Informazione
Alla scoperta della Serbia e dei suoi tesori
La Serbia è un piccolo scrigno di arte e cultura poco conosciuto e pochissimo visitato. Il suo patrimonio artistico - in particolare l'architettura religiosa - la sua musica e le sue danze sono una scoperta anche per il più smaliziato dei viaggiatori.
Chi volesse averne un assaggio, è invitato ad una serata presso
Roberto Sabatini - GATTACCA viaggi
In collaborazione con INCONCA - lo specialista di abbigliamento per
velisti - e TURISTIPERCASO
alla fisarmonica il Maestro JJ Balval
The Crown Witness at The Hague
The ICJ ruling also systematically dismissed the Bosnian Muslims’ claims that Bosnian Serb forces were trying to wipe them out as a nation. The Bosnians adduced a massive amount of material from the grisly to the ridiculous. Some of this material has since been found to be untrue, such as a the famous claim that a Bosnian Serb camp guard forced one Muslim inmate to bite off another inmate’s testicles; other claims were always absurd, such as that genocide was demonstrated when Bosnian Serb soldiers caused “mental harm” to Muslims by forcing them to make the sign of the cross.
But even where the Court found that abuses had occurred, it did not classify them as genocide – with one famous exception. Along the hundreds of pages of claims about genocide allegedly perpetrated over many years by the Bosnian Muslims in 1993 (they submitted new claims in 1996) only the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995 is left standing. It and it alone has been classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and consequently by the ICJ too (which simply follows the ICTY’s rulings).
But what is the evidence for the finding that genocide was committed at Srebrenica? I am not asking this question in the useful sense in which it has been asked (and answered) by investigators such as Jonathan Rooper. I am asking what evidence was submitted in court at the ICTY in support of this uniquely successful claim.
Germinal Civikov is a native of Bulgaria who lives in The Hague and Cologne. His book, “Srebrenica: Der Kronzeuge” (Wien: Promedia, 2009) is written in a limpid and often humorous style. Its findings are devastating. Civikov explains that the ICTY ruling that genocide was committed at Srebrenica on the orders of the Bosnian Serb leadership is based on the testimony of a single witness, a self-confessed perpetrator of one of the massacres called Drazen Erdemovic. Civikov’s discussion of the “crown witness” and his evidence reads like a detective thriller: in fact, it should be made into a film.
Erdemovic originally surfaced in 1996 after he had been arrested in Yugoslavia for war crimes. He contacted the Prosecutor in The Hague because he believed that he would be given immunity from prosecution in return for evidence. Transferred to The Hague, he was himself charged with crimes against humanity, to which he pleaded guilty having admitted taking part in a massacre of 1,200 Muslim civilians of which personally killed about 100. For this act of mass murder, Erdemovic was given a 10 year prison sentence by the ICTY, reduced to 5 years on appeal because he had cooperated so well with the Prosecutor. But there was never any trial because he pleaded guilty and so he was never cross-examined. He was released from prison shortly after his conviction, since he was considered to have served most of his sentence already, and he now lives with a protected identity in a North West European country. This mass murderer could well be your neighbour.
Civikov’s interest in the case was aroused when he started to reflect on the veracity of Erdemovic’s testimony. The prisoners, he claimed, were shot in groups of 10. They were bussed in, taken off the busses, marched to the execution spot in a field several hundred metres away, frisked for their possessions, and shot. Arguments broke out between the executioners and the victims; the executioners drank and quarrelled; there were some moving scenes such as when Erdemovic tried to save an old man but eventually had to kill him like the others. Quite simply, Civikov reasoned, it is not possible to kill 1,200 people this way in 5 hours unless one assumes that each group of 10 men was killed in 2.5 minutes. Even if it had taken only 10 minutes to kill each group, itself an achievement, it would instead have taken some 20 hours to kill so many people. If you do the maths you will see that he is right.
