Posted on 12/03/2001 8:55:47 AM PST by Pericles
West haunted by Balkans blunder
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
As the war in Afghanistan goes on, the ghost of interventions past sits in a courtroom in The Hague.
America can drop tons of explosives and send in the Marines to fight Taliban terrorism. But when the Serbs confronted a similar menace, they were demonized and bombed for 78 days, and had a province wrested from them and presented to Osama bin Laden's Balkan brigade.
Slobodan Milosevic has been charged with complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Before the travesty is over, he will doubtless be convicted of running the rail line to Auschwitz.
The former Yugoslav president is a thug whose brutality played into the terrorists' hands. Even so, the trial of Milosevic before a U.N. tribunal is intended to justify our Balkans blunder and discourage serious consideration of its consequences.
If what happened to Kosovo Albanians and Bosnian Moslems was genocide, what of the treatment of Orthodox Serbs? After NATO's air war, 200,000 were driven from Kosovo. Most who remain cower behind barbed-wire barricades in Mitrovica.
Altogether, 2 million Serbs were expelled from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, and 240 of their churches were destroyed. When this happens to anyone else, it's called ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide.
The tragedy has its roots in the early 1990s, when the West decided Bosnians and Croatians were entitled to their own states. Fine, said Belgrade, but why should 2 million Serbs living there be forcibly expatriated? Who would protect their rights the Bosnian Muslims who committed genocide against Serbs in World War II?
When local Serbs tried to secede from the secessionist states, they were reviled as racists who hated all non-Serbs and lived to rape and plunder.
After Bosnia and Croatia came Kosovo. Albanian Muslims became a majority in Serbia's ancient heartland through illegal immigration. They started when the Kosovo Liberation Army (on the State Department's terrorist list as late as 1998) began murdering Serb policemen.
Milosevic overreacted. At Rambouillet, then-President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave him an ultimatum (surrender of sovereignty over all of Yugoslavia) no self-respecting nation could accept. After the Gulf War, Washington was determined to prove its human-rights commitment by coming to the aid of persecuted Muslims. The result was the creation of a second de facto Islamic republic in Europe.
In October, NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, warned that the Balkans must not become another "black hole" of terrorism, like Afghanistan. He was referring to the operations of our erstwhile allies.
On Oct. 3, the Los Angeles Times reported, "Hundreds of foreign Islamic extremists who became Bosnian citizens after battling Serbian and Croatian forces present a potential security threat to Europe and the United States."
Bin Laden, who's been heavily involved in the region since 1992, was reportedly presented with a Bosnian passport for services rendered. The same international legion that's fighting with the Taliban earlier served the Islamic cause in Bosnia and Kosovo.
In his Islamic Declaration, former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic (celebrated in the West as a multiculturalist) proclaimed, "There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies and political institutions."
The Kosovo "freedom fighters" (as Sen. Joe Lieberman once called them) are equally grateful for Western support. In one of the al-Qaida camps overrun in Afghanistan, Americans found an entry application from a Kosovo Albanian that read, "I have Kosovo Liberation Army combat experience against Serb forces. ... I recommend suicide operations against parks like Disney."
After the subjugation of Kosovo, Muslims moved on Macedonia. Despite a NATO-brokered cease-fire, on Nov. 11 terrorists killed three Macedonian policemen who were trying to guard a mass grave said to hold the remains of civilians killed by the guerrillas.
Is the Albanian area of Macedonia destined to become Europe's third Islamic republic?
The circus surrounding Milosevic's trial is meant to distract us from the reality of our Balkans misadventure when we went to war not against terrorism, but in its behalf.
I agree, if the UN declares a "safe area" it should not permit armed agression from that area!
If you want to look in to a big reason of why the 'Serbs were in denial', look no further than the Western Media (and the BBC). From the very early days, the Serbs were singled out as the 'aggessors' and a war of aggression rather than a civil war. The vast majority of war crimes reported said the Serbs were to blame.
When the bus full of children which got shot up in 1992 when trying to leave Sarajevo was reported in the 'Media', it was stated that there were only Bosnian Moslem children aboard. That was complete mis/dis-information - there were Serb children there too.
Whilst the conflict was continuing in Croatia, all media reports to the west continued to be transmitted via Zagreb where Tudjman allies filtered out reports of crimes against the Serb population.
The fact that the Serbs were so early on demonized in the Media made them only more resistant to the so called truth that the Western Media published. Throughout the whole of the 1990s, it was possible for the Serbs to get outside information as I have personally witnessed and experienced at a number of times. I watched turkish TV in Belgrade, I listened to the BBC World Service in the countryside and I saw RAI UNO without any interference by the authorities.
