Posted on 09/13/2020 11:32:03 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
It all started in February 2017, when Katarina Ristić, then an eighth-grade student at the Emerson School in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, along with four other schoolmates, was given the task of doing a project on “Bosnian Genocide.”
A seminar paper by a 14-year-old girl of Serbian origin, Katarina Ristić from Chicago, on the topic of “Bosnian genocide”, stirred the spirits in her primary school, but also opened the way to fight for justice, which resulted in removing propaganda that portrays Serbs in a bad light. and accuses Serbia of committing genocide and killing 200,000 people in Bosnia.
Naturally, Katarina turned to her father Ranko Ristić, born in a small Bosnian town, Zavidovići, for information about the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who came to Chicago as a refugee 24 years ago, where he started a family.
Ranko Ristić said that he did not intend to interfere in her work, but fatherly promised to help “if he gets stuck somewhere”, but, he says, he wanted his child to “just get to the truth”.
However, when Katarina brought available literature for her project from the school library, he realized that it would not be so easy.
“The first thing that caught my eye was that the books said that Serbia had carried out an aggression against Bosnia and killed 200,000 Muslims, ie Bosniaks. It was also stated that President Slobodan Milošević was responsible for the genocide in Bosnia. I tried to I advised her that the war in Bosnia was a civil war, not aggression, and that the death toll was inaccurate, and I advised her to try to investigate the information on her own, but to use only non-Serb sources of information, to be impartial, she worked on the project with four other friends, of different nationalities.” said Ristić.
Katarina, however, was diligent and determined to push the truth to the end. The result of her work was a booklet on the “Bosnian genocide” which on one side had inaccurate media information cited by her friends, wherein one place there are even pictures of Saint Sava, Tesla, Divac and Đoković as Serbian war leaders who “committed genocides” in Bosnia. On the other hand, there was information that the first victim of the war in Bosnia was a Serb groom in Sarajevo and that the war in Bosnia actually began with attacks by Bosniaks on Serbs.
Ristić realized that after that, it was his turn to do “his homework”.
Soon, the parents were invited to a parents’ meeting, and Ristić asked to talk to the history teacher, who admitted to him that it was very interesting what Katarina had done and that her part of the project was different.
“I took advantage of that, so I was indignant that propaganda was used as a source of information at school, that they confused students to such an extent that Serbian saints, scientists, and athletes were described as war criminals. She shrugged and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ “Americans don’t know history… But why don’t you complain if you’re unhappy with the school program?”
A few days later, Ristić did so and filed an official complaint as a parent whose child, as he pointed out, was “exposed to false propaganda.”
He also asked to check the sources of information used in the school program. The school principal soon replied that a group had been formed to investigate and that the school would seek the advice of a professor of history at the University of Chicago, who is considered an expert on Yugoslavia, Dr. Thomas Mockaitis.
The name interested Ristić, so he learned that Dr. Mockaitis was funded by the US Institute Of Peace, which was headed by Madeleine Albright, and that Mockaitis had written several articles that were highly anti-Serbian and in which he compared Milošević with Hitler.
In the end, as he said, Professor Mockaitis, faced with the facts, had to admit that the information in the textbooks was incorrect and should be excluded from the school curriculum.
Ristić stated that the following changes were made to the textbooks:
– The number of Bosniaks killed during the war in Bosnia is not 200,000, but all three sides had a total of 80,000 to 100,000 victims;
– The word “genocide” is dropped and replaced by the word “atrocity”;
– It is confirmed that President Slobodan Milošević was not convicted of war crimes or genocide …
The verification of internet information used in the education of this district was also introduced, and the documents and sources that Katarina, now a high school student, used in her investigation were introduced into the program.
Ranko Ristić points out that this victory of his and Katarina’s can have a great significance because it sets a precedent for all future appeals in all districts in America. He says that he will not stop at this, but will ask for the removal of Professor Mockaitis from the position of school district advisor.
After the media reported that high school student Katarina Ristić changed the school’s program of false history about the war in Bosnia, she and her father are constantly receiving death threats from Islamic organizations and individuals who claim that the change of material because of it represents – the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica.
