American Odes To War Criminal
Barry Marjanovich
SLOBODNA DALMACIJA
AMERICAN ODES TO WAR CRIMINAL
The death of Momcilo Djujic, a Serbian war criminal and Chetnik "duke," in
a hospital in San Diego had almost shocking repercussions among the
Croatian public. The very knowledge that God "had come to take his dues"
(since justice could not be done all these years) would not have probably
provoked much attention if it weren't for the attempts of The New York
Times to posthumously compose an ode to this war criminal by praising him
as an antifascist!
The author of the article, David Binder, radically revamped Djujic's life
and work, speaking of him as a holy man and warrior, even a hero, a man who
contributed so much to the civilized world with his "heroism and
righteousness." In the same manner, Binder also unwaveringly rehabilitates
the Chetnik movement as well, saying that the Chetniks were monarchists and
antifascists.
In his description of Djujic's "feats," Binder is not in the least troubled
by the fact that the notorious war leader was responsible for the deaths of
1,500 people, which he passes over with no commentary. If Binder had wanted
to, he could have received extensive documentation collected in legal
proceedings which have been going on for years in Croatian courts. The
Sibenik County Court alone collected the testimonies of 133 witnesses, both
Croats and Serbs, among them the former Partisan resistance general and
antifascist Joso Durbaba, a Serb from Knin.
During World War II, Djujic was the scourge of Croats and Serbs alike,
about which there is copious testimony. He was truly an inhuman criminal.
In the indictment raised against him, he is charged with committing war
crimes against civilian population and against prisoners of war during the
period from 1941 to 1944. His reign of terror was felt in northern
Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun and Gorski Kotar, forcibly drafting people to join
his Chetnik movement. He plundered, physically abused and almost ritually
slaughtered those who supported the antifascist Partisan resistance,
conducted liquidations and torture of Catholic priests, and tortured and
killed imprisoned Partisans. Despite this, one stroke of a reporter's pen
immediately transformed him into a hero of antifascism.
Why did The New York Times accept Binder's forgery? Probably not due to
ignorance, for while easily glossing over the war crimes of Djujic and his
Chetniks, he never fails to mention that the Ustashi were Croatian fascists
and the Partisans communists. Thus, from Binder's skewed point of view,
Djujic and his Chetniks were probably supposed to be their antithesis:
monarchists and antifascists (?).
Croatia, with all of its democratic deviations and the sometimes
questionable "twists and turns" of current policy — if it is perceived as a
state of its citizens and not its government — wants to adopt American
democratic experiences and attain its level of media freedom and
independent journalism. However, Binder cannot serve as an example here.
Anyone who proclaims a war criminal par excellence an antifascist
enthusiast cannot be a credible promoter of American independent
journalism. On the contrary, Binder's warped views will only play into the
hands of Croatian radicals and supporters of anti-American policies and
serve as evidence of the inconsistency of prospective American mentors, and
any admonishment of Croatia by America for its democratic shortcomings will
be met with this farce of Djujic's posthumous rehabilitation. Will the
Americans apologize to the hundreds of families whose sons fell victim to
Djujis's terror, or is Binder just a postulate to the theory of the
unquestioned freedom of the American press?
Davorka Blazevic
Barry Marjanovich
1999-09-24
DECEASED CHETNIK WAR CRIMINAL PRESENTED AS ANTIFASCIST
Momcilo Djujic, a former Chetnik "duke," died in a hospital in San Diego,
California, on September 11 at the age of 92. During World War II, Djujic
was the commander of Chetnik troops that are, apart for their collaboration
with the German and Italian occupation forces, still remembered for their
horrifying crimes against local non-Serbian populations. The judicial
authorities of the Republic of Croatia instituted criminal proceedings
against Momcilo Djujic on reasonable suspicion that "as of July 1941, in
the Dinara region, he organized Chetnik divisions with which he, under the
supreme command of the criminal Draza Mihajlovic and under the auspices of
the Italian and German occupation forces, acting in violation of the
provisions of international law during wartime, motivated by criminal
impulses and religious and national hatred and intolerance, organized,
commanded and conducted a brutal reign of terror over the populations of
Lika, Dalmatia, Western Bosnia and elsewhere, conscripting people into the
Chetnik troops against their will, burning and devastating entire villages,
commanding mass tortures of the civilian population including children and
elderly persons, rapes, mass executions, slaughters and plunder, as a
result of which several villages were destroyed and more than 1,500 persons
were killed." Some people also hold him accountable for the crimes he
encouraged and partially organized from 1990 to 1995.
The first request for the extradition of the war criminal Momcilo Djujic
was submitted to the U. S. back in 1998, and was subsequently repeated on
several occasions, but the demand was never met.
In spite of all of the foregoing, in a news item on Djujic's death, The New
York Times' David Binder called the Chetnik duke "a priest and a warrior,"
heaping unbelievable praise on his alleged heroism and claiming that he was
the leader of an armed struggle against the Nazi Germany and the Axis
forces. On the other hand, the author did not hesitate to describe the
Ustashi as the Croatian fascists and the Partisans as communists, as this
fits well into the concept he attempts to impose: the concept of the
Chetniks as monarchists and antifascists.
This image is supplemented by Binder's claim that Djujic, during World War
II, rescued six U. S. pilots.
The Croatian Justice Ministry responded with a statement that the Republic
of Croatia expresses dissatisfaction and disappointment with the manner in
which The New York Times reported the death of Momcilo Djujic, the
notorious "Chetnik duke" and war criminal. (C.W.)
Marko Njavro
swift.
------------
Washington Post
For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
By Benjamin Wittes
Monday, September 20, 1999; Page A15
The obituary that appeared on Sept. 13 in the New York Times would have
done proud even the bravest of World War II resistance leaders. Father
Momcilo Djujic, the last surviving ""vojvoda" -- warlord or duke -- of the
Serbian nationalist militias known as Chetniks, was described as "a fierce
foe of the Nazis, Fascists and Communists," as a fighter in "epic World War
II battles" and as having committed numerous "acts of wartime bravery,"
including the rescue of downed American pilots. Mentioned only in passing
was the fact that the 92-year-old former priest, who had lived openly in
this country for 50 years, had been accused of war crimes in his native
land and that he "encountered charges" of collaboration with the Fascists.
Only at the end did the obituary even allude to the role that Djujic played
as a kind of godfather to Serbian ultranationalist politicians at the
outset of the recent Yugoslav conflict.
The myths that Serb nationalists have created about their past are legion,
but none has been more important to recent politics than the notion that
the Serbs conducted a valiant and unrelenting campaign against the Nazi
occupation. This myth, like most, has elements of truth, and it was
received with a certain sympathy in the West. But it is also a highly
simplified vision of World War II in Yugoslavia. The beneficiaries of the
distortion were men such as Djujic, whose excesses during the war Americans
still are tempted to overlook.
The Chetniks, in fact, may have begun as a legitimate resistance force but
degraded quickly into something far less honorable. In Djujic's region, the
fall of Yugoslavia to the Axis and the creation of the so-called
Independent State of Croatia saw the beginning of genocidal massacres of
the local Serbian population by the Croatian puppet government known as the
Ustashe. While Djujic's force seems to have arisen as a self-defense
movement, it was infected from the beginning with a Greater Serbian vision
similar to the one that Vojislav Seselj, Arkan and Slobodan Milosevic
pursued half a century later. The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and multiethnic
partisans, and this decision led to collaboration between the Chetniks --
Djujic included -- and the Italian and German occupation forces. The Allies
eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
That Djujic's forces attacked Croatian civilians is not much in doubt,
though the histories of the period have been sufficiently politicized that
it is hard to assess his individual culpability. Communist Yugoslavia
sought his extradition in 1988. The extradition request, however, was never
acted upon, as the Justice Department regarded the evidence submitted by
the Yugoslavs as badly inadequate. Still, at least some of the allegations
of atrocities by Djujic's troops are clearly more than communist
fabrications. And though Djujic was dismissive of charges that his forces
killed civilians, even some of his friends and admirers are quite candid
about his past. As one prominent Serbian American put it, "The way he
talks, he never claimed that he walked into a Croatian village and brought
them food. . . . I believe he was pretty brutal."
And Djujic never denied who he was or played down his role. In one
interview in 1990, in response to an accusation that his forces had been
responsible for 1,400 deaths, he said indignantly that "I'd be ashamed if I
had killed such a low number of those bloodsuckers. I think that I killed
in combat some five to six thousand communists and Ustashes."
Among devotees of Greater Serbia, Djujic became a living link between the
Serb struggle of the past and Serbia's fight today. In 1989 he promoted a
then-obscure Serbian ultranationalist dissident named Seselj to the rank of
vojvoda. His blessing conferred enormous legitimacy on Seselj, who
subsequently led a paramilitary group in Croatia, founded the Serbian
Radical Party and became a senior member of Milosevic's government. While
Djujic eventually renounced Seselj, this was not in response to human
rights abuses in Kosovo or atrocities in Bosnia. What caused Djujic's
public apology to the Serbian people for his previous sponsorship of Seselj
was the latter's willingness to be "turned into a loyal associate and
accomplice of President Slobodan Milosevic" -- whom Djujic regarded as
"Tito's successor" and a compromiser of Serbian national rights.
Djujic, in short, was no anti-fascist hero. He was, rather, an example of
all that was dangerous in ultranationalism. The fact that this country
knowingly welcomed him here says more about the selectivity of our outrage
at wartime atrocities than it does about the merits of Djujic's struggle.
It would have been healthy if the vojvoda's death had been an occasion for
the reexamination, not the reiteration, of historical mythology.
Robert Jerin
news:marko-25099...@203.88.251.42...
> David Binder is just an isolated lunatic and a reaction to his lies was
> swift.
Agreed, however the problem with "journalist/writers" such as Binder lies in
the ignorance of most people. With platforms such as the NY Times to spread
their message, which to some appear to be neo-fascist in nature, the larger
populace gains what they believe to be accurate information. If this were
not so, then we would not see the postings here that - Serb = fascist
fighter, Croat = fascist. Every Friday night I do volunteer work at our
local Croatian Heritage Museum (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) and hardly a month
goes by that I don't hear some reference to WWII and the part of the Serbs
or Croats in that war. Of course the info is generally incorrect. Now we
can individually attempt to supply more complete and correct information.
However I believe that the problem lies with the low level of support that
we, in general, give to historians/writers who support the truth. On the
other hand Serbs will pander to and support the likes of Binder, Beloff,
Mackenzie, etc.. I recall going to a "speech" given by this playboy
"General" in Akron, Ohio where the entire front couple of rows where taken
up by Serbs! SUCk or some such org had paid for these engagements and
further supported him by sending bus loads to fill the auditoriums. While
some movies have been done about the war in Bosnia and Croatia early on that
contained the truth about Serbs and their victims the current crop of movies
appear to be encouraged by Serbs and their sympathizers, which portray the
aggressor as the victims. This continues to be our problem.
Bj
Yuri Kuchinsky
: David Binder is just an isolated lunatic and a reaction to his lies was
: swift.
: ------------
: Washington Post
: For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
: By Benjamin Wittes
: Monday, September 20, 1999; Page A15
: The obituary that appeared on Sept. 13 in the New York Times would have
: done proud even the bravest of World War II resistance leaders. Father
: Momcilo Djujic, the last surviving ""vojvoda" -- warlord or duke -- of the
: Serbian nationalist militias known as Chetniks, was described as "a fierce
: foe of the Nazis, Fascists and Communists," as a fighter in "epic World War
: II battles" and as having committed numerous "acts of wartime bravery,"
: including the rescue of downed American pilots.
...
: While Djujic's force seems to have arisen as a self-defense
: movement, it was infected from the beginning with a Greater Serbian vision
: similar to the one that Vojislav Seselj, Arkan and Slobodan Milosevic
: pursued half a century later.
Greater Serbia bad. Greater Albania, Croatia good. This proves that NATzO
and its henchman the Washington Post are a racist force of the New Fourth
Reich.
: The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
: their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and multiethnic
: partisans, and this decision led to collaboration between the Chetniks --
: Djujic included -- and the Italian and German occupation forces. The Allies
: eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
And that's why their leader Mihailovich was honoured by Truman in 1948?
What a pack of lies...
Reality check. Before March 24 there were over 1300 international
observers all over Kosovo. While a small scale guerrilla war was unleashed
there by the Western powers, there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
this should be compared with ca 300,000 Albanian nationals who were in
Kosovo illegally at the same time). -- Those who gave orders to bomb and
to escalate violence knew that the extremists of all stripes will be
encouraged, and that all hell will break loose in Kosovo. And so it came
to pass. -- While I condemn human rights violations on all sides, clearly
NATO criminal leadership wanted to see more death and destruction on the
ground. -- So the forces of chaos, violence, and lawlessness, the
psychopathic Masters of War and Deceit, the US military industrial
complex, can celebrate their Dark Victory now. These are the real War
Criminals of Kosovo and of Yugoslavia.
http://www.antiwar.com http://www.iacenter.org
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/kosovo.htm http://www.prorev.com/
http://www.transnational.org/
About earlier Yugoslavian conflicts -- were American intentions in this
area always humanitarian?
http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/tragedy.htm
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/wk2balkans.html
Yuri.
For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill
Barry Marjanovich
<7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>...
> : For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
Background
Momcilo Djujic was born on Feb. 27, 1907 in the village of Kovacic in
Croatia, near the town of Knin. After graduating from high school in Knin
in 1924, he attended a school of higher education in Sibenik, and then
entered the Serbian Orthodox theological seminary in Sremski Karlovci in
1929. Ordained in 1933, he served as village priest in Strmica, a small
Serb community a few kilometers north of Knin, and began participating in
local Chetnik activities as early as 1935, when the first armed
associations or groups were founded in the surrounding area. [1]
[1] Popovic; "Nasa Rec, monthly political and literary review (Middlesex,
England), No. 402/XLII (Feb 1989), pp.9-11.