Throughout the thirteen years since Erdemovic has been telling his story in four different trials, not one of the ICTY judges ever did this simple calculation or questioned the veracity of his account. Instead, Erdemovic was summoned back again and again from his new life to tell his story. On several occasions, he named his seven co-perpetrators. At one of the earlier hearings, a judge asked the Prosecutor whether these other men were going to be apprehended and he was told that they would be. But not only has the Office of the Prosecutor never tried to arrest or even question these men, one of them (the unit commander) lives in Belgrade and had given interviews to the Serbian press while another was arrested on a different matter in the United States without any extradition request ever being made against him by The Hague. It is as if the Prosecution is determined to prevent anyone else from giving his account of events.
Apart from the admission about the massacre, the key point about Erdemovic’s testimony is that he alleges that his unit acted on orders from the Bosnian Serb leadership. Yet as Civikov shows with excruciating attention to detail, Erdemovic’s own statements about the command structure in his little platoon are self-contradictory and untrue. He claims that he was forced to commit this massacre and that the orders came from one of his co-perpetrators, Brano Gojkovic. But as Civikov shows, and as even the Prosecution at one point had to admit, this Gojkovic was an ordinary soldier who could not give orders to anyone. Instead, as Civikov also demonstrates, it turns out that Erdemovic himself was a sergeant (he lied to the contrary in Court, claiming that he had been stripped of his rank) while another of the perpetrators was a lieutenant. It is obviously impossible for a private to give orders to two officers and other soldiers to commit war crimes. But if this evidence is faulty, then how valuable is Erdemovic’s claim that Gojkovic’s orders came from the Bosnian Serb HQ in Pale?
Erdemovic has presented himself, including in the media, as a pathetic victim of the Bosnian war. He did what he did because he had to. A sort of novel has even been written about him, as have newspaper articles, in which he is elevated to the status of a holy fool. Civikov wades through years of evidence, spanning a decade, to show that in fact Erdemovic is a pathological liar, as well as a callous murderer. He was not a conscripted soldier who was forced to fight, but instead a mercenary who fought on all three sides in the Bosnian civil war. He was not forced, on pain of death, to commit the massacre, as he claimed in court. On the contrary, Civikov shows that his unit wason leave when the massacre was committed. He was not the victim of a later murder attempt to prevent him from testifying, as he also said in court, but instead a criminal and a thug who quarrelled over money with his fellow murderers and who, by his own admission, is prone to blind fits of violence and anger. During his time in the other Bosnian armies (Croat and Muslim) he had evidently been an unscrupulous war profiteer who extracted money from people in return for their safe passage.
Civikov has convinced me that the following is what really happened. Erdemovic belonged to a mercenary unit which was on leave after the fall of Srebrenica. On 15 July 1995, someone evidently offered him and some other mercenaries on leave a lot of money (gold, in fact) to commit a war crime, in this case a massacre of prisoners. In other words, the Bosnian Serb authorities had nothing to do with it – and hence the ludicrous story about the private giving orders. (Perhaps he was the one with the cash.) The mercenaries then hijacked busses of prisoners which were on their way to be exchanged by the Bosnian Serb authorities – to the horror of the unsuspecting bus drivers, and of course of the prisoners themselves – and murdered them. A few days later, there was a fight in a bar over the money and the former comrades starting shooting at each other: Erdemovic was hit in the stomach and later sentimentalised the scar in Court by lifting up his shirt to claim that they had tried to kill him to prevent him from testifying. Escaping from this situation by fleeing into Yugoslavia, he was unexpectedly arrested by the Yugoslav authorities from whom he managed to escape by securing his transfer to The Hague, where his self-interest in receiving a light sentence, coupled with his ability to spin yarns, made him a perfect Prosecution witness. The Prosecution won out on the deal because it gained “proof” of both genocide and command responsibility – which enabled it to go after the “big fish” like Karadzic and Mladic in headline prosecutions – while Erdemovic won out too because he has not only been let off for mass murder, but has also been given a new life, a house and presumably some sort of income. This, I repeat, is the witness on whose evidence alone the finding of genocide at the ICTY is based.
