Archive
SREBRENICA GENOCIDE VIDEOS (USHMM)
VIDEO: RON HAVIV EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
Srebrenica genocide videos documented and published by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. can be viewed at this link.
They had taken a middle-aged man and a woman out of one of the houses. And the woman was screaming. And the soldiers were screaming. And they were screaming at me not to take photographs. And some shots rang out and the man fell to the ground.
A few minutes later, they brought out another woman and thenthey shot her as well.
And, and then things sort of calmed down for a bit, and then they brought out two more people, and they said “Look, look, he’s from Kosovo. He’s a fundamentalist.” And he put his arms up and basically looked at me as if I was probably the only person that could save him, which, probably in his mind I was, but unfortunately there wasn’t really anything I could do.
They brought him to the headquarters and as I was standing there I heard a great crash and I looked up and out of a second floor window, this man came flying out and landed at my feet.
And amazingly, he survived the fall and they came over and they doused him with some water.
They said something like, “This is to purify Muslim extremists,” as they doused him in the water.
And they started kicking him and beating him and then dragged him back into the home.
I had to make sure there was a document, that there had to be evidence of this crime, of what was happening.
And that, I think, gave me the courage to try — to take those photographs.
I was shaking, for sure, when I was doing it because I realized how precarious everything was, but I really thought it was unbelievably important to be able to have the world see what happened.
NEW SREBRENICA MASS GRAVE DISCOVERED
A new mass grave containing dozens of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide has been discovered in eastern Bosnia, an official said Tuesday.PHOTO 1-left: Bosnian Muslim woman who lost her relatives, walks away after visiting a Srebrenica genocide mass grave in an attempt to identify remains, in the village of Mrsici near the eastern Bosnian town of Vlasenica , 60 kms northeast of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, May 26, 2009. It is expected that dozens of bodies will be found, and identified by the DNA method.
PHOTO 2-right: Local Bosniaks who lost relatives in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, attempt to identify victims in a mass grave in the village of Mrsici.
“So far we have found the remains of nine people, but we expect to find remains of at least 20 people,” she told AFP. Exhumation was expected to continue for several days.
Victims from Srebrenica are in most cases found in secondary graves, where remains had been moved from initial burial sites in an attempt by Serbs to cover up the crimes.
PHOTO 3-center: A group of Bosnian Muslim survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide visit a newly discovered mass grave in the village of Mrsici near the eastern Bosnian town of Vlasenica, 60 kms northeast of Sarajevo, Tuesday, May 26, 2009.
US VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN IN SARAJEVO
PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden addresses the Bosnian parliament during his visit to Sarajevo May 19, 2009. Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the end of the Srebrenica genocide – Europe’s worst genocide since World War Two.
In September, Biden met with Rusmin Topalovic (view photo), president of the Association of Survivors of the Srebrenica Genocide in Saint Louis, and offered his wholehearted support to the survivors of the worst European carnage since World War II.
The Bosnian war claimed at least 100,000 lives and forced more than two million people to flee their homes as refugees. The 1995 Srebrenica genocide ended with 30,000 Bosniaks forcibly deported from the enclave in a mass scale ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Bosnian Serbs. In a matter of several days, Serbs summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosniaks, including at least 500 children, and dumped them into mass graves.
Biden has friendly relations with the Congress of North American Bosniaks (view photo), a highly effective organization that lobbies on behalf of Bosnia-Herzegovina and 350,000 Bosniaks living in the United States and Canada. In a photo provided by the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Mr. Biden shakes hands with the vice president Murat Muratovic.
Biden’s strong advocacy for human rights helped bring about U.S. military assistance and intervention against well armed Serb forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Biden consistently argued for lifting the arms embargo and training Bosnian government forces, so they could defend the country from Serbian aggression. He also argued for investigating war crimes and administering NATO air strikes.
Biden’s subsequent “lift and strike” resolution was instrumental in convincing President Bill Clinton to use military force in the face of systemic human rights violations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Biden has called his role in affecting Balkans policy his “proudest moment in public life” that related to foreign policy.
In Sarajevo as the highest-level US official to visit Bosnia since President Bill Clinton in 1999, Biden issued a stern warning to parliamentarians representing the country’s Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.
“Failure to do so will ensure you remain among the poorest countries in Europe. At worst, you’ll descend into ethnic chaos that defined your country for the better part of a decade.”In a speech to Bosnia’s ethnically mixed parliament, Biden pressed local leaders to agree on constitutional reforms that would bring progress and prosperity through Euro-Atlantic integration.
