The same thing goes, when it comes to Serbia...
Posted on 06/02/2005 8:54:24 PM PDT by Hoplite
Agencies in Belgrade
Friday June 3, 2005
The Guardian
They are the images that have finally, 10 years later, shocked a nation. A man, several men, are unloaded from a truck, marched to a wooded hillside and shot, one by one, in the back. Two prisoners are ordered to carry the bodies to a barn. They too are then executed. The murder of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 is well documented. But a video that emerged this week during the trial of the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, has provoked a bout of soul-searching in Serbia, parts of which are still in denial over the horrors of the Bosnian war.
The footage was the first such graphic material from the massacre in Srebrenica to be shown in the country, where more than half of the population refuses to believe it even took place, according to a poll last month. "Serbia is deeply shocked," President Boris Tadic said. "Those images are proof of a monstrous crime committed against persons of a different religion. And the guilty had walked as free men until now."
Eight alleged former members of a Serb paramilitary group, the Scorpions, filmed actually carrying out the murders, have been arrested on the strength of the footage, officials said yesterday.
The faces of the perpetrators can be seen and their insults to the Muslims heard. The film was shot by a member of the Scorpions.
"The killers had walked freely among us, on our streets, behaving as if they were ordinary, honorable citizens," Mr Tadic said. "All those who committed war crimes must be held accountable; only in this way will we be able to have a future. We must not close our eyes to the cruelty that took place."
He added that the crimes at Srebrenica "were carried out in the name of our nation".
"But crimes are always individual and the perpetrators of these monstrous crimes must be punished."
Srebrenica was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995, with UN peacekeepers powerless to stop their advance. Some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were led away to their deaths, survivors telling of how they were lined up and shot in several batches, then buried in mass graves.
The prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, called the executions a "disgraceful".
UN prosecutors say the killings in the video footage took place on Mount Treskavica near the wartime Bosnian Serb capital, Pale, which is south-west of Srebrenica. The Scorpions were allegedly under orders from Serbian police in Belgrade and the link could directly tie Mr Milosevic with the crimes committed in Bosnia.
I have noticed this is a one issue item, Greater Serbia, and any expulsion, rape, or murder could be explained away for the goal of Greater Serbia.
100,000 bodies were butchered in Kosovo away from prying eyes? 100,000 bodies were trucked around, while NATO fighters and bombers zoomed overhead? 100,000 bodies that 7 years later can't be found, heck of which only about 2,400 have been found and half identified as Serbs and Roma? Oh please, stop the insanity. While you're at it, how about some desert landscapes for sale in Florida?
In response to my comment that "my intuition tells me that muslims don't fight wars to maintain multicultural societies", you suggest that my intuition is wrong and embarrassing.
You haven't convinced me that I'm wrong but it's good that you are embarrassed.
The same thing goes, when it comes to Serbia...
So the Serbs are arresting those they can identify as having committed atrocities.
When does Ceku go on trial for the murders in the Krajina, eh rooster?
Actually, they did find those graves!
Only we found them in Iraq.
And they were full of Arabs.
Many of whom had been killed while Clinton was in office yet he chose to do nothing.
Sad to say, but the PR spin is in high gear. They dismiss Bosnian Serb and claim it as "Bosnian" when Serbs are found. Their rationale is that all the Croatians, muslims and Serbs of Bosnia are "Bosnian or Bosniak'.
There is a tiny little town, Rajince and Biljace, outside of presevo that is heavily coveted by the Albanians.
It was about not having interference and the Serb MUP were enforcers of the law.
The negative on the Serbs were their heavy-handed response to KLA attacks and finding grisly bodies of mutilated Serbs and Albanians who were "Pro-Serbia".
Crimes were committed on both sides. Emotion fueled the Serbian response and was orchestrated at Field Command Level majority of the time. There was never any orchestrated cleansing at Brigage or Corps level. In war, at times the population needs to be shifted and controlled to avoid a civilian-military interference.
I've been a frequent follower and contributor to the Balkans threads for over 5 years and I don't ever remember seeing anybody deny that crimes were committed by Serbs.
I'm a Serb and not only won't I deny that crimes were committed by Serbs, I'll even go so far as to say that there were a hell of a lot more men executed by Serb paramilitaries during the fall of Srebrenica than are shown is this little video clip.
Hmmm... it's been 10 years now. I wonder if we've crossed the threshold into "This is ancient history. The Muslims need to get over it already and move on." I sure as crap heard that garbage enough when it was in reference to the Serbs needing to "get over" crimes committed against them when it was 50 years.
That's pretty much exactly how I understand it too.
BBC reported that the number of men that were separated, from the 23,000 women and children that were bused to Muslim areas, for "interrogation for suspected war crimes" numbered in the hundreds, not thousands.
Then there were the 15,000 muslim fighters that left the so-called "safe area" they used as a base for their attacks on Serb villages. How many of them ended up in graves after they attempted to fight their way through Serb territory? If you watch the PBS film on Srebrenica, you will see them straggling in in group of two or three after five days of fighting through Serb lines and mine fields.
Answering the standard set of Journalist questions (Who When Where How Why) in relation to this video demonstrates this clearly:
WHO
Perps: 10 individuals (all male) in Scorpion uniforms
Victims: individuals, wearing similar clothes, hands tied on the back (all male).
WHEN: summertime (foliage is present)
WHERE: The execution site is recognized as village on the slope of Jahorina mountain, near SARAJEVO, 100 miles away from Srebrenica.
How is crime commited:
Shooting with automatic weapons
WHY?
This is not clear:
1. Why are the victims taken 100 miles from Srebrenica to be executed if Srebrenica was a place where "8000 men and boys were executed"?
2. If victims are indeed taken from Srebrenica, why individuals in Scorpion fatigues risked travelling through combat zone to reach execution site 100 miles away?
3. Natasa kandic claims that the video was shot by Scorpions, that all other copies were destroyed in 2000 and that the tape is in her possession for one year. Why she decided to release the tape now and not when she got it?
We are led to believe that during the alleged killing spree while thousands of 'muslim men and boys' were murdered, a company of Scoropions took 8 Male muslims, drove them through the combat zone and behind enemy lines to reach Jahorina mountain near Sarajevo, in order to execute them in front of the video camera.
And we have to accept this video footage as an evidence that "8000 Muslim men and boys" were indeed murdered in Srebrenica.
Nice try, anyway.
This are horrific crimes--murdering people because of their ethnicity or religion, and it should be punished appropriately.
What is his or her name then?
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