Politically, Djujic gravitated toward the extreme right of the
nationalistic Chetnik "Greater Serbia" movement which, in its present form,
is responsible for most of the horrors in former Yugoslavia today, and by
1941 he was an ardent supporter and follower of Dimitrije Ljotic, who led
the fascist, pro-Nazi, anti-semitic "Zbor" Party in Belgrade, which was
closely allied to the Chetnik movement. These fascist leanings greatly
facilitated Djujic's initial contacts with the Italian occupation forces in
April 1941 and his willingness to put his Chetniks at their disposal two
months later. [2]
[2] Ibid: pp. 12-17.
The first armed Chetnik groups in the Knin area gradually evolved into
companies, battalions and regiments, and at the end of February 1942 the
Dinarske Chetnik Division was formed by Djujic to exercise command and
control over this rapidly growing force. [3]
[3] Ibid: p.84.
The World War II Chetniks under the overall command of Draza Mihailovic
were Serbian nationalist fanatics devoted to the goals of a "Greater
Serbia", meaning the annexation of major portions of Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Croatia by force of arms. Hiding behind the facade of a pro-Allied
guerrilla army called the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, they
collaborated openly with the Italian and German occupation forces in former
Yugoslavia against Tito's Partisans, but their principal enemies were the
Muslim and Croatian populations in the territories marked for annexation as
part of "Greater Serbia." These populations were massacred and driven from
their homes in a ruthless campaign that began with the very first day of
the war on April 6, 1941. In north and central Dalmatia, in Croatia,
Djujic's Chetniks "...massacred Croat civilians, plundered their homes and
set fire to whole villages." [4]
[4] Ostovic, P.D. The Truth About Yugoslavia. New York: Roy Publishers,
1952. pp. 219-225.
Djujic did not shrink from putting his genocidal instructions on paper. A
copy of secret order No. 22, issued by the headquarters of his Dinarske
Chetnik Division on March, 1942, was found near Knin on the body of one of
his senior officers that read in part: "...The aim of this division is to
establish complete Serb domination in these parts. At the most opportune
moment liquidate the Croats, Catholics and Muslims. Cleanup must include
Lika, northern Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina so that a completely
Orthodox state with Serbia and Montenegro may be realized." [5]
[5] Benkovic, Theodore. The Tragedy of a Nation. [Booklet, n.d.], p.40.
By March 1943, Djujic's notoriety as a war criminal and genocidist had
reached such proportions within the Western camp that Ilija Jukic, a senior
Croatian representative with the pro-Allied Yugoslav government in exile in
London, which exercised nominal control over Mihailovic's Chetnik forces in
the homeland, was forced to go to the Premier and recommend that
"Mihailovic disown Jevdjevic and Djujic, the two Chetnik commanders most
under attack for collaboration with the Italians and massacres of Croats
and Muslims." [6]
[6] Jukic, Ilija. The Fall of Yugoslavia. New York: Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich, 1974. p.163.
With the preceding background on the time, the place and the individual,
the specific crimes charged to Momcilo Djujic can be better understood in
their historical context. The atrocities noted below include only those
that have been attributed directly to Djujic or his troops under his
command. Those, and there are many, that are generally classified as
"probably" or "possibly" the work of Djujic have been omitted, as well as
other crimes where only a few victims were involved.
CHARGES AGAINST MOMCILO DJUJIC:
********************************************
April 15-30, 1941
---------------------
Chetniks, most or all of whom were under Momcilo Djujic, killed around 100
Croatians in the vicinity of Knin, Grahovo and Sinj and burned some 100
houses. An estimated 16 people were murdered on the roads outside of Knin.
Djujic's Chetniks were already cutting off the ears, hands, feet and
women's breasts of their victims, even at this early stage in the course of
events. One of these atrocities occured at Ervenik, 25 kilometers northwest
of Knin. Chetniks rounded up 30 Croatians, tied them, and took them to a
meadow where they were slaughtered and then thrown into a deep fissure in
the rocks that are common in that area. [7]
[7] Omrcanin, Ivo. Istina o Drazi Mihailovicu. Munich-New York:
"Logos"-Verlag, 1957. pp.100 and 107.
August 1, 1941
------------------
Chetniks from Dalmatia belonging to the Momcilo Djujic group murdered 30
Croatians in Bosanska Krupa on the Una River in Western Bosnia. [8]
[8] Ibid: p.114.
August 1, 1941
------------------
In the vicinity of Knin, 30 captured Croatian Domobran (regular Croatian
Army) troops and Gendarmes were butchered by the Chetniks. [9]
[9] Gabelica, Ivan. Letter to the editor, "START" magazine, Zagreb, Oct. 5,
1990. pp.4-5.
October 7, 1941
--------------------
All 7 members of the Croatian Ivankovic family were murdered by Djujic
Chetniks during the night in Ervenik, 25 km northwest of Knin. [10]
[10] German Embassy Zagreb report, in: U.S. National Archives, Microcopy
T-120 (Records of the German Foreign Office Recieved by the Department of
State), roll 3980, frame E049829.
December 20, 1941
------------------------
Djujic Chetniks raided the Croatian village of Stikovo, 18 km southeast of
Knin, and slaughtered several of the people who were captured. A Croatian
Gendarmerie corporal had his ears cut off and was then slain. They gouged
out the eyes of another victim with their knives and cut off breasts of
40-year old Mari Vujovic, whose 9-month old baby was then given the severed
breasts to suckle. Another victim, a young girl, had her fingers cut off
before she was finally killed. [11]
[11] Omrcanin, p.107.
Mid-April, 1942
-------------------
Chetniks from the "Kocic" Detachment under the command of Uros Drenovic,
which was a component of Djujic's Dinarske Division, burned down a number
of Muslim villages around Mrkonjic Grad in Central Bosnia and slaughtered
many people. In the Village of Grad about 70 people perished, 18 of them
being jammed into one house and then burned alive. In another nearby
village, Dabrac, 50 people were burned alive and 60 more in Podgora. In a
single day some 4,000 structures were burned down in the Janj district, of
which 1,300 to 1,400 were dwellings. [12]
[12] Ibid: p.145.
Beginning of May 1942
----------------------------
Bruno Ivanovic and his assistant named Radic, two Partisans who had been
sent to the Knin area to help organize the communist political apparatus in
the region, were caught by Chetniks under the command of Momcilo Djujic and
savagely tortured before they were killed. [13]
[13] Jelic-Butic, (Dr.) Fikreta. Cetnici u Hrvatskoj 1941-1945. Zagreb:
Globus, 1985. p.125.
End of June 1942
----------------------
Following a successful campaign against Partisan forces around Knin that
concluded on June 26, Chetnik MVAC (Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia - the
Italian name for Chetnik auxiliaries) units under Momcilo Djujic occupied
all of the villages in the Knin Valley and began committing atrocities. The
village of Mokro Polje, 21 km northwest of Knin, was burned down,
furniture, livestock and other personal property looted, and all families
thought loyal to the Partisan cause were massacred. Those slaughtered were
predominately Serb Orthodox rather than Croatian. [14]
[14] Popovic, p.145.
CHARGES AGAINST MOMCILO DJUJIC:
*******************************************
October 1, 1942
--------------------
Around 6:30 in the morning, Djujic Chetniks from Omis under their own and
Italian officers advanced on the villages of Gata, Naklice, Zvecanje and
Cisla. On the road approaching Gata they encountered 6 young women who were
raped and then killed. In Gata the houses were burned down and the women,
children, old people and men butchered. According to information gathered a
few days later, 85 people were massacred in Gata and nearly all of the
houses burned down, in Zvecanje around 20 were killed and many houses set
on fire, in Cisla 18 people were murdered and many houses burned, and in
Naklice one person was killed and one house set on fire. [15]
[15] Popovic, p. 170.
October 10-20, 1942
-------------------------
During Operation "Dinara", a large-scale Italian offensive to clear the
Partisans from Central Dalmatia and Bosnia, Chetnik auxiliaries under
Momcilo Djujic carried out a punative expedition in the villages of Gata,
Tugari and Ostrvice, all of which lie along the road between Bosansko
Grahovo and Livno. With the wholehearted support of Italian officers and
Serbian Orthodox priests, 190 men, women and children were slaughtered. A
total of 19 Croatian villages were burned down with all of the people being
roasted alive in their homes during the course of the operation. The school
was put to the torch in one village and all of the students and teachers
perished in it. [16]
[16] Ibid: p.169
October 21, 1942
----------------------
A force of 960 Chetniks under the command of Momcilo Djujic entered the
village of Bitelica and proceeded to torture and slaughter all Croatians
found there. At least 29 people were hacked to pieces, had their throats
slit, eyes gouged out, torn limb-from-limb, thrown alive into fires, etc.
The names of the 29 victims along with the nature of death for each are
given in the source. [17]
[17] Ibid: p. 179.
January 14, 1943
---------------------
In the early evening hours the 2nd and 3rd Licka Brigades of the Partisan
6th Licka Division attacked the town of Gracac in Northern Dalmatia, which
was defended by elements of the Italian "Sassari" Infantry Division and a
large force of Chetniks, including 2,000 Chetniks from Herzegovina under a
Captain Tomasevic, and 800 Chetniks from the regiments "Kralj Aleksandar"
under Brane Bogunovic and "Kralj Petar II" under mane Rokovic, both of
which belonged to Djujic's Dinarske Division. The fighting was bitter, but
the attack failed due to the numerical superiority of the Chetnik forces.
Of the 80 Partisans taken prisoner, all except two were horribly tortured
to death by the Chetniks. A Croatian Partisan, Stipe Spehar, received a
special treatment from the Chetniks. Already badly wounded from the
fighting, the Chetniks dragged him through the center of Gracac while
cutting him to shreds with their knives, being careful not to end his
suffering with a fatal slice, and all the while applauding in mock
celebration the "brotherhood and unity" of the Serbian and Croatian people.
Only two of the prisoners were released alive, supposedly because "they
were misguided youths." [18]
[18] Ibid: pp.222-225.
January 25, 1943
---------------------
During operations east of Knin, Chetniks belonging to the Dinarske Division
captured and shot 8 Partisans, all of whom probably belonged to the 3rd
Dalmatian Brigade. [19]
[19] Ibid: pp.229-230.
January 26, 1943
---------------------
On this Thursday 1,200 Chetniks from Momcilo Djujic's Dinarske Division
carried out an early morning attack on the Croatian villages of Maovice,
Batalici, Skorupi, Kijevo, Kozore, Vinalic, Garjak, Jezevic and Vrlika, all
of which lie to the southeast of Knin. The objective was to slaughter as
many Croatians Catholics as possible before the Italians found out and put
a stop to it. As soon as they arrived in Maovice, the massacre began: one
man had his eyes gouged out and his hands chopped off; childern were thrown
alive into burning houses; in one spot alone 13 people were butchered with
knives. At least 60 people were killed in Maovice in such ways, although
the number may have been as high as 80. The Chetniks then marched to Vrlika
where another 55 were massacred. They raised the Serbian flag on the local
Catholic church and began slaughtering those villagers they could lay their
hands on - again, many people were thrown alive into fires. Among the
victims were Jovo Postar, who was burned alive, Mica Erdelez and Serja
Konjevod. Then the Chetniks moved on to Kozore and Kijevo where the scenes
were repeated. Investigators later reported that perhaps another 150 people
perished in Kijevo. [20]
[20] Ibid: p.232; German Plenipotentiary General in Zagreb report No.
277/43 (secret), Feb. 8, 1943, in: National Archives Microcopy T-501
(Records of German Field Comands: Rear Areas, Occupied Territories, and
Others), roll 265, frames 771-772.
February 25, 1943
-----------------------
Chetniks belonging to Momcilo Djujic's Dinarske Division captured and shot
27 men and 17 women in the villages of Ocestovo on the premise that they
were Parisans or suspected Partisans. [21]
[21] Popovic, p.249.
March 20, 1943
-------------------
Chetniks under the orders of Momcilo Djujic rounded up 18 Partisans from
Gracac and the surrounding area. Among the prisoners were several very
senior members of the Communist Party District Committee in Gracac.
Following their capture, they were taken to the village of Krupa where they
were savagely tortured while under interrogation. They were then
"sentenced" to death and taken to Vucjak in the Velebit Mountains where
they were all shot. [22]
[22] Ibid: p.248, Cubrilo, Djordje. "Napad cetnika na KK KPH za Gracac u
Cerovcu i pozadinske ustanove u Bruvnu", in: Kotar Gracac u NOR-u
1941-1945. Karlovac, 1984. pp.841-845.
CHARGES AGAINST MOMCILO DJUJIC:
*******************************************
Early April 1943
--------------------
On the orders of Momcilo Djujic, over 1,000 innocent people, including
women and children, were taken to a recently opened Chetnik concentration
camp at Kosovo, 10 km south of Knin, to be incarcerated, tormented and
eventually killed. A hundred or so were taken to a nearby gully shortly
after their arrival and shot, but many of them were tortured first. Some of
these and many of those who followed were placed in a heavy wooden barrel
that had been reinforced with additional steel hoops. Long nails with
sharpened points had been driven through the sides of the barrel. The
victims were then rolled down a steep slope several hundred meters long for
the pleasure of their tormentors, screaming and shrieking in agony all the
way down. Nearly all of those afforded this "amusement park ride" bled to
death by the time they reached the bottom of the slope. In all, more than
1,000 people are known to have perished in this camp. [23]
[23] Popovic, pp.248-249.
Beginning of April 1943
-----------------------------
Beginning of April 1943
-----------------------------
On the orders of Momcilo Djujic, two groups of wounded Partisans from the
1st Licke Brigade were executed in the Velebit Mounains in north-central
Dalmatia around April 3. Before being shot, all were horribly tortured,
especially several Croatians who had served with the Partisan Battalion
"Matija Gubec." [24]
[24] Ibid: p.248.
May 1-2, 1943
------------------
Advancing to the southeast from Knin with 8,000 Chetniks, Momcilo Djujic's
Dinarske Division swept along the Livanjsko Plateau toward Livno, scouring
the villages for Partisans and their supporters. About a dozen men sick
with typhus were found in several villages, and these were all tortured and
then shot on Djujic's orders near the village of Bastasi. [25]
[25] Ibid: p.254.