Ranko Ristić, Katarina’s father, says that he cannot even talk about abominations, open threats of physical injury, and even death. He expected reactions to the change of textbooks from modern history for high schools in the Park Ridge district, but that his life would be in danger because of that – he did not.
We do not want to react in the same way as Muslims, with abominations and threats during Eid, now the most important thing is to explain to the school what is really happening because the administration is flooded with emails claiming that we are actually changing history, he told Sputnik.
Islamists are threatening to kill a Serbian woman because she told the truth about the war
“Recently, the director also changed, now she is a woman who doesn’t really understand what happened three years ago. And it all happened three years ago and that’s the finished story. We changed the program, the controversial information about the war in BiH and that’s it. They can’t do anything about it now, but the new director has certainly received 50 letters from all Bosnian organizations and from the Bosnian consulate. She responds to them based on the version they serve her and then publishes it all in their media.
In one of the Muslim media in the USA, the portal sejl.org, a statement of the Consul General of Bosnia and Herzegovina Elvir Resić appeared, that “the truth about the war against Bosnia is not a matter of personal interpretation, but is determined by final judgments of international courts and very precisely defined by US resolutions. parliaments’.
The text further notes that the consul sent a letter to the management of the Emerson school and informed him of this information.
War leaders Divac and Đoković
Katarina’s father has prepared a response for the consul and will request admission to hand him documents confirming that only falsified historical data were removed from the textbook, that Serbia attacked Bosnia and Herzegovina and committed genocide in which it killed 200,000 Bosniaks, that Slobodan Milošević was convicted of genocide against Bosniaks, and it was explained that Saints Sava, Tesla, Vlade Divac and Novak Đoković were not Serb war leaders who committed genocide in Bosnia.
“The Bosnian consulate is not only Muslim, that consulate here also represents me, I am also from BiH, so we have already informed the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is all in the process now, ” Ristić said.
He adds that several articles about Katarina and her activities have been published in the Serbian media, which are positive but have no real connection with this topic, which can be very dangerous and nullify all efforts to let future generations in America know the real truth about the war in BiH… That is why he appeals to the Serbian media to be careful.
“If we start spreading the topic globally, I am afraid that the value of what we have done will be lost. Our goal is to change the school program in more districts, to change at least some lies. “If we start blaming each other, and describing the war to savages who threaten us, and who haven’t even seen it, I think that our work will be lost in all this,” says Ristić.
No fear of internet warriors
He adds that he has not addressed the police yet, because, as he says, he is not afraid of internet warriors, but if the threats continue, he will certainly do so.
He also received a lot of letters of support from Serbian organizations and people in general who offer help to his family, and when asked how Katarina, who is still going to high school, received the threats, he answered:
“She surprised me very, very much. She is basically a shy girl, she is not loud, she is not exposed, but she is very intelligent and she is an excellent student. I thought she would be scared, but she didn’t, she didn’t respond to any message, but she did screenshots and she keeps it “, says Ristic and adds that she will do everything so that his response to threats and new lies does not provoke new hatred.
TST
I do know that Roy Gutman won a Pulitzer prize for his coverage of this conflict, and what he presented was paid propaganda. He has done exactly that again more recently in the Middle East.
Now we have a student in a school in Chicago, whose parents immigrated from Serbia, who has made some real progress in exposing some of the inaccuracies (lies) that were propagated. It is a start.
It is a start that we will have to begin inside the US for our own lies by our media over the past 15 or more years. Are we brave enough to attempt that?
This was one of the first major Clinton power movements and one of the major red flags that something was not right with the country.
“Ahh gotta go in and stop this guy or he’ll be another Hitler”
I never could figure out why we were there - it made no sense from a global security standpoint or a nationalist one.
Possibly makes sense if Hillary was working with Putin to re-establish communism - but at the time that wouldn’t have made sense.
The hatred between the Serbians and Croatians is racial. The hatred between Muslims and both groups is religious bigotry.
