of her life to drive home the point that, when Serbian state invokes the same right, it’s akin to Stalinist censorship and deserves to be branded as “the blacking-out.”

Purposely sowing confusion, Times and Simons pretend they don’t understand the difference between keeping something out of the public eye, and keeping it hidden from the Court. Because the fact of the matter is that so-called “blacked-out documents” were fully accessible to both the ICTY and the United Nations Court, only the parts marked “state secret” were to be discussed in sessions closed to the public and that’s about all there is to it. It is a regular, normal practice every single state on earth reaches for and, basically, a non-issue. But not for the Simons’ Politburo.

Trying to wiggle herself out of the plain semantics-issue and turn it into a major conspiracy, Comrade Simons uses the whole slew of unnamed “lawyers and others who were involved in Serbia’s bid for secrecy” (?!), anonymous “court officials,” few out-of-context statements by the only two of 15 voting judges — Algerian and Jordanian Muslim — who voted against the not guilty ruling, and supposedly tons of “public records” that, upon closer examination, shrink down to the Soros/NATO Kangaroo Court’s allegations and bits of pure gossip Soros’ number one Belgrade representative Natasa Kandic was happy to share.

A Straw For the Panic-Stricken Croatia On Quicksand

However twisted and ridiculous, NY Times’ smear campaign has managed to find a patch of fertile soil to fall on, probably the only patch of land on Earth where patriotism is negatively defined, in terms of the level of animosity towards Serbs and Serbia — the patch commonly known as Croatia.

Eagerly awaiting ICJ to declare Serbia guilty in the case Bosnian Muslims have brought to the World Court way back in 1993, at the time Bosnian civil war was in full swing, Croatia has been audibly salivating and rubbing its proverbial hands for years, certain that its own lawsuit against Serbia at the same Tribunal will then be a breeze that will fill Croatia’s coffers with the untold tens of billions of dollars Bosnian Muslims were also betting on.

With the miserable failure of the Bosnian Muslim case, panic-stricken Croats started looking for ways to extricate themselves from the whole thing, before their share of responsibility for the slaughter of Serbs comes under the magnifying glass. Hoping to squeeze whatever possible from Serbia, while preserving the impression they were somehow grieved by the Serbian state anyway, Croat legal representative and state officials started testing the waters with talks about an out of court settlement. Belgrade responded quite unexpectedly that, instead of agreeing to a settlement behind the closed doors, it intends to file a counter lawsuit against Croatia at the World Court, for mass murder and ethnic cleansing of 350,000-500,000 Krajina and Slavonija Serbs, orchestrated and conducted by the Croat military and political leadership.

The situation that turned Croatia’s ground into a quicksand is mainly related to the fact three of their war generals responsible for the massive ethnic cleansing of Serbs have been indicted for war crimes and docked at the Hague. What made it deadly is the recent revelation that — instead of having just one document which connects Croat military offensive on Serbian civilians with Croatia’s political leadership, including its war time president Franjo Tudjman — Hague has at its disposal 17 transcripts and “thousands of pieces of evidence” that prove, in no uncertain terms, attack on civilians and violent purging of Croatia was a mass crime planned at the very top since 1992.

The Hague: Croat President Ordered Purging Croatia of Serbs

The basis of the indictment against the Croatian generals is 17 transcripts drawn up in the office of former President Franjo Tudjman. In the opinion of the Hague Prosecution these transcripts prove that there was a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the area of [...] Republika Srpska Krajina, which was backed by Croatia’s political and military leadership. Up to now it had been thought that the transcript of Tudjman’s meeting with top military and political officials of 31 July 1995 on the Brijuni islands was the only key proof which the Hague Prosecution had at its disposal against the Croatian generals.

The Prosecution, however, has managed to acquire a series of other significant transcripts according to which the plan to drive Serbs out of Croatia was initiated as far back as 1992 [...] Hague Prosecution, in its indictment, starts from Tudjman’s Brijuni islands meeting with top military and political leaders, at which a decision was made for an assault against [...] Republic of the Serbian Krajina and in the very introduction of the argumentation of the existence of a criminal enterprise it cites Tudjman’s statement: “…it is important that these civilians start moving and then the army will follow them, and when the columns start moving, they will have a psychological effect on each other.”

