Posted on 06/13/2005 6:05:12 AM PDT by OESY
Fourteen years on from a conflict that raged as Yugoslavia began to fall apart, taking more than 200,000 lives with it, the destruction in this once pretty Croatian region is still visible....
The Serbs and Croats who rose up against one another here are living in their old homes again, but with new neighbors....
Take Slobodan Davidovic, an ethnic Serb, former waiter and part-time construction worker from a small village to the south of Vukovar, about three miles from the Serbian border.
Mr. Davidovic's war caught up with him this month in the most public of ways - he appeared in a video shown on television networks throughout the Balkans. There he is, dressed in black, wearing a beret, ordering fellow soldiers around at the execution of six Muslim men and boys in Bosnia, some of the 7,000 from the town of Srebrenica killed by Serb forces in July 1995. He was identified by name by the Serbian police and by former members of his military unit.
The image is hard to match with the man living in the little village of Sidski Banovci....
Officially, he has been described by the Serbian police as being in hiding....
Mr. Davidovic was one of dozens of men - many of them members of the same families - who joined the Scorpions in 1991, when the fighting in this part of Croatia was at a height. But eventually, the unit went to fight in Bosnia. Later, it was incorporated into the Serbian police, and was sent to Kosovo. The unit has been accused of killing 14 ethnic Albanians there, seven of them children. It is described by Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor as doing the Serbian police's "dirty work," and acted on the orders of Serbian state security....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
![](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/13/international/balkan.184.1.jpg")
In an image from a video recorded at the time Mr. Davidovic appears alongside prisoners.
-- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Wow! First Slobodan Milosovic, now Slobodan Davidovic. Pretty soon that first name will virtually disappear like Adolph, Genghis, and Nero.
Nobody names their kid Nero anymore!
Is it your position that the murders shown in this tape are justified because of some other atrocities elsewhere?
Croatia holds Srebrenica suspect
Croatian police have arrested a suspect in the Srebrenica massacre, alleged to be one of those caught on video killing a group of Muslim teenagers. The video was first shown last week as evidence in the trial of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Croatian police said the suspect was arrested on Sunday in the village of Banovci, near the town of Vukovar.
Several of those thought to appear in the video have been arrested in Bosnia and Serbia in recent days.
The suspect arrested in Croatia is a 52-year-old Croatian national, police said, but he has not been named.
He is alleged to have been a member of the Serb paramilitary unit, the Scorpions, which is said to have taken part in the Srebrenica massacre.
Still at large
In July 1995, about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were separated from their families in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and killed.
It was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
The video footage showed six teenaged boys, their hands bound, being led from a truck and shot in the back.
The event had been captured by a Serb soldier, but had never been seen before in public.
The video has shocked Serbs, some of whom had previously refused to accept that the massacre took place.
The two men accused of ordering Srebrenica, and indicted with genocide - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, General Ratko Mladic - have still not been caught.
Their continuing freedom threatens to cast a shadow over commemorations for the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica next month.
We have some FReepers who are in the same category.
A few questions for you.
Was this evidence accepted at the Tribunal?
Did Milosevic have the opportunity to cross examine?
Was he or Serbia involved, was there a command link?
Why people have doubts is that the Tribunal, in the opinion of those who have watched it, has exonerated Milosevic.
It's no wonder that W and the US Senate overwhelmingly deny the authority of a world court.
It has been introduced by the Prosecution and shown in court abouit two weeks ago.
Did Milosevic have the opportunity to cross examine?
Yes. He said the video of the Serb "Skorpions" murdering the young men was a crime, but he tried to cast doubt on the date and timing of the incident as well as the Skorion association with him.
Was he or Serbia involved, was there a command link?
That is what the prosecution is trying to prove. The tape was introduced along with some documents obtained from Republika Srpska authorities that indicate that the Serbian MUP was operating in combat roles throughout the RS. One of the documents recorded desertions by four conscripts from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during operations in the Bratunac-Srebrenica-Konjavac-Polje area (Mr. Milosevic objected to this characterization and argued that while the conscripts may have originally hailed from the FRY, they were serving in the Bosnian Serb forces); another report indicated that two members of the Serbian MUP were wounded in combat near Foca. Finally a report authored by Ljubomir Borovcanin, an RS MUP commander who is currently indicted for complicity in genocide at Srebrenica recorded "four members of the Serbian MUP were slightly wounded" after operations.