Outstanding questions remain. Who offered the mercenaries money and why? Civikov’s book is scrupulously rooted in documentary evidence and there is no documentary evidence to support a clear answer to this question. However, there are speculations and Civikov discusses them. As Milosevic said during his own gripping cross-examination of Erdemovic – gripping because, whenever he started to get close to the truth, Judge Richard May intervened to prevent him from pursuing his line of questioning – there were reports in Serbia of a rogue French secret service unit operating on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and later involved in a plot to overthrow him, known as “Operation Spider”. There had also been reports that these people had been present at Srebrenica. The West, it is implied, “needed” a big atrocity at Srebrenica, and it was indeed immediately following the fall of that town - and thanks largely to pressure exerted by the French president, Jacques Chirac, who took the lead on the matter – that NATO intervened and bought an end to the Bosnian war. As it bombed Bosnian Serb targets, the Americans helped Croatia to launch “Operation Storm” in which over a quarter of a million Serbs were driven out of the Krajina. Defeated and marginalised as war criminals, the Bosnian Serb leaders were barred from attending the peace conference at Dayton, where a deal was imposed by the Americans.
Funnily enough, evidence seems to have just emerged that the Croatian authorities manufactured a pretext for Operation Storm. Is it true? Did the same thing happen with Srebrenica? One thing is sure: manufacturing pretexts for military action is the oldest trick in the book. Please read Civikov’s book if you can read German: it is brilliant.
John Laughland is Director of Studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris.
Ten years later, US media has selectively forgotten this event, and re-examinations by US authorities are rare. "Mistaken Bombing" is the final explanation and attitude of the US.
A member of the US president China-focused advisory group said that China has already risen 10 years after the event, and the relations between China and the US have been stable and developed a good momentum. The "Mistaken Bombing" has become a blip in history. Experts on China's military issues believe however, that over the past 10 years, it is just because China has made such tremendous and sincere efforts that the cooperation between China and the US has expanded rather than stagnated. Taking into account that this event is a page already turned in history, the alertness and latent hostility that the US holds towards China seems not to have vanished. The best example to prove this issue is with the results from the monitoring of US troop ships in Chinese seas over the past two months.
Before and after May 7 every year, wreaths and garlands that were laid by the entire staff of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, local Chinese organizations, Siberian non-governmental organizations and individuals can be seen in front of the Chinese embassy that was bombed. On noon of May 7 2009, people set up a monument in front of the bombed embassy. Wei Jinghua, the Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Serbia and Dragan Ailas, Mayor of Belgrade, unveiled and laid flowers by the monument. It is engraved with words in both Chinese and Serbian: "Hereby, thanks for the support and friendship that the People's Republic of China has given to the People of the Republic of Serbia during one of their toughest moments. This monument is established to mourn after the victims". A local municipal official who attended this activity said that the international community manipulated by the US did not make the appropriate response nor conduct in-depth investigations to the embassy bombing.
Global Times reporters learned that as early as February this year, supporters of China in Serbia including the rector of the University of Belgrade, the president of the Serbia-China Friendship Association and the dean of the Confucius Institute had jointly wrote a letter to the city government of Belgrade. They proposed to put up memorial tablets for three martyrs—Shao Yunhuan, Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying. At 12 pm sharp on March 24, the entire nation of Serbia sounded the alarm to mourn for the victims of the NATO bombing 10 years ago. It also reminded people that Serbia will not forget this part of history.
NATO issued a statement after its barbarous bombing of the Chinese Embassy, stating that it feels regret for any injuries caused to the Chinese Embassy and China's diplomats. The US and NATO apologized by saying that intelligence officials used out-of-date maps although the Chinese Embassy's building stands out in Belgrade. This bombing might further complicate the West's efforts to ensure a resolution through diplomatic means of disputes over Kosovo, and cause tension in China-US relations. The New York Times reported on May 9, 1999 that, "People in Belgrade said that it was difficult to confuse the Chinese Embassy with the intended target. The Chinese Embassy is a marble structure with blue mirrored glass and flies the Chinese flag, while [the intended target] is housed in a white office building" and has a longer history.