September 12-13, 1943
-----------------------------
Turning on his benefactor, Djujic and his Chetniks helped the Germans round
up Italians in Dalmatia who had surrendered on Sep. 8, the date of Italy's
capitulation and witthdrawal from the war. Near Vrpolje, 50 km northeast of
Split, 13 Italians were caught trying to flee the net and all were murdered
on Djujic's orders. [26]
[26] Ibid: p.272.
December 7, 1943
-----------------------
Following the capture of Livno on the previous day, Chetniks under Momcilo
Djujic massacred 170 men who had been taken prisoner during the fighting or
rounded up in and around Livno. Most of these slaughtered were Partisans
from the 1st Air Base Command that had been set up shortly before in Livno,
and from the 19th Dalmatian Division which had tried to defend the town and
airfield. The Chetniks' own after-action report on this incident, filed on
Dec. 17, stated that they had killed 93 Partisans in battle and taken 182
prisoners, of which 179 were slaughtered after three Serbs were let go.
[27]
[27] Ibid: pp.309-310; Omrcanin, p.173.
December 14, 1943
------------------------
In a fierce engagement in the village of Strmica to the north of Knin,
Chetniks under Momcilo Djujic slaughtered 14 Croatian Partisans who had
been taken alive in the fighting. On the same day or the next, other
Partisans from this group were encountered and engaged near Ticevo, 51 km
northeast of Knin, while they were attempting to withdraw into the
mountains. Djujic's Chetniks captured and slaughtered 28 of them. [28]
[28] Popovic, pp.312-313.
July 21, 1944
------------------
>From a broadcast over Partisan radio, which was Allied-controlled and
located in Southern Italy:
"Our authorities have established that an American pilot baled out over
Kosovo Polje near Knin in Croatia. This territory is controlled by Chetnik
leader Djujic who collaborates with the Germans. By order of the Chetnik
commander of the Brigade "Simo Radic" American aviators are to be killed.
The murder of the American pilot was carried out by the known cut-throat
Milan Matijevic, who finished him off by crushing in his skull with a
stone. Milan Matijevic and Simo Radic have been placed on our official list
of war criminals." [29]
[29] Ibid: p.342.
End of July 1944
---------------------
British intelligence reported that Chetniks belonging to the Kistanje
Brigade, located 28 km southwest of Knin under Chetnik Lt. Simo Radic,
murdered two English parachutists. Although not specified in the report,
these were presumably aircrew from a disabled plane. [30]
[30] Ibid: p.342.
CONCLUSION
------------------
For those who have read through this sickening list of atrocities and
related crimes there can be only one conclusion: something is wrong in
Washington. Since 1979 the Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations has spent more than $60-million taxpayer dollars pursuing,
denaturalizing, extraditing and deporting teenage concentration camp guards
and minor Nazi propagandists, few of whom were ever proven to have been
directly responsible for specific war crimes. Yet, Mr. Momcilo Djujic,
charged with direct and even personal participation in some of the most
disgusting atrocities of the Second World War, has been intentionally given
a free pass by our Justice Department. Why? What are the justifications
behind this inaction? At a time when the United Nations, at the instigation
of the U.S. government, prepares for international war crime trials for
those charged in the current war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the last
major war criminals of World War II comfortably resides in California a
free man.
Yuri Kuchinsky
: Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in article
: <7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>...
: > : For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
: Background
:
: Momcilo Djujic was born on Feb. 27, 1907 in the village of Kovacic in
: Croatia, near the town of Knin. After graduating from high school in Knin
: in 1924, he attended a school of higher education in Sibenik, and then
: entered the Serbian Orthodox theological seminary in Sremski Karlovci in
: 1929. Ordained in 1933, he served as village priest in Strmica, a small
: Serb community a few kilometers north of Knin, and began participating in
: local Chetnik activities as early as 1935, when the first armed
: associations or groups were founded in the surrounding area. [1]
Chetniks, led by Mihailovich, were allies of the West in the struggle
against Hitler.
Legion of Merit Award presented to Serbian General Mihailovich
"General Dragoljub Mihailovich distinguished himself in an
outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslav Army Forces
and later as Minister of War by organizing and leading important
resistance forces against the enemy which occupied Yugoslavia, from
December 1941 to December 1944. Through the undaunted efforts of his
troops, many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely
to friendly control. General Mihailovich and his forces, although
lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships,
contributed materially to the Allied cause, and were instrumental in
obtaining a final Allied victory."
President Harry S. Truman, March 29, 1948
Your attempts at historical revisionism are pathetic.
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku -=O=- Toronto
"Suspicion is growing in some quarters that the breakup of Yugoslavia was
engineered from the beginning by the U.S. and its European Allies for the
express purpose of destroying Russian influence in the region and
providing safe passage for Caspian Sea oil from the Caucasus to Central
Europe. The unsavory implication of this is that the NATO countries
stirred up ethnic violence in the region in order to have an excuse to
intervene. The methods used at the outset, according to this theory, were
largely economic. .. Whatever the truth of these accusations, there is
already ample evidence that our moral values have collapsed. There is
something terribly wrong with the way our public business is conducted and
the moral rot seems to have spread throughout the Western world." --
Edward Zehr in Washington Weekly (July 12, 1999)
Barry Marjanovich
> Your attempts at historical revisionism are pathetic.
>
> Yuri.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Serbian Unity Congress and the Serbian Lobby
A Study of Contemporary Revisionism and Denial
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents
Introduction..........2
Organization..........2
Lobbying Practices..........4
The Direct Lobbying Campaign..........4
The Indirect Lobbying Campaign..........5
Revisionism and the Serbian Propaganda Campaign..........6
Public Relations Efforts and Links with other Communities..........13
I The Hellenic Community..........13
II Jewish Groups..........14
III The Armenian Community..........15
The Role of the U.S. Information Agency..........15
The Serbian Community and Lobby Abroad..........15
Conclusion..........16
Post Script: Warning..........17
APPENDIX A: Lee Hamilton: A Willing Target for Serbian and
Greek Sponsorship..........18
APPENDIX B: The Serbian Unity Congress Political Action
Committee
An Amateur and Inattentive Lobby.........20
APPENDIX C: Attached propaganda from the Serbian Unity
Congress and SAVA..........23
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributors
Students Against GEnocide (SAGE) -- Project Bosnia is a national student
organization based at Stanford University and is an affiliate of the
American Committee to Save Bosnia. Over the past eighteen months SAGE has
been monitoring the activities of Serbian activists in the San Francisco
Bay Area as part of an on-going campaign to discredit Serb-nationalist
apologists and revisionists. The information presented in this briefing was
collected from a vast number of sources. This includes personal
correspondence, private meetings and forums organized by the Serbian Unity
Congress and its affiliated groups. This briefing was written by Brad K.
Blitz, a Ph.D. candidate in international development education at Stanford
University.
© 1994 Brad K. Blitz October 18, 1994
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Serbian Unity Congress and the Serbian Lobby
A Study of Contemporary Revisionism and Denial
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
The Serbian Unity Congress (SUC) is the largest Serb- nationalist
organization in the United States. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, it
is devoted to political lobbying on behalf of the regimes in Belgrade and
Pale. The SUC is both a membership organization made up of individuals and
an umbrella organization linking a number of Serb-nationalist groups. It
represents the interests of Serbian political leaders by: i) lobbying as a
political action committee; ii) sponsoring a disinformation campaign which
targets the media, university campuses and research centers; iii) engaging
public relations firms to lobby on behalf of the Serbian leadership in Pale
and ensure representation during congressional committee hearings; iv)
purchasing the services and support of journalists and speakers.
Organization
The SUC is registered in the State of California as a 501c3 and is also
connected to a political action committee registered under the name of the
Serbian Unity Congress Political Action Committee. According to its own
introductory letter, the SUC has a number of bank accounts for different
activities which are now organized from three main offices in the United
States. The offices regularly communicate by electronic mail, phone and
fax. 1 Two of these are in the San Francisco Bay Area and one, the Serbian
Information Center, is in Washington, D.C. Few of the offices are run more
by more than one or two staff members.
The Central Office of the SUC, in Napa Valley, is run by Jelena Kolarovich
and is perhaps the largest of all the SUC offices. Kolarovich is the wife
of George Kolarovich who is President of Fairmont Vineyards. It is believed
that the central office is based on their estate and that this is where
most of the information concerning accounts, membership lists, newsletters
etc. is stored. The central office is nonetheless under the supervision of
the Executive Director, Mirjana Samardjzia, who works out of her home in
Pacific Heights, San Francisco. 2 The Washington office, under the
direction of Danielle Sremac, has recently received more public attention
than the other offices as a result of a series of interviews on CNN and
NPR's Talk of the Nation in June and July. However, in spite of the
increased visibility of its director, this office is largely a one person
outfit and Sremac is the only visible face of the SUC in Washington.
When addressing an American public, the key speakers of the SUC often
present themselves as representatives of different groups. Although they
attempt to project an image of unity there are ideological differences
between the various groups. For the past five months at least, there has
been considerable in-fighting between the leaders of these groups as some
have been more publicly critical of the Milosevic regime than others. 3 The
Serbian groups that are attached to the SUC are, however, united in their
perception of Serbs as victims and in their denial that genocide has been
committed against the people of Bosnia.
The SUC works very closely with two information centers, Serbnet (which
includes the Serbian American Media Center) based in Chicago and SAVA (the
Serbian American Voters Alliance) based in Los Angeles. Both of these
organizations produce materials which are distributed by the SUC as part of
their speaker tour programs and press kits. SAVA, like the SUC, was also
set up as a political action committee. It was initially registered as the
American Serbian Institute Political Action Committee but had made no
contributions in 1992 and 1993. 4 The connection between Serbnet, SAVA and
the Serbian Unity Congress requires further explanation.
Serbnet and SAVA are managed independently of the SUC. Serbnet is
structured primarily as an umbrella organization linking groups around
North America. However, there is a considerable overlap between directors
and members of these groups with some members serving on the boards of more
than one organization. There is also an obvious overlap in terms of
purpose. Both Serbnet and the SUC organize speaker tours, campus-based
programs and editorial meetings with local and national newspapers. Serbnet
was responsible for placing advertisements in the Washington Post and New
York Times on July 10 and August 17, 1993. SAVA also circulates press
reports from Tanjug, the official Yugoslav-Serbian news agency and has
produced a number of cartoons as part of its propaganda campaign (see
attached).
Lobbying Practices
In 1993-94 there was a concerted lobbying effort to further the SUC's
political interests which was largely financed by Greek-American money. The
fact that Serbian monetary contributions do not stand out from the Federal
Election Commission reports only disguises the actual nature of the Serbian
lobbying program. The campaign to promote Serbian interests has been
conducted through public relations firms and friendly ethnic groups that
have well-defined political interests in the region. This is most evident
within the Hellenic community. For the sake of clarity, it is therefore
necessary to distinguish between the direct lobbying campaign conducted by
the SUC and Serbian-affiliated groups and the indirect efforts of Greek and
Cypriot- Americans which have also advanced the cause of the SUC.
The Direct Lobbying Campaign
The Serbian Unity Congress Political Action Committee (SUC PAC) has made
financial contributions to a number of public officials, although the
amount offered to each candidate has been relatively small. Most of their
contributions have been made to House members and candidates running for
office. Only a handful of senators have received contributions from this
Serbian PAC. The most significant recipients of donations from the SUC PAC
are Rep. Helen Delich Bentley (R-Md) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-In). Bentley,
former President of Serbnet (and now Honorary President) has been the most
vocal pro-Serbian voice in the House.
The 1993-94 returns from the Federal Elections Commission for the Serbian
Unity Congress PAC reveal a random targeting of individuals. Apart from
Representatives Delich Bentley and Burton, there is little indication that
this Serbian PAC has developed a coherent strategy for targeting Members of
Congress by offering monetary contributions. Congressional candidates, Kay
Bailey Hutchinson and Sam Gejdenson rejected the donations sent by the SUC
almost immediately.5 Others such as Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Ca) were unaware
that they had even been the beneficiaries of SUC contributions and denied
having had any contact with Serbian groups.6 The FEC returns also shed
light on the disorganized accounting and reporting procedures of the SUC.
On several occasions, the Federal Election Commission staff have written to
the SUC asking for reports to be submitted, reminding the organization of
past deadlines etc. The FEC has also pointed out that the accounts reported
by the SUC do not correspond with the declared donations and receipts. This
raises further questions about the SUC's internal administration and use of
funds.7 (see attached report)
The Indirect Lobbying Campaign
In the past eighteen months, an indirect lobbying campaign has been
conducted by SUC-financed public relations firms in order to unite Serbian
and Greek interests. This lobbying effort has been orchestrated by the
Washington-based firm Mantos and Mantos, Inc. and has been aimed primarily
at mobilizing individuals -- as opposed to PACs.8 In addition to direct
contributions made on behalf of the Serbian Unity Congress PAC, prominent
figures and sponsors of the SUC have made significant personal
contributions to congressional campaigns. Contributors include: Michael
Djordjevich, former President of the SUC; George Bogdanich, Director of
Serbnet; both the Director and Chairman of the Serbian American Media
Center, Messrs. Peter Samardzija and Nicholas Trkla, respectively. Mr.
Milan Panic, the former political challenger to Milosevic, has also made
noticeable contributions. On two specific occasions, a series of personal
donations from Serbian leaders was made simultaneously with members of the
Greek-American Community. Targeting congressional members with multiple
contributions seems to be part of a determined public relations effort
organized by Andrew Manatos of Manatos and Mantos, Inc.
