Ex -US Envoy: Croatia Expelled Serbs

Balkan Insight ^ | 6/25/08 | Staff

[Bokababe]

24 June 2008 Zagreb _ A former US ambassador to Croatia has accused Zagreb of plotting and sanctioning the exodus of Serbs in 1995 to create an "ethnically clean" country.

Peter Galbraith told The Hague war crimes trial of three Croatian generals, that the leadership headed by late President Franjo Tudjman used ‘Operation Storm’ to ‘cleanse’ Croatia of Serbs.

“Croatian authorities either ordered or allowed a mass destruction of the Serb property in former (Serb-held region of) Krajina to prevent the return of the population. I consider that to have been a thought through policy,” he said, testifying at the trial of generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, based in The Hague indicted the three for war crimes their troops allegedly committed during and after Operation Storm.

Up to 800 ethnic Serb civilians were killed and some 250,000 fled Croatia when in 1995 Croat forces crushed the rebel Serb breakaway state that occupied up to a quarter of the country’s territory since it declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

“Croatia was an organised country, its army the most disciplined in former Yugoslavia, and therefore I cannot accept that the illegalities that occurred after Storm were spontaneous,” Galbraith told the court.

He added that had happened because “President Tudjman and people around him wanted it, wishing for an ethnically clean country.”

However, Galbraith said Croatia did not carry out an ethnic cleansing campaign following Operation Storm, because “you could not cleansed those who were not there, but I’m not saying it would have not happened had the population stayed.”

His testimony came as a surprise, since when he testified at the trial of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2003 Galbraith said Croatia was not responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.

On Monday he said he was sorry for saying that because it was understood as his justification for the Croatian army’s actions, which had not been his intention.

[Diocletian]

No, Croatia did not have the right to secede with her borders enclosing hundreds of thousands of Serbs who did not wish to leave Yugoslavia.

You should bring that up with all 6 republican leaders, including Milosevic, who agreed that Croatia did have the right at the EU meeting in 1991. Take it up with Belgrade.

[FormerLib]

...so that I can bury you.

The standard Croatian solution to the Serbian problem. Ethnically cleanse one-third, convert one-third, kill one-third.

[Diocletian]

Feel free to point out the lies you claim that I posted. Since you’re a coward I know it’s gonna be a long wait.

[Ron Jeremy]

I asked you far more questions than that. Don’t bother though, it is clear you are hopelessly biased on the subject and it is not worth the time to argue with you.

[Diocletian]

There’s a few Serbs here that you can discuss the topic with rationally. FormerLib is not one of them. Not a problem anyway since FormerLib is not well versed on the subject either.

[Ron Jeremy]

It just seems very transparent to me that they simply want to rule the Croatians. The Serbs want to rule Zagreb. The Croatians do not want to rule Belgrade. The Croatians are happy with the status quo. The Serbs are not as they are not ruling the Croatians.

[montyspython]

Exactly, its all about self preservation.

[montyspython]

What are you babbling about? We really don’t care about Zagreb and nor are we wanting to rule it. Croatians had no problem killing a few Serbs to achieve their goals so turn about isn’t fair play?

[Diocletian]

The Serbs got to rule Zagreb twice, but they scaled back their demands on Croatia to simply 2/3rds of Croatia in 1991, then to 1/3rd by 1992 since they were beaten back on several fronts. But when one speaks of Serbs one cannot count them as homogeneous in their views. The Belgrade Serbs already wrote off the Croatian Serbs by 1992, with Milosevic’s righthand man Borisav Jovic telling the Croatians that “those Serbs are your citizens, not ours. Crush them on wheels for all I care”. The Croatian Serbs were by and large isolated by 1994 and even more so in early 1995 when the Bosnian Serbs refused to help them out. It’s little wonder why they put up such a weak fight after the first day of Operation Storm and decided to make a run for it.

[Ron Jeremy]

We really don’t care about Zagreb and nor are we wanting to rule it.

Well, you have consistently wanted to rule it, and since you don't you are extremely bitter.

[Bokababe]

"Please provide the lyrics to this song where Thompson sings about the joy of killing serbs and jews, thanks."

I'll do you one better. Here's the song on video, subtitled with the lyrics in English and with the actual WWII footage of the period and people he is talking about in the song. The deathcamp entrance the video shows is Jasenovac.

The song is right after the intro on Thompson visiting the US.

[montyspython]

Incorrect, just stating a fact. Bitter? Hardly.

If Serbia had truly wanted to rule Zagreb, it would have rolled in its tanks in the first days of the war and taken it. The war would have ended at that moment, no fuss, no muss.

[Diocletian]

First of all, nowhere does the song mention Jews...so Bokababe is either ignorant or is willingly lying. Second of all, Bokababe is trying to portray the image that Thompson sings this song in concerts when the fact of the matter is that he sang it only once years ago (for which he apologized). Notice how bokababe is avoiding my posts because she isn’t interested in telling the truth, but rather is interested in spreading Serbian propaganda.

[Diocletian]

So let’s see if Bokababe is willing to own up to her mistakes on this thread and be a Christian. I have faith that she will.

[FormerLib]

Ok, so you refuse to defend your own statement about self-determination whenever Serbs are involved. Your hypocrisy has been noted.

