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Serbia’s president apologized Thursday for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, but declined to characterize the killings as an act of genocide. “I kneel and ask for forgiveness,” President Tomislav Nikolić told Bosnian TV. “I apologize for the crimes committed by any person in the name of Serbia.” Nikolić came under fire last year short after he was elected by declaring, according to published reports, there was no “genocide” in Srebrenica. …

(AFP) Serbia's nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday personally apologised for the first time for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

ZAGREB -- Croatia’s Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko has banned a commemoration and revealing of a monument to Serbs victims who were killed from 1991 until 1995.Monument to killed Golubić Serbs (Tanjug) The minister stressed that the gathering would probably lead to significant violation of public law and order and that it would upset the citizens. He pointed out in the release that the “the ban has removed danger of bigger incidents and unrest”. The Croat authorities have also ordered St Stephen’s Church to remove the monument to Serb victims within three days. The Environment, Spatial Planning and Construction Ministry has...

BELGRADE -- Today marks the 16th anniversary since the beginning of Croatian army and police Operation Storm that led to the exodus of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. Tadic and Krkobabic in attendance (Beta) Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Irinej held a memorial service at St. Mark’s Church in downtown Belgrade for the victims of the 1995 military operation aimed against Serb areas of Croatia. The memorial service was attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of refugee issues Jovan Krkobabic, and by other government officials. Representatives of more than 100 refugee and home clubs...

Zagreb/Belgrade 4 Aug. (AKI) - Croatia on Thursday celebrated the 16th anniversary of military operation “Storm” which crushed a Serb rebellion and sparked exodus of some 200,000 Serbs, while Serbia commemorated victims of what it calls the worst ethnic cleansing in Europe after World War Two. Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said operation “Storm” was a “brilliant military action” and a great victory which re-united the country. “The Day of Victory we celebrate in peace and freedom, taking our place in the European family of states and nations,” Kosor said. Serbiaian president Boris Tadic said the anniversary was a date...

A review of The Krajina Chronicle by Srdja Trifkovic. Written by Ambassador James Bissett, Chairman of The Lord Byron Foundation, it was published in the September 2010 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.Srdja Trifkovic is no stranger to Chronicles readers, many of whom have found his articles commenting on foreign affairs, with particular attention to the Balkans, to be insightful, penetrating, and written with authority. His latest book, The Krajina Chronicle, provides further confirmation of his extraordinary talent. The book is a history of the Serbian warrior-farmers who formed the first line of defense against Islamic invasions into...

(CN) - A private U.S. defense contractor "trained and equipped the Croatian military for Operation Storm and designed the Operation Storm battle plan," which killed or displaced more than 200,000 Serbs in 1995, in the largest European land offensive since World War II, the Genocide Victims of Krajina say in Chicago Federal Court. They demand billions of dollars in damages from MPRI, founded by U.S. military officers who were "downsized" at the end of the Cold War, and L-3 Communications, which bought MPRI for $40 million in 2000. "This is a class action brought by ethnic Serbs who resided in...

<p>IF YOU ENJOYED the election crisis of 2000, you’re going to love what Democrat leaders are cooking up for November.</p> <p>"George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party," charges Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson. (2) Some might dismiss Miss Iverson's comment as hyberbole. However, Soros' massive soft-money contributions have indisputably given him power over Democrat strategy.</p>

BELGRADE, ZAGREB -- Today marks the 13th anniversary of Operation Storm that led to the exodus of over 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. Storm began on August 4,1995 with an offensive by the Croatian army and police in the region of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and northern Dalmatia. A day later, the Croatian Army entered a practically deserted Knin and raised the Croatian flag. The number of victims during the operation has never been established. According to the Veritas Center for documentation and statistics, 1,900 Serbs either died or disappeared during Storm, while the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights claims that...

Ahmadinejad was Right! Posted by Julia under Republican Riot  Just six months after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a conference in Tehran questioning the reality and extent of the Holocaust, calling for a fact-finding mission about that six million figure, a mass grave from World War II has been discovered this month in the Ukraine containing thousands of bodies, to add to the 3,500 that were uncovered in Odessa last year — both at former concentration camp sites.Which means Ahmadinejad was right all along: it wasn’t six million Jews killed; it was six million, three thousand, five hundred and...

The trial of the former leader of the rebel Serb authorities in Croatia Milan Martic this week heard testimony from a witness who accused the UN of favouring the Croats over the Serbs and claimed that the US and Germany were instrumental in providing Croatian troops with weapons during the bloody Balkan wars. Patrick Bariot, a former UN Protection Force, UNPROFOR, soldier, strongly defended Martic and the Serbs, portraying the Serb population in the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous District of Krajina, SAO Krajina, as victims of an aggressive Croatian government and military and an international community that intentionally ignored their pleas...

