Swedish national TV (SVT) guilty of historical revisionism AGAIN!

Swedish national TV (SVT) has done it again. Last night SVT broadcast another documentary about the war in Bosnia, this time attempting to convince its viewers that a large number of Mujaheddin fighters arrived in Bosnia in order to use Bosnia as a haven from which to unleash unprecedented terror throughout the West. While no one is denying that volunteers from the Arab world fought alongside the Bosniak fighters, the assertion that Bosnia is now harboring countless Islamic extremists from the Arab world is ridiculously preposterous and completely unfounded.

SVT has argued that the purpose of the documentary is to offer a more balanced account of the war in Bosnia. A mere glance at their primary sources seriously undermines the credibility of this documentary. SVT has used exclusively Bosnian Serb sources and RTS TV in their futile effort to blame the Bosnian Muslims not only for the war in Bosnia but also for their "religious zealotry", apparently completely oblivious to Noel Malcolm's outstanding study of religious secularism among the Muslim population in Bosnia. Why not include reliable sources in the documentary instead of using notoriously pro-Serb ones?

Also, there was no mention in the documentary of the countless Russian and Greek mercenaries who arrived in Bosnia to side with Bosnian Serbs. If the principal objective of SVT was to show a fair and balanced account of the war in Bosnia, failure to include this fact is indicative of spurious and grossly biased journalism.

Swedish national TV (SVT) guilty of vicious historical revisionism

SVT recently broadcast a documentary replete with vicious revisionist propaganda, factual errors and blatant lies. Minimizing the genocidal act, which the Tribunal in the Hague proved without any reasonable doubt took place, SVT now belongs to the same category as the notorious left revisionists such as Diana Johnstone and Michael Parenti. It is asserted in this documentary that the Bosnian Muslim forces that were defending the Srebrenica enclave committed the same number of atrocities against the Serbian population in the neighboring villages, thereby equating the two warring sides in this so called "civil war". Also, it is implied that Alija Izetbegovic secretly agreed with Clinton to exchange Srebrenica for Vogosca and to give the green light to the Bosnian Serb army to summarily execute 5000 civilians. This would prompt NATO to resort to a military intervention in order to put an end to the Serbian onslaught.

You can watch the documentary here but it is mostly in Swedish. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.

http://svtplay.se/v/2508609/dokument_utifran/staden_som_offrades

Biljana Plavsic and Carl Bildt

Imagine my surprise when I read the news that Biljana Plavsic was released from prison today after serving a seven years sentence. The reader will recall that Plavsic was sentenced to eleven years in prison after a conviction in 2003 by the War Tribunal in The Hague. During her infamous speech to the Bosnian Serb Parliament, Plavsic asserted that Bosnian Muslims are a genetic mistake trapped inside a Serb body. Moreover, she was found guilty of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. The Swedish government denied Plavsic’s appeal for parole on two occasions. Her release today caused an outrage among the Bosnian population in Sweden mainly because as it turns out the Sweden’s Secretary of State, Carl Bildt, was directly implicated in this decision to set Plavsic free. He was the one who arranged for her to serve her sentence in Sweden and there is no doubt that he sided with Bosnian Serbs during the war in Bosnia.

The so called correctional facilities in Sweden are often likened to hotels where inmates can enjoy free cable TV and get delicious meals (much better than the ones offered to our school children). It is not totally uncommon that people come to Sweden only to commit a felony in order to serve a long term sentence in our prisons, the longer the better. If the pivotal function of our justice system is to deter criminals from committing a felony then no one can deny the fact that Swedish justice system has failed completely. Plavsic’s seven years in the so called prison in Sweden could not have been particularly tough given the access to free cable TV and awesome food let alone Carl Bildt’s unconditional and invaluable support. I am rest assured that Karadzic will also serve his sentence in Sweden if convicted, which in my view is a paradise for criminals, war criminals and other anti-social individuals. Carl Bildt is a notorious apologist for Bosnian Serb atrocities in Bosnia and he has never explicitly said that Bosnian Serbs were guilty of genocide in Bosnia. Instead Bildt shamelessly spoke of a civil war, implicitly implying the term “collective guilt” when referring to the conflict in Bosnia. Has he missed the convictions at the War Tribunal in The Hague? Both the Swedish government but above all Carl Bildt should be ashamed of themselves for releasing Plavsic after all the abhorrent enormities that she and her Bosnian Serb army perpetrated during the war in Bosnia. It is beyond my comprehension how you can release a mass murderer guilty of organizing and implementing ethnic cleansing. Swedish justice system is non-existent and pathetic.

Resolution 819

Resolution 819 is the first movie about the massacre in Srebrenica. I have not seen it yet but from what I have heard it seems to me that it offers a reliable account of the events that unfolded after the Bosnian Serb army had overrun the city. The movies such as this one help preserve the memory of the unfathomable atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serb army. Ratko Mladic, who personally supervised the operation that ultimately enabled the Bosnian Serb army to capture the town is still at large and many of the soldiers who participated in the attack on Srebrenica can be seen on the streets of Srebrenica every day. 14 years have passed since the abhorrent massacre but only a few have been held to account. This is why Resolution 819 is so important; it keeps the memory alive. For more information about this movie see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1224372/

Nostalgia

I have not been in Srebrenica since 1992. For the most part this is my fault but I have been postponing this trip for 15 years now. My parents and my brother have been in Srebrenica two times since the end of the war but I have been a coward every time. Not once have I managed to overcome this fear and anxiety that I feel deep inside, even though I am fully aware that it is perfectly safe in Srebrenica now. This fear and extreme nervousness keep bothering me to such an extent that I am beginning to wonder will I ever be able to make this trip to Srebrenica. Chris Daughtry’s incredible song Home best describes my nostalgia.

I asked my brother to describe his first impression of Srebrenica after the end of the war and he said that everything had changed. The town appeared to be much smaller than before the war and our house was barely recognizable. The people seemed unfriendly and hostile and the tension was omnipresent. I have been thinking about why all the survivors of the Bosnian carnage upon their return to Srebrenica get similar impressions as the one offered by my brother. I do not know why this is the case and it is by no means a simple question. However, I do know beyond any doubt that even the people who had not been in Srebrenica during the war have been deeply traumatized by the events. My family and I were constantly worrying about my grandparents who had stayed behind. Plagued by these gruesome memories the people who have been in a post-war Srebrenica view everything differently. Everything suddenly appears much smaller than it actually is. I theorize that this is simply some kind of a defense mechanism that helps people cope with traumatic events. Needless to say, it is in one way a traumatic event to return to Srebrenica knowing that my grandfather was killed there and that the remains of many victims are scattered in the surrounding forests.

I intend to videotape my first visit to a post war Srebrenica and to post the video to my blog. Hopefully some of my readers will appreciate this.

