General Who Ordered Attacks on Canadian Troops Becomes Prime Minister of Kosovo

CNW ^ | March 13, 2006

[zagor-te-nej]

Not one?
“The battle left 27 Croat forces killed or wounded, while only four Canadians were lightly wounded by shrapnel.”

Information on that attack, actually on whole Canadian involment in Balkan’s wars is sketchy at best.
I know that some Canadian soldiers were killed in Croatia, Krajina and former Bosnia. It would be interesting to learn official tally on losses Canada suffered in former Yugoslavia.

[Lion in Winter]

Yes, right humans rights... like the "human" rights of Albanians to kill Serbs... can't have that right violated can we???? sarcasm off.

[recce guy]

About two months before Medak Pocket in the Town of Lipik 4 Croat police officers were ambushed by Serbs and killed. There was another incident before that in May, 1993 but I was on leave at the time. The grave yards on both sides were full of new graves and mass grave investigations were always ongoing. It was an ugly war and no one was innocent.

[recce guy]

"Ghosts of Medak Pocket" written by Carol Off. Came out a couple years ago. CBC website might have info on this. She works for them as a reporter.

[recce guy]

The only thing that survived in Medak was chickens. Litterally everything else was dead. Heards of dead sheep, cows, horses etc. We found old people in the hills shot in the eye after they could no longer carry packs any further, women raped, shot in the stomach and burned alive in tires. Evidence of body's removed because their brain matter was still dripping off tree leaves....the list goes on. There were a lot of Mercs on the ground. All had US kit but some had new FN Carbons indicating they were probably European.

[joan]

"Town of Lipik 4 Croat police officers were ambushed by Serbs and killed"

Police officers aren't civilians - aren't women and children, the elderly, the infirm, etc. Police officers were known for kidnapping torturing and killing Serb civilians.

Can you think of any Croat women, children or old men killed by Serbs?

[joan]

I know she has written a book, however the reviews complain she doesn't have any of the photos at all - not one - that the Canadians took. There were other things she left out as well, according to a soldier who reviewed her book on Amazon.com.

[joan]

The only thing that survived in Medak was chickens. Litterally everything else was dead. Heards of dead sheep, cows, horses etc. We found old people in the hills shot in the eye after they could no longer carry packs any further, women raped, shot in the stomach and burned alive in tires. Evidence of body's removed because their brain matter was still dripping off tree leaves....the list goes on.

And this is a great deal different than 4 Croat police officers ambushed during the war, when they were notorious for torturing and killing civilians - it was the Croat police who starting the killings - in Vukovar, for example - to kick off the war in the first place.

You did not say if the Croat police officers were raped or tortured. Sounds like they were killed cleanly.

The KLA wasn't faulted for killing Serb police officers at all - they were doing that because Albanians were "oppressed" - so the mainstream media explains with no apologies.

You cannot equalize police and army killed without torture versus systematic mutilation, rape, killing and burning of civilians - including the elderly and infirm.

[recce guy]

I get the feeling you're fairly defensive of one side in this conflict.

I only know 1 guy who took his own photo's and have never seen them. Most guys thought it in bad taste to take pictures of what we saw. Plus there is not much room for cameras when loaded down with weapons and ammo. I have pictures of the area and the guys but nothing of the nature you seek.

In the spring or summer I personally let a Croat trucker through a checkpoint to the Serb side. He was hauling cigarettes and in a hurry. He only made it a couple Km's past us and was captured, imprisoned and killed 2 days later by the Serbs. ROE's did not allow us to detain civi's wanting to cross the front lines unarmed. For several weeks after that every Serb we talked to was smoking Croatian cigarettes and jokingly said "Croatia" as they lit up a new one.

A few weeks before the Medak Pocket I was on the front lines of an active battle near a strategically important bridge. We had taken over from the French force who had lost credibility in the area. One day a Serb in a T-64 fired a round across the balcony I was standing on and into a Serb village below me. Lucky no one was injured in the village. The villagers of course thought that we had fired the round and it took some time to convince them we were not to blame.

The Croatians may have ended the war in a very ugly way but no one was innocent.

[joan]

Was the guy named Rich Mills? For if not, then you have an additional person with photographs. In review of the book, says he has photos; another reviewer says it is mentioned that "a number of soldiers" have photos but none are in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679312943/sr=8-1/qid=1142548401/ref=sr_1_1/103-9083355-9103017?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Accurate, but only scratches the surface, December 1, 2004
Reviewer: Rich Mills (Halifax, NS Canada) - See all my reviews
I was there. For years I wasn't believed when I spoke of what happened, even when I had photographs to back me up, so I stopped talking about it. Only my family and a few friends believed me at the tme, and I think it was mostly because I wasn't the same person who left for Croatia in April 1993. This book should be read by anybody who thinks peacekeeping is a warm and fuzzy, Sesame Street-type exercise. There is a reason why the soldiers who take part in these operations don't refer to it as peacekeeping but call it military operations other than war, or MOOTWA for short. We did what many couldn't or wouldn't do.

---

Well-written and fair, but not complete, December 27, 2004

I do have a few problems with The Ghosts of Medak Pocket. The two maps provided in the hardcover version are wholly inadequate, and dozens of towns, regions and battles are discussed but never situated within a geographic visual aid. Off also mentions that a number of soldiers took their own pictures in the aftermath of the ethnic cleansing, but her book provides no pictures whatsoever. Given the emotionally intense subject matter, a few of these photos would be very informative.

[joan]

"The Croatians may have ended the war in a very ugly way but no one was innocent."

The Croatians exterminated the ethnic Serb population. That was their aim from the beginning. Serbia did not exterminate its Croat population or Muslim population. Foreign powers are interested in created separate, ethnically pure puppet statelets in the Balkans. The Serb population, the largest and most ethnically cohesive of the former Yugoslavia was an obstacle. Therefore they were set up, provoked, demonized and attacked with plenty of overt and covert help from NATO countries.

[recce guy]

Not Mills. I saw him taking the pictures while the place was still burning from the Coppola of an M113. Haven't seen him since. It was a brave thing to do while Croat's and Mercs where standing only meters away. MP's would have taken pics but I doubt those would get released. The Canadian Forces remain a pretty secretive bunch. Mostly because the public and press cry "disband" for every perceived military misstep.

[recce guy]

In the big picture I totally agree and some NATO countries are just as guilty of war crimes in this case as the Croatians. Why other countries have not been investigated is beyond me. On the individual soldier level however, I saw the same attitudes and hatred on both sides. Had the tables been turned I can't say the Serbs would have acted any better. I'm not defending either side in this conflict. I came out of that place with total disrespect for Croats and Serbs. I saw the evil side of man kind that is prevalent in all societies and bubbling just below the surface in many other countries including Canada. Nationalism is dangerous. If Quebec ever separates I fear the same could happen in Canada. I get the same vibes out of the Quebec issue as I did in the Balkans. The US "Melting Pot" is far safer than Canadian multiculturalism.