Manatos and Manatos, Inc. was hired by the SUC on September 15, 1992 to
foster better relations between the Greek and Serbian communities and,
above all, to secure political support from the established Hellenic
community in the United States. Manatos and Manatos, Inc. was well- placed
to organize this public relations exercise since this firm represents a
number of Hellenic institutions as well as the City of San Francisco, where
the leadership of the SUC is based. Mantos' clients include: the Embassy of
Greece, the United Hellenic American Congress and the Pan-Cyprian
Association of America. According to Morton M. Kondracke, Andrew Manatos
had developed an extremely successful fundraising and lobbying effort with
a small group of wealthy Greek-American businessmen by the late 1980s. In a
1988 article for The New Republic, Kondracke noted how the network set up
between Manatos and Senator Paul Sarbanes had been exploited for the
purposes of raising vast sums of money from small numbers of sponsors to
support Dukakis' presidential ambitions.9 This network also succeed in
introducing potential non Greek-American contributors to the Greek lobby. A
careful study of the FEC records suggests that this lobby is once again
active and is working along side Serbnet and the SUC.
Together with leading figures of Serbnet and the SUC, prominent individuals
in the Hellenic Community have made repeated donations to influential
political officials at critical periods in the Balkan conflict. For
example, a flurry of contributions were made at the time of the Serbian
assault on Gorazde (April 1994) when NATO re-issued a threat of airstrikes
and when the divergent agendas of NATO and the United Nations were made
public.10 The most popular recipient of these multiple contributions is the
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Lee
Hamilton (D- In). On September 29, 1993 and April 25, 1994 Hamilton
received over $30,000 in multiple contributions from leaders of the Serbian
and Greek-American communities. Contributors included: Andrew Athens, head
of the United Hellenic American Congregation; Philip Christopher, President
of the Pan- Cyprian Association of America; Michael Djordjevich, former
President of the SUC; Ronald Radakovich, Vice-President of the SUC. (see
attached report)
The aim of this indirect campaign is two-fold: first, to lend support to
potentially sympathetic congressional representatives by bolstering their
campaign funds; second, to create an image of a powerful lobby. The Serbian
contributions, on their own, do not amount to large sums of money. However,
combined with Greek-American sponsorship, the Serbian lobby appears
certainly more influential. The Greek lobby is well-established, highly
professional and, as the Kondracke article points out, potentially
extremely wealthy. (Greek-Americans are the second wealthiest ethnic group
in terms of wealth per capita after the Jewish community.) The organized
nature of this lobbying effort is evident since contributions are sent
simultaneously and are often for the exact amount. Each time, the donations
made to Hamilton's campaign are sent on one specific day. This pattern is
repeated at other times in the year. The impression given is that of a
community of individuals who can unite quickly to raise large sums of money
when necessary and may therefore carry some influence.
Revisionism and the Serbian Propaganda Campaign
Most important of all the Serbian lobbying practices is the way in which
the SUC and Serbnet have gained access to the media and the American
public. Their disinformation campaign is the center of their activities.
Both organizations have distributed a 26 minute video to Members of
Congress, national and regional newspapers, television and radio stations.
This video, Truth is the Victim in Bosnia, is narrated by a woman with a
BBC accent and attempts to copy a serious documentary format. It contains
three interviews with former U.N. General Lewis MacKenzie. His statements
are then followed by extracts from Strategic Policy, an academically
obscure journal, which is used as a source of authority for the Serb's
claims of military and political insecurity. Arguing that the Western media
favors the Croats, this video contains a number of common myths circulated
by Serbian apologists. The most notable of these is the claim that
breadline massacre was staged by the Bosnians to gain sympathy from the
West. The main references in this video come from MacKenzie but his
comments are supported by partial citations from politicians such as Sir
David Hannay and respectable authorities on human rights such as Ms. Jeri
Laber.
The Serbian lobby has used the cautionary statements of human rights
authorities such as Jeri Laber and Aryeh Neier and journalists such as A.M.
Rosenthal to create an atmosphere of doubt (especially over the use of
rape) and moral relativism.11 Two frequent lines of attack used by the Serb
lobby have formed the basis of a successful propaganda campaign which has
aimed to confuse and deter unilateral criticism of Serbia. 12 First, there
is the argument equating the diplomatic recognition of Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina by Germany with the use of violence on the ground. Such
violence, they argue was initially defensive and justifiable under the
provisions of the CSCE Helsinki Accords. Second, there is the emotive
argument based on their 'justifiable' fear of German expansionism and
Croatian aggression as a result of historical events. 13 SerbNet Media
Watch (April 1993) reporting on the achievements of Serbnet, took credit
for Abe Rosenthal's use of Serbnet material in his column in the New York
Times. The information sent to Rosenthal was on the 'German role in the War
in Yugoslavia.' Since his early writings on the War in Bosnia, Rosenthal's
columns have become increasingly confused and he has more than once adopted
the line that the conflict is hopeless.
A frequent tactic of the Serbian lobby is to begin public debates by
arguing that critically-minded people should recognize the existence of
political interests behind the production of information and thus should be
aware that 'truth' and 'objectivity' lie 'somewhere in the middle.' 14 By
reducing real events to personal interpretations the Serbian lobby has
managed to camouflage the actual aggression and the commission of genocide
behind supposed 'opinions' which can be neither 'verified' nor 'denied.'
Their aim is clearly to present the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia as a
civil war rooted in ancient hatreds in order to discourage public opinion
from supporting direct U.S. military intervention.15 To these ends the SUC,
Serbnet, SAVA etc. have developed a well organized system of producing
propaganda and seemingly credible references.
The Serbian propaganda campaign employs methods similar to Holocaust denial
and revisionism Their first line of action is to create an atmosphere of
relativism, as discussed above. The seccession of Slovenia and Croatia from
the former Yugoslavia and their recognition by Germany is equated with the
bombardment of civilian centers such as Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Vukovar.
The second line of action is then to deny the totality of the destruction
in order to downplay the purpose and systematic nature of the aggression.
Dubrovnik was barely attacked, they argue. Vukovar was destroyed by
Croatian forces... There is no evidence of a systematic rape policy --
where is the commander who gave the order, they argue? Personal testimonies
and eye witness accounts are discarded as 'inadequate evidence.'16 The
third line of action is then to create their own 'facts' and 'references'
and it is here where they have been most successful.17
As in the Serbnet produced video, the sources which the SUC representatives
cite when speaking publicly are most often their own. The SUC has used
public relations firms (Manatos and Manatos, McDermott O'Neill and
Associates, David Keene and Associates), in order to grant their leaders
and paid representatives access to television and radio interviews,
congressional sub-committee hearings and U.N. sponsored commissions. These
congressional hearings, interviews and official reports are then used as
references, which lend legitimacy to their position.18 For example, the
Serbnet speeches made by former UN General Lewis MacKenzie on his
speaker-tour are frequently advertised, as are the articles of Sir Alfred
Sherman which appeared in the British press. Sherman, reportedly to have
admitted to being a paid public relations advisor to Radovan Karadzic last
summer, 19 is frequently cited as a distinguished journalist and Jewish
knight 20 who supports the Serbian position. David Erne, a Milwaukee
attorney who is responsible for information within the SUC, was able to use
his position as reporter of the UN Commission of Experts to produce a
report on The Historical Background of the Civil War in the Former
Yugoslavia. This document which was published on U.N. letterhead presents
Karadzic as an elected leader, former dissident and poet supported by a
Shakespeare scholar for vice president.
The creation of a community of revisionists and deniers who circulate these
Serb-manufactured tales has been quite successful. The Serbian lobby has in
the process managed to co-opt Marxist/Socialist organizations, as well as
respectable members of the academic community in support of their
position.21 This is illustrated in periodicals, newsletters and reports
produced by adherents to the 'old left.' For example, the briefing produced
by the London-based Campaign Against Militarism (CAM) entitled 20 Things
you Know About the Serbs That Aren't True maintains that Serbia is simply
the victim of Western imperialism -- the West's latest 'whipping boy.'
Arguing against the use of air-strikes on Serbian artillery positions, the
CAM briefing cites MacKenzie's speeches from his Serbnet tour and repeats a
number of Serb-nationalist claims such as the 'choreographed staging' of
the breadline massacre and the role of the 'partisan press.' The CAM
briefing even argues that the encirclement of Sarajevo by Serb forces is
defensive, concluding that Sarajevo is not really besieged.
"It is not strictly true to say that Sarajevo is 'besieged' by the Serbs.
As several UN commanders have suggested, the Serbian encirclement of
Sarajevo is essentially defensive, concerned with holding on to territory
rather than grabbing more. It is a funny sort of siege where the besiegers
allow relief supplies into the city by air and road. The Serbs handed over
control of Sarajevo airport to the UN in June 1992, and have allowed the
free passage of relief flights into the city ever since."22
The author of the above statement is a certain British journalist, Joan
Phillips, who works for the Campaign Against Militarism in London.23
Elsewhere, Phillips has questioned the parallels drawn between of the
genocide in Bosnia and the Nazi Holocaust. In her writings, Phillips has
repeatedly sought to describe the conflict as something other than a war in
which genocide is the defining characteristic. The fact is, she allocates
blame almost solely to the Western powers and ignores the ideological
antecedents for the war while absolving the armed militants on the
ground.24 Similar apologies for Serbian expansionism are found in her
articles published in Living Marxism, the monthly journal of the
Revolutionary Communist Party (UK). 25
Outside the margins of Living Marxism, Phillips' thesis over the
intersection between this new round of 'Great power politics' and the
production of information has received greater attention both from
apologists and serious journalists. In January 1994, Peter Brock of El
Paso, Texas published an article in Foreign Policy accusing the press of
being partisan and anti-Serb.26 According to Phillips, Brock contacted her
before he wrote the article for Foreign Policy.27 The article repeated a
number of Serbian myths and raised questions about his own objectivity.
Charles Lane of The New Republic has already exposed both Brock's
connections with Serbia and the factual distortions in his writing. Brock,
who communicates regularly with the Executive Director of the Serbian Unity
Congress and chief propagandist in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mirjana
Samardzija, has however succeeded in one aim.28 He has succeeded in
furthering the claims of 'old-left' ideologues and academic
deconstructionists who are using epistemological debate as a means to
'discredit' personal testimonies in order to advance their own politically
motivated agendas. 29
At the root of this epistemological debate are three obvious political
agendas. Together, these unite the ideologies of the extreme-Left and
extreme-Right struggle agains alleged imperialism. These are: i) a campaign
of appeasement and struggle against imperialism by traditional adversaries
of U.S. foreign policy30 ; ii) an increasingly Russo-centric foreign policy
which is being advanced outside as well as inside the State Department by
sovietologists and political commentators ;31 iii) an explicitly racist
claim to power by Serbian ultra- nationalists and apologists. 32
The actual influence of Foreign Policy's decision to include Brock's lies
in this serious journal will be determined by subsequent studies and
publications. Universities, the most obvious centers of knowledge
production, are currently under attack from revisionists and moral
relativists on a number of fronts. Yet, the lack of resistance from the
academic community to apologists and relativists who promote the 'Serbian
side' is startling. This is all the more the serious given the growing
entry and expansion of Holocaust revisionism and denial on American college
campuses. Eventhough such Serbian revisionism is crudely apparent and seems
to be in an embryonic stage of development, Phillips' and Brock's
accusations are starting to emerge elsewhere in the form of articles and
books. The photocopied pamphlets produced by Serbnet and Samardzija's 'News
Analysis Network ' will soon no longer be necessary to advance their cause
once their arguments are institutionalized in serious publications. The
current intellectual climate of silence can only but serve the interests of
Serbian ultra-nationalists and their apologists. It is they who have filled
the void created by the absence of serious scholarship dedicated to the
defense of certain standards of evidence, including personal testimony. In
the past six months, a few intellectuals have actively furthered the
charges made by Brock in an attempt to legitimize Serbian propaganda and
grant it a place in the canon of Balkan history. They seem to be gaining
ground. Their ideological arguments are now contrasted against first-hand
reports and personal testimonies collected by serious journalists like
Pulitzer-Prize winners Roy Gutman and John F. Burns. 33
Professor Thomas Fleiner who is the Director of the Institute for
Federalism in Freiburg and Chairman on the CSCE Human Rights Commission is
one of the latest academics to have lent legitimacy to Serb-nationalist
propaganda. On April 14, 1994, Fleiner published an article entitled People
must not be Pilloried in Zurich's Die Weltwoche -- the same publication
which had printed Brock's piece for European audiences. Fleiner's argument
rested on the power of the oligopolistic media to influence public opinion
and determine foreign policy positions. His piece, which contains the same
Serbian myths, not only questions the responsibility of the journalistic
community but unfairly condemns the international media for provoking the
conflict.
"The more power the media obtain and are able to influence, through public
opinion, political decision- making also important foreign policy matters,
the greater is their responsibility. As far as the war in Croatia and
Bosnia is concerned, it is suspected that local international media helped
the division of peoples and incitement of hatred." (my underlining) 34
While Fleiner's political associations and affiliations are not known, one
thing is clear: his article has circulated on the electronic notice boards
of Serb-nationalist groups and has been used by apologists who support
Brock and Phillips' bias. Thomas Deichmann, a colleague of Joan Phillips
who wrote the NOVO book review which contrasts Roy Gutman's first-hand
accounts against Klaus Bittermann's polemic Serbien muß Sterbien --
Wahrheit und Lüge im jugoslawischen Bürgerkrieg (Serbs must Die -- truth
and lies in the Yugoslav Civil War), has based his review on all the same
infected sources of bias.
The incestuous nature of this publication drive is at the heart of the
revisionist program. It seeks to advance marginalized ideologies -- not
least critiques of Western imperialism. Phillips, herself, has a clear
political agenda. Her organization, the Campaign Against Militarism is a
front for the British Revolutionary Communist Party. She is fundamentally
opposed to militarism. The influence of Western imperialist nations and the
use of war is obviously central to her publication program. The nature of
such politicized 'journalism' raises two important issues here. First,
there is the issue of dogmatic reductionism masquerading as a 'critical
bias.' Are Phillips' writings truly critical of Western imperialism or is
she blind to the actual aggression being conducted in and around Sarajevo?