The Prosecution also says that earlier, at that same meeting, Tudjman had pointed out: “…we need to strike in such a way that the Serbs practically have to disappear.” The Prosecution has linked this statement of Tudjman’s one made by Ante Gotovina at the same meeting: “A large number of civilians are already leaving Knin and moving towards Banja Luka and Belgrade. That means, if we continue with this kind of pressure, there is likely not to be any civilians left after a time, only those who had to stay because they did not have the possibility of leaving.” The Prosecution interprets this statement of Gotovina’s alleging that he on 2 August 1995 defined the nature of the mentioned “pressure” on the civilian population by issuing orders for strikes against “the towns of Drvar, Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac with artillery fire.”

Indeed, all of this will undoubtedly “have far reaching negative consequences for Croatia’s international position, but also for its near and distant future,” Serbian ICJ lawsuit first and foremost.

Gossipy Barrister Jumps In the Ring

Former ICTY prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, who entered the mock-trial against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic after being “quite bored” with the branch of law he specialized in — health and safety advocacy — hoping to make a name for himself on the international scene, at a high-profile trial where a head of the state was being ‘grilled’ by such gnomes as Nice himself, offered direct insight into his personality by admitting his is “a hugely gossipy profession.” [.pdf file, article “Prosecuting Abroad”]

Apart from being robbed of the pinnacle of his entire health-safety-advocacy career — delivering the closing speech that was to nail former Serbia’s president to the eternal pillar of shame, along with Serbian nation, Geoffrey Nice who believed the best way to hang Milosevic is to tie him to Srebrenica incident, and who worked hard to make Bosnian part of the indictment “the heart of case” against late President Milosevic, must have been entirely horrified by the ICJ’s ruling which essentially exonerated President Milosevic precisely of the Bosnian/Srebrenica part of indictment, in its entirety.

Quick to recognize the limelight opportunity, Nice latched onto the NY Times/Simons-bandwagon and wrote a letter directly accusing his former chief, Carla Del Ponte, of “covering up” for Serbs and “suppressing key evidence” that would have rendered the ICJ verdict more agreeable to Serbophobes around the world. Interestingly enough, although his letter is a clear extension of Comrade Simons’ piece, Nice chose not to write to Times, as one would expect, but to the “editorial board” of Croatian daily Jutarnji list.

Judging by the ruckus Nice’s letter has caused in Croat media, including the Croat premier Sanader’s lightening-fast involvement with the public declaration that former prosecutor’s allegations are “an issue of utmost seriousness” that will be thoroughly examined and even brought up in the United Nations (!), Croatia is thrilled with the straw thrown its way.

Farcical Culmination of the Conspiracy Theory

Meanwhile, the Serbs seem to be barely able to supress laughter — not only is all the quacking produced over a non-issue, but it also turns out Carla Del Ponte, sworn Serbian archenemy, is actually Serbian Guardian Angel in disguise — who could’ve guessed!

Carla Del Ponte, a person behind the indictment of over 150 Serbs — in stark contrast to a virtual handful of token indictees belonging to all the other nationalities who took active part in Yugoslav civil wars; who tirelessly hunts down Serbian heads of state, chief government officials, military leaders and every ethnic Serb who was anyone during the series of civil wars that ripped former Yugoslavia apart; Carla Del Ponte who fights tooth and nail to prevent Serbia ever getting closer to the EU; who believes Serbia is “far from the European values as truth and justice are relative concepts in the country;” Del Ponte who reacted to the ICJ ruling in the exact same way as the NY Times Politburo has; who is the same Politburo’s favorite person to quote when it comes to Serbian intrinsic guilt; Carla Del Ponte who believes Serbia is “the safehaven for war criminals and international fugitives” — the very same Carla Del Ponte, according to Geoffrey Nice and Croat media, is covering up Serbia’s war crimes. One would think that even someone as dull and overall ridiculous as Geoffrey Nice would be able to come up with something a tad more credible.

Part of Pressuring Serbia to Relinquish Kosovo Province, While Attempting to “Challenge” ICJ’s Ruling. In Vain.

Unlike the Croats, Serbia’s government officials chose not to to dignify the pathetic allegations with any comments. Radoslav Stojanovic, one of the lawyers who represented state of Serbia at the ICJ in the case brought up by the Bosnian Muslims, reminded that Geoffrey Nice was a member of the Hague’s prosecution team for six years, until 2006, “so he had ample time to inform the public of his discontent and misgivings.” Obviously, says Stojanovic, Nice’s letter to Croatian daily fits well with the attempts of certain Western mainstream media outlets, most notably the New York Times, to challenge the World Court’s verdict.

