The Times reports evidence at the The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of phone taps when he said in 1991:
They have to know that there are 20,000 armed Serbs around Sarajevo.... it will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die. They will disappear. That people will disappear from the face of the earth.
Charming.
The vile murderous vision of nationalist slaughter by this thug, his right hand brute Ratko Mladic and the late Slobodan Milosevic was put into practice, while the world watched.
Of course, it wasn't helped by the arms embargo which meant Bosnian Muslims could not readily acquire the means to defend themselves, whilst Bosnian Serbs had already taken control of most of the arms of the former Yugoslav National Army, which had been controlled from Belgrade. It wasn't helped by the UN declaring Srebrenica as a "safe haven" which Bosnian Muslim refugees fled to, only to be slaughtered (the men and the boys slaughtered, the women and girls raped, as part of a deliberate plan to fill Bosnia with "baby Serbs"). The mistakes were many in the international response to this conflict, but nothing beats the pure brutal evil of the likes of Karadzic, proving some Europeans still have the willingness to undertake atrocities akin to those committed by the Nazis.
Of course, no side was innocent of bloodshed inflicted on the innocent, but without a doubt the Bosnian Serb side was the blatant standard-bearer of "ethnic cleansing". The trial of Karadzic reminds us all of how xenophobic chauvinism remains a cancerous tumour that some politicians are only too willing to encourage, and all too many are willing to kill in the name of.
They have to know that there are 20,000 armed Serbs around Sarajevo.... it will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die. They will disappear. That people will disappear from the face of the earth.
Charming.
The vile murderous vision of nationalist slaughter by this thug, his right hand brute Ratko Mladic and the late Slobodan Milosevic was put into practice, while the world watched.
Of course, it wasn't helped by the arms embargo which meant Bosnian Muslims could not readily acquire the means to defend themselves, whilst Bosnian Serbs had already taken control of most of the arms of the former Yugoslav National Army, which had been controlled from Belgrade. It wasn't helped by the UN declaring Srebrenica as a "safe haven" which Bosnian Muslim refugees fled to, only to be slaughtered (the men and the boys slaughtered, the women and girls raped, as part of a deliberate plan to fill Bosnia with "baby Serbs"). The mistakes were many in the international response to this conflict, but nothing beats the pure brutal evil of the likes of Karadzic, proving some Europeans still have the willingness to undertake atrocities akin to those committed by the Nazis.
Of course, no side was innocent of bloodshed inflicted on the innocent, but without a doubt the Bosnian Serb side was the blatant standard-bearer of "ethnic cleansing". The trial of Karadzic reminds us all of how xenophobic chauvinism remains a cancerous tumour that some politicians are only too willing to encourage, and all too many are willing to kill in the name of.
3 comments:
Well that's a nice steaming load of Western Propaganda. A bit like the Western show trials going on at the Hague. I guess show trials are OK when we do it instead of Stalin?
Who would have thought that Civil Wars are messy?
The Croats and Bosnian Muslims appeared to do fine despite the "Arms Embargo" when conducting their own Western Approved Ethnic Cleansing during Operation Storm.
America picked sides during the Civil War and chose Croatia as its Ally. The Serbs were nominally supported by an enfeebled Russia. What happens today is still viewed through that skewed prism.
OECD: So Karadzic was innocent? So the Bosnian Serb policy was not ethnic cleansing? Who gives a fuck, just a bunch of slavs murdering and raping each other?
Let's be very clear what happened. The CPY was breaking up, and the federal republics of the SFRY sought independence from the heavy handed bully in Belgrade, Milosevic, who still believed in socialism and central planning and wanted to pillage the richer northern republics to subsidise poorer Serbia.
Llubljana broke away easily, the YNA fought briefly, but there was no Slovene support for the SFRY. Zagreb of was a bigger problem, as it was led by a nationalist thug. So SFRY and Croatia went to war, the Serbs cleansed the northeast and the Krajina, the Croats cleansed the rest, and this persisted for some years. Meanwhile, Sarajevo joined them, as BiH was becoming the transit point for Milosevic's ambition for a greater Serbia. So the BiH Muslims were stuck between the Croats and the Serbs.
Let's be VERY clear, the Serb policy was explicitly ethnic cleansing. It was not the BiH Muslim policy which was to preserve the cosmopolitan Sarajevo and BiH, despite the murmourings of some, actions of a few and Izetbegovic's writings as a youth. Milosevic and Tudjman sought to split BiH between them, but the BiH Muslims held on. The Croats had no real beef with the BiH Muslims - it was the Serbs they loathed (and it was mutual - the Ustashe activities against Serbs during WW2 were despicable).
Operation Storm happened and funnily enough those responsible DO face indictment in the Hague - so really I don't see the problem. Indeed the very issue has been a stumbling block to Croatia's application for EU membership.
Given responsible people from Croat and Serb sides are on trial, your point seems rather vacant.
I think both sides are somehow to blame, as in all conflicts, but our attention should really concentrate on the plan of "ethnic cleansing", because any plan of that sort should be considered as the one most alarming and therefore I would hold Karadzic responsible for even just conceiving such an idea. So I hope the trial will somehow move on and this beast is going to be sentenced, how he deserves. Lorne
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