“The door is open for the countries of this region for the first time in history to be an integral part of a free Europe. The US will help you walk through that door,” Biden told the deputies.
“My country is worried… about the direction your country, your future, the future of your children is taking,” Biden told the Bosnian parliamentarians.
“For three years we have seen a sharp and dangerous rise in nationalist rhetoric… the very language that destroys states.
“The results are deepening distrust among communities and deadlock on reforms… This must stop! This must stop!” he stressed.
After more than three years of war, the United States brokered a peace agreement in 1995 in Dayton, Ohio. The deal preserved the country’s international borders but divided it into two ministates — one for Bosnia’s Christian Orthodox Serbs, the other to be shared by Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.
After Bosnia and Herzegovina, Biden will visit Belgrade, Serbia, and then Pristina, Republic of Kosovo. During this trip, Biden is expected to spend a day in each country meeting top local and international officials. He will also address each country’s parliament.
In 1998, Congressional Quarterly named Biden one of “Twelve Who Made a Difference” for playing a lead role in several foreign policy matters, including NATO enlargement and the successful passage of bills to streamline foreign affairs agencies and punish religious persecution overseas.
PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden talks with Haris Silajdzic, member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s collective presidency before their meeting in Sarajevo May 19, 2009. Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the genocide in Srebrenica. The 1995 Srebrenica genocide resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 30,000 Bosniaks, as well as summary executions of 8,372 people – including hundreds of children.
PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (3rd L), EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (2nd L) and Valetnin Inzko, the international peace envoy to Bosnia (L) meet members of Bosnia’s collective presidency and other officials in Sarajevo early May 19, 2009. Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the end of the Srebrenica genocide – Europe’s worst genocide since the Holocaust.
PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden addresses the Bosnian parliament during his visit to Sarajevo May 19, 2009. Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the Srebrenica genocide – Europe’s worst genocide since World War Two.
PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden prepares to board his plane prior to departure from Sarajevo International Airport, Wednesday May 20, 2009.
JASA ALMULI MINIMIZED THE HOLOCAUST
Short Intro: Jasa Almuli claimed that the Banjica concentration camp housed “only 455” Jews. Furthermore, he claimed that Serbian collaborationist fascists and their Nazi puppet government never harmed any Jews. He is also on record for claiming that there was no evidence of Serbian war crimes, “It’s NATO propaganda.”
Slobodan Milosevic retained Jasa Almuli to “rehabilitate” Serbian war crimes in the Balkans. Almuli actively participated in sending protest letters in the media, defending Serbia’s war crimes, and presenting himself as a single voice of the Jewish community in Serbia (later, local Jewish people forced him to resign and stop misrepresenting their cause in Serbia).
Like Milosevic’s close assistant, Smilja Avramov, Almuli was a Holocaust revisionist who – at the expense of Jewish victims – attempted to dissolve Serbian Nazi fascists from being accomplices to the Holocaust in World War II.
He used his close relationship with Milosevic and his credentials, as a local Jewish ‘leader,’ to campaign on behalf of the Serb nationalist cause – going as far as minimizing the Holocaust of Jews in Serbia.He claimed that Serbia’s quisling Nazi government and Serbia’s fascist puppet state, under the leadership of Milan Nedic, never passed any “anti – Jewish legislation,” never established or run any death camps for Jews, and “virtually no killing perpetrated.” He shamelessly claimed that the Serbian-operated concentration camp Banjica in Belgrade (background) imprisoned “only” 455 Jews.
However, historical facts tell a different story. In her book ‘Until the final solution: The Jews in Belgrade 1521-1942,’ historian Jennie Lebel (Zeni Lebl) writes:
“The decision [to establish the Banjica camp] was taken in the staff of the German military commander for Serbia on 22 June 1941, and the same day the chief of the administrative staff Dr Turner informed the first person of the Commissars’ Administration [Serbian quisling government] Milan Acimovic of it. As it was a question of a joint, Nazi-collaborationist camp, the carrying out of the order was entrusted to the administrator of the city of Belgrade, Dragi Jovanovic, i.e. to the Administration of the city of Belgrade, the Belgrade municipality and the Gestapo. Dragi Jovanovic appointed on 5 July Svetozar M. Vujkovic as the first manager of that first concentration camp in Belgrade; and for his assistant, Djordje Kosmajac. They maintained daily close contact with the Special Police and with them decided the question of life or death for tens of thousands of prisoners in the camp. The security of the camp was exercised by a special detachment of the gendarmerie of the city of Belgrade, under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and with the special engagement of the Department of the Special Police. The German part of the camp was under the administration of the Gestapo. The camp building had to be very quickly repaired and organised to suit its new purpose. According to the model of German concentration camps, metal walls, iron doors and bars were put up at Banjica, and grates were put on the windows. The first prisoners were brought to the newly formed camp already on 9 July, while the adaptation of the building was still in progress, even before the building of the high camp walls. The bringing of prisoners, Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, was carried out at a fast tempo, as were their daily executions.”