“This is clearly a part of drive to put additional pressure on Serbia in the midst of searching for Kosovo-Metohija solution, suggesting a possibility of revision of the International Court of Justice’s ruling, which, in reality, can only be reopened if brand new documents are discovered. These kinds of writings and political insinuations cannot affect the International Court of Justice, which is the highly esteemed legal institution where similar political manipulations have no influence upon its judges and work in general, and in this particular case especially,” said Stojanovic.

Furthermore, “Carla Del Ponte could not have made any such deal with Serbian government representatives, since the confidentiality of documents is decided upon by the Tribunal’s Council, not by the individuals. This is an attempt to manipulate the facts while Kosovo-Metohija status is being decided upon, and the one that can have no consequences whatsoever regarding the ICJ ruling that exonerated Serbia of involvement in the Bosnian war,” stressed Stojanovic in Serbian media, adding that, contrary to Nice’s claims, prosecutors knew fully well what is contained in the documents classified as secret, since they are also present in the sessions closed to public.

Serbia’s Ambassador to Netherlands pointed out that “Tribunal’s statute says the Court is obliged to respect the state’s right to classify certain sensitive documents secret and to keep those documents from being exposed at public sessions of the trial. At the same time, the Court Council has the full access and is allowed to read those documents, just as the ICJ could have done, but it decided it has sufficient evidence to reach the verdict.” Serbia’s Ambassador emphasized that Geoffrey Nice is fully aware of that, so the main question is why has he brought up such a non-issue right now.

Cartoon by Nikola Otas (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Bosnian Wahhabis Assault Reporters

Wahhabis assaulted reporters in the town of Tuzla, covering the funeral of their leader, Jusuf Barcic who returned from Saudi Arabia to his native Bosnia eight years ago.

Nezavisne Novine daily reports that Bosnian Muslims assaulted reporters covering the funeral of Jusuf Barcic on April 1, 2007.

According to the reports, the ceremony was attended by more than 3,000 Wahhabis. Barcic died Friday after sustaining lethal injuries in a car crash near Tuzla, eastern Bosnia. Accompanied by the Allahu Akbar cries, he was buried in the town’s Muslim graveyard, while Barcic’s followers banned photographers and reporters from the event, prohibiting them to even go near the Tuzla mosque Sunday.

Some 50 uniformed and plain clothes police officers were observing the ceremony from the safe distance, failing to react after Qaray Qanel bin Ali, a Palestinian man who was also the loudest and most aggressive, threatened to smash the journalists’ cameras. The policemen also ignored a physical assault on a Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz reporter, who was pushed and dragged at the Palestinian’s orders.

According to Nezavisne Novine reporter, Wahhabis who have come to attend the funeral from all over Bosnia’s Croat/Muslim federation, mainly from Sarajevo, but also from Slovenia, Serbian Raska region, as well as Austria and Germany, were spitting at the female journalists commenting that they, as all infidels, should be “wiped off the face of the earth.” Tuzla’s mufti Husein Kavazovic also attended burial ceremony.

The greater incident was avoided after Abu Hamza, a Syrian living in the Bosnian town of Bocinje, following the fierce argument with Bin Ali, advised the “brothers” not to attack reporters.

Al-Qaeda Growing Stronger Among Bosnian Muslims

Recently, the World Tribune published article about Wahhabi movement growing stronger in Croat/Muslim Federation in Bosnia.

According to the Bosnian magazine Dani reporter, “Saudis are helping to finance a Muslim presence in Bosnia with multiple links to Al Qaeda ideology”:

“Al Qaida agents have been operating in Bosnia. Pecanin said the Bosnia embassy in Vienna has been selling passports to Al Qaida operatives while senior officials were pocketing money from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states.”

Bosnian Serbs and Croats Fear Muslim Domination

The widespread corruption among the Muslim leaders in Bosnia and al-Qaeda’s poisonous influence have largely contributed to the current situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina where tensions, according to Nebojsa Radmanovic, the chairman of the three-man rotating state presidency, are “the greatest since the end of the war.”

According to a report by the Italian news agency AKI, Radmanovic said the core of disagreements is Muslim insistence on the centralization of the country on one side, and Serbs and Croats, who fear Muslim domination and want to retain a degree of decentralization, on the other.