ESC and Politics

Although I think that the right song won this year’s ESC, there are nevertheless a few points that need to be addressed. Marija Serifovic’s performance was unprecedented and there is no doubt that Serbia deserved to win. However, I was appalled when I noticed the reaction of Serifovic after she had received the results of Bosnian voting. As is well known, Bosnia gave 12 points to Serbia. Shortly afterwards, Serifovic raised three fingers. This notorious sign is frequently used by Serb nationalists and extremists to incite hatred toward the non-Serb population in the region. Perceived as a sign of Serb supremacy, many non-Serbs were highly offended by this egregious gesture of Serifovic. This morally reprehensible gesture should once again serve as a reminder that a concept of reconciliation between Serbs and non-Serbs is merely a utopia.

The day after the show the Swedish media reported of this incident while the Bosnian media failed to mention a single word of the incident. To remain politically correct, the Bosnian press deliberately refuse to address any sensitive issues that might further exacerbate the already poor relations between Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia. This is certainly understandable to a certain extent but the people deserve to know the truth. Nationalism still plays a pivotal role in Serbia, which was evident from the aforementioned incident that took place during this year’s ESC. The Swedish media also pointed out that many survivors of the Bosnian carnage who reside in Sweden complained to the President of the ESC following the inappropriate gesture by Serifovic but to no avail. Why mix politics with the ESC and deliberately offend the survivors of the Bosnian war? Why further destabilize the situation between Serbs and non-Serbs in Bosnia?
I am deeply concerned about the situation in Bosnia and I am highly skeptical about the future of Bosnia. As long as there are three groups in Bosnia with completely different visions for Bosnia, there can never be any long term stability, let alone a reconciliation.

Justice is non-existent for Bosnia!

Today’s acquittal of Serbia means that the concept of justice is highly overrated. While the court in the Hague acknowledged that Serbia provided Bosnian Serbs with arms during the war in Bosnia it simultaneously failed to fully acknowledge the complicity of the Serbian authorities in the Bosnian carnage. If you aid someone who you know is committing an atrocity then you must be found equally guilty as the person committing the actual atrocity. An accomplice, and there is no doubt that Serbia aided and abetted the genocide in Bosnia, must be held to account. Failure to do so has severe implications for all of us. This basically means that a state that knowingly and deliberately provides a group of people with arms who then commit war crimes can escape responsibility for those crimes. The Serbian authorities were fully aware of the atrocities perpetrated by the Bosnian Serb army and still provided Serbs in Bosnia with both ground troops and arms. Today’s verdict sends an unambiguous message to the rest of the world: any state can use a proxy army to achieve its goal without having to face any repercussions. Let the others do the dirty job for you and simply stand back and watch the carnage.


One of the main reasons Serbia was acquitted today is its powerful lobbyists. Numerous examples from the history show that those with the money can escape a conviction. Simply influence the right people and the victory is yours. I believe in justice but I also know that justice cannot be done unless you have the money. Serbia has been giving shelter to Karadzic and Mladic now for 13 years without having to face any consequences whatsoever. Serbia has refused to cooperate with the War Tribunal in the Hague and to extradite the notorious war criminals. This verdict is ridiculous and completely unfounded. This is the greatest setback for the people of Bosnia since the end of the war.

Hamza Yusuf - Tackling Extremism - Doha Debates

This is irrefutably one of the most important debates I have ever seen. Even though not pertinent to the war in Bosnia, I nevertheless recommend everyone to watch this debate.

A gruesome fate!

I just learned the gruesome details about my late grandfather’s fate. I have known for a long time that he was killed in Srebrenica in 1995 when Serb soldiers overran the enclave killing approximately 8,000 innocent civilians. According to a testimony given by a Serb soldier who had participated in the attack on Srebrenica, my grandfather was hung in front of his house by Serb soldiers and left there to hang for a couple of days before he was buried in his own garden. During the three years that he spent in Srebrenica with my grandmother he systematically refused to believe that Serbs would harm him if Srebrenica fell into their hands. My grandmother who fortunately survived the massacre said that he was stubborn and naïve and he remained calm even on the day when Srebrenica fell. Grandmother also said that he did not even attempt to flee that day. Paradoxically, the incontrovertible and abundant evidence of the Serbian atrocities during the three years of the Serb siege of Srebrenica had not been sufficient to convince grandfather to flee the town. Not even the fact that their own house was hit by a bomb and almost killed both of them was sufficient. He simply could not believe that people could commit enormities. He never hurt a fly in his life and therefore he assumed that all people had benevolent intentions.

For that he paid with his life. May those who committed this appalling barbarity forever burn in hell and may my grandfather forever rest in peace.
Dedicated to Alija Salihovic.

Why did NATO bomb Serbia?

I frequently come across people who question the motive of NATO's intervention against Serbia. According to these people, the NATO's intervention was not only unwarranted but also illegitimate and unjustifiable. Many left revisionists in the West as well as apologists for the Serbian aggression in Bosnia claim that the U.S. sought to impose its hegemony in the Balkans. They believe that the U.S. was deliberately dehumanizing Serbian people during the war in Bosnia and Kosovo. No explanation has ever been offered as to why the U.S. was supposedly biased towards Serbian people.

Now, while it goes without saying that the U.S. foreign policy is extremely flawed and discriminatory, this allegation is preposterous. That the U.S. administration has strategic and economic interests in the region is an irrefutable fact. This does not by any means mean that the intervention was unwarranted and unjustifiable. If the potential victim of a rape is rescued by someone I do not think that the victim cares why she has been rescued. The important thing is that she had been rescued. Likewise, the fact that the NATO’s intervention put an end to the Serbian aggression and subsequently the suffering of the Bosnians and Kosovars is a justification in itself. Some experts assert that the NATO’s intervention merely exacerbated the conflict in Kosovo. This is inaccurate, all we know for sure is that it stopped the war, didn’t it? What was the alternative? Stand by and do nothing? Watch innocent people being slaughtered every day? That is cowardice. When an innocent person is suffering then we are morally obliged to put an end to that person’s suffering. Indifference and apathy are by far the worst qualities a person can have.

Blood and Vengeance

This powerful and highly momentous book by Chuck Sudetic tells a story of one family’s flight to Srebrenica from Kusupovici following the outbreak of the war in Bosnia in 1992. Sudetic brilliantly describes their plight as well as their happiness and joy. It is one of those rare books that forever stays with you. I have read many books about the war in Bosnia but Blood and Vengeance is irrefutably my favorite one. It is extremely important to me primarily because it offers an in-depth account of the massacre in Srebrenica. Moreover, unlike other books it is personal and involves the reader in the story in a way you never thought possible; one becomes part of the story by sharing the family’s experiences. What better way to describe the war in Bosnia than to describe it from the point of view of those who experienced it firsthand?