Senoir political leaders in the West sought to keep the picture 'simple' which is why the British officials ordered the British Army to keep silent once they had discovered that the supposedly 'good' Croats had been murdering and burning Moslems civilians in central Bosnia in mid-1993. Fortunately the BA ignored them and submitted their video tapes directly to the international Media.
As to events in Kosovo, how about 'Potkova', the supposed Serbian master plan to ethnically cleanse all the albanians out of Kosovo? The story came straight from the German Intelligence Services (Potkovka is Serbian, Potkova is Croatian). How about the story of hundreds of bodies being burned in the Trepca furnaces, despite a thorough investigation by specially equipped French experts and round the clock surveillance of non-existant heat emissions by NATO?
Milosevic did not need to have a 'strong influence' over the Media as the Serbs had already been alienate by years of demonization (the BBC just happens to be a lot more subtle about it). Most people I know from the region believed government news reports as much as foreign news reports, i.e. very little, but they clearly understood that they were being directly threatend by NATO. Some of the soldiers who came back from the front talked about what happened and this information made its way around. The Serbs were not cut off from the information, but rather subjected to too much conflicting (and obscene) reporting. After all, when someone writes about the United States, would you be more inclined to agree if the author was a US citizen, or a citizen of France?
How about Roy Gutman of Newsweek who specifically made the allegations that the Serbs were running the equivalent of Nazi death camps? Yes there were camps and nasty things happened but no-one ever publicised the Croat and Bosnian Moslem camps of which there were plenty.
Have you noticed how the 'free and fair' media in the West only highlighted reports of 'Serbian atrocities' from NGO reports but completely ignored those same NGO's when they levelled equivalent accusations at the other parties?
Did you follow up the 'systematic rape' stories that we were bombarded with? It's worth reading the Dame Anne-Warburton Commission's report on this supposed reality and actually trying to find solid evidence to back up such proposerous claims. It didn't matter because the stories were enough for rape to be included as a war crime for the very first time. Why wasn't this done before with regards Rwanda? The story served its purpose in laying the vast majority of 'guilt' on the Serbs.
It also helps to know that the Serbs were completely useless at propaganda. They kept on saying, 'oh everyone will know what is really going on' and thus did very little. Again, the West deliberately sabotaged any effort by the Serbs to put their side across, re the hiring of the PR firm Ian Greer Associates in the UK which the British government 'leaned on' to close its account with the government of the Republic of Yugoslavia. OK, so that may not be a bad thing (one would think), but the Croats and the Bosnian Molsems had Ruder-Finn and Hill&Knowleton working for them throughout the war (do you have their quotes on hand Pericles?). Do you remember the debunked Gulf War II 'Kuwait baby incubator' horror story where a young nurse (who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Washington) testified before Congress just shortly before the vital vote on going to war, that she saw Iraqi soldiers rip Kuwaiti babies from their incubators and left them to die on the floor? A Rudjer-Finn product inc.
Do you remeber the famous photo of the Bosnian Moslem woman with her 'rape baby' that was flashed around the world? It turned out that it was not possible because the child was too old to have been concieve during the conflict. That was a Hill&Knowlton production, but the counter argument is that the 'end justifies the means', or does it?
The British government also banned the Belgrade genocide museum from coming to Great Britain which would have 'educated' some as to how un black and white the current conflict was.
As for the BBC, I've seen how they operate. They hosted an 'open discussion program on Bosnia' or something similar and invite a few 'experts' who tend to be extremely opinionated and emotionally involved (and that is excluding those from the region) and the audience that 'votes' has very little input (I went to one of these). Each part of the debate is split up with short 'explanatory' video sequences which are not 'objective' in what they show.
Detailed information has been submitted to orgnizations like the BBC on crimes against the Serbs but they are either 'lost in the post' or never see the light of day.
It's a lot, a lot more complicated. I can reccommend that you look at the bookmarks of all the regular Balkans posters (and ignore the hysterics) as a lot of interesting information is to be found there.
I hope I've raised a few interesting point for you to mull over.
Regs,
VRN
The 28th BiH Mujhadeen Division under the infamous Nasir Oric undertook a fighting retreat in which the outnumbered BSA Army failed in its attempt to annhilate the unit.
After the area was liberated from Nasir Oric's paramiltary Mujhadeen.......UN forensic scientists uncovered some 2,500 bodies near the loyalist villages where Oric sent his execution squads.
The UN estimated that Nasir's execution sqauds murdered some 3,200 villagers in & around Srebrenica
It is all in the ICTY transcripts if one cares to read them carefully.
really now ?
pray give us some data points for that one.........
Is that your perception or you condemning the press for failing to concentrate on the obstruction of justice rather than SEX?
really now ?
you obviously haven't read anything that appeared in Yugoslav/Serbian media from 1991 to 1999. If anything the Yugoslav mainstream media was much more vibrant and open than our very own media is in wartime.