Addressing EU officials in Brussels, Radmanovic argued that the part of ICJ verdict asserting that the crime in Srebrenica represents genocide has encouraged Muslim leaders to step up demands for the abolition of Republic of Srpska (RS) and the creation of a Muslim-dominated unitary state, on the pretext that RS was “created on genocide.” Serbian leaders, on the other hand, insist that Bosnia could survive only as a federal state, with equal rights for all three nationalities.

Radmanovic said that the situation in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, whose ethnic Albanians demand independence, also reflected negatively on Bosnia, posing the question of why Albanians in Kosovo province should have the right to secede from Serbia, yet Serbs and Croats in Bosnia were denied the same right.

3,262 Srebrenica Serbs, Victims of Bosnian Muslim Slaughter, Entirely Ignored

Future historians will undoubtedly have an unpleasant task of assigning large portion of the blame for everything that happened in the Balkans during 1990s to Western politicians, diplomats, mainstream media and officials. Their collective belligerence, ignorance and boorish insistence on ignoring or distorting history in order to create a kind of reality that suits the Western powers’ present interests is most responsible for inflaming the wronged-victim mentality on behalf of Muslim side in the preceding civil wars. Combined with growing al-Qaeda influence in the Balkans, this perception of being an exclusive victim and “martyr” rather than the instigator of secession which triggered each of the wars in the first place, as well as perpetrator of a number of grizzly war crimes, is bound to result in another bloodshed, as vicious or worse than the preceding civil war in Bosnia.

Limiting itself to merely accepting unproven ICTY’s claim of “7,000 Muslim men and boys” allegedly killed in Srebrenica, without conducting its own investigation, the ICJ entirely ignored the 3,262 Serbian Srebrenica victims — men, women and children — mutilated, torched, beheaded and killed oftentimes in the most gruesome, sadistic fashion by Bosnian Muslims led by Srebrenica warlord Naser Oric.

Milivoje Ivanisevic, the president of the Center for Investigating Crimes Committed Against the Serbian People, has recently published a book “In Search of Truth” where the full “Srebrenica ID” is offered, taking into account all the victims and the complete picture of the war ravaged region, in contrast to selective truths and half-truths advertised as the history-sealed.

Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti has published the excerpt of Mr. Ivanisevic’s research in Serbian, while SINA news agency gives an unauthorized translation of Srebrenica ID.

Posted by Svetlana at 07:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Sarajevo Opposes Sanctions Against Iran, Seeks All-Out Ties With Islamic States

SARAJEVO, Bosnian/Croat Federation — New Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalay said that “his country” was against imposing any kind of sanction on Iran as a solution to the country’s nuclear activities, IRNA reported. Thinking, of course, Republic of Srpska part of Bosnia is also “his country” and that he can speak in the name of Bosnian Serbs too.

In a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Sarajevo, Mohammad-Reza Morshedzadeh, he reiterated Tehran’s “inalienable right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology” and called for settlement of Iran’s nuclear case through diplomatic channels, Iranian news agency IRNA reports.

He further “praised Iran’s humanitarian support for the Bosnian people during his country’s war and reconstruction period,” but said nothing about the Iranian mujahedeen sent to Bosnia during war to join the Muslim slaughter of Serbs — for which, no doubt, he is even more grateful.

Alkalay voiced his country’s interest in boosting all-out ties with Islamic states, Iran in particular, and said “Sarajevo is ready to utilize Iran’s valuable experiences and potentials in economic, industrial and scientific fields,” IRNA says.

Underscoring the importance of exchange of visits between the two countries’ officials in promotion of bilateral ties, he announced his readiness to visit Tehran in the near future.

The Iranian envoy, for his part, briefed the Bosnian foreign minister on the latest developments in Iran’s nuclear activities. He expressed hope that Tehran-Sarajevo cooperation would further bolster in all fields. As if it could be bolstered more!

By the way, this is exactly the kind of nightmare Bosnian Serbs did not want to live out and the reason why the Izetbegovic war in Bosnia was waged in the first place: Dhimmitude never was a Serbian cup of tea and being forced to embrace as your own the country that defines its interest as “boosting all-out ties with Islamic states, Iran in particular” is more akin to a deadly grip, than to a rosy future Serbs can look forward to.