The US also meditated on its own errors after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy. Cohen, the then Defense Secretary, announced that existing maps of American defense works, as well as intelligence records, would be upgraded so as to accurately reflect the precise coordinates of foreign embassies and other locations of interest. The Boston Globe reported on April 12, 2000, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) punished seven employees responsible for the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The Washington Post reported on April 11 the same year that the CIA had made investigations and imposed related punishment's in connection with the previous year's bombing of the Chinese embassy. White House officials had consistently insisted that the bombing was an accident which had resulted from a series of errors incurred as a result of the use of outdated maps. They had planned to bomb a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia weapons procurement department, but the bombs actually hit the Chinese Embassy several hundred yards away. After the South China Sea incident in March this year in which Chinese and US vessels engaged in a confrontation, a report by the Los Angeles Times mentioned the embassy bombing and related killing of three Chinese reporters when listing the military and diplomatic frictions between China and the US by quoting Reuters news. The report stated that US President Clinton and other US officials had expressed apologies for this tragic mistake and an angry China had delayed the talks for its accession into the WTO by three months.
The NATO allies stood in line with the US on the embassy bombing event. An executive of Thales Group, a major French defensive product manufacturer, once told reporters that there would not be any country in the world that would have done such things to China intentionally, and even the US had to think out what consequences it might face if it resorted to forces against a country with a whole series of nuclear arms and veto power in the UN Security Council.
Kenneth Lieberthal, former China advisor to the Obama campaign, said that many historical events were often mentioned at recent seminars organized by Washington think tanks, including the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the US, the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and others. For instance, the tenth anniversary of the Chinese Embassy bombing was mentioned in a seminar made to Chinese youth held by the US Brookings Institution at the end of April. He thinks that the views on the "mistaken bombing" have already taken root in the US, the persons responsible for the "mistaken bombing" have already passed away, and the embassy bombing has been gradually forgotten in the US. Ten years later, China has risen up, China-US bilateral ties have stabilized, the general situation is changing for the better, and the "mistaken bombing" has already become a moment in history.
China's military expert Dai Xu said the US would certainly not say it bombed the embassy "on purpose," but everyone in the US and China understands what happened. 10 years after this historic event, the "embassy bombing" page has been turned over, but the US clearly needs to address the nature of the problem. It is still engaged in provoking China's sovereignty, as shown by the recent activities of the US surveillance ship in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea. It could be said that the US has a causal association with the embassy bombing and plane collision incidents years ago, which demonstrates the country's precautionary mentality and potential hostility. Dai said such mentality and hostility will not disappear with the turning of this page. The US and China have engaged in extensive cooperation over the past decade, which is based on the great sincerity China has shown. The development of relations relies heavily on both sides making an effort. The US should learn from its lessons and refrain from provoking other nations' sovereignty.
Dai's analyses can be supported by some of the US' public opinions. The Jamestown Foundation of the US issued an article on April 30, saying that, "The recriminations that flared between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States over the latest Sino-American maritime confrontation makes evident how little progress has been made in Sino-US defense dialogue during the past two decades." It passed the buck to China, saying "The Chinese have readily suspended various military visits, exchanges, and other defense contacts after the 1999 Belgrade Embassy bombing, the EP-3 collision, and in retaliation for the announcement of major US arms sales to Taiwan." It also said, "While the US officials involved seek substantive dialogues and briefings, their Chinese counterparts pursue more the symbolism of high-level interactions." The National Interest online of the US advocates China's military threats in an article on May 1, saying "Past incidents, such as the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and the 2001 spy-plane episode, will inevitably occur."