I can think of only one book that resembles Sudetic’s book to a certain extent and that is Love Thy Neighbor by Peter Maass. Like Sudetic, Maass also gives an extensive account of the egregious atrocities committed during the Bosnian carnage. Maass witnessed firsthand many of the atrocities described in his book. He was once shown a propaganda film by Serbs about which he later wrote that it would be awarded an Oscar if the Academy indeed awarded an Oscar for the best propaganda film. So elaborate and sophisticated was the Serb propaganda during the war in Bosnia. Serbs were trying to convince Maass that their film showed Muslims brutally slaughtering Serb civilians while in fact the film was actually showing Muslims being killed by Serbs.

Those of you who still have not read Sudetic’s book are strongly advised to do so. It is a masterpiece.

What is your favorite book about the war in Bosnia?

Bosnia versus Serbia at The Hague

The ongoing trial between Bosnia and Serbia at The Hague is a trial of the century, the importance of which cannot be overstressed. This is simultaneously a trial between the truth on one hand and disinformation and propaganda on the other hand. Bosnia is charging Serbia with genocide and aggression. For justice to be served, it is imperative that Bosnia wins this trial and that the Serbian government be convicted of genocide. Furthermore, the Serbian government must pay restitutions to the survivors of the Serbian aggression. The symbolic value of the outcome of this trial is perhaps even more important than coercing the Serbian government to pay the damages. If Bosnia wins then the Serbian people will have to admit the truth and face the irrefutable fact that their government was aiding and abetting the Bosnian Serb army at the time of the war in Bosnia. If Bosnia wins then hopefully more than 50 percent of the Serbian population will finally come to terms with the fact that the Srebrenica massacre did take place in which approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed. According to some estimates, more than 50 percent of the Serbian people still deny that there was a massacre in Srebrenica. If Bosnia wins, hopefully Ratko Mladic will no longer be considered a war hero among many Serbians. If Bosnia wins then Serbian schoolbooks will hopefully contain the truth about the war in Bosnia and Serbia’s role in the Bosnian carnage. If Serbia is convicted of genocide then the Serbian people will once and for all have to confront their past.

I hate to think what might happen should the verdict turn out to be in favor of Serbia. If Serbia is acquitted, then Serbian nationalists and certain left revisionists in the West will win a crucial battle and will certainly do everything in their power to spread even more misinformation and propaganda about the war in Bosnia. They will seek to rewrite the history. Let us hope that this will never happen. Needless to say, this would also be a huge setback for the survivors of the Bosnian war who suffered at the hands of the Serbian aggressor. The acquittal of Serbia would be an unfathomable injustice to the Bosnian people. The least that the people of Bosnia deserve is justice and justice cannot be done without the truth. Serbia must accept responsibility for the war in Bosnia and more importantly acknowledge its pivotal role in enabling the genocide of Bosnian Muslims.

Subsequently, the importance of this trial cannot be exaggerated. The Bosnian government has already presented the court in the Hague with some 32,000 pages of evidence material more than sufficient to prove Serbia’s role in the war in Bosnia. The evidence is abundant and incontrovertible containing video and audio documents that implicate the Serbian government in the Bosnian war. The defense has so far failed severely to refute any of the claims presented by the Bosnian government. I am therefore optimistic that justice will be done.

Indisputable facts about the war in Bosnia.

- U.N. Commission of Experts led by Cherif Bassiouni conducted a thorough study of the human rights abuses in Bosnia. The results of the study unequivocally and unambiguously demonstrate that Serb forces committed the overwhelming majority of the war crimes in Bosnia. The study also acknowledges that all warring parties committed grave breaches of the Geneva convention. None the less, the study also makes perfectly clear that only the Serb side committed human rights violations as part of their policy of ethnic cleansing. Even though all war crimes are morally reprehensible, those committed by Bosnian forces were not part of the policy of ethnic cleansing. Moreover, Bosnian government troops comprised members of all religious groups; it was not uncommon that Serbs and Croats fought alongside Bosnian Muslims.

- Human Rights Watch (HRW) found, in accordance with the above mentioned study, that Serb forces committed most war crimes in Bosnia. A 1996 report by the HRW accounts for the systematic and deliberate expulsion of Bosnian Muslims and other non-Serbs from northwestern Bosnia, implicating a notorious war criminal Zeljko Raznjatovic a.k.a. Arkan and his paramilitary Serbian troops in “implementing” the policy of ethnic cleansing.

- A study by the Amnesty International titled Bosnia-Herzegovina Gross Abuses of Basic Human Rights divulges the complicity of Serbia and Croatia in aiding and abetting Serb and Croat side in the Bosnian war. According to this report, Serbia and Croatia provided both political and military support to Bosnian Serbs and Croats.

- U.S. Department of State writes in its 1994 report on the war in Bosnia that only Bosnian Serb forces engaged in the policy of ethnic cleansing. The report further discloses the fact that Bosnian Serbs received full support from Belgrade. Furthermore, this report demonstrates that Bosnian Serbs sought to create a “Greater Serbia” by ethnically cleansing Bosnia of all non-Serbs. This report also corrects the common misconception of the Bosnian government forces as “Islamic fundamentalists”. As the report makes perfectly clear, the Bosnian government forces fought for a multiethnic society.

- An extremely well-documented study on the Srebrenica massacre by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation proves without a doubt that approximately 7,500 Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces led by Ratko Mladic. This meticulous study contains a thorough account of egregious atrocities committed in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces.

Internet Sources:

http://www.law.depaul.edu/institutes_centers/ihrli/_downloads/Secretary_General_letter.pdf

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/WR96/Helsinki-04.htm

http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/bosnia_herzegovina/document.do?id=90741F5D96AEDC12802569A600602B93

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_eur/Bosnia-Herzegovina.html

http://213.222.3.5/srebrenica/

Why has not Ratko Mladic been apprehended?

