Posted on 03/27/2002 9:59:33 AM PST by Spar
Five Bosnians _ four of whom survived the Srebrenica massacre _ killed in traffic accident
Tue Mar 26,10:08 AM ET
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - A car collided with a bus in central Bosnia Tuesday, killing a refugee family who survived a massacre seven years ago, state radio reported.
The family of four was traveling to the capital, Sarajevo, to apply for visas to emigrate. A friend traveling with the family also died in the accident, which occurred Tuesday morning near the town of Zavidovici, some 70 kilometers (44 miles) north of Sarajevo, the report said.
Police identified the victims as Mula Hirkic, 50, and her three sons — Asim, 15, Ramo, 11, and Mirza, 6. The family friend was identified as Mufid Halilovic, who drove the car.
Hirkic and her sons survived the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which up to 8,000 men were killed by Bosnian Serb troops.
(asd/acr/sl)
The victims had given evidence to the UN War Crimes trial on the activities of the Mujahedeen headhunters operating out of Srebrenica. It seems they were fleeing for their lives. They didn't make it.
The First Amendment is not an invitation to lie, Spar.
Support your statement.
p.s., I've pegged your other post as reading material for tonight.
Regards,
Hop
NEW MURDER, OLD STORY - Zavidovici, the Bosnian Twilight Zone
AIM Zavidovici, 23 February, 1997
In Zavidovici, a small town in central Bosnia, a new murder happened. With shots from firearms, Hasan Huskic murdered in cold blood Ibrisim Muharemovic in a village close by. Unfortunately, this piece of news from "the twilight zone" does not disturb anybody. Zavidovici ranks the first among Bosnian provincial towns the names of which are most frequently mentioned in connection with horror. Terror rules this town of completely changed ideas and rules, and those who are disobedient become just a new name on the list of unclarified murders.
And everything is as clear as it can be. In this latest murder, too. Unfortunate Ibrisim was drinking together with the murderer's father and this was good enough reason for the "true believing jihad warrior" Huskic to sentence him to death, sparing this time his own father. What will happen if his father reaches out for the bottle again, it is not difficult to assume. Jihad warriors do not forgive anybody in their vicinity who violates their rules of living.
It is difficult to say when these rules were established, because it had begun "spontaneously". After the end of war actions, on the territory of the municipality there remained "several" foreign citizens, whose war accomplishments are linked to liberation of Vozuce, one of the strongest fortifications of the serb army. In the general euphoria, triumphant salutes addressed to Alija Izetbegovic in those days in Vozuca "Allah Ekhber!" and "Tekhbir!" did not grate on anybody's ears.
It did not take long to pass from salutes to action. The fact which helped a alot was that during the war a special military unit called "Asim Camdzic" was established in thir region, the members of which were men of profound religious feelings and who contributed greatly to final liberation of the municipality. What these men have in common were religious obstinacy and intolerance to anything different to such an extent that they started exterminating everything different, "with no evidence" of course. Unfortunately, even when speaking of murders which remain "unclarified".
In just a year, a number of people were murdered: brothers Radoslav and Rajko Jovicic, member of military police Refik Visic while on duty, the owner of the coffee shop Boris Tesanovic (his murderer is known and freely walking around Zavidovici!), Goran Keler, recipient of the greatest award of the army of B&H - Golden Lily. Then there was the murder of Jadranko Bozanovic editor of the local radio station, and manager of ZIK Habid Hotic from one of the oldest and most respectable families in Zavidovici, in the manner seen only in criminal films: a timed bomb tore him to pieces in his car at the moment he turned the ignition key. The last one who was killed from explosives in front of the entrance to his apartment was Zeljko Dejanovic. The same explosive device was placed in front of the apartment of Enes Saletovic who was fortunately not badly injured.
Sometimes news about the worst horror provincial town leak after tours of journalists from Sarajevan media who come only once and never again, happy that they manage to get out alive. That is how the AIM journalist found out the following:
The centre of gathering of jihad warriors (it is assessed that in the town of thirty odd thousand inhabitants, there are at least ten of them, although according to the known saying that "fear has magnifying eyes", some of the colleagues speak about the figure of as many as thirty or forty thousand in the region) is the town mosque. The mosque used to have its imam, Memis Mahmutovic, thanks to whom it was constructed. The jihad warriors used the mosque gladly, but they did not like the imam. He was not a good enough Muslim! On the eve of Bairam last year, the group of jihad warriors forced their way into the mosque and threw imam Mahmutovic out and brought their man to the post, Hafiz Efendic, whose c.v. obviously suited them better. The new imam is the brother of the chief imam, brother-in-law of the cantonal minister of the interior and son-in-law of the former president of the Islam community. He worked as a khoja in Seher and then in Tesanj from where according to certain information he was banished. He is a real fanatic and one of the initiators of the formation of the jihad warriors' movement. Unfortunate imam Mahmutovic suddenly died of heart attack the very next day after he had been thrown out of his mosque. And only two days after his burial, the zealous jihad warriors, for reasons known only to them, dug up his grave!