It is essential that serious academics and scholars recognize the often
all-too-impulsive response of those who seek to present a 'critical voice.'
Apologists who use such arguments should be exposed, even those like
Phillips who may sincerely claim that their political interests are defined
by their concerns for a 'better world.' Second, there is the issue of
scholarship. The above-mentioned authors are not producing serious
investigative or academic-quality research. They are simply
cross-referencing across borders and in different languages. They are not
advancing knowledge but are rather recycling the founding ideas of certain
ideological arguments that mesh with their own political agendas. Phillips'
outrageous comments (many of which came straight out of the
government-controlled Belgrade media) are re-packaged by Brock in Foreign
Policy. This article (and all its factual errors) is then cited by Fleiner
and Diechmann who also makes reference to Phillips' 20 Things You Know
About the Serbs That Aren't True. Diechmann is Phillips' colleague who then
promotes the work of another author, Klaus Bittermann. In his book,
Bittermann himself cites Brock and Phillips and again repeats the same
accusations.
Public Relations Efforts and Links with other Communities
I The Hellenic Community
The Serbian Unity Congress operates very closely with the Hellenic
Community. According to the 1993 handbook Washington Representatives, The
SUC has engaged Manatos and Manatos, Inc. for a project attached to the
Serbian Orthodox Church. It is through the Orthodox Church that the
Hellenic community is being approached to support the Serbian lobby. 35Ron
Radakovich of Walnut Creek, California is responsible for Church relations.
The SUC is also supported by the International Orthodox Christian Charities
based in Pittsburgh for humanitarian assistance. In addition, Manatos and
Manatos has also been particularly successful in getting its clients to
testify before congressional hearings. Michael Djordjevich, former
President of the SUC and Philip Christopher, President of the Pan-Cyprian
Association and PSEKA, International Coordinating Committee, Justice for
Cyprus have both been invited to speak before the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
II Jewish Groups
Croatian Ustashe
The organized Jewish community has been particularly critical of the
Serbian regime and the violence inflicted on the Bosnian people. However,
there is a clear counter- offensive being launched by the SUC and Serbnet
to co-opt Jewish public opinion. This involves a propaganda campaign which
recalls the role of the Ustashe and certain Muslim contingents who
supported by the Mufti of Jerusalem during the Second World War. Their main
attack is in the form of articles written by Alfred Lipson, a leader of the
community of Holocaust survivors36 and Sir Alfred Sherman37 . Through the
Serbian Jewish Friendship Society and direct meetings with Jewish
organizations, the SUC has conducted an energetic campaign to win over
Jewish and Israeli support. 38This has included efforts to overturn the
position adopted by the National Organization of Jewish Community Relation
Councils (NJCRAC), which endorsed a call for air strikes and the lifting of
the arms embargo against the Bosnian Government. According to Bosnian and
Jewish sources, the Serbian lobby is also engaged in a broader campaign
which has targeted the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. 39
III The Armenian Community
It is difficult to determine the extent of the connection between the
Armenian Community and Serb- nationalist organizations. There are certain
notable lines of association: the Government of Armenia is also represented
by David Keene, who was until recently also on the payroll of the Serbnet.
Like the SUC, the Armenian National Committee and the National Association
of Armenian Americans have made multiple contributions to Rep. Lee Hamilton
in 1994 (see attached report). The extent to which the Armenian Community
has been approached by its the SUC, under the banner of its Orthodox Church
unity project is, however, not known.
The Role of the U.S. Information Agency
Throughout 1994 the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) has been organizing a
series of visits for several journalists and politicians. Although this is
common practice for this governmental agency, the SUC has organized a
number of meetings around these visits and is generally included on the
agenda. According to Dick Christiansen at Meridian International, these
have been organized by Katherine Marinis who arranges these visits directly
with Belgrade.40 Visitors have included the Vice-President and Secretary
General of the extreme nationalist Serbian Renewal Movement, Mihailo
Markovic and Vladimir Gajic, respectively.
The Serbian Community and Lobby Abroad
The practices established by the SUC and other organizations are very
similar to those of Serbian groups abroad. In both London and Paris, the
Serbian Information Centers function as propaganda centers for the local
community.41 In London there is also a specifically nationalist (Chetnik)
organization of Serbian royalists: the Yugoslav Royal Draza Mihailovic
Association. The Serbian Cultural and Information Center in Paris contained
lists of student activists in the Paris area. Amongst these activists are
also two former UN 'Blue Helmets.' The Serbian lobby in France is organized
around l'Association pour la Défense des Droits et Intérêts du Peuple Serbe
(ADDIPS). Like the SUC, ADDIPS has made a number of approaches to other
Orthodox communities, notably the Russian congregation of Paris. ADDIPS,
like the SUC, is run by a handful of staff. Its director is a
well-established Serbian Parisien, Ljubomir Peskirevic.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that organizations such as the Serbian Unity Congress,
Serbnet, SAVA and ADDIPS represent ultra- nationalist leaders and suspected
war criminals in Pale and Belgrade. The Serbian Unity Congress is
Karadzic's mouthpiece in the United States. The major achievement of the
Serbian lobby must be its infiltration of the media and the U.S. public
through its disinformation campaign, bullying tactics, letter-writing etc.
Yet, it must be remembered that the Serbian lobby has only managed to gain
ground here because the current cultural/intellectual climate has made this
possible. The lack of resistance from academics and an intellectual trend
which promotes a simplistic breed of relativism offers an unchallenged
platform to Serbian apologists. This is an extremely worrying trend and it
is difficult to work against. Combating historical revisionism and denial
is a time-consuming effort. Moreover, the need to combat revisionism by
meeting apologists' 'demands for proof' actually advances the cause of
reductionists and those who frequently dismiss personal testimonies and
eye-witness accounts as 'soft evidence' and 'non-verifiable.'
The Serbian lobby is certainly an organized entity. It involves many people
across a number of continents. There are, however, many holes in its
organization. First, there is considerable in-infighting. At present, the
two camps are quite separate: those who are more pro-Milosevic and those
more supportive of Karadzic are now engaged in internecine struggles.
Second, the day to day organization of the Serbian Unity Congress is
handled by relatively few staff. Third, the Serbian lobby is highly
dependent on the Hellenic community. On its own, it is less influential.
This is evident from its haphazard lobbying of elected officials and poor
accounting and reporting procedures. These failings are indicative of a
truly embryonic lobby. Finally, there are blatant holes in the Serbian
lobby's internal security. Subscribers to e-mail systems and even mailing
lists are not always vetted.
The above-mentioned areas of weakness should be studied. A successful
campaign that discredited the Serbian and Greek-American lobbies would
serve one important purpose long after the genocide in Bosnia is over: it
will prevent Serbian ultra-nationalists from gaining unrestricted entry
into the canons of Balkan history. It will deny them their ultimate goal --
the destruction of the memory and civilization of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Post Script: Warning
At the time of writing, two additional sources of Serbian revisionism have
been reported to be have reached both the Congress and the general public.
These are: i) an article published in Mediterranean Quarterly entitled
Yugoslavia's Wars of Secession ad Succession : Media manipulation,
Historical Amnesia, and Subjective Morality by Carl C. Jacobsen; ii) a
film, Vukovar-One-Story.
The article contains the typical sources of Serbian propaganda: Serbnet's
paid spokesman, General Lewis MacKenzie, as well as a number of
Belgrade-based references. What is disturbing is that this piece of Serbian
propaganda is reported to have been distributed to members of the House
Armed Service Committee by its Chairman, Ronald Dellums (D- CA). Dellums,
who is based in Oakland, California, is one of a number of California
representatives that the San Francisco Bay Area Serbian Unity Congress may
be targeting. Other California representatives include recipients of SUC
contributions: Bill Baker, Anna Eshoo (see attached disclaimer) and Nancy
Pelosi.
The film Vukovar-One Story was produced in Cyprus and directed by Boro
Draskovic. The Press Office of the Croatian Embassy claims that the filming
was done with the assistance of the Yugoslav National Army on-site in
Vukovar. This seems highly plausible since Vukovar is currently occupied by
JNA (Serbian) troops. The film is scheduled to be shown in the Bay Area at
Los Gatos Cinema on November 11th (3:30 PM) and 12th (7:30 PM).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX A
Lee Hamilton: A Willing Target for Serbian and Greek Sponsorship
The 1993 Federal Elections Commission (FEC) reports record that on
September 29, 1993 Representative Lee Hamilton received $24,000 from an
assembly of over 45 prominent Americans. The amount of money which was
credited to Hamilton's congressional campaign account on this one day is
disproportionately important. This series of contributions represents over
35% percent of the contributions which he received for the preceding six
month period (January to July 1993) and over 10% of his receipts for the
whole 15-month Federal Elections Commission (FEC) cycle. 1 Over ninety per
cent of these contributors resided in the Chicago-area and fell almost
exclusively into one of three ethnic groups: Serbian, Greek, or Jewish. 2
Most occupied very senior management positions in prominent firms and
industries. According to his own Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
returns, Hamilton's staff traveled to Chicago on September 23, 1993. What
were they doing there? Did they meet with Serbnet? and how could they
account for these donations from this collection of Greeks, Serbs and Jews?
The circumstances behind this series of donations require further
investigation.
It looks very much like this series of donations was part of a special
fundraising effort. These contributions were the first noticeable series of
donations made to Hamilton by an identifiable group. They followed an
active press campaign in July and August 1993, when Serbnet placed
advertisements in the New York Times and Washington Post. The Serbian lobby
has been approaching both Greeks and Jews in the hopes of 'winning them
over.' In addition to the traditional arguments that the Greeks are
co-religionists threatened by Turkey or that, like the Jews, they too were
victims of the Nazi genocide is the common threat of 'Islamic
fundamentalism.' Was an anti-Islamic/anti-Turkish bias a rallying point for
these groups who chose to rally behind Hamilton? Is Representative Hamilton
capitalizing on their hysteria? The only grounds to suggest that such a
bias might lie behind this series of donations is the macro-political
context in which these contributions were made.
This series of contributions coincided with an energetic campaign by
Bosnian President, Alija Izetbegovic, who aimed to rally support for the
use of force against Serbian positions and the lifting of the arms embargo.
They also coincided with the failed attempt by Owen and Stoltenberg to
carry out a three-way partition of Bosnia. Throughout the first half of
September, Izetbegovic traveled around the world to secure support and
financial assistance. His tour took him to Turkey (Sept. 2-5), the United
States (Sept. 5- 9), Saudi Arabia (Sept. 12), Iran and Kuwait (Sept. 13).
It also coincided with a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference in Istanbul and a closed meeting with the UN Security Council on
September 7. During this time, Izetbegovic also appealed directly to the
Clinton Administration. The response from the former US Defense Secretary,
Les Aspin, was the first admission that the U.S. was truly prepared to send
troops to enforce a peace agreement (Sept. 12).
On April 25, 1994 Hamilton received a further $9,525 through multiple
contributions from 25 members of the Greek and Serbian Community. This
included $2,000 from PACs, notably the pan-Hellenic Dynamis Federal. The
majority of the contributors were from Maryland and Virginia and almost
every contribution was of the order of $300. Contributors again included,
Michael Djordjevich of the SUC; his vice-president Ron Radakovich and both
leaders of the Greek and Cypriot communites, Andrew Athens and Philip
Christopher, respectively. Three weeks after this second series of
donations, Djordjevich was invited to speak before a hearing of the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Hamilton.3
What is important to note about both series of donations is that they
coincided with a series of major foreign policy debates. In April 1994, the
threat to use force against Serbian forces as they assaulted the Bosnian
town of Gorazde was another reason for Serbian anxiety. On April 25, the
Western press had reported that Yashui Akashi, the UN envoy, has vetoed the
request of the NATO Secretary-General to authorize strikes. The
contributions made on April 25, therefore coincide with the renewed threat
of air strikes and were made before it was established that the Serbian
para- military units would ultimately be forced to withdraw without the use
of NATO air power.4 This series of contributions clearly looks like the
Serbian and Hellenic sponsors were responding to these events as the threat
of direct military intervention through NATO air power became increasingly
realistic.
Hamilton's acceptance of these contributions raises a number of questions.
He is, after all, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Serbian nationalists and Greek-American leaders, who have their own
political agenda, have singled him out. Unlike Sarbanes and Delich Bentley,
he does not seem to have a direct attachment to any particular
ethnic/Balkan group. Why has he not, unlike other Members of Congress (e.g.
Sam Gejedenson), returned these contributions? Does he not recognize that
those sponsoring his campaign are also Radovan Karadzic's representatives
in the United States?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX B
The Serbian Unity Congress Political Action Committee An Amateur and
Inattentive Lobby
The Serbian Unity Congress Political Action Committee (SUC) has not been
extremely active as PAC. The contributions made to support congressional
candidates have been fairly small. Yet, the SUC PAC sheds some light on the
internal organization of the operations of the SUC as a whole.
First, there are the administrative practices of the SUC PAC. From 1991-94,
there was a series of correspondence between the Federal Elections
Commission and the SUC. This correspondence reveals an inattentive PAC that
often did not even reply to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
1.Correspondence from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to the SUC
notifying the PAC that it should have filed its mid-year report
(4/16/91-6/30/91) 2.Reply from the SUC (mistakenly) dated January 9, 1991
but received January 13, 1992 in which the then Treasurer, Peter Chelovich
apologized to the assistant director of the Federal Elections
Commission's(FEC) Federal Analysis Division for "not complying with certain
procedures." 3.Reminder from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) (not
dated) that neither the year-end reports (7/1/91-12/31/91) nor the April
quarterly report (1/1/92- 3/31/92) had been filed. 4.Reply sent by the SUC
on August 2, 1992 by SUC Secretary Momcilo Tasich concerning contributions
to Rep. Dan Burton which he was forced to refund. In this letter, Tasich
notes that the PAC acquired the status of a multicandidate committee on
July 20, 1992. 5.Letter from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) dated
March 9, 1994, questioning the totals listed in the SUC PAC's 1993 year-end
report. The letter reminded the PAC that it had to file a response or
amendment to correct the original report. 6.Letter dated March 31, 1994 in
which the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) noted that the SUC PAC had not
responded to the letter sent on March 9. In this letter, the Federal
Elections Commission (FEC) warned the SUC that the Commission may choose to
initiate an audit or enforce legal action.