My brother in law escaped from Communist Yugoslavia, and hates Serbs with a purple passion. The Croatians supported the Muslims destroying Serbia, because they hated the Serbians more.
In WW2, the Serbs supported the Allies. The Croatians supported Nazis. Early in the war they invited the forces of Serbians to a meeting to discuss how to best enter the war, it was a trap and they slaughtered many Serbians.
Long story short, that area is full of hate, centuries old and it has nothing to do with the color of the skin. It is Catholic versus Orthodox versus Muslim. Communist versus Liberty versus Islamic law.
Welcome to the Balkans America, it sounds just like here in 2020.
When there were conflicts between Christians and Muslims, the US ALWAYS took the side of the Muslims. A knee jerk reaction.
That is a rough neighborhood, and has been for every generation, going way back.
When they get to fighting, it is not going to be pretty.
IMHO, Clinton getting the country involved in the Balkans was an attempt to distract us from the impeachment hearings.
After Marshal Tito died and the former Yugoslavia began to break up, the heaviest fighting took place during WJC's watch during the early-mid-1990s. I could not tell Who was on 1st based upon print and TV mnedia. I came to realize that the media was lying or more likely, simply didn't know the history of the Balkans. Years later I did my own research.
The Balkans were the settled area from the last Islamic jihad into Europe which was crushed by Christians at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The Balkans were a mishmash of Orthodox Christians (Serbs), Roman Catholics (Croats), and Muslims (Bosniaks). Tito kept them all suppressed after WWII until he died. Then the old rivalries resumed. Like today's media, the media 25 years ago never dug into the history.
A little WWII history ...
Yes sir. I have a hour long video interviewing survivors of transition to Communism there. English sub text. Very sobering. I involved a lot of what we are witnessing with our current Riots and the insanity connected.
Except it went on to extra legal process executions on a mass scale. No one knew who was next.
Thanks for your support and understanding of this one. I thought it was a very positive article.
Agree, I remember the whole mess back then, long before the ability we now have on the web. I did had some sources then that knew the reality.
You will find this interesting and troubling:
Serb
WWII: The Savage Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHuqWxFaQ50&list=PLzxzphEuxjOtf4fNvHbcAHODNQ9oiOSXM&index=2
These were/are real people. They survived, many did not.
Hour long vid.
Yes, Since Slick Willie.
And even back right after WWII is was almost as bad because of English Bureaucraps.
Thanks. Will look at it. I have previously seen a lot of it.
Yep, Muslim Nazi division.
There were two resistance movements--the Chetniks were mostly Serbs and Montenegrins. The Partisans, led by Tito, drew from all the ethnic groups. At first they seem to have been mostly Serbs (Tito himself was a Croat) but a lot of Croats also joined the Partisans. To make a blanket statement that the Croatians supported the Nazis is misleading when many Croats died fighting the Axis (Germans and Italians).
Nikola Tesla was an ethnic Serb from Croatia who lived most of his life in the US and wanted nothing to do with the Serb/Croat animosity. He had nothing to do with Bosnia.
I thought it was pretty clear at the time that it was the muslims that were the bad guys in this civil war. Of course, it’s not really a surprise to anyone that muslims are animals.
Sounds an awful lot like Iraq. Saddam Hussein suppressed rivalries between Kurds, Sunni, Shiite, and Jews. With Hussein gone, the old rivalries exploded and here we are today with problems in Iraq and elsewhere in the M.E.
There are two sides to every story - in the Balkans probably six or more.
Individuals will be innocent or guilty, but no group in that area is fully either.
Jihadis, like al Queda, used to come from around the world to that area, to foment trouble. Milosevic did whip up sectarian passions, and as they say there - et cetera, et cetera (rather than mentioning the gory details, or outright admitting to them).
Why do We in the US hate Serb so much? I’m not even close to being Serbian but I have noticed that.
I love the Serbs and felt they were unfairly scapegoated.
I’m not Serb, but am part Slav and I regard the Serbs as my Brothers and Sisters.
The Serbs have been unfairly vilified.
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