Cartoon by Blatnik (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

International Court of Justice: Serbia Not Guilty

Article by Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, A Notable Ruling at The Hague

In a landmark case that put a nation on trial for genocide for the first time in history, Serbia has been found not guilty by the International Court of Justice at The Hague. “The court finds that the acts of genocide at Srebrenica cannot be attributed to [Serbia’s] state organs,” said the ICJ president, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, in the ruling made public on February 26. She said it could also not be established that Serbia had been complicit by supplying aid to the Bosnian Serbs in the summer of 1995, when the killings at Srebrenica took place. Reflecting the complexities of the case, the 16 judges deliberated for 10 months. The court’s decisions are binding, without appeal, and enforceable by the UN Security Council.

Half of Bosnia-Herzegovina Opposed the Lawsuit in the First Place

The Muslim authorities in Sarajevo instituted proceedings against Serbia at the ICJ in March 1993, charging the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (as it was then) of violating the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention. The case continued after the end of the Bosnian war in October 1995 and the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, even though the Republika Srpska (RS)—a constituent Bosnian entity—subsequently objected to the charge being brought on behalf of “Bosnia-Herzegovina” as a whole. The RS authorities disputed the legitimacy of the filing of the Bosnian application to the Court because it had not been ratified by the post-Dayton presidency, where the Bosnian Serbs would have been able to veto it.

ICJ Never Investigated Srebrenica, it Merely Quoted the Kangaroo Court’s Findings

Most major media depositors in the bank of collective Serbian guilt have tried to spin the verdict. The New York Times led the pack, with Marlise Simons’ February 27 headline, “Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide” and the subhead, “Serbia is Faulted but Cleared of the Crime.” The article’s lead sentence asserted that the International Court of Justice “for the first time called the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 an act of genocide”; the paper repeated the claim in an editorial on March 5. In a follow-up article, Simons repeated the claim: “The judges ruled that Bosnian Serb troops committed genocide against Muslims in 1995 in Srebrenica.” (March 6) But as Edward S. Herman and David Peterson point out in an essay on the ICJ ruling, such framing of the decision is deceitful for several reasons:

One is that this case was about Serbia’s responsibility for the Srebrenica killings, which the ICJ denied but the Times did not feature. A second reason is that the “declaration” of the ICJ that this was a case of “genocide” was not based on any independent investigation by the ICJ itself, but was derivative ... from the ICTY’s rulings ... [The ICJ] merely quoted the ICTY’s findings of “genocide,” employing them contextually in an ex cathedra fashion without itself opening this critical question. Although this was the only case ever to be argued before the ICJ under the Genocide Convention, and though the Judgment is replete with mentions of “genocide,” the 15 voting-judges at the ICJ produced no finding on whether the Srebrenica-related killings constituted genocide—as anyone who checks paragraph 471 of the Judgment can plainly see.

ICJ Ruling Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic

The media spin could not alter the significance of the ICJ ruling. Symbolically, it came just two weeks before the first anniversary of the death of Slobodan Milosevic in detention at the other court in the Dutch capital: the Yugoslav war crimes court commonly knows as The Hague Tribunal. The “Bosnian” case against Milosevic had rested on his alleged incitement of the Bosnian Serbs to commit genocide, and his supposed personal responsibility for its occurrence. As John Laughland was quick to note in The Guardian on February 28, Milosevic was posthumously exonerated by the ICJ. He had always argued that neither Yugoslavia nor Serbia had command of the Bosnian Serb army, Laughland says, and this has now been upheld by the world court; and by implication, Serbia cannot be held responsible for any other war crimes attributed to the Bosnian Serbs. The ruling is about far more than Milosevic:

Ever since the end of the cold war, the US and its allies have acted like vigilantes, claiming the right to bomb other countries in the name of humanity. The Kosovo war was the most important action taken on this basis and, as such, the curtain-raiser for Iraq. Fought, like the Iraq war, without UN approval, it was waged partly because the international community felt it should have intervened more robustly against Yugoslavia over Bosnia. It now turns out that Serbia was not in control in Bosnia after all. The ruling therefore punctures a decade-and-a-half of lies in support of the doctrine of military and judicial interventionism.

If Milosevic were still alive, the ICTY would have to devise some creative stratagems to deal with the implications of the ICJ verdict. It would have found them, no doubt: Both institutions are based at The Hague, but they should not be confused.

Kangaroo Court Versus the Real Court

The ICTY is a political, rather than judicial institution. It was established by the UN Security Council in 1993 on the basis of Chapter VII of the Charter (Resolution 827), with the self-proclaimed jurisdiction for crimes committed only after January 1, 1991. The formal basis invoked for the creation of the Tribunal, Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, deals with “threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression” and, to meet them, it authorizes the U.N. to deploy the armed forces of its member-states in peacekeeping operations. It is hard to interpret this as carte blanche to set a court to investigate individuals, indict them, try them, find them guilty, and keep them in prison. The ICTY proponents deliberately inserted the new institution into The Hague to confuse the issue, however, and to endow it with an aura of respectability reflected from the ICJ.