Second, the SUC does not seem to have done its accounting properly. The
author has noted two instances where reports submitted to the Federal
Elections Commission (FEC) do not align with those submitted by
congressional recipients.
• Rep. Dan Burton (R-In) did not report the in-kind donation of $1,041
which the SUC accounted for as dinner expenses with Burton on 03/08/93
•Rep. Anna Eshoo, in a letter dated September 24, 1994, claimed that she
never received the $500 donation listed by the SUC on 10/31/92 and can find
no record of this donation from any of her accounts and Federal Elections
Commission (FEC) reports. (letter attached)
These two episodes mentioned above suggest that the SUC PAC is not really a
serious PAC in its own right. These errors and failings therefore suggest
that the role of the Hellenic lobby and its associated public relations
firms is all the more important in understanding the relative success of
the Serbian lobby.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anna G. Eshoo
MEMBER of CONGRESS
September 24, 1994
Brad Blitz
Executive Director
Students Against Genocide
PO Box 9248
Stanford, CA 94305
Dear Brad,
I want to give you an update regarding the "contribution" you suggested I
had received from the Serbian Unity Congress in 1992.
At the time you mentioned it in my office, I had no recollection of it, so
I asked my campaign staff to check it out.
Having researched the Serbian Unity Congress PAC's Federal Elections
Commission report for 1992, we discovered that they reported to the FEC a
$500 contribution to my campaign. However, I never received this
contribution. My treasurer has no record of it, nor does any FEC report
from the period reflect such a contribution.
I have written to the Serbian Unity Congress PAC requesting they amend
their Federal Elections Commission report to reflect that I did not receive
any funds. I also sent a copy of my request to the Federal Elections
Commission. Federal Elections Commission. I am awaiting confirmation of the
correction from the Serbian Unity Congress. I will forward a copy to you
when I receive it. I hope this clarifies the situation Sincerely
Anna G Eshoo
(signed)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX C
Attached propaganda from the Serbian Unity Congress and SAVA
THE VIOLENT DISSOLUTION OF YUGOSLAVIA
TRUTH AND DECEIT
1991-1994
ONE HUNDERED IRREFUTABLE FACTS
NORTH AMERICAN NEWS ANALYSIS GROUP
P.O. BOX 471432
SAN FRANSISCO, CA 94147
•Western countries are repeatedly stating that their approach to the
conflict has been mistaken, yet the same mistakes are now being made again,
thus compounding the problems of war. •We believe that the only way to
attain peace immediately is to make the whole of the former
Bosni-Herzegovina a safe area, taking into account that there are two
realities there: the Muslim-Croat federation and the Republic of Srepak. •A
general cessation of hostilities cannot prejudice the outcome of political
agreement. A political agreement is only possible in the absence of
fighting. A general cessation of hostilities is thus the only way forward
to peace.
97. On April 24, 1994, several Serb civilians from villages around Gorazde
returned to their villages from which they had been expelled by Muslim
forces earlier in the war. UNPROFOR, whose troops are being deployed along
lines separating Ser and Muslim forces, have guaranteed safety to the Serb
villagers. Upon their return, the expelled Serb civilians found devastation
as Mulsims had razed and burned down their houses and other buildings.
98. On April 25, 1994, deadly Mulsim sniper bullets in Gorazde directed
against Serbs and hitting a Serb soldier conferring with Ukrainian
peacekeepers symbolized the unabating intentions of the Muslims to
violently provoke the Serbs.
99. On April 26, 1994, the special correspondent of the French television
channel "TF-1" in Sarajevo admitted that the figures given by the Muslims
humanitarian organisations and western media for Muslim casualties at
Gorazde, 700 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded Muslims were grossly inflated.
He added that only several dozens of seriously wounded Muslims had been
evacuated from Gorazde. The "TF-1" special correspondent also said that
neither U.N. spokesman nor humanitarian workers could explain how several
hundered dead and wounded Muslims from Gorazde were able to suddenly
disappear without trace.
100. On April 29, 1994, two U.N. officials, a general and civilian, accused
the United States of prolonging the war in Bosnia. They said that Muslims
had orchestrated their defeat on Gorazde in the hope of NATO warplanes,
reacting to pressure from the United States, would help lift the Serb
siege. They also indicated that the extent of the destructions of the city
and of the killing and wounding of civilians in the past month has been
grossly exaggerated by the U.N. officials stationed in Gorazde. Their
comments reflected an overwhelming feeling on the part of the U.N.
officials in Sarajevo that the greatest impediment to peace has been the
flawed policy of the United States. The aim of this policy has been the
establishment of the unitary Muslim state of Bosnia-Herzegovina, an aim
that has been the very cause of the two-year long civil and religious war
in this region.
may 7, 1994
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS, PRISONS AND DETENTION SITES SET UP BY
THE MUSLIMS IN THE STATE OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA FOR THE SERBIAN CIVILIANS
SOURCE: The Secretary for Information of The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
June 22, 1992, Sarajevo
(excerpt)
There are numerous locations accross the Bosnia-Herzegovina region where
captured Serbian civilians are detained, tortured, starved to death, women
raped, many inmates are being killed, or disappeared with no trace of their
whereabouts.
The following chart presents only a few of similar sites in the above
region,many are hastily being open and run as makeshift concentration
camps. The world news media has turned one blind eye at these wretched
people, facing another physical anihilation in the same area where they
were deimated by the same Muslim and Croatian forces 50 years ago.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOCATIONDETENTION SITENUMBER OF INMATESNOTE1. GORAZDESPORTS
STADIUM200+WOMEN, CHILDREN2. GORAZEDPOLICE STATION150+WOMEN, CHILDREN3.
GORAZDECITY JAIL (open on 6/15/92)1,200+WOMEN, CHILDREN, MEN (Torturing,
killing)4. SARAJEVO"KOSHEVO" STADIUM (open on 6/15/92)2,000+ALL CIVILIANS
caught on spot5. SARAJEVOMILITARY JAILUNKNOWNCIVILIANS6. SARAJEVOCENTRAL
JAILUNKNOWNCIVILIANS7. Ali-Pashino Polje (A.P.Field)HOT WATER
PLANT6,000+Civilians, mass liquidation8. TARCINSILOSUNKNOWNVILLAGERS from
KONJIC, HADZICI9. BUTUROVI-POLJECONCENTRATION CAMPUNKNOWNCIVILIANS from
HADZICI, KONJIC, JABLANICA10. BRADINARAILWAY TUNNEL400+ (survivors of
4,000)PREDOMINANTLY CHILDREN - LEFT ORPHANS FATHERS KILLED BY MUSLIMS, AND
WOMEN.11. CHAPLJINA/LJUBUSKOCONCENTRATION CAMP IN OPENTHOUSANDS OF SERBIAN
CIVILIANS THAT WERE ROUNDED UP FROM THE LEFT BANK OF THE NERETVA RIVER.12.
CHELEBICI by KONJICTHE WHOLE PLACE HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A CONCENTRATION
CAMPUNKNOWNCIVILIANS13. SARAJEVORADIO-TV CENTRE (UNDERGROUND
ROOMS)UNKNOWNSERBIAN JOURNALIST. ALREAD KNOWS AS KILLED: Mr. Milivoje Karan
and Mr. Rajko Bogdanovic14. VISOKOSEVERAL LOCATIONSTHOUSANDSALL SERBIAN
CIVILIANS FROM VISK-ONE15. LIVNODIFFERENT LOCATIONSTHOUSANDSALL THE SERBS
FROM LIVNO AND ADJACENT VILLAGES, TWO MONTHS IN DETENTION16.
FOJNICACONCENTRATION CAMPS ARE HURRIEDLY BEING SET-UP AND17. ZENICAFILLED
UP WITH SERBIAN CIVILIANS WHO DID NOT MANAGE TO FLEE ON TIME.18. TRAVNIK
19. OZDAKSEVERAL CONCENTRATION CAMPS ARE ALREADY SET-UP FOR THE SERBIAN20.
DERVENTACIVILIANS, WHO ARE BEING SAVAGELY TORTURED AND KILLED BY THE
MUSLIMS. 21. SLAVONSKI BROD (CROATIA)CONCENTRATION CAMPTHOUSANDSSERBIAN
CIVILIANS IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE, FORCED LABOUR, WOMEN RAPING, TORTURING,
KILLING OF INMATES THE ABOVE LIST WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW INFORMATION IS
MADE AVAILABLE.
Secretary for Information of The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina,
Velibor Ostojic
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TELL CHARLES REDMAN THAT SERBS WILL JOIN IN A CROAT AND MUSLIM FEDERATION
WHEN PIGS FLY...
SAVA - Serbian American Voters Alliance - March 23, 1994
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
1.The SUC has at least one internal e-mail link . The executive
communicates primarily by e-mail although fax and telephone are standard
means of contact. In addition to the SUC e-mail link, the Serbian
Information Initiative (SII) connects subscribers and provides information
in Serbian as well as in English. The SII has certain rules of behavior,
including no threats to subscribers. Although this claims to be a
semi-monitored service, the SII seems to have very lax conditions of
membership and subscription. 2.Samardzija's office is located on the third
floor of her house 2714 Steiner Street, San Francisco, California 941234-
4717. 3.This in-fighting was immediately obvious during a SUC/News Analysis
Group forum held at La Peña Community Center in Berkeley on July 29 1993.
On this occasion, one of the invited speakers, Mr. Antonio Erceg Yurovich,
publicly attacked the organizer, Mirjana Samardzija. 4.Nonetheless, this
account should be monitored. FEC ID number C00239723 5.On May 17, 1993 and
December 10, 1992 the SUC PAC made donations of $1,000 to Hutchinson and
Gjedenson respectively. In less than one month both had returned their
contributions. 6.Anna Eshoo, in private meeting at her office in Palo Alto,
July 16, 1994. 7.At the time of writing, the author has noted two instances
where reports submitted to the FEC do not align with those submitted by
congressional recipients. First, in 1993 Rep. Dan Burton did not report the
in-kind donation of $1,041 which the SUC accounted for as dinner expenses
with the Congressman on 03/08/93. Second, Rep. Anna Eshoo, in a letter
dated September 24, 1994, claimed that she never received the $500 donation
listed by the SUC on 10/31/92 and can find no record of this donation from
any of her accounts and FEC reports. 8.Only one PAC, stands out in the
Federal Election Reports as explicitly Pan Hellenic. This is Dynamis
Federal PAC, registered in Sacramento and based in Palo Alto California.
The number of donations made on behalf of this PAC to congressional
representatives is quite small. 9.Morton M. Kondracke, Grecian Formula: the
Arrival of an American Ethnic Group in the New Republic. June 6, 1988.
10.While it is difficult to ascertain exactly how much has been directed
towards payment for speakers and journalists, the SUC and Serbnet have set
up a special fund for this purpose. Based on former UN General Lewis
MacKenzie's own admission which was later corroborated by Serbnet -- that
he was receiving over $15,000 per speaking engagement -- the amount spent
on MacKenzie represents more than what the SUC is paying to PR firms such
as Manatos and Manatos, Inc. 11.In addition to Truth is the Victim in
Bosnia, Neier's articles in The Nation and Laber's letters to the Editor in
the New York Times in 1993 have been distributed by the SUC at meetings and
forums to cast doubt on the use of rape as a systematic means of genocide.
12.One argument used is that 'Serbs simply want to live with other Serbs'
and that Serbian nationalism is no different from say German unification.
Michael Djordjevich argued before the House on May 11, 1994 that Germany
was allowed to unite but Serbia is not. "What kind of logic is there that
we permit one people to unite but not the same thing to another people. And
that is the problem. We have double standards, Congressman. " 13.In his
speech before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Djordjevich used this
tactic He then tried to describe the conflict as a civil war..."we have a
Civil War here. We do not have aggression. What I am saying is that there
are no Bosnian tanks in Serbia; there are no Serbian tanks in Bosnia. The
tanks in Bosnia belong to the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Serbs have lived in
Bosnia for 400, 700 years. That is a civil war. Are you going to tell me
that Sherman's march to and burning of Atlanta was a genocide and that it
was a "foreign intervention" in Southern States? That is what you are
saying sir. That is precisely what you are saying." See: US Policy toward
Bosnia and the Balkans. (May 11, 1994) 14.This appeal of relativism has
aided the Serbian lobby to gain air-time on local radio stations.
'Progressively minded' producers have been encouraged to hear the 'Serbian
point of view.' Jerry Jacob of KALW Radio in San Francisco, an NPR
affiliate, was so taken in by the Serbian lobby that he joined in their
accusations that critical listeners who phoned in to challenge three
members of the SUC Executive were surely Croatian supporters. After the
broadcast (August 29, 1993) Mr. Jacob sent the following message to a local
Croatian: "Well I am very impressed with the level of organization of the
Bay Area Croatian Community. You are to be congratulated for jamming the
call-in lines during Saturday night's program. The attempt to stifle
informed debate and an open expression of ideas and questions from people
who really want to know a view different from your own deserves to be known
for what it is. It is hard to disbelieve the 'Serbs'' claims of media
manipulation given the experience of Saturday." Mr. Jacob was wrong about
the callers -- only two callers were members of the Croatian Community.
15.This is the most common tactic used by Mirjana Samardjzia and Tina
Tomasevic Hone both, prominent Serbian apologists in the Bay Area. These
SUC leaders often go to ridiculous lengths to persuade audiences of their
objectivity. Tomasevic, an image of tolerance rather than a school teacher,
presents herself as the daughter of an African American mother and graduate
of UC-Berkeley Law School to create a image of tolerance and authority
before she makes her racist beliefs publicly known. Samardjzia often uses
the fact that she has a Bosnian Muslim au paire girl and Jewish husband to
persuade audiences of her objectivity before she speaks. 16.See Rapes in
Yugoslavia: Separating: Fact from Fiction (1993) produced by Mirjana
Samardzija for the North American News Analysis Group. This is the basis of
the report which the SUC sent to major newspapers and television stations.