“Larger groups of Jews reached the camp at Banjica on 14, 15 and 16 September 1941. Among them appear the surnames of well known Belgrade Jewish families: Albano, Gris, Finci, Pijade, Konfino, Sabitaj, Demojorovic, Mandilovic, Ruso, Gozes, Solomon, Almulzino, Amar, Demajo, Benvenisti, Janjatovic, Frajdenfeld, Isakovic, Zonensajn, Nisim, Altarac, Singer, Adanja, Melamed, Karic, Masic, Kon, Nahimijas, Kabiljo, Naftali, Grinberger, Anaf, Mor, Razencvajg, Munk, Blau, Hercog, Gutman and others. From the Banat group there were in the Banjica camp four Jews, doctors by profession: Djordje Farago from Petrovgrad (Zrenjanin), Franjo Loza from Srpska Crnja, Pavle Miler from Kovino, and Branko Auspic from Vrsac. In those three days alone 202 Jews were brought to the camp at Banjica. All of these were transferred, as recorded in the first register of the Banjica camp, to a different camp on 17 September 1941. Because the camp at the Old Fairground still was not completely finished, this was probably a matter of transfer to the camp at Topovske supe. It is a still more likely assumption that they were then, or a little later, executed at the village of Jabuka in the Banat, where the first executions were carried out both of Banjica prisoners and of Jews imprisoned at Topovske supe…. It is not easy or straightforward to determine the number of Jews who resided at the camp at Banjica and from it taken to the execution site. Judging by the Banjica registers, that number just exceeded 900 individuals. However, not all Jews were recorded in the registers of the Banjica prisoners.”
Hoare continues, “The guard was kept by Nedic’s gendarmes, who were inhuman and, to show their loyalty to the Germans, often worse than the latter. They prohibited them things that the Germans sometimes permitted. At the entrance there were not many guards, and even on the occasion of the transport of the prisoners to work there was not a particularly prominent guard. But it was made clear to them that every attempt at escape would be punished most strictly. They were soon convinced of this: when some nevertheless attempted to escape and were caught, in front of all the prisoners they were hanged in the camp courtyard.”
Hoare quotes Serbian historian, Olivera Milosavljevic (Potisnuta istina: Kolaboracija u Srbiji 1941-1944, 2006), as exposing Milan Nedic’s anti-semitism. She wrote:
“The principle of a ‘clean’ nation encompassed all spheres of social life in [Milan] Nedic’s Serbia, in which state officials, professors, pupils and students had to demonstrate that they were Serbs. The ‘Aryan paragraph’ entered the official documents of Nedic’s goverment which, on the occasion of employment in state service, required that candidates provide evidence that they were of Serb nationality and ‘Aryan origin’ and that their families did not have ‘Jewish or Gypsy blood’. Confirmations were provided by the municipal authorities.”
“Although Serbian historians contend that the persecution of the Jews of Serbia was entirely the responsibility of Germans and began only with the German occupation, this is self- serving fiction. Fully six months before the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, Serbia had issued legislation restricting Jewish participation in the economy and university enrolment. One year later on 22 October 1941, the rabidly antisemitic ‘Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibit’ opened in occupied Belgrade, funded by the city of Belgrade. The central theme was an alleged Jewish- Communist-Masonic plot for world domination. Newspapers such as Obnova (Renewal) and Nasa Borba (Our Struggle) praised this exhibit, proclaiming that Jews were the ancient enemies of the Serbian people and that Serbs should not wait for the Germans to begin the extermination of the Jews. A few months later, Serbian authorities issued postage stamps commemorating the opening of this popular exhibit. These stamps, which juxtaposed Jewish and Serbian symbols (but did not contain Nazi symbols), portrayed Judaism as the source of world evil and advocated the humiliation and violent subjugation of Jews. Serbia as well as neighboring Croatia was under Axis occupation during the Second World War. Although the efficient destruction of Serbian Jewry in the first two years of German occupation has been well documented by respected sources, the extent to which Serbia actively collaborated in that destruction has been less recognized. The Serbian government under General Milan Nedic worked closely with local Naziofficials in making Belgrade the first ‘Judenfrei’ city of Europe. As late as 19 September 1943, Nedic made an official visit to Adolf Hitler, Serbs in Berlin advanced the idea that the Serbs were the ‘Ubermenchen’ (master race) of the Slavs.”