It is a shame for the entire international community that almost 11 years following the abhorrent massacre in Srebrenica, the two men responsible for the egregious atrocities that took place there, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are still at large. The Serbian authorities have known all this time their whereabouts, this is irrefutable. Yet, they have systematically and deliberately refused to extradite them to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Those who have little prior knowledge of the war in Bosnia probably do not know that many Serbians consider Mladic a war hero and refuse to believe that Mladic is a war criminal. Many Serbians still do not believe that there was a massacre in Srebrenica. The situation in the Serb part of Bosnia is much worse given the fact that Bosnian Serb children are taught in elementary school that Mladic is their national hero. The majority of Bosnian Serbs do not believe that there was a massacre in Srebrenica despite the abundant and compelling evidence that proves otherwise. Even though pressure on Serbia to extradite Mladic is growing, no one seems to ask the obvious question: why wait almost 11 years before putting significant pressure on the Serbian government to comply with the demand to extradite Mladic? Note that no one is talking about Karadzic any more, no one is seeking his extradition; he is as responsible as Mladic was for the gruesome massacre in Srebrenica as well as for other war crimes perpetrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Let there be no doubt about that but let me point out the obvious anyway: if the Serbian authorities wanted to apprehend Mladic then they would have done so a long time ago. The same can be said about the international community: if there was a real interest in Mladic’s apprehension, then the international community would have put much more pressure on Serbia. NATO does not want to further exacerbate its already poor relations with Serbia by capturing Mladic without Serbia’s permission. There is a lack of political will on the part of the international community to arrest Karadzic and Mladic. Their capture has unfortunately always been a low priority case. The real problem here is the fact that the Serbian people refuse to admit the truth to themselves. They refuse to believe that Mladic and Karadzic are guilty of appalling war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina for which they must be punished by the War Tribunal in the Hague.

As long as the Serbian people keep misrepresenting and distorting the truth about the war in Bosnia and Kosovo there will never be any reconciliation let alone forgiveness for their aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. As long as they keep lying to themselves, how can there be any reconciliation? How can there be any long lasting peace in the region when Serbs deliberately spread misinformation about their role in the Bosnian carnage? How can there be stability if they keep writing in their schoolbooks that there was no massacre in Srebrenica and that Mladic and Karadzic are their national heroes? Needless to say, not all Serbs are the same. There are Serbs who believe that there was genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Bosnia but they unfortunately represent a minority. Natasha Kandic is one of them, hopefully there will be more like her who dare tell the truth.

Until then, let us now hope that the international community means business this time about punishing Serbia unless they extradite Mladic. I am skeptical though.

The truth is the only thing that matters!

When people talk about the war in Bosnia they tend to use the word “civil” war. This word is not only misleading, its implications are far more dangerous than meets the eye. The word “civil” in this context implicitly implies collective guilt, meaning that all warring sides in the war were equally guilty. Needless to say, the war in Bosnia was well planned in advance by Serbia as well as Croatia. We need only recall the covert meeting between Milosevic and Tudjman in Karadjordjevo in which the two leaders had decided to divide Bosnia between themselves. I wonder why Western journalists so often ignore and downplay the importance of this event. The two leaders agreed that Herzegovina would be annexed to Croatia and the main part of Bosnia would be annexed to Serbia. However, in order to realize this plan, Serbs had to either annihilate or expel the entire Muslim population of Bosnia. Even though the Serbs were militarily superior, this was easier said than done. Sadly, Bosnian Serbs managed to carry out their genocidal plan before the eyes of the entire international community, killing approximately 250,000 people. The international community refused to rescind the arms embargo arguing that it would create even more havoc. This is the same as refusing to help a defenseless victim during a vicious attack by an armed assailant. You simply turn your head the other way and say that they were both equally guilty. Blaming each party creates a psychological resistance to the suffering of the victim. This is how the U.N. justified its failure to prevent and stop the unfathomable genocide in Rwanda. In the case of Rwanda not once was the word genocide used to describe the abhorrent atrocities that were taking place there. Once again, genocide warrants immediate action from the international community and this is the reason the U.N. officials avoid using this word. Had they acknowledged that genocide was taking place in Rwanda then they would have been compelled to put an end to it. The same conclusion can be drawn about the war in Bosnia. By calling it a “civil” war, the international community argued that it was the responsibility of the warring parties to stop the conflict. This subsequently meant that all parties in the war were equally guilty. It is as if putting equal blame to a rapist and his defenseless victim. Was the international community unaware of what was happening in Bosnia?

I am convinced that the whole world knew at the time that genocide was taking place in Bosnia. The evidence in support of this claim was abundant and incontrovertible. Cherif Bassiouni’s meticulously researched document on the atrocities perpetrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was later submitted to the U.N. Security Council, proved that Serbs had committed the overwhelming majority of war crimes in Bosnia, as part of the policy of ethnic cleansing. While the report also acknowledged that Bosnian army forces committed grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, it was not part of the policy of ethnic cleansing. All respectable fact-finding organizations (the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross) unanimously recognized Serbs as the aggressors. More important, they all documented the complicity of Serbia in the Bosnian war. It seems futile to present this evidence since many people in the West believe that the war in Bosnia was a civil war. Left revisionists knowingly misrepresent the war in Bosnia so that it be in accordance with their anti-American/Imperialism agendas. These demagogues do not care about the truth; in their systematic efforts to depict the U.S. as the greatest threat to international peace they are ready to downplay atrocities or even worse, to deny them. This is unacceptable. Even if one disagrees with something, one must always tell the truth even if it does not support one's stance. Yes, the U.S. foreign policy is primarily driven by imperialistic motives but this does not mean that Serbs did not commit genocide in Bosnia. The left revisionists are trying to convince us that the Serbian people were framed and deliberately dehumanized by the Americans and their allies so that the U.S. and its allies could send their troops to Bosnia and Kosovo in order to control the entire region. Even if it all was true, they still do not have the right to downplay Serbian atrocities or deny their war crimes. It would be one thing if they said that the NATO intervention in Kosovo was undertaken to increase NATO’s influence in the region while acknowledging that the Serbs were guilty of genocide. I would accept that, but many of these left revisionists claim that the Serbs were innocent.

Are they blind? No, but they loathe the truth and refuse to modify their views even if proved wrong. To these people, evidence makes no difference, what they believe is always true no matter if the entire world disagrees with them. To them, there is always a conspiracy and there is always something more than meets the eye. The entire world is blind, only they know the real truth, it is as if only they were entitled to truth. To them, the U.S. is always evil. They never try to see things from other people's perspectives, but why should they, they have monopoly on truth. For instance, some left revisionists have asserted that the massacre in Srebrenica does not constitute a genocidal act because, after all, the Serbs had been kind enough to allow women and children a safe passage to Tuzla. It does not seem to bother them that they killed approximately 8,000 unarmed and defenseless men. How can a person be so cold and not care about the relatives of these men? Do these left revisionists even take into consideration the feelings of these people before making such preposterous and ridiculous statements? No, all they care about are their own perverted agendas.