17.See Deborah Lipstadt's Denying the Holocaust: the Growing assault on
Truth and Memory. (1994) where Lipstadt discusses how revisionism preceded
outright Holocaust denial as part of a concerted epistemological attack .
18.When Michael Djordjevich spoke before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, he had a report based on meetings with Radovan Karadzic attached
to the final record, U.S. Policy Toward Bosnia and the Balkans May, 11,
1994. Karadzic's statements now figure in the appendix of this official
document. 19.see Noel Malcolm in The Spectator July 1993 20.He is always
Sir Alfred Sherman. 21.Only two Marxist organizations, Socialist Action and
the News and Letters Committee have openly opposed the Milosevic- Karadzic
regime(s) and the Serbian lobby in the U.S. The academic community has
responded to Serbian lobbying efforts with silence and in some cases by
lending tacit support to Serbian nationalists. As one looks into their
tactics, it is clear that this campaign has really only promoted marginal
thinkers and scholars. This includes outcast Marxists such as the
tenure-denied Michael Parenti, author of the Invention of Reality. Although
the SUC distributes articles written by non-Yugoslav academics at SUC
events and invites their participation at public forums in order to give an
impression of authority, most of these academics are junior faculty and
doctoral students at mediocre universities and colleges. Respectable
scholars do have their uses, however. Another cover for the SUC in Northern
California is the Balkan Peace Committee, (BPC) a collection of academics
based at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution. In reality, this
group is run by a graduate student and research assistant at the Hoover
Institution, Dushan Djordjevich. The BPC has only succeeded organizing a
handful of small forums and in placing an advertisement in the Stanford
Daily in the form of an open letter to Clinton with signatures from 35
senior faculty. The letter was an excellent illustration of the kind of
moral relativism now gripping college campuses. In search of a 'balanced'
perspective, this letter contained a number of statements which did not
correspond with facts and figures recorded in official reports e.g. those
produced by the UN Commission of Experts on war crimes in the Former
Yugoslavia. One published statement by the Balkan Peace Committee stands
out immediately..."no side has a monopoly on either atrocities of suffering
in this war." Few of the scholars who signed the open letter are aware of
the continued existence of this committee and that their names are still
being used as supporters. 22.Campaign Against Militarism Briefing 20 Things
You Should Know About the Serbs That Aren't True. February 1994 No 4.
23.Joan Phillips also produced the Channel Four (UK) current affairs
program for the series Free for All entitled, Journalists at War August 15,
1993 24.Elsewhere she claims... "Indeed the fact is there was no war in
Yugoslavia until the West stuck its nose in." See: Bloody Liberals in
Living Marxism September 1993. 25.See: Living Marxism September 1992;
February 1993; May 1993; July 1993. 26.Foreign Policy No 3 January 20,
1994. 27.Joan Phillips in conversation in London, October 14, 1994 28.See
lane's article Press BockCrock in 'The New Republic, September 5, 1994
According to A. S., who worked for Samardjzia, Brock speaks to the SUC
leaders frequently. 29.This debate is not just limited to the traditional
'Left' but includes Libertarians as well. In fact, the Balkan Peace
Committee was initially launched by Williamson (Bill) Evers, a Libertarian
activist and researcher at the Hoover Institution. Evers attempted to
disrupt a forum at Stanford University (May 22, 1994) with the feminist
legal scholar Katherine MacKinnon by calling on students to hear the 'other
side.' 30.This includes those on the extreme-Left such as the Revolutionary
Communist Party and Trotskyist groups. The academic community which has
been supportive of non- intervention (e.g. the Balkan Peace Committee)
would fit into this category even though this community has in some cases
been co-opted by the Serbian nationalists. The inaudible response from the
academic community and their inability to understand the nature of the
conflict in the Balkans has prompted Nigel Osborne, composer and professor
of music at Edinburgh University, to describe some of his colleagues as
'intellectual failures.' 31.The most notable Russophile writing on the
Balkans is Misha Glenny author of The Fall of Yugoslavia, (1993). Those who
argue that the role of Russia has been constructive in preparing a
diplomatic settlement often display an overt sympathy towards Serbia. This
is sometimes expressed in the controversial claims that Serbia was an ally
against the Fascists during the Second World War and therefore should be
treated more 'fairly' e.g. Sharyl Cross of San Jose State University. See
Sharyl Cross's article in the San Jose Mercury News The Path to Peace in
Bosnia (March 6, 1994) . 32.This racism is reminiscent of the articles
produced by Sherman in the early 1970s and is immediately identifiable in
the language used in SUC reports and publications which describe Bosnians
as 'Turks' and 'Islamic fundamentalists.' 33.See: the German language
publication NOVO September/October 1994 which contrasts the first-hand
reports and Pulitzer Prize-winning writings by Roy Gutman against the book
by Klaus Bittermann Serbien muß Sterbien -- Wahrheit und Lüge im
jugoslawischen Bürgerkrieg, (Serbs must die -- truth and lies in the
Yugoslav Civil War) Edition Tiamat, Berlin 1994. The title of the article
immediately questions the idea of bearing witness by suggesting that such
reports may be propaganda: Augenzeugen oder Propagandisten. 34.See: People
Must Not be Pilloried in Die Weltwoche April 14, 1994 35.In a number of
cities, the Serbian Community Center and Serbian Information Center are
housed in the Orthodox Church. The Serbian Clergy have been particularly
supportive of ultranationalist leaders in Serbia and occupied Bosnia. This
is evident from Serbnet's Media Watch newsletters. Also see the letter from
Bishop Anthony of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to President Clinton dated
April 20, 1994 and included in the appendix of the Congressional Hearing US
Policy Toward Bosnia and the Balkans (May 11, 1994) pp. 55-56 36.Lipson is
leader of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in New York.
He is most active as a writer, publishing articles which expose the role of
the Croatian Ustashe from 1941-45. Lipson's articles repeatedly recall the
atrocities committed by the Croatian Ustashe and advance the xenophobic
arguments made by Serbian nationalists. His group has argued against
intervention and has successfully sabotaged events organized by pro-Bosnian
groups in New York such as the Jewish Ad-Hoc Committee on Bosnia (JACOB)
and the Coalition for Intervention Against Genocide. (See Lipson's Croatia
Report is Misleading in Forward, February 14, 1992) 37.Together with Nora
Beloff, Alfred Sherman is the most active apologist for the Serbian lobby
in the U.K. Sherman , a British Jew who received a peerage under Thatcher,
has been publishing racist articles in the Daily Telegraph since the late
1970s. His writings on Bosnia are reminiscent of his articles opposing
immigration in the U.K. which develop racist arguments based on the concept
of an exclusive national homeland for the English, Scots and Welsh. (See:
Britain is not Asia's Fiancee in The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 11, 1979). A
former Communist who fought in the Spanish Civil War, Sherman is now
aligned with the far Right. He has been associated with the leader of the
French National Front, Le Pen, and attempted to organize a speaker tour for
Le Pen in the U.K. in 1987. Since the start of the war, he has been a
constant supporter of Karadzic and in July 1993 admitted to be working as
Karadzic's public relations advisor in Pale. Sherman is one of the most
frequently cited sources of support and authority by the SUC. According to
Dushan Djordevich of the Balkan Peace Committee, the Serbian community had
hoped to invite the controversial speaker to the U.S. last year. (See
Sherman's statements and writings on Bosnia: Spain had heroes; Bosnia only
laptop bombardiers in The Daily Telegraph, May 3, 1994;The Coming of the
Sword, (Opinions) The Jerusalem Post March 23, 1994;Focus on Bosnia by Paul
Goodman in The Sunday Telegraph August 8, 1993; Letters The Spectator, 8
may, 1993) 38.See: Philip J. Cohen's manuscript Desecrating the Holocaust:
Serbia's Exploitation of the Holocaust as Propaganda (1993) 39.Richard
Raimi of Austin Texas tried to pass a counter resolution on January 18,
1994. According to the Charge d'Affairs at the Bosnian Embassy in London,
there was a considerable effort aimed at encouraging the State of Israel to
recognize the New Republic of Yugoslavia this past August. The Israeli
Government did not agree to recognition immediately but instead sent a
mission to Belgrade to meet with the Jewish Community prior to any
diplomatic recognition. 40.Dick Christiansen in (telephone) conversation,
June 3, 1994. 41.The importance of these centers as propaganda bureaus is
clearly evident from the working of ADDPIS in Paris. ADDIPS served as the
medium through which SRNA, the information agency of Radovan Karadzic,
signed a contract with Agence France Press (AFP) under which SRNA would
receive reports and information from AFP. ADDIPS represents Karadzic in
Paris.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES TO THE APPENDIX
1.According to the report, FEC Releases 15 Month Congressional Election
Figures, May 9, 1994, Hamilton received $193,441 from individual
contributions. 2.Several of these figures e.g. Dr. Martin Gecht and Sidney
Epstein were active leaders in (nominally conservative) Jewish Community
organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Chicago and the Jewish
Theological Seminary. 3.On May 11, 1994 Michael Djordjevich, former SUC
President, spoke before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Also
present were Ambassador Vladimir Matic, Former Assiatnt Federal Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Warren Zimmermann and
Jeane Kirkpatrick. Representing the National Federation of Croatian
Americans was Professor Edward Damich. Introducing the hearing, Chairman
Hamilton asked for advice on "how to end the war and promote the U.S.
national interest." 4.These donations also appear at the time when the
European Commission took action for the first time against Greece for its
refusal to end the trade blockade of Macedonia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Jerin
Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message
news:7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net...
> Reality check. Before March 24 there were over 1300 international
> observers all over Kosovo. While a small scale guerrilla war was unleashed
> there by the Western powers, there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
> refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
Aha, this is rather tricky on your part this appears to be only the number
who sought asylum in Albania! But here is what the UNHCR report dated
December 1998 said....
"At mid-November, under 200,000 persons were thought to be still displaced
within Kosovo, and there were no longer any significant groups without solid
shelter. Many of the displaced remained in damaged shelter that was not
properly weather proof; the majority of the displaced were still with host
families. More than 135,000 have sought refuge outside Kosovo."
>but
>this should be compared with ca 300,000 Albanian nationals who >were in
>Kosovo illegally at the same time
Oh, I must have missed this in the UNHCR report or that of any credible
international organization. This would appear to be just the same tired old
crap coming from the neo-fascists in charge in Belgrade.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
Bj
Schlau
yu...@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
> Marko Njavro (ma...@rivernet.com.au) wrote on Sat, 25 Sep 1999
19:35:13 +1100:
was
> : swift.
>
> : ------------
>
> : Washington Post
>
> : For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
>
> : By Benjamin Wittes
>
> : Monday, September 20, 1999; Page A15
>
> : The obituary that appeared on Sept. 13 in the New York Times would
have
> : done proud even the bravest of World War II resistance leaders.
Father
> : Momcilo Djujic, the last surviving ""vojvoda" -- warlord or duke --
of the
> : Serbian nationalist militias known as Chetniks, was described as "a
fierce
> : foe of the Nazis, Fascists and Communists," as a fighter in "epic
World War
> : II battles" and as having committed numerous "acts of wartime
bravery,"
> : including the rescue of downed American pilots.
>
>
> : While Djujic's force seems to have arisen as a self-defense
> : movement, it was infected from the beginning with a Greater Serbian
> : vision similar to the one that Vojislav Seselj, Arkan and Slobodan
> : Milosevic pursued half a century later.
>
> NATzO and its henchman the Washington Post are a racist force of the
> New Fourth Reich.
NATO doesn't support a greater Albania or Greater Croatia.
> : The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
> : their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and
> : multiethnic partisans, and this decision led to collaboration
> : between the Chetniks -- Djujic included -- and the Italian and
> : German occupation forces. The Allies
> : eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
>
> And that's why their leader Mihailovich was honoured by Truman in
> 1948?
According to you NATO (which includes the US) is the 4th Reich. So if
your previous statement is to believed, how is being honored by the
"4th Reich" something to be proud about? The real reason Mihailovich
was honored in any event was Cold War politics. In '48 Belgrade broke
with the Soviets and the US was quick to try and take advantage.
--Oscar Schlaf--
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
t...@ujevic.eu
Njavro) wrote:
> I know that we have some Croat organisations
>in the USA,
Then please, join them and go away from soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Thanks in advance.
Marko Njavro
----------
In article <7sii89$rjd$1...@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>, "Robert Jerin"
<banje...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Marko Njavro <ma...@rivernet.com.au> wrote in message
>news:marko-25099...@203.88.251.42...
>> David Binder is just an isolated lunatic and a reaction to his lies was
>> swift.
>
>Agreed, however the problem with "journalist/writers" such as Binder lies
in
>the ignorance of most people. With platforms such as the NY Times to
spread
>their message, which to some appear to be neo-fascist in nature, the larger
>populace gains what they believe to be accurate information. If this were
>not so, then we would not see the postings here that - Serb = fascist
>fighter, Croat = fascist.
Well for one reason or another, NY Times has a strong anti-Croat slant. I
don't know whether this is a result of 50 years of Serbian propaganda or
whether the SUC lobbyists have concentrated all their efforts on on
supplying NY Times journalists with the wrong information. Maybe it's a bit
of both.
>Every Friday night I do volunteer work at our
>local Croatian Heritage Museum (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) and hardly a month
>goes by that I don't hear some reference to WWII and the part of the Serbs
>or Croats in that war. Of course the info is generally incorrect. Now we
>can individually attempt to supply more complete and correct information.