You can read more about how Serbia under Milsevic supported Serb paramilitary organizations in Bosnia here.
Why people have doubts is that the Tribunal, in the opinion of those who have watched it, has exonerated Milosevic.
You are fooling yourself.
It's no wonder that W and the US Senate overwhelmingly deny the authority of a world court.
Yes they do, and rightfully so. However, the Bush Administration fully supports the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the trial of Milosevic and the other Balkan war criminals. The ICTY is not a "world court".
...But HEY....we at least don't support George Soros....like you do...or had Fun in Kosovo...like you did...!!!
Monetarily almost fully, other countries toss in a stipend. Lazy accumulator Colin, wanted to see it through, but only to see if it will fail miserably at Milosevics expense.
Bush, I hope, wants to see justice done, but predictably it's been a total corrupted failure.
Condi and Bolton have yet to seriously discuss this yet in the style of Islamic supporters Albright, Berger, Cohen and Gen. Clark.
The ICTY is not a "world court".
Huh? The 'I' stands for International and it's funded by the UN. That spells 'world court' to me.
HEY--quit trying to get me in trouble with Mrs. 502inf!
You deserve it....!!!
My regards to Mrs. 502
First, "International" does not equal "world". Second, ICTY jurisdiction is strictly limited to crimes against humanity committed in the former Yugoslavia during the period of its break-up. It is scheduled to be dissolved in 2010, although it may go away sooner or later based on work-load and as approved by the UN Security Council. The ICTY operates under the UN and the Security Council--of which the USA is a permanent veto-wielding member.
The ICTY is the model the Bush administration wanted to use for the Sudan--a specially constituted international court with jurisdiction limited in terms of geography, time, and type of crime; and any tendencies to go out of control limited by funding & oversight through the UN where the USA has a permanent veto. The ICTY is not a "world" court nor is it related in any way to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Not any more, I hope. The ICTY imprisons political enemies on hearsay, and in Milosevic's case, it is conducting a going on three years trial without making a case.
It's laughable.
Yes we have a veto and should use it. But so does Russia IMO, and they have not been able to end the bandit EU persecution of Serbians.
The ICTY is not a "world" court nor is it related in any way to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Odd that the acronym's first 2 letters are the same and both were concocted by the UN in Rome. Not to mention that they both operate in Brussels using the same facilities as far as I know.
You're making a distinction without a difference.
the bandit EU persecution of Serbians
The ICTY is independent of the EU; it is run by the UN.
Odd that the acronym's first 2 letters are the same and both were concocted by the UN in Rome
Duckln, the ICC is an independent organization established by a multi-lateral international treaty. It is not part of the UN or run by the UN. As to the ICC and ICTY being connected because the first two letters are the same, I had already figured out that that was the kind of logic you used.
Not to mention that they both operate in Brussels
Neither court is located in Brussels and they do not share facilities.
The EU did a land grab. They wanted to breakup Yugoslavia. As part of NATO, they persuaded the US to go along, while the UN would have nothing to do with it. With the WO propaganda machine in tow they forged ahead, siding with the Islamists, and with the help of Clinton, they bombed every thing in sight, but yet fail to occupy Serbia or take away Kosovo.
The UN eventually had to go along. Amazing, isn't it. And they still haven't beaten Milosevic in their own kangaroo court.
Isn't the ICTY Tribunal being conducted in Brussels, isn't the (old)World Court in Brussels, and where is the 'Capital' of the now fledging EU? To top it off this last week, kooks from Amnesty International, on Sunday's This Week with Wallace, because of Gitmo, want to haul W and Rummy to court in 'Brussels'.
I can't believe a Freeper would go along with such nonsense.
Duckln, the only thing even remotely accurate about your previous post is the last word.
So, what do all the Serb sympathizers on FR have to say about this when the truth of the killings is posted around the world?
Face it, these Serbs are not just enemies of Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, the US, etc. they are enemies of the world and no one would care if Serbia disappeared from the face of the earth.
"no one would care if Serbia disappeared from the face of the earth."
Sounds like RBJ is back again...
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