Noam Chomsky and the Srebrenica Massacre

I used to admire Noam Chomsky, especially his astute political opinions pertaining to certain aspects of the U.S. foreign policy. Although he is not always right when it comes to the U.S. policy in the Middle East (no one is always right about anything), he is generally successful in his mission to expose the underlying motives behind the West’s involvement in the Middle East. There is no doubt in my mind that imperialism is one of the primary motives given that strategic and economic interests are, after all, crucial for most foreign policy makers worldwide. Chomsky particularly opposes the U.S. foreign policy which he believes to be extremely unjust and hypocritical. While this assertion is irrefutable, the same can be said about the foreign policy of virtually any country in the world: France, England, Russia etc. It is a fact that most countries if not all seek to safeguard their interests many times with little or no regard for human rights.
The reader will have noticed my use of the past tense in the first sentence when I said that I used to admire Chomsky. I no longer do for the following reasons. In his interview for Bosnian TV1 last night Chomsky was asked to offer his opinion on the Srebrenica massacre. More specifically, he was asked if he believed that the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica was an act of genocide. Chomsky stated that the massacre in Srebrenica did not constitute a genocidal act since “only” 8,000 people were killed. Apparently, it is the number of casualties that is significant for Chomsky and not the intent to kill innocent and unarmed civilians. All reasonable human beings know that Serb forces committed genocide in Srebrenica by killing approximately 8,000 defenseless civilians. Even the War Tribunal in the Hague has declared the massacre in Srebrenica an act of genocide. Moreover, Chomsky seems oblivious to the fact that an official Bosnian Serb investigation into the Srebrenica massacre found that approximately 7,500 Bosnian Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica. The most comprehensive and meticulously researched study of the Srebrenica massacre, however, comes from the Dutch Institute for War Documentation. This massive document proves without a doubt that 8,000 civilians were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. Testimonies offered by the Dutch U.N. soldiers stationed in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre provide compelling and conclusive evidence.

When asked to comment on Diana Johnstone’s pro-Serb propaganda, Chomsky was deliberately evasive in his response. Those who have read Johnstone’s Fools’ Crusade know that this book is full of ridiculous historical revisionism and vicious lies. For instance, Johnstone has stated in her book that it is highly questionable if those who were killed in the Srebrenica massacre were civilians. She then implicitly suggests that the majority of them were soldiers killed during battle. Diana Johnstone’s book is a perfect example of left revisionism at its worst. How sane is a journalist who makes a comparison between Milosevic and Clinton only to call the latter a liar and the former a multiculturalist who had benevolent intentions? How serious is Johnstone’s work when she believes in Mladic’s and Karadzic’s innocence in spite of the fact that they have been charged with genocide by the War Tribunal in the Hague? Thus, Johnstone’s principal thesis is that all parties in the Bosnian war were equally guilty. Chomsky defends Johnstone’s “freedom of speech“, as he calls it, but refuses to comment on the specific contents of her book. Chomsky believes that Johnstone is a respectable journalist whose book about the war in Bosnia is based on scientific facts. Chomsky then adds that he would consider revising his opinion about Johnstone if someone offered a rebuttal of her book. I cannot but wonder, on which planet does Mr. Chomsky live? There are innumerable extremely well written rebuttals of Johnstone’s book, see for example the Balkan Witness website for several excellent refutations.

Chomsky should be ashamed of himself for supporting Johnstone’s vicious historical revisionism, the sole purpose of which is to spread gross misinformation about the war in Bosnia. Note that no one opposes Johnstone’s freedom of speech but her pro-Serb propaganda. It is beyond my comprehension that Chomsky can be so naive and dishonest. Either you disagree with Johnstone’s thesis or you agree with it; Chomsky deliberately refuses to divulge where he stands on this issue. If you agree with Johnstone then you say that there was no massacre in Srebrenica and that the Muslims were targeting themselves in order to induce a NATO intervention against the Serbs. If these outrageous assertions are indicative of serious journalism then I rest my case.

Chomsky has completely lost his credibility.

See the following websites for honest and serious work on the war in Bosnia:

http://www.glypx.com/BalkanWitness/Articles-deniers.htm
http://213.222.3.5/srebrenica/
http://www.law.depaul.edu/institutes_centers/ihrli/_downloads/Secretary_General_letter.pdf
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report/95hrp_report_eur/Bosnia-Herzegovina.html
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/HELSINKI-03.htm
http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/reports.html

The story of my life!

This is Srebrenica, a small town in eastern Bosnia. I was born there on September 18 1979. On April 8, 1992 my family and I had to flee the town because we had been told that it was no longer safe to remain there. No one knew why. I had noticed that many of my Serb friends were for some reason absent from class. I remember that day perfectly well when my headmaster remarked that the Serb students were missing. It turned out that they had been forewarned and urged to leave Srebrenica immediately. Oblivious as to what was going to happen, a large Muslim population stayed behind. Alarmed by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Serb population had already left the town, some Muslims decided that it would be wise to leave Srebrenica if only for a short while. Little did they know that many of them would never return to Srebrenica again...

My family and I decided to go to our aunt who lives in Ivangrad, Montenegro. We thought that we would stay only for a couple of days before heading back to Srebrenica. Meanwhile the situation in Bosnia was rapidly deteriorating, tension was rampant. I was beginning to fear the worst: war. Approximately a month after our arrival in Montenegro a war broke out in Bosnia. People who had remained in Srebrenica were unable to leave the town. They had been trapped. My grandparents had remained in Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb forces occupied Srebrenica and began shelling the town from the surrounding mountains. Heavily armed, Bosnian Serbs inflicted tremendous damage to the town, whose defenders were practically unarmed. Mortar attacks occurred daily in which many civilians were killed. I was watching the slow but extremely painful demise of Srebrenica on Serbian TV, unable to do anything to help the people trapped in the town. Watching news on the TV became a torture causing permanent damage to the soul.

At that time when Srebrenica was under siege, the Montengrin authorities were capturing Muslim men who had fled to Montenegro from the war in Bosnia. The Montenegrin authorities later deported the captives to Bosnian Serb authorities, sending them to a certain death. My cousins' father and his brother were deported from Herceg Novi (Montenegro) to Bosnian Serb authorities. Presumed dead, their bodies still have not been recovered. May Asim Begic's and Azem Begic's souls forever rest in peace and may those who executed them be severely punished for their heinous atrocities that left a permanent scar on my cousins.

Fearing that my father might be captured as well, we decided to flee Montenegro. The situation at that time was chaotic; we thought we were not going to make it out of the country. My brother and I suffered severe trauma, having had to cope both with what was happening in Bosnia and with the fact that our cousins' father had just been abducted. Also, we were deeply concerned what was going to happen to our father; all of this proved too much for two little boys. We were praying that the Yugoslav authorities would allow us to pass the border and they did. Even though we were facing an uncertain future, we had made it, we were finally safe. We ended up in Sweden and I have since been living here.

