Serbian Orthodox suffer since the United Nations took control of Kosovo

At least 110 Serb Christian sites (churches, monasteries, graveyards etc.) have been damaged or destroyed in Kosovo since the United Nations took control in June 1999.

Most recently, a church building in the village of Ljubovo was completely destroyed by an explosion in the early hours of 17 November last.

A second explosion damaged another church in the town of Djurakovac. The bombings came on the eve of a visit to Kosovo by UN General Secretary Kofi Annan.

Church leaders and Orthodox worshippers also face violence and hostility from ethnic Albanians, especially where UN checkpoints in the vicinity of churches have been withdrawn in recent months.

Ethnic Albanian Muslim extremists regard churches as symbols of Serbian domination and see them as legitimate targets.

homeagain balkansvet wrote:
"Prosecutors had wanted Plavsic jailed for up to 25 years ..."

Jihadi, I wonder why you do not mention this guy?

Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic: Found guilty after a 25-month trial

Friday, 3 March, 2000, 14:17 GMT

General guilty of Bosnia war crimes

The UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has found former Bosnian Croat commander Tihomir Blaskic guilty of war crimes.

Blaskic, the highest-ranking military official to be brought before the court so far, was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

The three-judge court, chaired by Claude Jorda of France, convicted him of planning the systematic persecution of Bosnian Muslims and of trying to ethnically cleanse central Bosnia of Muslims in 1993.

Blaskic, 39, was in charge of the HVO, the Bosnian Croat army that fought a bitter war against Bosnian Government forces.

"The crimes you committed, General Blaskic, are extremely serious," said Judge Jorda.

"The acts of war carried out with disregard for international humanitarian law and in hatred of other people, the villages reduced to rubble, the houses and stables set on fire and destroyed, the people forced to abandon their homes, the lost and broken lives are unnacceptable."

Blaskic's lawyer said he was "surprised and disappointed" and added that an appeal would be lodged.

But the Bosnian government welcomed the verdict, and insisted that more alleged war criminals be brought to justice, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.

Ahmici slaughter

During that time the Croats were responsible for appalling mistreatment of Bosnian Muslim civilians, including the infamous attack on the village of Ahmici, where more than 100 men, women and children were slaughtered.

The BBC's Europe correspondent Justin Webb says the verdict was of huge importance because after years of dealing with relatively junior people, the court at last had the opportunity to pass judgement on a general.

"It's a critical day for the tribunal," said Paul Risley, spokesman for UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

"This sentence promises to be the beginning of a phase at the tribunal where the sentences are taken very seriously."

Two-year trial

In all, Blaskic was found guilty on all but one of 20 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which seek to protect civilians caught in warfare.

His trial lasted more than two years. Witnesses included the former UK Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, and the former BBC war reporter, Martin Bell.

Throughout proceedings, the general did not deny that killings took place but he vehemently insisted that he did not order them or have the power to stop them.

Friday's verdict preceeds the start of another high-profile trial - of Serb General Radislav Krstic, who is accused of responsibility for 1995 massacres in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/664686.stm (<- click)

Why don't you plot hate speeches against the Croats, MudSSahedeen Jihadi FaSScist?

Have you read what he has done in Ahmici, SS racist Jihadi?
And tell me when a Croat is sentenced to 45 years for mass killing of Serbs?

Karadjordje

homeagain balkansvet wrote:
"Prosecutors had wanted Plavsic jailed for up to 25 years ..."

Jihadi, I wonder why you do not also mention this guy?

Bosnian Croat Dario Kordic was sentenced to 25 years

Croat Instigator of Ethnic Cleansing given 25 Years

By Anton La Guardia

Daily Telegraph
February 27, 2001

The first senior politician to be convicted of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia was jailed for 25 years yesterday. Dario Kordic, 40, vice-president of the breakaway Bosnian Croat republic, was found guilty of "enthusiastically" ordering the massacre of hundreds of Muslims in the Lasva Valley between November 1991 and March 1994.

The verdict by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague is a warning to other indicted leaders still at large - including Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, and Slobodan Milosevic, the deposed Yugoslav leader, - that they can be held responsible for war crimes even if they did not directly bloody their hands.

British Judge Richard May told Kordic: "The fact that you were a politician and took no part in the actual execution of the crimes makes no difference. You played your part as surely as the men who fired the guns. Indeed, the fact you were a leader aggravates the offences." Kordic was the head of the nationalist political party, the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in his home town, Busovaca. He rose to become vice-president of the Bosnian Croat state, and held an equivalent post in its military body, the Croatian Defence Council.