“I have said, that the Christian nations have become so blind, that they see danger in every imperialism – except the most dangerous imperialism: the Jewish’; ‘Only the Jew could on the one hand be the creator and user of capitalism, and on the other create Marxism and lead revolutions, supposedly against capitalism’; ‘And to the Jews it must be clear that for the forseeable future the realisation of their dream of world revolution is ended’; ‘You will only then, with the fall of red Bolshevik Moscow, see what wrong toward the Russian nation and toward you, Serbian tribe, has been committed by those renegades, who convinced you that that Jewish-Unrussian creation is – your Slavic Russia.”
Jasa Almuli is also known for attacking Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Belgrade, because the Helsinki Committee’s 2006 report stated historical fact, namely that:
“During the course of the Second World War, the Jews in Serbia perished at a high rate, not only at the hands of the German occupation authorities, but at the hands of the Government of National Salvation of Milan Nedic, the Ljoticites [Serbian fascists], gendarmes and Special Police, whose effective work contributed to the fact that, already in August 1942, Belgrade, as the first European capital city, was proclaimed a city cleansed of Jews (Judenrein).”
BOSNIAN MUSLIM BOY DESCRIBES HOLOCAUST SUFFERING OF SAMUEL R. HARRIS
On April 29, 2009 at William Howard Taft High School, Samuel R. Harris came as a guest speaker. He spoke to the 7th grade Academic Center students during their 6th period class. Mr. Harris was invited to talk about the Holocaust. The 7th grade language arts teacher Mrs. Asvos has been having us reading “Night” by Elie Wiesel which is about the Holocaust. Ms. Asvos worked hard and got Mr. Harris to come to our school.
Samuel R. Harris is the current president of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. At the opening of his Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, Bill Clinton (Former President) gave a speech along with Elie Wiesel and other speakers too. Samuel R. Harris lives with his wife Dede in the suburbs of Chicago. Samuel Harris started off telling us about his childhood. He told us that when he was born his Polish name was Szlamek Rzeznik. He lived in Deblin, Poland. Sammy had two sisters and one brother. His dad was a scribe. Harris had polio caritits which made him almost completely blind. His mom put eye drops in his eyes that helped them heal and he recovered.
When he was about four and a half years he witnessed a Polish airplane get destroyed by a Nazi airplane. Ever since then, the situation got worse in Poland. He told us how he remembered that one day the Nazis came into Deblin. They stormed and were yelling, they beat the Jewish men. As Harris said, “I don’t say the Germans I say the Nazis because not all Germans are bad.”
The Nazis made a ghetto; they closed the town down with a barbwire fence. The Nazis would come and take the Jews and put them in train carts in which they were sent to the concentration camps. Harris had hardly anything to eat; the whole town barely had anything to eat. They were being starved.
The day came when the Nazis came in and told the Jews to line up outside. His family hurried and got outside. There were many gunshots. Many men were whipped or beaten. There Harris stood with his family right next to his father. His father told Harris to run into a bundle of sticks that was near by and to hide there and not move. Harris quickly and quietly ran to the bundle of sticks and hid behind them. When he came there his sister was there too. There they watched the Jews get sent into the train carts. From that moment on he never saw his mother or father ever again. He had to run and hide for a couple of years. Harris faced death many times when he was little. This was all going on for him while he was only 4, 5, 6, 7 years of age. Samuel went through concentration camps, near death experiences, and seeing hundreds of dead bodies.
Harris is very thankful to be alive. He and his two sisters survived. One of his sisters lives in Austria and the other sister lives in Buffalo Grove, IL. After he gave his story about his life, he answered questions.