Since then, new rules of behavior have been introduced which nobody dares break. The town and the surroundings are covered with posters and slogans which invite the citizens to respect the only, sheriat law, clearly pointing out to bans of everything coming and brought from the West. That is how two cafes immediately became targets, as "pure western products" and as they were near the mosque, explosives were planted in them, of course. The first warning! Since they were taking over control last summer, in the town with two rivers - the Bosna and the mouth of Krivaja - bathing was banned, but especially of men and women together. In autumn, the turn of barrels with plums came. Since good plum brandy was made traditionally in this region, the jihad warriors found a way to stop that, too. They simply poured oil into barrels of plums and there was no brandy!
The best time for "action" are Muslim holidays, especially the month of fasting - Ramadan. Anyone who dared be caught eating or drinking was badly beaten up. There were tens of disobedient ones who were punished on site. During the latest Ramadan post an old man was beaten up only because he dared light a cigarette at the market place. The "true believers" are forgetting that the elderly and the ailing are permitted to commit this "sin". A few young men were beaten up for the same "offence".
In these external manifestations of creed, covering up of women is also obligatory, so that long hooded dresses have become a "fashion hit" in Zavidovici, and men have specially shaven beards, and all of them together have a lot of children. This is one of the main tasks!
How the "Bosniac non-jihad warriors" live, but (few) members of other nations too, unfortunately, it is not difficult to imagine. In constant fear not to make an "offence" they rarely come out in public. And why should they when almost all doors are shut for them, from employments to various groups and associations with the prefix "Muslim". They are happy that they still have their own doors. But for how long?
Mujahedeen: Departure of "Naturalized Bosniaks"
"It is believed that in BH today there still exist three training camps for mujahedeen in Kakanj, Visoko and Maglaj" By Maja BJELAJAC and Emir IMAMOVIC
Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, July 26, 2000
At dawn on July 20, federal policemen, members of the ministry of internal affairs of the Zenica-Doboj canton, removed the roadblock that they had tolerated for five days on the Maglaj-Zavidovici road. Fourteen people were arrested, among them several foreign citizens - mujahedeen, during the quick and well-planned operation. "Naturalized Bosniaks", as the mujahedeen were called in 1998 by the mayor of Maglaj at the time, Ismet Mustajbasic, not only chose to remain in Bocinja, their last oasis, but continue operating training camps in this country, run as an international semi-protectorate. Although the publicly accepted number of mujahedeen is several hundred, it is certain that the actual number is higher: it is believed that in BH today there still exist three training camps for mujahedeen in Kakanj, Visoko and Maglaj. Reporter's sources state that in the region of Visoko, the chief coordinator between the mujahedeen and the local administration is certain Mirsad Sirco, the former president of the municipal Crisis Headquarters and today one of the directors of the Viteks company. Some of the mujahedeen stationed at Konjic moved to the region of Kakanj, near the mines. However, it is claimed that the main training center until recently was on Mt. Bjelasnica. Reporter has acquired exclusive photographs of the training camp near Bocinja taken in spring of this year.
"Naturalization": The road to citizenship for the imported fundamentalists was not simple. Several hundred advocates of jihad arrived at the beginning of the war from Arab countries and Europe by way of Zagreb into BH and the "El-mujaheed" unit was formed. In 1992 some of the Arabs who participated in the "holy war" in BH had problems with the Croat authorities in BH. After arriving in Herceg-Bosna from Croatia, some of the mujahedeen had their passports confiscated, and some of them were even arrested. Those who were most involved fought in Travnik, Visoko as well as on other battlefields throughout BH. After demobilization, some of the members of this unit took up residence in Bocinja, where they married local Bosniak women and took Bosnian citizenship. As many as 1,200 of them are believed to own BH passports today.
The recent roadblock on the Maglaj-Zavidovici road, a rural route which suddenly became very important, had only one goal: to make it impossible to evict the residents of Bocinja and return the pre-war residents of this village. On the day of the operation, Dzevad Galijasevic, the head of Maglaj municipality which also includes Bocinja, provided yet more evidence for this thesis. According to him, the road block was agreed upon following "juma", the main Muslim prayer on Fridays, after which logs appeared on the roadway.
Even though it was well-known that Bocinja, a secluded mujahedeen community, would have to be emptied, its residents did not appear at the road blocks. The road was sealed off by residents of two nearby villages - Bakotic and Dolac - who announced that they were not "fighting" for the mujahedeen but rather for themselves.
