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.
Oh really? So where are all the tens of thousands of bodies?
So far, the documentation with Croatia and Bosnia has been convincing, if not a little one-sided.
Tonight, I wanted verification of this video and I was able to locate and view it myself.
To check that it was not "staged", I used some video editing software and stepped through one sequence frame by frame. Yes, when the gun shots were heard in the audio, holes appeared in the victim's shirt.
I consider this video as factual information.
How many "victims" were combatants or terrorists? I'm not saying that all of them were, but there is a distinction. How many?
Ha ha! Do you actually expect the Muslim apologists here and MSM to actually require facts before making genocidal assertions? C'mon...
Tens of thousands? I thought I heard the Clinton administration, when they were lying to lead us to war against Serbia, saying that there were hundreds of thousands in mass graves. Did we ever find those?
The Croats and Muslims would be the Nazis, without a doubt, as they were allied with Hitler and had SS battalions.
That is why I was asking if anyone knows why the men being executed were all wearing the same blue shirts.
Freepers are very smart people. Someone can answer my ignorant questions.
My sentiments, exactly.
I'm sure they were all just members of the local Muslim Boy Scout troup. When you are the MSM's scapegoat, everyone you kill is "innocent". When your own people are murdered (as in Kosovo), well then you must PROVOKED the Mooselimbs to RAGE against you, and besides you had it coming, because future World Prez Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark says that Serbs are bad.
Your knowledge of WW2 Yugoslavia leaves a lot to be desired.
Nope. But there were indeed tens of thousands of Serbs and Jews murdered by Croat and Muslim SS vermin, under orders from Hitler during WWII. Yet there was never a Nuremberg Trial in the Balkans. Now they are all heroic "victims".
So, you're saying that Serbia did not have a problem with jihadist terrorists? And that there weren't enemy combatants operating in Serbia? And you're absolutely sure that these guys were not combatants or terrorists?
Who was in the mass graves? You didn't answer that question. You just started ranting.
She does not like the Serbs at all, but was able to explain to me how the America media was lying to us.
I remember one evening, while we were talking with each other, that she started to scream. An American fighter had just passed low over her house while going super-sonic, and her window's shattered.
I have learned many things over the years from my trusted Bulgarian friend. Since then, she has obtained her law degree and is currently working on her legal PhD. Someday, she will become an important player in Bulgarian politics.
This was the world's first internet war, and I must applaud the Serbs for getting their side of the conflict out to the world.
im not sure what your argument is... are you saying that all of the males were terrorists? the thousands found in mass graves were all terrorists? the males seperated from the women at the UN safe haven, which is very well documented on video, and whom dissapeared, that all these people are terrorists? towns and villages, completely full of terrorist males?
or are you saying that if theres a problem with terrorists, its ok to kill all the males just to get the bad guys? that lining up populations in front of the graves is ok because some of them are terrorists?
Were all Muslims who were executed by the Serbs innocent? Are you an Al Qaeda apologist? "Milosevic's wars"? I suppose Afghanistan and Iraq are "Bush's wars", right?
Belgrade has the most diverse population in all of the Balkans. During this war, there was an Albanian refugee camp in the suburbs and within 20 km of Belgrade.
Knowing that Albanian refugees were being helped by the citizens of Belgrade, it forced me to think.
If this war was about "ethnic cleansing", then that would be impossible! Someone was lying to the American public.
Yes, as with any civil war, horrible things will happen. That is why a civil war is always the most tragic.
I also learned another valuable lesson from this war. Check the facts, and verify!
all the killings were done away from prying eyes. bodies were trucked around to different locations for disposal. theres a good reason why people near the capital would not be targeted and this is also part of the reason why many serbs dont beleive it - they did not have to witness it.
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