Ms. Asvos asked me to explain about what my mom Sanja Seferovic Drnovsek and aunt Selena do for the Bosnian Community to Mr. Harris. I told Mr. Harris , “My mom held a educational meeting at Sulzer Library in Chicago. The theme was about Genocide Prevention. She invited a professor Michael Sells from the University of Chicago who wrote a book about a genocide in Bosnia. She also got a representative for the Darfur Genocide who explained what was going on in Darfur and how the International community could help to stop genocide. There were the editors of Bosnian magazines and TV.
Two Bosnian women gave the testimonies about genocide in Srebrenica, my mom wrote stories about them because they were too emotional to talk about their sons, husbands and fathers who were killed . They were in the library. We read those stories and looked at their photos. The point of the gathering was to prevent genocide from happening again. She talked about the holocaust too. She’s been working really hard to spread the word about the Srebrenica Genocide.
Harris said, right after I finished, “Give great thanks to your mom, she is doing a great thing. The point of me coming here and giving speeches is to spread the word, the same purpose that your mom had on that event about genocide prevention. We have to stop bullies. Hitler was a bully. [Radovan] Karadzic was also a bully. We have to stop bullies so the Holocaust and genocides won’t happen again.”
Furthermore, he stated how the president of Iran said that the holocaust didn’t happen, that people are saying that the holocaust didn’t happen. That’s an example of why we should talk about holocaust and genocides. How could they it’s say a lie?
Harris finished answering other students’ questions. When he finished he came right to me and shook my hand. I told him that my grandfather, Mensur Seferovic, fought in World War II and fought with the allies. He also was captured by the Italians and was in a concentration camp. My grandfather wrote 23 books about the war and life.
”I hope to follow my mother’s path and become a part of genocide prevention and spread the word. My aunt had, as well , an interview with Elie Wiesel.”
Mr. Harris was very pleased. He congratulated me and my family. He told me that Elie Wiesel is his friend and that he spoke with him when they had the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Skokie.
At the end, Mr. Harris was selling his book SAMMY: Child Survivor of the Holocaust, for $10. He gave me one for free and signed it on the inside cover of the book because I knew and he knew that my mom would love to read his book. I shook his hand again for the last time and thanked him for coming to our school.
NEBOJSA MALIC, DISGRACED GENOCIDE DENIER
NEBOJSA MALIC’S TWISTED MIND OF GENOCIDE DENIAL
Discredited genocide denier and an amateur ‘historian,’ Nebojsa Malic (photo), is back to his old tricks again. As a long-time apologist for Serb(ian) war crimes, Malic acts as a parrot for shameless Belgrade propaganda.
Malic does not have any PhD qualification in history, He has never held an academic post, published his work in an academic journal, or even visited an archive. For the purpose of self-promotion, he alleges that he “had exposure to diplomatic and media affairs in Sarajevo,” but our sources in Sarajevo could not confirm his so called “exposure” to anything except numerous racist web sites that enjoy republishing his propaganda.
Since 2000, unqualified Nebojsa Malic has been tirelessly writing for Antiwar.com – a website where conspiracy theorists and Srebrenica genocide deniers come together to rewrite the history, and condemn the “West” for being “Anti-Serb.” In his mind, Serbs and Serbia are so “important” that the “West” had to conspire against them.
In his latest genocide denial article, titled “Matter of Opinion,” Malic claims that the Srebrenica genocide case rests on only one witness, namely Drazen Erdemovic. To be exact, “the ICTY’s entire case on Srebrenica rests on the testimony of one man,” clueless Malic alleges in his article.
But, the facts tell a different story. In a landmark genocide case involving Radislav Krstic, more than 100 Srebrenica genocide witnesses were called to testify (see Case Information Sheet). Since then, at least seven (7) other Serbs were convicted on genocide charges by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina with international judges presiding.
To prove his “one witness” argument, Malic provided a link to John Laughland’s article in which Laughland reviewed a book of an obscure Bulgarian author Germinal Civikov. In his book review, Laughland cited Jonathan Rooper as an authority on Srebrenica. What a joke. One can notice a circle of genocide deniers quoting each other as sources – how convenient. Both Laughland and Rooper are well known supporters of Milosevic-Karadzic apologist camp. Furthermore, they are shameless Srebrenica genocide deniers. Like Malic, they have no credibility and no academic journal would even take their opinions into consideration.