Nikola Tesla was one of the world's greatest minds, yet one of the most forgotten and unappreciated ("Tesla's memory a healing force," World, Sunday). With his myriad inventions (including radio, fluorescent lighting, radar, X-ray technology, alternating current and remote-controlled devices), this single genius literally gave us the 20th century. There is not a human being who has not been impacted by his inventions. Tragically, Mr. Tesla's ancestral country, Yugoslavia, was bombed using the very technology that he had made possible. Because of Mr. Tesla's Serbian ethnicity, the Orthodox Church where his father served as a priest and his childhood home...

WASHINGTON - Catholics in Bosnia-Herzegovina feel pressure, threats and discrimination from an unfair political system and from Muslims financially backed by Islamic countries, said the head of the Bosnian bishops' conference. Successful dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, which is solely "about coexistence," depends on the political situation, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo told Catholic News Service in a May 2 interview. During the 1992-1995 war for independence and up to today, radical influences from Eastern Islamic countries infiltrated into Bosnia, the cardinal said through a translator during a visit to Washington. Bosnian Muslims have access to funding and permits to...

TORONTO, March 13 /CNW/ - Agim Ceku, who is alleged to have led an unprovoked 1993 military attack on Canadian Peacekeepers in the Medak Pocket region of Croatia, has been chosen by Albanians to replace the outgoing prime minister of the U.N.-administered southern Serbian province of Kosovo.The Medak offensive, allegedly planned by Ceku, is also known as the "Medak massacre". This name is entrenched in the minds of many Canadian Armed Forces personnel as Canada's largest military battle since the Korean War. Four Canadians were wounded in the clash that left nearly 30 Croatian soldiers dead.According to reputable sources, Agim...

The American Spectator March 2006 SECTION: The railroading of a former U.S. ally. LENGTH: 1511 words HEADLINE: America, The Hague, and Ante Gotovina BYLINE: Robin Harris BODY: GREAT POWERS LIKE AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD to be too sentimental about foreign friends whose purpose has been served. But sometimes it pays to keep faith with individuals who collaborate successfully in one's policy goals. This is particularly so when those concerned know the inside story of U.S. covert activity and when their fate sets a precedent that jeopardizes U.S. personnel. Such is the case of the former Croatian General Ante Gotovina, arrested in...

Croatian PM: We Are Proud of Operation StormBy Christopher DelisoFirst Published on Balkanalysis.com  Balkan memorials and anniversaries tend to be bathed in blood, and Friday’s planned gala event in Zagreb – a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of ‘Operation Storm’ is no exception. Far from being an occasion for shame, at least in Croatia, the single biggest act of ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II, in which 200,000 Krajina Serbs were driven from their homes and another 2,500 killed, is set to receive official praise. While this party must be sending chills down some EU diplomats’ spines, it’s...

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing in which during 'Oluja' military operation by Croatian Army, during several hours only almost 270,000 Serbs were expelled from their homes in Dalmatia, Lika, Banija and Kordun. Almost 80 percents of their homes were robbed, burnt or destroyed. The operation began in the early morning hours on August 4, 1995. It was carried out by 200,000 Croatian soldiers, 700 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, 1,800 artillery weapons, 47 combat planes and helicopters. During 48 hours only, 2,000 Serbs were killed. From that number 1,199 were civilians, 523 women and 12 children,...

THRILLED WITH OPERATION FLASH, PRESIDENT CLINTON GAVE THE GO AHEAD FOR OPERATION STORM The United States was actively involved in the preparation, monitoring and initiation of Operation Storm: the green light from President Clinton was passed on by the US military attache in Zagreb, and the operations were transmitted in real time to the Pentagon Considering that the US was much more interested in the situation in BiH than in Croatia, they asked Croatia to permit them to install a military base with unmanned aircraft. The United States not only monitored the complete Operation Storm, but they also actively participated...

Ethnic Discrimination Slows Refugee Return (Zagreb, September 3, 2003) Eight years after the end of the war in Croatia, ethnic discrimination continues to impede the return of hundreds of thousands of Croatian Serbs displaced by the war, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. "The impediments to return are insurmountable. It is time that the government of Croatia starts being part of the solution rather than part of the problem." Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director of Human Rights Watch. The 61-page report, “Broken Promises: Impediments to Refugee Return to Croatia," describes the plight of displaced Croatian Serbs...

Was the US behind the single greatest act of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia? By Stephen Gowans It was one of those peeks into what really happened that are occasionally glimpsed long after anyone cares, like finding out after the invasion of Iraq that the US and Britain had already begun aerial operations to pick apart Iraq's defenses long before the invasion had begun, at a time both countries were denying they had already made a decision to go to war ("U.S. Moved Early for Air Supremacy: Airstrips on Iraqi Defenses Began Long Before Invasion, General Says," The Washington Post, July...