On July 12 1995 Srebrenica was overrun by Bosnian Serb army. What happened in the ensuing days constitutes one of the worst massacres in Europe since World War II. Bosnian Serb forces summarily executed approximately 8,000 Muslim men, one of whom was my grandfather Alija Salihovic. My grandmother had managed to get out of the town and later joined us here in Sweden. My grandfather was unfortunately not that lucky. May his soul rest in peace. Today when I ask my grandmother about her three years in Srebrenica while under constant bombardment, with no clean water, electricity and little food, all she says is that she was in hell. One gruesome event that will never be effaced from her memory is a massacre of approximately 30 children who were playing football in the schoolyard. The pool of blood that was there that day has been forever imprinted on her memory. At this point, the two men most responsible for the massacre in Srebrenica Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still at large.

A legitimate question emerges here:

Is the international community really putting an honest effort into apprehending them?


Dedicated to Asim Begic, Azem Begic, Alija Salihovic and all Bosnian people who lost their lives in the war in Bosnia.

The Myth of the Islamic Fundamentalism in Bosnia

Some terrorist experts contend that there is a rising Islamic threat in Bosnia and that it was the Islamic fundamentalism that caused the war in Bosnia. Is there any truth to these assertions or are they only myths invented by Serb nationalists and certain left revisionists in the West?

Noel Malcolm, a foremost authority on the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has written a book called Bosnia a Short History. In this author’s opinion, Noel Malcolm’s book offers without a doubt one of the most balanced and comprehensive accounts of the history of this region. Extremely well documented and brilliantly researched, Bosnia a Short history explains the root causes of the war in Bosnia and easily dispels some of the prevailing myths about the ancient ethnic hatreds in Bosnia frequently put forth by many Western commentators. Malcolm points out in his book that the Muslims of Bosnia constitute one of the most secularized Islamic communities in the world. This contention is supported by the fact that there were approximately 30% mixed marriages in Bosnia before the war began in 1992. According to Malcolm, religion has always had a rather insignificant role for the Muslims of Bosnia and was considered by the overwhelming majority of Bosnian Muslims a private matter. As Malcolm astutely observes: “for many rural Muslims and the vast majority of urban ones, being a Muslim was reduced to a set of cultural traditions: Muslim names, circumcision, baklava, and the celebration of Ramazan Bajram…” (p. 222). With no hesitation, Malcolm strongly rejects the idea that there exists an Islamic threat in Bosnia: “talk of a fundamentalist threat in Bosnia was in any case particularly inappropriate, because the Bosnian Muslims were by now among the most secularized Muslim populations in the world” (p.221). Even so, many Western experts frequently refuse to make a distinction between the Muslims of Bosnia and the Muslims of the Arab world (not that there is anything wrong with the latter; the present author is merely trying to demonstrate the actual differences between the two), as if all Muslims were homogenous. A closer examination reveals that the Muslims of Bosnia have little in common with the Arab Muslims: they do not speak the same languages, they do not have the same histories, traditions and mores.

Professor of Religion at Haverford College, Michael Sells, believes that it was this simplistic and parochial perception of Islam that blocked a military intervention in Bosnia: “the refusal of European governments to either defend Bosnians against genocide or allow them to obtain arms to defend themselves has been based in part on stereotypes about Islam” (p. 122). Elaborating, Mr. Sells argues that :”central to the Orientalist stereotype is a confusion in the presentation of Islam between religious observance and religious militancy. While few would argue that the militant wing of the Irish Republican Army represents all observant Catholics, the association of observant Muslims with religious militancy is widespread” (p.122-123). Thus unwillingness, writes Sells, to help the Muslims of Bosnia only further increased the gap between the Christian and the Muslim world (p. 124). While the Muslims of Srebrenica were being brutally slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces the West did nothing to prevent nor to stop the gruesome massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men were killed. As Zeyno Baran, director of the International Security Program at the Nixon Center, correctly points out: “the war in Bosnia, particularly the arms embargo imposed on the Muslim population while the Serbs were massacring them, became the major turning point for the global Muslim consciousness. Even secular, non-political Muslims were furious about what they perceived as Western indifference to the mass killings of their co-religionists” (The Baltimore Sun, July 25 2005). Also the fact that the two individuals most responsible for the massacre in Srebrenica Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still at large seriously undermines and threatens the relationship between the Christian and the Muslim world. Many Muslims presumably ask themselves the inevitable question: is the West really putting an honest effort into apprehending and bringing to justice Karadzic and Mladic? It is a legitimate question worthy of considerable consideration.

Now, while keeping this mind, consider a book titled Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network by Evan F. Kohlmann. In this book, Mr. Kohlmann suggests that the Muslims of Bosnia were collaborating with the Muslims of Afghanistan in a joint effort to unleash unprecedented terror throughout the Christian world. To support his thesis, Kohlmann correctly points out that an insignificant number of Mujahidins arrived in Bosnia in 1992 to aid Bosnian Muslims. What Mr. Kohlmann however does not mention is that the Muslims of Bosnia were poorly armed when compared to the extremely powerful Serbian aggressor. Bosnian Serbs were heavily armed; they possessed sophisticated weaponry (tanks, military jets etc) and also they received full diplomatic and military support from the neighboring Serbia. Not to mention the fact many Serbian paramilitary units (Vojislav Seselj’s Chetniks, Mirko Jovic’s White Eagles and Arkan’s troops) also engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. According to Mr. Sells: “the advantage of the Serb army in heavy weapons over the Bosnians was estimated in anywhere from 20-1 to 100-1” (p.116-117). Noel Malcolm writes that :”although the U.N. itself recognized Bosnia and admitted it as a member-state distinct and separate from Yugoslavia on 22 May 1992, it continued to apply the embargo as if nothing had changed. Of course it continued to apply it to Serbia too; but Serbia held most of the stockpiles of the former federal army, and had a large armaments industry of its own” (p.243).

In his book, Mr. Kohlmann also fails to mention the fact that many Greek and Russian volunteers came to Bosnia in order to aid the already heavily armed aggressor-Bosnian Serbs. Mr. Sells asserts that this fact received little if any attention in the Western media. I agree with Mr. Sells that there is no doubt that the Islamic fundamentalism frequently creates headlines in the media while the Christian fundamentalism rarely if ever received any coverage at all. During the war in Bosnia, Orthodox priests many times encouraged the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. According to Sells: “in an Orthodox monastery near Sarajevo, a Serb priest blessed the followers of the ethno-fascist warlord Vojislav Seselj, after the names of the towns associated with the worst atrocities against Muslims were read aloud in triumph” (p 80). Elaborating, Sells further writes: “Trebinje’s 500-year-old mosque and elegant Turkish-style buildings were burned and its Muslim population killed and expelled immediately following celebrations of the feast day of St. Sava, the founder of the Serbian Church. Mirko Jovic, leader of the White Eagles terror squad, called for a “Christian, Orthodox Serbia with no Muslims and no unbelievers” (p.80). Sells also analyzes Serbian literature demonstrating its highly stereotypical and prejudiced view of Bosnian Muslims, a view which of course had no basis in fact. For example, books by the extremely popular Serbian authors Vuk Draskovic and Petar Petrovic Njegos contain numerous elements of vicious anti-Islamic propaganda. Even Serb psychiatrists have made some bizarre and absurd statements about Muslims. Jovan Raskovic, a famous Serb psychiatrist, came to a conclusion that Muslims have an “anal erotic fixation” and that they are materialistic and greedy. Raskovic’s conclusions about Croats were equally bewildering and preposterous; in Raskovic’s opinion, Croats are afraid of everything. Concerning the Serbs, Raskovic lauded them for their bravery since only the Serbs had effectively dealt with the Oedipus complex. It remains a mystery how s person like Raskovic could have been considered a serious and respected psychiatrist. If the Serbian people believed in this sheer nonsense and apparently many did, then it is not difficult to trace the origins of Islamophobia that is still very much present in the Serbian society. In point of fact, this is how you justify genocide: you begin spreading vicious lies and gross misinformation about your enemy. Then you hire “experts” to corroborate these so called “truths”. What better person to verify these “truths” than a respected psychiatrist?