John Laughland is a member of the so called “British Helsinki Human Rights Group,” which is not a genuine human rights organization. Despite its name, the organization is not affiliated to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. Laughland’s organization appears to have fallen on hard times recently, with its funding falling by nearly 99% after 2001. A possible reason is suggested by The Economist, which reports that “the group lost almost all its supporters when it threw its weight behind people like Mr Milosevic.”
Malic’s weak arguments are followed by a string of half-truths and distortions. He blames Bosniak victims – who found themselves trapped in the Srebrenica ghetto – for using the enclave to attack “surrounding Serb villages constantly” and for not demilitarizing. However, according to the United Nations’ findings, the Serbs were asked to withdraw their heavy weapons before the Bosniaks gave up their weapons. Serbs never demilitarized around Srebrenica. Heavily militarized Serb villages around Srebrenica were used as bases for attacks on Srebrenica. In order to prolong the suffering of innocent victims, Serbs around Srebrenica would barricade Bosnian Muslim women, children, and elderly men in abandoned houses and then set them on fire alive – see photo gallery of burned Bosnian Muslim civilians in 1992 (3 years before Serbs committed the genocide!).
Recently, Srebrenica survivors commemorated 17th anniversary of the Bosnian Serb attacks on Srebrenica. Serbs started massacring Bosnian Muslim civilians in May 1992. This was more more than three years before the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, read here.
Malic is troubled because Srebrenica Genocide Blog – at the request of our Jewish readers – published historical facts about Serbia’s Nazi past and Serbian involvement in both the Holocaust of Jews (read here) and the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in World War II (read here). To this day, Serbian Nazi Chetnik supporters, like Nebojsa Malic, refuse to acknowledge the Serbian involvement in the holocaust of Jews in Serbia, as well as Serbian involvement in World War II genocide of Bosnian Muslims (see 1943 genocide of Bosniaks in and around Srebrenica).
Nebojsa Malic is so blinded by a radical Serbian ultra-nationalism that he declares Srebrenica genocide mass graves “nonexistent.” Furthermore, Malic claims that “the very attempt to call what happened in Srebrenica ‘genocide’ ought to be an insult to the documented, systematically exterminated victims of the Holocaust.” In fact, his statement is an insult to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that recognizes Srebrenica Genocide. It is also an insult to the Jewish Holocaust survivors, like Ellie Wiesel and Samuel R. Harris, who also recognize Srebrenica genocide and condemn war criminals like Radovan Karadzic.
As a sideline, it is important to note that the ICTY found the acts of genocide were perpetrated not only in Srebrenica, but also elsewhere in Bosnia (example: Krajisnik case). However, in Krajisnik’s case, the intent – notoriously difficult to prove – had not been established. With respect to 100,000 dead figure, it only includes known direct deaths. It is not a final number of dead in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The ICTY-backed Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo is preparing a new research that would take into account indirect deaths and population losses, which could amount to another 100,000 victims (or over 200,000 total).
Little does Nebojsa Malic know. On 26 September 1997 Germany handed down the first Bosnian Genocide conviction. Nikola Jorgic was found guilty by the Düsseldorf, Germany, Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) on 11 counts of genocide. His appeal was rejected by the German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court) on 30 April 1999. He was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for his involvement in the Bosnian Genocide. Jorgic challenged the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing the German court did not have jurisdiction over the case. On July 12th 2007 – responding to Jorgic’s appeal – European Court of Human Rights upheld Bosnia Genocide judgment and a life term for a Nicola Jorgic for committing acts of genocide in Bosnia during the ethnic cleansing in 1992.
In his “Matter of Opinion” article, unqualified Malic attacks the reality of Bosnian concentration camps by repeating old denial arguments produced by an obscure communist magazine known as the “Living Marxism.” The magazine’s self-proclaimed “investigative journalist” Thomas Deichmann (who had no training in journalism whatsoever) served as an apologist for the Serbian war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The same defunct pro-Milosevic magazine claimed that the pictures of emaciated Bosniaks and Croats in concentration camps were fake. The magazine failed to prove “nonexistence” of concentration camps in Bosnia and the ITN lawsuit forced them into bankruptcy.
The existence of the Serb-run concentration camps – in which Bosniaks and Croats were tortured and killed – was confirmed by numerous witnesses and survivors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Furthermore, the authenticity of concentration camp photographs was also confirmed by the UN-backed ICTY forensic experts. See our photo gallery: Remembering Concentration Camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Also see, Jerusalem Post remembers Bosniaks and Croats in Serb-operated Concentration Camps in Bosnia.