During interviews, some Chinese experts believe that objectively, the bombing of the Chinese embassy offered China an opportunity to reflect and transform. On the one hand, the general public has realized that economic construction is the basis on which the enhancement of the overall national strength rests. On the other hand, a strong belief has formed among the general public that only strong military power and an advanced national defense system can fundamentally protect and safeguard the results of economic construction.
By People's Daily Online
CIA Figure In NATO Bombing Of Chinese Embassy Murdered
(Source: Rick Rozoff / Stop NATO: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato )
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http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2009/mar/25/slain-loudoun-man-did-contract-work-cia/
Washington Post - March 25, 2009
Slain Man Had Been Contractor for CIA
By Jonathan Mummolo
A Loudoun County man slain while out for an early morning walk with his wife worked as a contractor at the Central Intelligence Agency for several years until 2000, the CIA confirmed yesterday, and investigators said they want to meet with agency officials to learn more about the nature of his work.
The sheriff said his officers have not determined a motive for Sunday's attack, in which William Bennett, 57, was killed and his wife, Cynthia, 55, was critically injured. The assault might have been random, but deputies have not ruled out the possibility that they were targeted.
"We're just trying to find out if there's anything in his background that could have led to this," Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said. "We do that with anybody; it's not just because he's with the government. You talk with family. You talk with friends. You talk with co-workers. You look for enemies."
Investigators spent yesterday knocking on doors and conducting interviews and were waiting for the government's consent to talk to Bennett's former colleagues, he said.
Simpson said investigators are also trying to determine whether the retired lieutenant colonel with the Army Special Forces has held any jobs since leaving the CIA.
Bennett and his wife, residents of nearby Potomac Station, were on their routine early morning walk in the Lansdowne area when they were attacked by as many as three assailants, authorities said.
A sheriff's deputy responding to a report of a commotion and a suspicious white panel van about 5:30 a.m. in the Lansdowne area discovered William Bennett's body on the side of Riverside Parkway, near a gravel path not far from Rocky Creek Drive. His wife was found about 30 minutes later in a ditch, beyond a bloodied white fence across the street. Both had suffered blunt force trauma, but no weapon was recovered, and they might have been beaten.
Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the Bennetts were assaulted somewhere else and dumped there.
Cynthia Bennett remained in critical condition and has been unable to talk to authorities about what happened that morning. Neighbors have organized a community walk at 5:30 a.m. Sunday — the week anniversary of the attack — from the local Harris Teeter parking lot, 19350 Winmeade Dr., to the Riverside Parkway bridge and back. Organizers say it is a way to show respect for the Bennetts and feel less afraid in the neighborhood.
Since the attack, Loudoun authorities have appealed to the public for tips, but there are no suspects, Simpson said. Among the tips, his office has looked into was a report by a Shenstone Farm resident of a suspicious white van with Florida plates seen Saturday evening in the subdivision. Authorities said that the van was pulled over by deputies Saturday evening and searched and that they are confident its occupants were college students selling magazines and are not connected to Bennett's slaying.
He said he hopes federal officials will provide his office with details on the nature of Bennett's work but realizes much of that information might be confidential.
CIA spokeswoman Marie E. Harf declined to say when Bennett started working with the CIA or discuss the nature of his duties.
According to military and court records, William Bennett was born in Rochester, Minn., and joined the Army in October 1977. His postings included Vicenza, Italy; Fort Lewis, Wash.; and the District. He had received numerous commendations.
Cynthia Bennett also served in the Army, as a captain. She had joined in 1978. The family includes two adult children, authorities said. Members of the family could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Allison Klein contributed to this report.
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http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0309/608344.html
WJLA (ABC) - March 29, 2009
Early Morning Vigil Held for Lansdowne Attack Victims
LEESBURG, Va. - About 200 Lansdowne residents have held an early morning march to the place where one resident was killed and another was attacked a week ago.
Fifty-seven-year-old William Bennett was found dead along Riverside Parkway near Rocky Creek Drive on March 22. His wife, 55-year-old Cynthia Bennett, was discovered severely injured across the roadway. The couple had suffered blunt force trauma.