In order to understand the root causes of the war in Bosnia it is imperative to look into this highly sophisticated and elaborate anti-Islamic propaganda. There is no doubt that this propaganda had played a pivotal if not critical role in enabling and justifying genocide of Bosnian Muslims. In Love Thy Neighbor, Peter Maass explains how malicious Serbian propagandists did everything to portray Bosnian Muslims as Islamic fundamentalists whose goal had always been a creation of an Islamic state in Bosnia. Here is what Maass writes of one Serbian propaganda film: “if there was an Academy Award for the Crudest, Goriest Propaganda Film, then the Serbs would win, hands down” (p.88).

Some Western commentators have asserted that the war in Bosnia was a result of ancient ethnic strives and the inability of Muslims and Christians to co-exist peacefully. Of course, this explanation is a flagrant misrepresentation of the facts, as Noel Malcolm’s book has so clearly demonstrated. The same Western experts somehow always tend to overlook the importance of the covert agreement between Milosevic and Tudjman to divide Bosnia between themselves. Needless to say, to realize this goal they had to either expel or annihilate the Muslim population of Bosnia. As Chuck Sudetic points out in his book Blood and Vengeance: “the war in Bosnia had to be presented as a civil war, an ethnic war, a religious war, the latest tremor along an unstable cultural fault line, an age-old struggle between Christianity and Islam, anything but what it was: a land grab managed from Belgrade with help from Zagreb” (p.128). That is exactly what it was.

List of References

Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia a Short History (1996). New York University.

Sells, Michael. The Bridge Betrayed (1998). University of California Press.

Zeyno, Baran. Bosnia and Terrorism. The Baltimore Sun July 25 2005.

Kohlmann, Evan. Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network (2004).

For a detailed account of Jovan Raskovic see http://www.freedommag.org/english/1993-may/page02.htm

Maass, Peter. Love Thy Neighbor (1996). First Vintage Books Edition.

Sudetic Chuck. Blood and Vengeance. (1998). Penguin Books.

Rebuttal of Francisco Gil-White's Gross Misrepresentation of the Bosnian War

This is a response to Francisco Gil-White’s view of the war in Bosnia, as expressed at http://www.emperors-clothes.com/.

Mr. Francisco contends that Alija Izetbegovic, the late President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was an Islamic fundamentalist and that it was his book Islamic Declaration that caused the war in Bosnia. According to Francisco, Izetbegovic’s principal objective had always been a creation of an Islamic state in Bosnia. One particular passage from Izetbegovic’s book is frequently used to support this thesis: "…the implementation of Islam in all fields of individuals' personal lives, in family and in society, by renewal of the Islamic religious thought and creating a uniform Muslim community from Morocco to Indonesia. ...". Francisco believes that there can only be one interpretation of the above and that is the forcible creation of an Islamic state in Bosnia. I beg to differ. This quote was taken out of its proper context. Consider for example the introduction to this book: “The Declaration which we today present to the public is not prescribed reading, intended to demonstrate to foreigners or doubters the superiority of Islam over any particular system or school of thought” (all quotes from this book will henceforth be taken from this website). Basically what this introduction means is that Izetbegovic from the start acknowledges that he does not believe that Islam is superior to any other religion. This particular point is reiterated throughout the book, as exemplified in the following passage: “Class distinction is equally unjust, morally and humanly unacceptable, as national and other division and differentiation among people”. Moreover, Izetbegovic asserts that it is imperative that we judge people based on the content of their character only: “As a religious and moral movement, it finds unacceptable any differentiation between people which does not include moral criteria”. I will leave to the reader of this paper to decide whether or not the views expressed in Izetbegovic’s book in any way characterize a fundamentalist view of Islam. Consider the following passage: “Harems must be abolished. No one has the right to refer to Islam as a reason to keep women disenfranchised; abuse of this kind must be brought to an end…It is an underlining of the equal values of men and women, together with the underlining of the differences between them, which should be preserved”. Izetbegovic further strongly opposed the increasing exploitation of the female body for pornographic purposes.

As for the alleged implementation of an Islamic state in Bosnia, the following passage renders all comments superfluous: “In the struggle for the Islamic order, all means are permissible, except one-crime” (emphasis added). This non-violent approach is omnipresent in Izetbegovic's book. Thus, Izetbegovic denounces violence and lauds justice and forgiveness. Izetbegovic also seeks to bridge the gap between the Christian and the Muslim world by calling for cooperation and tolerance: “If Christians so wish, the future may offer an example of understanding and cooperation between two great religions for the well-being of people and mankind, just as the past has been the battlefield of their senseless intolerance and strife” (emphasis added). I ask the reader the following question: is this quote in any way indicative of religious intolerance? Similar views are expressed about Judaism.

After I finished reading Islamic Declaration, I reached the inevitable conclusion that Izetbegovic’s message had been grossly misrepresented by Mr. Francisco and the emperors-clothes website. Izetbegovic’s vision was a united Muslim world, the chief characteristics of which would be solidarity, empathy, tolerance, social justice and education. By the term “united Muslim world”, Izetbegovic did not refer to the geographical aspect; what he meant was that the Muslims should empathize with each other whether they happen to live in Pakistan or Turkey. One example is the question of Palestine. According to Izetbegovic, many Arab nations are completely indifferent to the plight of the Palestinian people and Izetbegovic strongly denounces this apathy and moral relativism. Instead of being a passive bystander, the Arab world should express its solidarity with the Palestinian people. This is what Izetbegovic meant when he was calling for a united Muslim world.