Considering that Nebojsa Malic refers to the U.N.-backed ICTY as the “Hague Inquisition” and “the illegitimate ICTY,” we wonder what else can be said about Nebojsa Malic’s credibility? What else can be said about a genocide denier; a man without credibility; a man blinded by a radical Serbian ultranationalism; a man without appreciation for historical facts; a man disconnected with reality. No wonder a long time Jewish friend of ours described Nebojsa Malic as “insensitive pig.”
Opinions are cheap. Everybody has them, yet they are not worth much. On the other hand, Srebrenica genocide is not a matter of anybody’s opinion; it’s a judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and subsequently by the International Court of Justice. End of story.
17 ANNIVERSARY SINCE MAY 1992 MASSACRES OF BOSNIAKS IN SREBRENICA
Surrounding Serb villages around Srebrenica were used as terrorist bases from which Serbs attacked and killed thousands of Bosniak civilians in Srebrenica.
On May 8th, 1992, in downtown Srebrenica, Serbs killed 23 Bosniak civilians – men, women, children, and elderly. Most victims were burned in their homes in Srebrenica. The youngest victims was 1 year old Nezir Suljic.
Other victims killed on May 8 1992: Avdo Jelkic, Behka Jelkić, Esed Fazlić, Izeta Fazlić, Avdo Dautbašić, Salko Jusić, Mehmed Salimović, Meva Salimović, Hamed Gušić, Asim Redžić, Safet Kulaglić, Muharem Dizdarević, Meho Vejzović, Muša Vejzović, Redžep Redžepović, Bejta Redžepović, Huso Suljić, Muška Suljić, Nisvet Suljić, Nezir Suljić, Omer Murathodžić, Ohran Mujić and Jakub Abdurahmanović.
Between April 18 and May 8 1992, Sabira Cvrk and Rahman Kaljević had also lost their lives as a result of Serb attacks from surrounding Serb villages around Srebrenica.
By the end of May, Serbs had killed 15 Bosniaks in Skelani, and another 51 Bosniaks in Srebrenica.
Bosniaks held commemoration of the17th anniversary of Serb terror in and around Srebrenica in Zabokvica village. The manifestation was titled “Day of Remembrance.” Participants prayed for innocent Muslim victims in a White Mosque in Srebrenica and they also visited Mosque’s cemetery where most victims were laid to rest.
MONUMENT TO 1600 SARAJEVO CHILDREN KILLED BY SERBIAN TERRORISTS
PHOTO: Bosnian girls lay flowers at a newly inaugurated memorial to children of Sarajevo, Saturday, May 9, 2009. The memorial is dedicated to the children of Sarajevo who were killed by the Bosnian Serb troops during the 43-months siege of Bosnia’s capital during which more than 12,000 people, including more than 1,600 children, were killed.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted two Serb generals of numerous crimes against humanity, including on terror charges, in their conduct of the siege. Serb Gen. Stanislav Galic and Gen. Dragomir Milosevic were found guilty on terrorist charges and sentenced to life imprisonment and 33 years imprisonment, respectively.
The monument consists of a glass unfinished sand castle in the shape of a pyramid. It symbolises the play of children being cut short by death. The pyramid has partially been made from the spent cartridges that were found in the city after the war.
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People’s Army (later to become the Army of Serbia and Montenegro) besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996 during the Bosnian War.
PHOTO: Bosnian children throw flowers into the Miljacka river from a bridge where the first civilian victim of Sarajevo’s 1992-1995 siege was killed April 6, 2009. The Bosnian capital marks each April 6 as the anniversary date of the beginning of its devastating siege.
After Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence from Yugoslavia the Serbs – whose strategic goal was to create a new Serbian State of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina – encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 18,000 stationed in the surrounding hills, from which they assaulted the city with weapons that included artillery, mortars, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine-guns, multiple rocket launchers, rocket-launched aircraft bombs, and sniper rifles. From May 2, 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city.
The Bosnian government defence forces were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege. More than 12,000 civilians were killed during the Sarajevo siege. The three-and-a-half year war claimed at least 100,000 lives, and 2.2 million people were forced to flee.