>However I believe that the problem lies with the low level of support that
>we, in general, give to historians/writers who support the truth. On the
>other hand Serbs will pander to and support the likes of Binder, Beloff,
>Mackenzie, etc.. I recall going to a "speech" given by this playboy
>"General" in Akron, Ohio where the entire front couple of rows where taken
>up by Serbs! SUCk or some such org had paid for these engagements and
>further supported him by sending bus loads to fill the auditoriums. While
>some movies have been done about the war in Bosnia and Croatia early on
that
>contained the truth about Serbs and their victims the current crop of
movies
>appear to be encouraged by Serbs and their sympathizers, which portray the
>aggressor as the victims. This continues to be our problem.
If you read Barry's post on the Serbian Unity Congress you would have
concluded that they are a very wealthy and influential organisation. They
lobby members of congress, provide them with literature, video cassettes,
they supply individual journalists with Serbian propaganda in order to
influence their articles and they actually paid General MacKenzie to give
speeches which support Serbs. I know that we have some Croat organisations
in the USA, but it seems to me that fighting to change entrenched opinions
as a result of 50 years propaganda and to compete with the powerful SUC is a
mammoth task.
S.Benedikt
This is our problem that after all those years of Serb propaganda across the globe we Croats are perceived by the rest of the world for what it is said we are rather than what we really are.
And we have not managed as people to effectively defend ourselves nor is current government in Croatia expending much energy or founds to rectify the past.
And of cause when ever someone tries to eliminate Serb lies from Croatian history the rest of the world will call us revisionist.
S.Benedikt
Robert Jerin <banje...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message news:7sii89$rjd$1...@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net...
> Marko Njavro <ma...@rivernet.com.au> wrote in message
> news:marko-25099...@203.88.251.42...
> > David Binder is just an isolated lunatic and a reaction to his lies was
> > swift.
>
> Agreed, however the problem with "journalist/writers" such as Binder lies in
> the ignorance of most people. With platforms such as the NY Times to spread
> their message, which to some appear to be neo-fascist in nature, the larger
> populace gains what they believe to be accurate information. If this were
> not so, then we would not see the postings here that - Serb = fascist
> fighter, Croat = fascist. Every Friday night I do volunteer work at our
> local Croatian Heritage Museum (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) and hardly a month
> goes by that I don't hear some reference to WWII and the part of the Serbs
> or Croats in that war. Of course the info is generally incorrect. Now we
> can individually attempt to supply more complete and correct information.
> However I believe that the problem lies with the low level of support that
> we, in general, give to historians/writers who support the truth. On the
> other hand Serbs will pander to and support the likes of Binder, Beloff,
> Mackenzie, etc.. I recall going to a "speech" given by this playboy
> "General" in Akron, Ohio where the entire front couple of rows where taken
> up by Serbs! SUCk or some such org had paid for these engagements and
> further supported him by sending bus loads to fill the auditoriums. While
> some movies have been done about the war in Bosnia and Croatia early on that
> contained the truth about Serbs and their victims the current crop of movies
> appear to be encouraged by Serbs and their sympathizers, which portray the
> aggressor as the victims. This continues to be our problem.
>
> Bj
>
>
S.Benedikt
Man, you need to be staffed and put in Museum for others to see what LOONIES really look like.
S.Bnedikt
Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message news:7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net...
> Marko Njavro (ma...@rivernet.com.au) wrote on Sat, 25 Sep 1999 19:35:13 +1100:
> : David Binder is just an isolated lunatic and a reaction to his lies was
> : swift.
>
> : ------------
>
> : Washington Post
>
>
> : For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
>
> : By Benjamin Wittes
>
> : Monday, September 20, 1999; Page A15
>
> : The obituary that appeared on Sept. 13 in the New York Times would have
> : done proud even the bravest of World War II resistance leaders. Father
> : Momcilo Djujic, the last surviving ""vojvoda" -- warlord or duke -- of the
> : Serbian nationalist militias known as Chetniks, was described as "a fierce
> : foe of the Nazis, Fascists and Communists," as a fighter in "epic World War
> : II battles" and as having committed numerous "acts of wartime bravery,"
> : including the rescue of downed American pilots.
>
> ...
>
> : While Djujic's force seems to have arisen as a self-defense
> : movement, it was infected from the beginning with a Greater Serbian vision
> : similar to the one that Vojislav Seselj, Arkan and Slobodan Milosevic
> : pursued half a century later.
>
> Greater Serbia bad. Greater Albania, Croatia good. This proves that NATzO
> and its henchman the Washington Post are a racist force of the New Fourth
> Reich.
>
> : The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
> : their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and multiethnic
> : partisans, and this decision led to collaboration between the Chetniks --
> : Djujic included -- and the Italian and German occupation forces. The Allies
> : eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
>
> And that's why their leader Mihailovich was honoured by Truman in 1948?
> What a pack of lies...
>
> Reality check. Before March 24 there were over 1300 international
> observers all over Kosovo. While a small scale guerrilla war was unleashed
> there by the Western powers, there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
> refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
> this should be compared with ca 300,000 Albanian nationals who were in
S.Benedikt
Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message news:7siu0d$i2l$4...@news2.tor.accglobal.net...> : Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in article
> : <7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>...
>
> : > : For an Accused War Criminal, a 50-Year Haven in America
>
>
>
> Yuri.
>
Now what did I tell you! Revisionism, ha!
S.Benedikt
Yuri Kuchinsky
: Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in article
: <7siu0d$i2l$4...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>...
: > Your attempts at historical revisionism are pathetic.
: The Serbian Unity Congress and the Serbian Lobby
: A Study of Contemporary Revisionism and Denial
...
: The Serbian
: contributions, on their own, do not amount to large sums of money.
Good point. Not as much as the military industrial complex that promotes
this war with huge funds and influence. Pennies against millions of $$$.
...
: Revisionism and the Serbian Propaganda Campaign
: Most important of all the Serbian lobbying practices is the way in which
: the SUC and Serbnet have gained access to the media and the American
: public.
This is such a bold-faced lie. The whole US mass media has been
relentlessly racist, pro-war, and anti-Serbian.
A balanced overview of recent Yugoslav history,
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/grattan_healy/johnston.htm
Western media lies? Read a very important FOREIGN POLICY article by Peter
Brock that looks in detail at how the Western media image of the "Evil
Serb" was constructed. This and the follow ups are available at
http://suc.suc.org/~kosta/tar/mediji/mediji-INDEX.html
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- http://www.trends.ca/~yuku
Yuri Kuchinsky
: Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message
: news:7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net...
: > Reality check. Before March 24 there were over 1300 international
: > observers all over Kosovo. While a small scale guerrilla war was unleashed
: > there by the Western powers, there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
: > refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
: Aha, this is rather tricky on your part this appears to be only the number
: who sought asylum in Albania! But here is what the UNHCR report dated
: December 1998 said....
: "At mid-November, under 200,000 persons were thought to be still displaced
: within Kosovo, and there were no longer any significant groups without solid
: shelter. Many of the displaced remained in damaged shelter that was not
: properly weather proof; the majority of the displaced were still with host
: families. More than 135,000 have sought refuge outside Kosovo."
So how does this contradict what I said???
: >but
: >this should be compared with ca 300,000 Albanian nationals who >were in
: >Kosovo illegally at the same time
: Oh, I must have missed this in the UNHCR report or that of any credible
: international organization.
There's no doubt that there were at least 300,000 Albanian nationals who
were in Kosovo illegally when NATzO started bombing. There are also bigger
estimates. You have to remember that Kosovo was a lot richer than Albania
which is dirt poor and wracked by political instability and gangs.
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku -=O=- Toronto
Is NATO a solution to Kosovo problem?
"In reality, NATO is the problem, and Kosovo is the solution. After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO needed a new excuse for pumping
resources into the military-industrial complex ... its new global mission:
to intervene anywhere in the world on humanitarian grounds. The recipe is
easy: arm a group of radical secessionists to shoot policemen, describe
the inevitable police retaliation as "ethnic cleansing," promise the
rebels that NATO will bomb their enemy if the fighting goes on, and then
interpret the resulting mayhem as a challenge to NATO's "resolve" which
must be met by military action."
-- Diana Johnstone -- http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0599/0503.htm
Yuri Kuchinsky
: In article <7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>,
: yu...@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
: > Greater Serbia bad. Greater Albania, Croatia good. This proves that
: > NATzO and its henchman the Washington Post are a racist force of the
: > New Fourth Reich.
: NATO doesn't support a greater Albania or Greater Croatia.
NATzO lies not-stop about everything. But now they're admitting that they
want to redraw borders of FRY.
: > : The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
: > : their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and
: > : multiethnic partisans, and this decision led to collaboration
: > : between the Chetniks -- Djujic included -- and the Italian and
: > : German occupation forces. The Allies
: > : eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
: >
: > And that's why their leader Mihailovich was honoured by Truman in
: > 1948?
: According to you NATO (which includes the US) is the 4th Reich. So if
: your previous statement is to believed, how is being honored by the
: "4th Reich" something to be proud about?
I didn't say "proud about". All I'm saying is that the Chetniks fought
against Hitler, while Croatia and Albania fought for Hitler.
: The real reason Mihailovich
: was honored in any event was Cold War politics. In '48 Belgrade broke
: with the Soviets and the US was quick to try and take advantage.
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku -=O=- Toronto
"Suspicion is growing in some quarters that the breakup of Yugoslavia was
Robert Jerin
> Robert Jerin (banje...@worldnet.att.net) wrote on Sat, 25 Sep 1999
14:53:36 -0400:
>
there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
> : > refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
>
> : Aha, this is rather tricky on your part this appears to be only the
number
> : who sought asylum in Albania! But here is what the UNHCR report dated
> : December 1998 said....
>
> : "At mid-November, under 200,000 persons were thought to be still
displaced
> : within Kosovo, and there were no longer any significant groups without
solid
> : shelter. Many of the displaced remained in damaged shelter that was not
> : properly weather proof; the majority of the displaced were still with
host
> : families. More than 135,000 have sought refuge outside Kosovo."
>
> So how does this contradict what I said???
Duh, Yuri where did you learn your math. Or should we say where did you
learn your ethics! You stated very few and then used 20,000 refugees in
Albania, this is a far cry from the 135,000 reported by the UN. You are a
poor trickster at best!
>
> : Oh, I must have missed this in the UNHCR report or that of any credible
> : international organization.
>
> There's no doubt that there were at least 300,000 Albanian nationals who
> were in Kosovo illegally when NATzO started bombing. There are also bigger
> estimates. You have to remember that Kosovo was a lot richer than Albania
> which is dirt poor and wracked by political instability and gangs.
Yuri, once again you use numbers to spread propaganda! Where is the
credible source for the number of 300,000. And pleas no communist bull crap
nor that from the fascists in Belgrade.
Schlau
yu...@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
> Schlau (sch...@my-deja.com) wrote on Sat, 25 Sep 1999 20:22:43 GMT:
> : In article <7simch$7cf$3...@news2.tor.accglobal.net>,
> : yu...@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
>
> : > Greater Serbia bad. Greater Albania, Croatia good. This proves
> : > that NATzO and its henchman the Washington Post are a racist force
> : >of the New Fourth Reich.
>
> : NATO doesn't support a greater Albania or Greater Croatia.
>
> NATzO lies not-stop about everything.
Then I guess it has something in common with you.
> But now they're admitting that
> they want to redraw borders of FRY.
What does that have to do with your claims about NATO supporting a
Greater Croatia or Greater Albania? No one in NATO is proposing Kosovo
become part of Albania, nor is even the KLA.
> : > : The royalist Chetniks quickly began to see
> : > : their first priority as defeating the Communist-dominated and
> : > : multiethnic partisans, and this decision led to collaboration
> : > : between the Chetniks -- Djujic included -- and the Italian and
> : > : German occupation forces. The Allies
> : > : eventually renounced the Chetniks as Quislings.
> : >
> : > And that's why their leader Mihailovich was honoured by Truman in
> : > 1948?
>
> : According to you NATO (which includes the US) is the 4th Reich. So
> : if your previous statement is to believed, how is being honored by
> : the "4th Reich" something to be proud about?
>
> I didn't say "proud about". All I'm saying is that the Chetniks fought
> against Hitler, while Croatia and Albania fought for Hitler.
The Soviet Union fought against Hitler too, doesn't mean Stalin was a
nice guy tho or he didn't commit atrocities himself. In any event not
all Croatians or Albanians fought for the Axis. Tito himself was
half-Croatian.
--Oscar Schlaf--
"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore,
be regarded as a criminal offense."
- Edsgar Dijkstra
Yuri Kuchinsky
: Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message
: news:7sopm0$4rm$4...@news2.tor.accglobal.net...
: > Robert Jerin (banje...@worldnet.att.net) wrote on Sat, 25 Sep 1999
: 14:53:36 -0400:
: > : families. More than 135,000 have sought refuge outside Kosovo."
: >
: > So how does this contradict what I said???
: Duh, Yuri where did you learn your math. Or should we say where did you
: learn your ethics! You stated very few and then used 20,000 refugees in
: Albania, this is a far cry from the 135,000 reported by the UN. You are a
: poor trickster at best!
Stop lying. Here's my sig again. It is correct.
Reality check. Before March 24 there were over 1300 international
observers all over Kosovo. While a small scale guerrilla war was unleashed
there by the Western powers, there were still very few Kosovo Albanian
refugees outside Yugoslavia (UNHCR estimate for Albania is 20,000, but
Yuri Kuchinsky
: Yuri Kuchinsky <yu...@globalserve.net> wrote in message
: > There's no doubt that there were at least 300,000 Albanian nationals who
: > were in Kosovo illegally when NATzO started bombing. There are also bigger
: > estimates. You have to remember that Kosovo was a lot richer than Albania
: > which is dirt poor and wracked by political instability and gangs.
: Yuri, once again you use numbers to spread propaganda! Where is the
: credible source for the number of 300,000. And pleas no communist bull crap
: nor that from the fascists in Belgrade.
Well, this excludes all the relevant sources then... So what sources will
you accept? But, anyway, everyone knows there were at least 300,000
Albanian nationals who were in Kosovo illegally when NATzO started
bombing.
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku -=O=- Toronto
Is NATO a solution to Kosovo problem?