In an interview for START in August 2003 Izetbegovic said that Bosnia must remain a secular state. As far as I know, all fundamentalists abhor secularism. I am therefore bewildered by Francisco’s perception of Izetbegovic. What is even more perplexing is the incontrovertible fact that Izetbegovic never makes a single reference to Bosnia in his book and yet Mr. Francisco immediately draws the conclusion that Izetbegovic’s vision also applied to Bosnia. I strongly urge everyone to read this book and then make up their own minds about it.

Radovan Karadzic, former Bosnian Serb leader, who is being sought for war crimes, has however said that “the road to which you want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina is the same highway of hell which Slovenia and Croatia took. Don’t think you won’t take Bosnia and Herzegovina to hell and the Muslims into annihilation…Muslims cannot defend themselves if there is war here”. If this is not an explicit threat to exterminate the Muslims of Bosnia then I don’t know what it is. I wonder how this managed to escape Francisco’s attention. I also wonder how Francisco explains the fact that every single church remained intact in the area controlled by Bosnian Muslims when the war in Bosnia ended. Conversely I am looking forward to an explanation as to why every single mosque was destroyed in the area controlled by Bosnian Serbs. If the Muslims of Bosnia are such fundamentalists as Francisco so strongly suggests, should not the situation described above have been reversed?

Moreover I am deeply concerned by the fact that Mr. Francisco refused to consult one of the most authoritative books on Bosnia - Bosnia a Short History - by a noted expert on the subject, Noel Malcolm, before he began spreading misinformation about Bosnian Muslims. According to Malcolm, Bosnian Muslims are without a doubt one of the most secularized Muslims in the world. This is corroborated by the fact that there were approximately 30% mixed marriages in Bosnia before the war began in 1992. Francisco, I strongly suggest that you read this book.

The war in Bosnia was genocide of Bosnian Muslims. Consider the results of one of the most meticulous investigations of the human rights abuses in Bosnia. Cherif Bassiouni, Professor of Law at De Paul University, conducted a thorough investigation of human rights abuses in Bosnia, the results of which were later submitted to the U.N. Security Council (the title of the report: Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 from 1992). It is frequently asserted that this highly meticulous and exhaustive study offers the definitive account of the war crimes perpetrated in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bassiouni’s commission of experts found that all parties in the war committed gross violations of human rights. None the less, the study also emphasized that the Serbs committed the overwhelming majority of the war crimes in Bosnia. Most importantly, the commission concluded that the crimes perpetrated by the Serbs were part of a greater Serbian ideology, namely the creation of a “Greater Serbia”. Here is what the report said: “with respect to the practices by Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, “ethnic cleansing” is commonly used as a term to describe a policy conducted in furtherance of political doctrines relating to “Greater Serbia” (p. 33). Thus, achieving hegemony was the primary objective of the Serbs. The report further disclosed that Zeljko Raznjatovic’s and Vojislav Seselj’s paramilitary forces were found responsible for gross human rights abuses in Bosnia. The commission also implicated the JNA and Bosnian Serb leaders in allowing and even encouraging the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs (p.35). Regarding the war crimes committed by the Bosnian Muslims, the report said that: “Bosnian Government forces have also committed the same type of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions against Serbs and Croats, but not as part of a policy of “ethnic cleansing”. The number of these violations, as reported, is significantly less than the reported violations allegedly committed by the other warring factions” (p. 36 emphasis added). The commission also found that all warring parties had detention camps, Serbs had 237, Muslims 89 and Croats 77 (p. 51). However, the worst atrocities were committed in the detention camps held by Bosnian Serbs. According to the report: “camps operated by Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are by far the ones where the largest numbers of detainees have been held and where the cruelest and largest number of violations occurred” (p.52). Moreover, Serb camps were used as an instrument of ethnic cleansing where killing and appalling torture of prisoners occurred daily (p.53-54). Subsequently, even though the Muslims committed sporadic atrocities, the Serbs committed systematic and extremely well organized war crimes in order to exterminate the non-Serb population. Proponents of “collective guilt” theory thus correctly contend that all sides in the Bosnian war committed atrocities. None the less, as this authoritative report makes perfectly clear, only the Serbs were guilty of systematic war crimes.

I am looking forward to Francisco's response and then we will let the readers decide whose side of the story represents the truth.

List of References

www.emperors-clothes.com/gilwhite/alija1.htm

www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/papers/Islamic_Declaration_1990_reprint_English.pdf

www.bosnaprkosnaodsna.mine.nu/sredina-Alija.html

as adopted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radovan_Karadzic

Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia a Short History (1996). New York University Press.

http://www.law.depaul.edu/institutes_centers/ihrli/_downloads/Secretary_General_letter.pdf

Atrocity denial over Bosnia!

Paradoxically, there are people who still claim that there was no massacre in Srebrenica despite the abundant and incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. Thousands of corroborated eye-witness accounts of the survivors of the Srebrenica massacre do not suffice either; these atrocity deniers simply do not care about the truth. In point of fact, these people abhor the truth and they display a flagrant disregard for all human suffering.

One such example is a webiste called www.emperors-clothes.com. An apologist for Serb atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo, this website does not contain a single element of truth about the war in Bosnia and Kosovo. When the videotape of the gruesome execution of six Muslim men was released, this website immediately responded by calling it a fraud. According to the emperors-clothes, the videotape had been tempered with in order to dehumanize the Serbs. While the horrific footage no doubt shocked the whole world, the emperors-clothes website questioned the authenticity of the videotape.

In general, atrocity deniers show a complete lack of empathy and solidarity; there is no evidence in the world that can make them change their minds, not even a cold-blooded execution of these powerless and defenseless men. In fact, even if they themselves had witnessed this unfathomable atrocity, they would have denied that they had seen anything. They would probably have claimed that the whole scene had been arranged by the Americans or the Muslims themselves in order to frame the Serbs.

To further their own perverted agendas, atrocity deniers knowingly misrepresent and distort facts. Websites like the emperors-clothes, have no respect whatsoever for the survivors of the Srebrenica massacre nor are they able to empathize with these people whose lives have forever been ruined when Srebrenica fell on 11 July 1995.

What is the principal reason these atrocity deniers refuse to admit the truth about the massacre in Srebrenica and other Serb atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo? In my opinion, the reason is very simple: they are staunch opponents of NATO and the U.S. foreign policy. In their opinions, the U.S. government is to blame for all evil in the world. Moreover, these atrocity deniers assert that the Western media have always been demonizing the Serbs. It is never explained to the reader what the Western media could possibly gain from being biased towards the Serbs. If anything, the Western media was downplaying Serb atrocities during the war in Bosnia. So, instead of relying on mainstream media, these atrocity deniers use dubious and uncorroborated sources in order to support their preposterous conspiracy theories. I strongly urge everyone to visit this website and see what they write about Milosevic and other notorious war criminals who have committed egregious atrocities in Bosnia.