DON’T MISS – Editor’s Picks:
(1.) General Lewis MacKenzie: Sarajevo Concentration Camp Rapist with Diplomatic Immunity
(2.) Translated Transcript of Genocide Prevention Ceremony in Sarajevo (2009)
(3.) VIDEO: Genocide Prevention Month in Sarajevo (2009)
(4.) United Nations Report: Serbs Responsible for 1995 Sarajevo Markale Market Massacre
(5.) VIDEO: Upcoming Genocide Conference in Sarajevo, Kathleen Young (2007)
(6. Serb Gen Stanislav Galic guilty of Sarajevo terrorism & markale massacre
(7.) U.N. Court rules Serbs responsible for 1994 Sarajevo’s markale massacre
(8.) U.N. Conclussions: Serbs responsible for 1995 Sarajevo’s markale massacre
(9.) Life Imprisonment for Sarajevo Terror: Serb Gen. Stanislav Galic Transfered to Germany
(10.) Milorad Trbic transfered to Sarajevo to stand Genocide Trial
(11.) Rupert Smith Markale Massacre Testimony in Front of the U.N Court: “No evidence Muslims shelled themselves”
(12.) David Harland Markale Massacre Testimony in Front of the U.N. Court: Witness Admits Responsibility for Neutral Statement Leading to Serbian Myths and Propaganda About Markale Massacre in Sarajevo
(13.) VIDEO: Christmas Eve in Sarajevo (2007)
(14.) Pictures of Beautiful Sarajevo, photo tour (2005)
(15.) Use Search Box in the left-hand top corner to find more in-depth research by Srebrenica Genocide Blog Team.
U.N. TRIBUNAL DESTROYS EVIDENCE OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
PHOTO: Victim’s belongings found inside of
Srebrenica genocide mass grave in Snagovo.
“This material was of enormous historical value,” says one former investigator, who asked not to be named because of his work with the tribunal. “This was the biggest act of killing in Europe since the Nazis. This was genocide. And for some of the families of the victims, this may have been all they had to mark their loss. This should be a scandal.”
BIRN had earlier revealed that it had received some indications suggesting that the material, that may have provided evidence pertaining to their murder, was destroyed.
During a meeting Wednesday with representatives of the Association of the Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa, Serge Bremmertz, Chief Prosecutor from the Hague said that around 1000 materials found in mass graves with bodies of people killed after the fall of Srebrenica were destroyed due to a potential health hazard. Bremmertz said that the Prosecution has data about all those materials.
Muniba Subasic, president of the Association, told BIRN that Bremmertz explained that the destruction was not done during his mandate in the Hague, but that it was part of a regular procedure.
“We are strongly against that. Next month we will go to The Hague and meet with the ICTY president and some other people and tell them that we are unsatisfied because of this,” said Subasic.
She added that she was aware that Hague investigators did find some things in some of the mass graves, and that that material was taken away.
“It is usually like that, when people from the Hague are at exhumations, they take away everything they find. If an exhumation is done only by domestic people, they usually call members of families and they ask us what we want to be done with the things they find. That is how I found a cigarette box from my late husband. I took it and give to museum in Srebrenica,” added Subasic.
BIRN began to investigate the story after journalist Michael Montgomery (photo on the left) wrote about the case on his Blog, alleging that the destroyed material included a certain number of identification cards found in mass graves in which the killed Srebrenica residents were buried. Available unconfirmed data suggest that the personal identification cards were burnt at the Hague and their destruction was authorised by the Prosecutor’s Office at the Hague.
Montgomery’s sources claim that neither the Bosnian authorities nor the Srebrenica victims’ families have been informed of this.
“I have never heard of that. It is hard to believe in it,” Hajra Catic, who left Potocari after joining a convoy of other women in July 1995, told BIRN.
Catic says that most Srebrenica residents did not have their personal documents with them at the time.
“We simply did not think about that, considering all other things that were happening at the time,” Catic says.
Montgomery writes that three different sources had confirmed to him that the documents had been destroyed.
“This material was of enormous historical value,” one former investigator told Montgomery. “This was the biggest act of killing in Europe since the Nazis. This was genocide. And for some of the families of the victims, this may have been all they had to mark their loss. This should be a scandal.”
BIRN found out that the Prosecutor’s Office normally destroys some of the collected material after a certain period of time, unless the material has been admitted as evidence by the Court in the meantime.
In the course of the proceedings both the Prosecution and Defence teams propose their own evidence. The Trial Chambers then render decisions concerning the validity of the proposed evidence.
Srebrenica Massacre 