Sentenced with him was Mario Cerkez, a military brigade commander, jailed for 15 years. They conducted a systematic campaign to drive Muslims out and create an ethnically pure territory to be joined to Croatia. The judge said the attacks "were characterised by a ruthlessness and savagery in which no distinction was made as to the age of victims - young and old were either murdered or expelled, and their houses burned".

Kordic was found guilty of being a "planner and instigator" of ethnic cleansing and, in particular, of planning the notorious Ahmici massacre. On April 16, 1993, Croatian militiamen stormed into Muslim homes in the village and shot entire families. Survivors were burned alive when houses were set on fire. More than 100 Muslims died, including 32 women and 11 children, and the remaining 250 were expelled. Of the many grim episodes in a merciless war, Ahmici gained special notoriety when journalists recorded how Col Bob Stewart, commander of the 1st Bn the Cheshire Regiment, entered the village a few days later and confronted Croat militiamen. Prosecutors who had asked for life sentences expressed disappointment, saying the sentences did not match the severity of the crimes. Any appeal must be lodged within a fortnight.

The prosecutor, Ken Scott, said Kordic's role "was substantially greater than appears to be in the judgment". Judge May found that Kordic was not a decision-maker, adding: "You are not to be sentenced as an architect of the persecution or the prime mover in it. None the less, you joined the campaign enthusiastically and played an instrumental part in the Lasva Valley offensives in 1993."

A former journalist and political science student, Kordic gave himself the title of colonel, but never formally obtained military rank. Both he and Cerkez turned themselves in to the tribunal in 1997, two years after being indicted. The indictment named four other Bosnian Croats: Gen Tihomir Blaskic has appealed against a 45-year sentence handed down in March; Zlatko Aleksovski was transferred to Finland to serve a seven-year term in September; charges were dropped against two others, Ivan Santic and Pero Skopljak.

The tribunal, established in 1993 to try those responsible for war crimes in the Balkan wars, has publicly indicted 98 people, but 27 are still at large. Four people are serving sentences, one has been acquitted, 18 have had the charges dropped and 39 are at various stages of trial or appeal.

But Russia yesterday called for the United Nations to end the tribunals because they are "no longer needed" after the fall of Milosevic. Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said: "The activities of the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia may only engender distrust towards particular government structures, and bring complicating elements in the solution of the problems Yugoslavia is facing." But the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, is keeping up pressure for further arrests. She has criticised Nato-led peacekeepers for failing to arrest more suspects, in particular Karadzic. She is also urging the President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia to co-operate with the tribunal and hand over Milosevic. She said: "As long as Milosevic can move freely in Belgrade he represents a threat. If you want to run a democratic country you have to get rid of the war criminals."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F02%2F27%2Fwcro27.xml (<- click)

Why don't you plot hate speeches against the Croats, MudSSahedeen Jihad FaSScist?

Karadjordje

homeagain balkansvet wrote:
"Prosecutors had wanted Plavsic jailed for up to 25 years ..."

Jihadi, I wonder why you do not also mention this guy?

Bosnian Croat Vinko Martinovic is escorted across the tarmac at Zagreb airport

Monday, August 9, 1999 Published at 11:44 GMT 12:44 UK

World: Europe Croatia extradites war crimes suspect

A Bosnian Croat suspected of war crimes has been extradited by Croatia to face trial before a United Nations tribunal.

Vinko Martinovic has been flown to Amsterdam, where he will be handed over into the custody of the International War Crimes Tribunal based in the Hague, Netherlands.

Mr Martinovic, 35, who is also known as Stela, is charged with crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva Convention and violations of laws and customs of war.

He was indicted by the tribunal in December and his extradition was confirmed by Croatia's Deputy Justice Minister Snjezana Bagic.

The move comes after the Croatian Government was accused by prosecutors in The Hague of taking too long over the extradition of war crimes suspects.

A Zagreb County Court has already sentenced Martinovic to eight years in prison for murdering a woman in the Bosnian town of Mostar - a case not connected with the war crime charges.

String of atrocities

Mr Martinovic was indicted with Mladen Naletilic, 52, who was charged with 17 counts of war crimes their alleged command of a paramilitary unit called the Convicts Battalion.

The unit is thought to be responsible for a string of atrocities committed against Muslims in and around Mostar from May 1993 until March 1994.

According to a summary of their indictment by the UN court, the two were responsible for driving tens of thousands of Muslims from Mostar.

Mr Martinovic allegedly commanded a sub-unit of the battalion and acted as Mr Naletilic's right-hand man in various crime rings operating in Mostar during the war.

Mostar was the scene of some of the most savage fighting during the Bosnian war, and the city remains divided between Bosnian Croats and Muslims.

