Byzantine Blog

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)

Posted by Svetlana at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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 Muja