Only after the road block was removed it was discovered that not only were there mujahedeen among the organizers but that some of dissatisfied people were happy to help save the imported warriors. One of the women who spent almost five days at the barricades described the police operation by stating that the members of the ministry of internal affairs were very brutal, and that she had been searched by no less than three federal policewomen, while residents of Bocinja, she had heard but did not see, were handled even more brutally. "These Arabs come to us crying," she said, adding that she had never had any problems with residents of Bocinja and that, on the contrary, they were on very good terms with their new neighbors.
Neither she nor any of her brothers in arms from the utterly deliberate five day protest said a single word regarding the move Edhem Bicakcic made when it finally became clear that the mujahedeen must leave Bocinja. The federal Prime Minister, after failing to react in numerous cases of eviction of citizens of Bosnia-Hercegovina, refugees, demobilized soldiers, disabled war veterans - offered a solution for the mujahedeen. According to him, the government will earmark two million marks for alternative accommodation for these strange-looking people and their wives with covered faces.
International tolerance: Representatives of the international community still have not commented on this issue nor explained how the mujahedeen can receive priority in financing for accommodations over the returnees to Srebrenica, Sarajevo or western Mostar. Also horrifying is the silence among the representatives of the international institutions with regard to the violation of the fundamental principles of the peace agreement, which is drastic in the case of the mujahedeen in BH.
True to tell, in last year's report of the International Crisis Group it is said that the mujahedeen represent a source of possible political and ethnic instability in central Bosnia, and that they are "connected with serious terrorist attacks against Croats in the Travnik region and Mostar". The report goes on to say that SFOR does not patrol these villages because it is afraid of attacks on their convoys.
Even last year's arrest of a member of the terrorist group of Osama bin Laden, who was traveling with a Bosnian passport, was not sufficient reason for international officials to put this problem in focus.
Nevertheless, after the recent roadblock in Bocinja, the spokesman of the UN mission in BH, Alun Roberts, announced that evictions under the auspices of the local administration would continue in this settlement. A separate police investigation would be conducted, according to the UN spokesman, as a result of information according to which the mujahedeen encouraged the population to participate in creation of disturbances at the roadblock. In Bocinja, according to Dzevad Galijasevic, 159 families are expected to be evicted. More accurately, two families per day. The "eviction" of the training camps for mujahedeen is still not on the agenda of either the local authorities or international institutions.
Translated by S. Lazovic (September 6, 2000) SENAD BOSNIC
The same one that told me you're a lying piece of excrement?
Hey, not my words, blame the bird.
Again.
Sadly, there are no standards or guidelines here on FR to deal with this type of behavior.
Hirkic and her sons survived the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which up to 8,000 men were killed by Bosnian Serb troops.
Notice here they say 8,000 men, not men and boys as they sometimes do. Now, two of her boys who had been in Srebrenica weren't killed, and she had another one later - is the father still around somewhere pretending to not exist?
Your comment threw me and made me mess up my post #17, but Mirza, age 6, could have been there as an infant. If he was on the verge of turning 7 from now until July 12 (Srebrenica "massacre" day) he would have been an infant then. He would have been born in Spring or Summer 1995 and had his 7th birthday coming up.
The point is, though, is the media makes it seem as if ALL the men and boys of Srebrenica were executed, but this woman and two or three of her sons were seemingly unscathed and living several miles away all these years.
You are right about the youngest child. Could have been.
So far as I can tell, the Truth of Srebrenica is like a dark mist, the further one ventures into it, the more surely one is lost. (Heck, I dunno, I was very busy many kilometres away, but that's how I understand it.) Sounds profound anyway, huh? (wink)
Seriously, I did discuss Srebrenica with high-ranking military analysts from several countries with traditions of respectable military training (Brit, Kiwi, American, several Contintenal nations) ... and I am sure they all had reservations and a sense of "some things which do not add up" ... but, after all these years, I simply cannot recall with certainty specific details, as Tuzla and Gorazde were also being discussed during that same time frame. (I'm concerned I might confuse the Gorazde/Tuzla details with details about Srebrenica, etc.)I don't want to mix up the details and give any false info. Sorry I'm not much help. Too bad I was too busy "saving grannies" to keep an accurate diary at the time. Or if only I had written down all this in 1998 when my memories were still fresh and clear. But, alas, I did not.
I do distinctly remember speaking with trusted ICRC/IFRC representatives who said that the numbers on Srebrenica "were a mess" and, much later, from the same, that it appeared many thought lost were now found. That's all I can say about that. (Sounds like shades of Forrest Gump, but there are good reasons.)
Good catch on the "men" vs. "men and boys." I salute you for that! Trouble is, for reporting puposes, and therefore in "media speak" a "boy" is aged 14-18, while a "child" is under 14. Mrs. Hirkic's eldest son would have most certainly been classified as a "child" during the fall of Srebrenica. So no points to be garnered there, sorry, joan.
Best regards, wonders (who wishes she could be of more help)
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