Mr Naletilic is also scheduled for trial in Croatia but that has been delayed while he recovers from tuberculosis.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/415269.stm (<- click)

When will the mass murderer that killed Serbs in Srebrenica and Vukovar sentenced for life, SS Jihadi? When?

Karadjordje

I found one case of him accused of being involved in beating and torturing Serbs in a Mostar prison August 1992. He is listed as the first person named among several perpetrators in this incident:

http://www.balkanpeace.org/wcs/wct/wcts/wcts05.shtml

IV-063

DESIGNATION OF CRIME: Inhuman treatment of detainees or prisoners of war.

PLACE AND TIME : Mostar, prison in the former Army dispensary, second half of August 1992.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: When the witness G.D, a salesman, was brought to the prison, they began beating him in a room called "little Serbia". That room served for torture in this prison, in which exclusively Serbs were kept. A group of about 20 persons - Moslems and Croats beat him with whatever came their way : wooden sticks, kicked him with their booted feet and beat him with various other objects. His first beating lasted about 5 hours. They demanded that witness G.D. say where he had hidden the gold and foreign currency which they failed to find in his flat.
Having beaten him black and blue, they took him to a room in the cellar which they had dubbed : "greater Serbia", where there were some 20 prisoners. They had to sleep on the concrete floor. They took regular beatings at night. Throughout his stay in this prison the witness G.D. was beaten up every day. Sometimes the beating would last throughout the night. They beat him all over his body. On one occasion several of his ribs were broken, and he showed a deep scar to the investigating judge as evidence of this.
Throughout his incarceration in this prison, the witness G.D. was unable to urinate, and because of the terrible pain that he suffered he could only sleep in a crouching position, bent forward and leaning on his elbows. His pain would not let him lie down. He could not walk either.
In the adjacent room women were held.The witness G.D.states the names of six women from Mostar who were regularly raped at night.

INDICATIONS CONCERNING PERPETRATOR:

1. Martinovic Vinko, a.k.a. "Stela"
2. Kapetanovic Sead, chief of police
3. Zelenik Ivan, prison warden
4. Boris, whose surname has not been ascertained, a.k.a. "Sova", worked before the war in the "Soko" factory in Mostar and lived on Mahe Djinica Str.in Mostar.
5. Dugalic, a.k.a. "Luster",
6. Comic Mesud, a.k.a. "Mensa" of father Halid,
7. Comic's son, around 20 years of age.
EVIDENCE: Deposition by witness G.D. given before the investigating judge of the District Court in Belgrade within the framework of dossier Kri.260/94, kept with this Committee under No. 273/94.

Dear Sir,I was following this thread from the sidelines,as I usually do when some new face appears on FR to pontificate and educate the natives.Natives being us,old Freepers of the Balkan Front...

I believe that your post 404 explains a lot and that is that you,frankly,haven`t got a clue about Yugoslavia or Balkans ,for that metter.

I do understand your sentiment about shooting 1200 people in the barn and support it fully.The number (1200) is inaccurate,but,even if it was only 12 people that was a crime by any criteria,and I would like to personaly hang the perpetrators,believe me!

But,what I don`t understand is your ilogical and zelous hatred against Serbs as a nation which is so evident from your posts!?Don`t annoy your neighbours,you said...aren`t the Serbs someones neighbours,to?Or,they didn`t have the right to be annoyed,just as they didn`t have the right to decide in which state they want to live?The state that had cost them over milion men in two wars..to create and defend!

Of course,they are irrelevant,because,you(with a funny tricolor hat and long beard) had decided who is good and who is bad!And who you will shut down and who you will allow to egzist?!

I like your comment about statistics and Serbian propaganda,loooool.That implies that you and your government tell the truth only and nothing else,right?For almost 15 years now,you didn`t stop with your bias,half truths and outright lies on every media available,but that doesn`t count.On this thread you had an opportunity to find some additional information,if you`re interested!I think not.You know the truth,right?

So stick to it,and good luck to you!

And,this post 404?Why don`t you date it ,year 1941,for instance and send it to Croats and Muslims,and maybe,you will understand why did some things happen in Yugoslavia in 1991.

homeagain balkansvet wrote

And it sounds to me like you're morally outraged that the beseiged inside the city actually had the effrontery to fire back. Kind of like Srebrenica.

Very much like Srebrenica as the Muslims would not allow anyone to leave without paying a bribe. You can leave, IF you pay the daily going rate.

Regards to shooting back, the Muslims shoot back at innocent civilians helping their neighbors who were hit by shrapnel. Your local friendly Muslim Police Officer friends ended up tapping a Serbian girl who was bandaging up her neighbor Muslim friend. They walked up to her and bam! Killed the Serbian girl.