[Ron Jeremy]

Ok, so you refuse to defend your own statement about self-determination whenever Serbs are involved. Your hypocrisy has been noted.

No, I refuse to have a one way, or near one way conversation.

[Bokababe]

Yeah right, this is "Serbian Propaganda". That's why a decent Croat policeman got fired for reporting it!:

100,000 flock to pro-Ustasha singer's concert

31 May 2008 | 18:00

ZAGREB -- Last night’s concert by Marko Perkovic, a.k.a. Tompson in Zagreb, dedicated to the capital’s defenders, was attended by a crowd of over 100,000, media say.

Even though the Croatian Helsinki Committee, Jewish associations, and even President Stjepan Mesic all objected to the concert because of the preponderance of Ustasha and fascist insignia, he was welcomed on stage with chants of “Kill, kill the Serb”.

Several members of Croatia’s political and acting community were also in attendance.

Despite police warnings prior to the concert that anyone carrying Ustasha or fascist insignia would be arrested, caps and scarves with ustasha iconography were scattered all around, particularly on the heads and around the necks of euphoric teenagers, while one Tompson fan even turned up with a swastika flag in his hands.

The most vocal were a group of young fans going through their regular repertoire of chants, including “Anyone sitting down is Orthodox”.

In spite of the fact he and his army of fans greet each other with raised right fists, the controversial singer claims that his fans are big anti-fascists.

After the concert, Perkovic was unable to explain why he had been banned from holding concerts in Austria and Switzerland.

The president of the Association of Disabled Croat Soldiers of the Homeland War called on the media to be objective, and to write that there had been no outlawed insignia or songs.

Or This"

Policeman in trouble for reporting pro-Nazi singer

11 June 2008 | 15:18 -> 18:06 | Source: FoNet

ZAGREB -- Josip Gašparac, a long-serving inspector in the Zagreb police, has been suspended for reporting singer Marko Perkovic, Tompson, writes Jutarnji List.

A criminal complaint was filed on suspicion that Tompson had been guilty of racial and other forms of discrimination during a concert on Bana Jelacica Square in the Croatian capital on May 30, “to the detriment of Croatia, its citizens and national minorities,” writes the Zagreb daily.

The complaint applies to Tompson as well as other “unknown perpetrators” who are suspected of complicity in these crimes.

The Croat singer has been criticized for glorifying Croatia's WW2 Nazi puppet Ustasha regime, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Romas and Jews.

Among other things, it is said that the complaint was filed on the grounds that certain lyrics at the concert had led a significant number of visitors “to make outbursts displaying hatred to other national minorities with calls to murder,” citing as proof footage of the concert broadcast on several TV channels.

Right after learning of his suspension on June 6, for which he received no written explanation, Gašparac was forced to hand over his badge and weapon, and leave his place of work.

The inspector was told that disciplinary proceedings had been launched against him “for serious breaches of discipline and unbecoming conduct on duty and off.”

Today, reacting to the reports, Croatian police denied that the suspension had anything to do with the Tompson case.

But president of the Croatian Jewish Community Slavko Goldstein wrote in Jutarnji List that Gašparac knows the exact reason for his suspension without any need for detailed explanations—his decision to report the singer.

In accordance with standard procedure, Gašparac first informed his immediate superior that he would file such a complaint, and then, on the orders of his superior, held consultations with the deputy public prosecutor, before sending to Crnomerec police station an application signed by his superior for Tompson to be brought in for questioning.

However, the police station in question responded that “the immediate reasons had stopped, and that the summons did not need to be delivered to Perkovic.”

This order was allegedly issued by the deputy chief of Zagreb police, says Goldstein.

[Diocletian]

So instead of addressing my points about your posts being entirely inaccurate, you go off on a tangent. I was wrong about you. You are fundamentally dishonest and certainly not a Christian. You had a chance to take back the false accusations you’ve made, but you’ve chosen not to do it. So be it.

[Diocletian]

You’re doing quite the job embarassing yourself on this thread. You’ve gone from false accusations about the Croatian regime (that you’ve already been corrected on) to whining about a singer who once sang a song that he no longer sings. Wow.

[Bokababe]

"So instead of addressing my points about your posts being entirely inaccurate, you go off on a tangent.

What tangent? That Thompson is a neo-Ustasha hate band? That fascism is still alive and well in Croatia and the diaspora, even though they try to hide the "hate the Jews" message while still glorifying those who slaughtered thousands of Jews along with Serb Christians 60 years ago? (But every once in a while it still bleeds through because someone in the Croat diaspora didn't get the PR memo?)

"I was wrong about you. You are fundamentally dishonest and certainly not a Christian.

How is it "Christian" for me to defend a hateful ideology that calls for the murder of Serbs and Jews? That isn't "Christian", it's "anti-Christian"!

If you think that "Thompson isn't at fault and isn't fascist", then you have one place to look for assignment of blame -- those Croats, both in Croatia in the diaspora, who have produced tons of Thompson memorabilia with WWII Ustashe symbolism on it. Thompson apologists are fools, because it doesn't matter what Perkovic says or does, he just keeps raking in the cash off of them while he poisons a new generation of neo-Nazis that could have had a shot at a decent Christian life!