BTW, I've been a "card carrying" registered libertarian since 1978.......Mr. Consistent.
Actually you have fallen for classic mis-information of the most obvious sort. The hard facts
In the case you are citing Combatants were seperated from non-combatants after the town was liberated. The roughly 200 Combatants who thereupon became POW's were treated according to Geneva convention. A few months later these POW's were exchanged via a ICRC prisoner exchange.
And yes, after 6 years of the most intensive UN forensic investigation know in man's history, some bodies of those 28th BiH Mujhadeen Division were found...... something like 70 bodies in total have been found which were from Basir Oric's unit .......as I stated, the overstretched BSA was unsucessful in annhilating the 28th as it retreated towards Tuzla in a chaotic mass.
What the UN forensic scientists DID find were some 1,200 bodies of people who were apparantly murdered by Nasir Oric's execution squads from 1993-1995
In addition to the 70 BiH paramilitaries ID'd, there are some additional 600 bodies which the UN forensics teams found which they believe are BiH paramilitaries which were killed in a "a fair fight"......at least this is what the UN forensic experts presented in their ICTY testimony.
Joan, Leonora when you get the time could u pluz post the relevant hotlinks for our dear collegue Mr. Consistent ? thanks.
Albright's Ally Nasir Oric likes 'em young (my title)
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a647b500c50.htm
Bosnian finally gets Iranian Revolutionary Guards removed (2001)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bea93f43309.htm
Canadian Soldier says"NATO sleeping with the enemy" in Balkans
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b87e065149b.htm
Clinton's Allies in Bosnia - The 7th Mujahedeen Brigade
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b98db631779.htm
Croat admittance to ethnic slaughter policy
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3c055ea53b2e.htm
Croatians armed by Clinton murder Civilians
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b76e0085863.htm
DER SPIEGEL: DOUBLE GAME OF THE AMERICANS
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b66b77a751c.htm
Detailed Body Count of Clinton's Kosovo War
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39fa5c094b29.htm
Ethnic guerrillas target Albanians (WP 12Marc01)
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3aad074636b7.htm
Fikret Abdic legally elected President of BiH
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b1f0cd017e5.htm
Fort Leavenworth Report on Bosnian Civil War - 1995
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b7900a23027.htm
Genocide or Veracicide: Will NATO's Lying Ever Stop?
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b5d25247f77.htm
If we can try Milosevic , why not try Clinton ?
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b7fee19270b.htm
Kosovo - KLA General Ceku killed 225 civilians in 1991, trained by NATO
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38a9d76f6146.htm
Kosovo - Why does Kfor support KLA killer Remi ?
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38a336d53291.htm
LOOSE CANNON: THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b8089e155a0.htm
Nasir Oric goes hunting around Srebenica
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a622d9a4135.htm
NPR on its use of Disinformation in Reporting on Yugoslavia
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b85c1dc4179.htm
Nuremberg Lawyer Calls Clinton's War a "Supreme Crime"
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a880edf01a4.htm
Soros to "invest" in Yugo w/ US taxpayer funds & guarantees.
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b5acc905662.htm
The Balkans: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow [Ben Works Speech Delivered at Toronto, Ontario]
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b2789504d81.htm
The Dangerous Gap: A Legacy Of The Clinton Era< br> http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b0af0c32e78.htm
The Real Genocide in Yugoslavia: "Independent" Croatia of 1941 Revisited
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38ff8b7c40c4.htm
The Sixties Go to War: From the radicalism of the '60s to the interventionism liberals' of the '90s
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b8f27696c97.htm
U.N. police organize White Slavery in BiH according to former UN cop
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b2f68783714.htm
U.S. Army 'Psyops' Specialists worked for CNN
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38bc140a71dd.htm
UN Commander "Bosnians..caught red-handed" using civilains
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a92dfcc7bdd.htm
UN Soldier "Bosnians murdered their own people for PR"
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a8d701908d0.htm
Whether it was understated would depend on how severe they thought the violence was at the time. That Milosevic dealt with the situation he inherited brutally may well be true. However, I don't see how it changes the fact that the fighting going on long before Milo took over, or that it wasn't as one-sided as now portrayed.
Just thought you'd like to know.
indeed......and Clinton's Humanitarian Warriors supplied, funded, promoted, and train his zenophobic legions......even to the sureal experience of inviting him to speak at the opening on the Holocaust Museum.
Face it, x42 besmirched our country by aiding and abeting Bosnian & KLA mujhadeen as well as neo-Nazi people like Tudjman. Without x42's support, Tudjman would have been a ranting retired old general scribbling his hate missives in some obscure Ustashe revival magazine published in Argentina
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