Police say Cynthia Bennett remains in critical condition and is unable to talk about what happened. Authorities say they continue to look for as many as three assailants. Bradford says the march was held at 5:30 a.m., because that's when the Bennetts were "struggling for their lives" a week ago.
Guided by candlelight in the early hours of Sunday, Beverly Bradford and more than a hundred of her neighbors walked down the streets of their Lansdowne community. Residents hit the pavement to honor two of their own - William and Cynthia Bennett.
"There's no sense in this crime from what we know. It's just tragic to have lives that were so full, and they gave so much back to their country and community - and to have it end so senselessly - its hard to put your mind around," said neighbor Sean Conlin.
Song and prayer were included in the walk that led the neighbors by a makeshift memorial that sits where William Bennett died from his injuries.
Police believe three to four men traveling in a white panel van are responsible.
"We're going to stick to the end, if there is an end to this, and bring these people to justice and this can't happen again," said Tara Restivo, Lansdowne Resident.
"It's just really a sad situation and we're all together here in this," said Colleen Yost, Lansdowne Resident.
Community members have banded together to calm each other's fears and attempt to take back their neighborhood that just seven days ago was the scene of a horrific crime. Residents say they want to make sure nothing like this happens again.
"This was a heinous crime, it was vicious and it was cowardly at the same time and we have to take our neighborhood back we have to take our sidewalks back," added Beverly Bradford, Lansdowne Resident.
Authorities are still looking for suspects in the case. A reward of more than $20,000 has been offered for any information in the case.
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http://www.loudouni.com/news/breaking-news/2009-03-26/lansdowne-murder-connects-1999-cia-bombing
Loudon Independent - March 31, 2009
Lansdowne Murder Connects to 1999 CIA Bombing
John L. Geddie
William Bennett Slain Lansdowne resident William Bennett was connected with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) following his military service.
In a conversation with the Loudoun Independent, the CIA's George Little confirmed that Bennett worked as a contractor for that agency for several years. His service to the company ended in the year 2000.
It has been reported by NBC Washington that Bennett was involved in the May 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade during NATO involvement in Yugoslavia.
Three Chinese citizens were killed in the attack. This accidental [sic] bombing was blamed an outdated map that showed the embassy at its prior location. The CIA later took responsibility for the error, firing one officer and reprimanding 20 more. It is unclear at this time the level of Bennett’s involvement and whether or not it might be linked to the deadly attack that took his life.
The Sheriff's Office continues to investigate the murder of William Bennett and the assault on his wife, Cynthia Bennett. They are receiving assistance from several organizations in the investigation.
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http://macedoniaonl ine.eu/content/ view/6456/ 46/
Macedonian International News Agency - April 24, 2009
Man who selected NATO's bombing targets in Serbia found dead
Slain Virginia resident William Bennett was connected with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) following his military service. The CIA's George Little confirmed that Bennett worked as a contractor for that agency for several years. His service to the organization ended in the year 2000.
It has been reported by NBC Washington that Bennett was involved in the May 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade during NATO involvement in Yugoslavia. Three Chinese citizens were killed in the attack.
This accidental [?] bombing was later blamed on an outdated map that showed the embassy at its prior location. The CIA later took responsibility for the error, firing one officer and reprimanding 20 more. It is unclear at this time the level of Bennett’s involvement and whether or not it might be linked to the deadly attack that took his life.
The Sheriff's Office continues to investigate the murder of William Bennett and the assault on his wife, Cynthia Bennett. The FBI has also joined the investigation.
Meanwhile not related to this case, though tied to the NATO bombing of Serbia, Amnesty International is seeking war crimes measures against the Alliance for bombing a TV Station which killed more than a dozen journalists. A spokesman for Amnesty International called it "one of the worst crimes" adding "you can't bomb and kill people simply because their news service was not inclined towards NATO". The Strasbourg Court had refused to accept the case filed by Amnesty International.