Unlike the ICTY, the International Court of Justice was established in 1945, at a time when international law was still regarded as the province of jurists and not of politicians who use it to pursue political ends. It deals with the disputes between sovereign states which agree to its jurisdiction in advance, and operates on the basis of established norms of public international law. Its verdict indirectly confirms what I have argued for years: that the crimes in Bosnia in were not the direct result of anyone’s “nationalist project” as such. The crimes were the results of the war, not its causes. However severely they must be judged, they were the consequence of a great, complex international blunder, and of Alija Izetbegovic’s decision to secede. Events cut channels deeper and less controllable than the intentions of anyone.

There Was Only Yugoslavia to be Loyal to — Alija Izetbegovic Betrayed It

The fighting became an extrapolation of a collapsed Bosnian social structure, but it started as an event in a Yugoslav civil war. It is simply unintelligible on other terms. The Bosnian war is not explained by “ancient hatreds” but by loyalties, by anger and by suspicion. The Yugoslav loyalties were twentieth-century, but the suspicions—automatic distrust in time of danger—were rooted in the pre-Yugoslav past. In the end, the effect of the legal intervention of the “international community” with its act of recognition of Izetbegovic’s regime was that any loyalty to the Serbian identity was made to look like a conspiratorial disloyalty to “Bosnia”—largely in the eyes of people who supposed ex hypothesi that if there is a “Bosnia” there must be a nation of “Bosnians.” Never was there a better case of the accuracy of Ovid’s rhyme,

Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason?
If it prospers, none dare call it treason.

Law courts throughout the ages have failed to escape this dismal logic. The ICJ, with its ruling on February 26, at least tried. It may yet help us set straight the lamentable and complex recent history of the Balkans.

Cartoon by Toso Borkovic (Serbia)

Serbia Cleared: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Posted by Svetlana at 08:47 PM | Permalink

Attempted Coup to Dismember Republika Srpska Failed

According to the SINA news agency, judging by the long faces of Bosnian Muslim leaders Haris Silajdzic, Sulejman Tihic, Abdurahman Malkic and others after their meeting with the EU’s High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Srebrenica municipality will not be snatched away from Republika Srpska.

Bosnia’s High Representative said that there will be no imposed solutions and that possible changes to the status would have to be based on mutual consent. Statements by the Republika Srpska leaders strongly underline that the suggestion of carving Srebrenica out of Republika Srpska is unacceptable.

At the same time, majority of Srebrenica municipality population is against the proposed collective move-out of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, called for March 14. Another proof that Bosnian Muslims are opposed to Sarajevo Islamic regime’s directive is the fact that during the meeting in Srebrenica’s Municipality journalists outnumbered Bosnian Muslims supporting Sarajevo initiative.

Sarajevo Islamic Regime Using Srebrenica for Political Manipulations

“The things these Sarajevo officials are trying to do here are purely politically motivated moves making the situation even worse, and definitely not a result of a desire to help people who are living here. I moved back into my house and there is no [Muslim/Croat] Federation leader that can persuade me to move out now and go live in an open field,” stressed one of Srebrenica returnees.

Representatives of the Srebrenica Serbs have published a proclamation aiming to inform the public of the human rights violations of Serbs in this municipality, as well as about the monetary manipulations by the Bosnian Muslim representatives of the local government.

“Out of 8,500 Srebrenica residents, some 67 percent, or around 6,200 are Serbs. But donations that were sent to Srebrenica were invested in the reconstruction of only Muslim houses, roads and villages, which are still empty since Bosnian Muslims don’t want to return. Meanwhile, Serbs are still living in collective centers and alternative housing, in utterly deplorable conditions,” says the proclamation.

Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Donated to Srebrenica Ended Up on Sarajevo Leaders’ Private Bank Accounts

Serbian Comity members are asking if Srebrenica, into which so far over 350 millions of Euros [over 450 millions of dollars] were poured, should remain the “money laundering machine” for the Sarajevo regime.

“I believe the international community is fully aware of what Malkic and the rest were doing with Srebrenica during the past six years, as well as of the extent of damage th