Why? What was her crime? It was due to her being a Serb. I met her Serbian boyfriend who was in the Red Berets while in the field. They were dating since they were in high school and were going to marry once she was able to leave Sarajevo. You want to know why she could not leave? The Muslms would not allow her to go, so instead they put her six feet under. Balija, there was a big reason why people were not allowed to leave. The Serb units would not have fired upon the civilians unless fired upon. That was well known, but what was also well known is the Muslim willingness to fire upon the fleeing civilians. Why do you not know that?

You ever hear of the Romeo and Juliet killing, balija?

In the spring of 1993 two young people were killed by sniper fire as they attempted to flee Sarajevo. The bodies of the Muslim woman, Admira Ismic, and her Serbian lover, Bosko Brckic, lay in each others’ arms on a Sarajevan bridge for several days, as the various factions in the brutal war assigned blame, and a picture of the dead couple dominated the international media.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- Two young lovers from Sarajevo, shot dead by sniper fire as they tried to escape the siege of Sarajevo in 1993, were brought home and reburied together Wednesday.

Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic were dubbed "Romeo and Juliet" because of their clashing ethnic backgrounds -- she was Muslim, he was Serbian -- and their tragic end. The two were both 25 years old, and had been together for nine years. They decided to flee Sarajevo in May 1993, when a Serb stranglehold on the city was at its height, to escape to safety, anywhere else.

Friends in the Muslim government army promised them safe passage out of the city. They walked confidently from Bosnian government front lines in the heart of the city past snipers and towards the bridge they would take out of Sarajevo and into Grbavica, a Serb-held territory. From there they hoped to go on to Belgrade -- and a new life.

But as they crossed the Vrbanja bridge in broad daylight, over the Miljacka River into Serb territory, Bosko was shot by sniper fire, and died. Ismic, also wounded by sniper fire, crawled to her childhood sweetheart, put an arm around him, and died at his side, never trying to escape to safety herself.

Their tragic story was told worldwide over the next week as Serbs and Muslims argued over who was responsible for shooting them, and which side should risk the treacherous journey onto the bridge to recover the bodies and bury them.

The couple's bodies laid side by side on the bridge for eight days, until finally the Serbian side went in under cover of night to drag the corpses away. Muslim prisoners later claimed they were tethered by their Serbian captors and forced to go out on the bridge to drag the by-then decaying bodies back.

Serb troops buried the pair in Lukavica, the site of a large Serb army barracks. But Admira's father Zijah felt that with the war over, the right resting place for the star-crossed pair was in the city where they met and fell in love. Thus it was that the bodies of Admira and Bosko were exhumed from an untended grave in Yugoslavia and shipped back to the city whose wartime strife they tried to escape. Caskets

They were buried side by side Wednesday in Lion Cemetery, surrounded by thousands of other victims of the Sarajevo siege and within sight of the cafe where they courted. Zijah said he had tried without success to find Bosko's family and get permission for the reburial. Bosko's mother came from the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade in 1993 for the first funeral.

Balija, what they do not tell you is the Muslims killed the Serbian man and wounded her to make for wider suffering for the worlds camera.

They also do not fully explain that they were leaving for Beograd, IN Serbia. Why to Serbia? She was muslim the "hated enemy". They were only hated when they were bent on killing their neighbor, the Serb.

They do not stress enough that the Serb Army was prevented in recovering the bodies due to muslim snajperi positioned in three or four difft locales in the area. But, the Serbian soldiers demonstrated to the world and to the muslims the Serbian heart and courage by recovering the dead bodies under sniper fire.

Where is your outrage against your muslim brotherhood on that, balija?

branicap wrote:
"I do understand your sentiment about shooting 1200 people in the barn and support it fully.The number (1200) is inaccurate,but,even if it was only 12 people that was a crime by any criteria,and I would like to personaly hang the perpetrators,believe me!"

Oh, and look how they said "THANK YOU" to USA for your bombing help against the evil serbs in Bosnia, caused by Muslim Silajdzic Propaganda:

Scuffles in Sarajevo Bosnian riot police apprehend a Bosnian Muslim demonstrator during a protest in front of Sarajevo's central prison. The protest took place after Bosnia's highest court ordered the release of six Algerians suspected of having terrorist links. US officials were expected to take the men, who were rounded up after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, into custody. Photo: Hijadet Delic, AP (Guardian Unlimited)

Supporters of the six confronted police in Sarajevo (BBC)

There were protests outside the jail where the men were being held (CNN)

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/18/inv.bosnia.cuba/index.html#top_of_page (<- click)

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1767554.stm (<- click)

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gallery/image/0,8543,-10404338207,00.html (<- click)

Karadjordje

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.