Informazione
NE' SERBIA NE' MONTENEGRO
Sono state invalidate ieri (23/12) per mancanza del quorum le elezioni
presidenziali nella Repubblica del Montenegro.
Esse dovrebbero tenersi nuovamente tra un mese, ma non ci sono ragioni
per pensare che la prossima volta la partecipazione al voto sia
superiore. Nella associata Repubblica di Serbia le elezioni
presidenziali sono fallite per due volte consecutive (l'ultima l'8/12
scorso) a causa del non raggiungimento del quorum. Nel frattempo, il
presidente della federazione dei due paesi, prevedendo la scomparsa
della sua funzione istituzionale (la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia
si sta infatti trasformando in una ancor piu' blanda "Unione di Serbia
e Montenegro"), e dunque per non perdere il lavoro, si era candidato a
presidente della Serbia - ma, appunto, senza esito.
Si palesa in questa maniera una crisi istituzionale devastante, che
non ha sbocchi a breve. E si esplica cosi' anche il sentimento
generalizzato della popolazione delle due repubbliche: il senso di
nausea, depressione ed impotenza per un quadro politico dominato da
mafiosi, corrotti, servi dell'Occidente, liquidatori dell'economia e
della dignita' nazionale, complici di chi li ha bombardati, degni
compari dei loro "colleghi" al potere nelle altre repubbliche
jugoslave ex-federate.
(Italo Slavo)
Sono state invalidate ieri (23/12) per mancanza del quorum le elezioni
presidenziali nella Repubblica del Montenegro.
Esse dovrebbero tenersi nuovamente tra un mese, ma non ci sono ragioni
per pensare che la prossima volta la partecipazione al voto sia
superiore. Nella associata Repubblica di Serbia le elezioni
presidenziali sono fallite per due volte consecutive (l'ultima l'8/12
scorso) a causa del non raggiungimento del quorum. Nel frattempo, il
presidente della federazione dei due paesi, prevedendo la scomparsa
della sua funzione istituzionale (la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia
si sta infatti trasformando in una ancor piu' blanda "Unione di Serbia
e Montenegro"), e dunque per non perdere il lavoro, si era candidato a
presidente della Serbia - ma, appunto, senza esito.
Si palesa in questa maniera una crisi istituzionale devastante, che
non ha sbocchi a breve. E si esplica cosi' anche il sentimento
generalizzato della popolazione delle due repubbliche: il senso di
nausea, depressione ed impotenza per un quadro politico dominato da
mafiosi, corrotti, servi dell'Occidente, liquidatori dell'economia e
della dignita' nazionale, complici di chi li ha bombardati, degni
compari dei loro "colleghi" al potere nelle altre repubbliche
jugoslave ex-federate.
(Italo Slavo)
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "Corrado Scarnato" ha scritto:
Al Direttore responsabile
Giancarlo Mazzuca
del quotidiano il Resto del Carlino
E p. c.
a tutti i mezzi d'informazione
con preghiera di pubblicazione
Egregio Direttore
È apparso sul giornale che Lei dirige, il Resto del Carlino del 13
dicembre 2002 a pagina 30, un articolo scritto da un suo
collaboratore, Lorenzo Previato, in cui afferma che Rifondazione
Comunista avrebbe votato in Consiglio Comunale a Minerbio un ordine
del giorno per intitolare una strada alle vittime delle foibe.
Constatiamo con dispiacere come questa notizia sia del tutto
destituita di fondamento e palesemente falsa, dato che il Partito
della Rifondazione Comunista non è rappresentato nel Consiglio
Comunale di Minerbio.
Con tutto il rispetto per il Signor Romano Masi e la lista che
rappresenta (progetto per Minerbio socialisti democratici), facciamo
presente come egli non sia iscritto a Rifondazione Comunista, non lo
è mai stato, non è neanche simpatizzante e non lo è mai stato. La
lista non appartiene a Rifondazione Comunista e nessun iscritto ne fa
parte.
La invitiamo pertanto a riportare sul Carlino, entro pochi giorni, la
smentita di quanto è stato scritto. Non è sufficiente la correzione di
tiro apparsa sul Carlino del giorno dopo che comunque fa intravedere
la complicità dell'elettorato di Rifondazione Comunista.
Qualora questo invito alla correzione dell'articolo non venisse
tempestivamente ottemperato, considerato il grave danno politico e di
immagine subito dal nostro Partito, considerata inoltre la palese ed
inequivocabile falsità della notizia, ci riserviamo ovviamente di
adire le opportune vie legali.
Inoltre, per salvare l'immagine del partito sulla questione delle
foibe, si chiede di pubblicare integralmente la posizione del PRC
rappresentata da quanto segue:
No alla guerra no alla falsificazione della storia
Le foibe come l'espulsione delle minoranze di lingua italiana da vaste
zone dell'Istria e della Dalmazia rappresentano un dramma storico di
vaste proporzioni, una conseguenza della seconda guerra mondiale, che
ha visto morire milioni di uomini e di donne, vittime della pazzia
umana che si chiama guerra.
Le guerre sono portatrici di odio, rancori, sete di vendetta; le
guerre anche quelle cosiddette umanitarie non risolvono i problemi
anzi li rendono ancora più drammatici. È giusto quindi che il dramma
delle foibe venga studiato e discusso, in maniera seria e
approfondita, senza pregiudizi ideologici o addossando responsabilità
unilaterali, come invece strumentalmente la destra italiana fa da
anni, e non solo, ma anche qualche eminente personaggio della sinistra
si è accodato, certamente oltre che a disfarsi dell'ideologia ci si
vuol disfare anche della storia.
Il fenomeno degli infoibati, e cioè del seppellimento di persone
(fucilate o in altro modo giustiziate) nelle cave carsiche dette foibe
e nelle cave di bauxite ad opera degli insorti guidati dal Movimento
resistenziale sloveno, croato e italiano in Istria e nella Venezia
Giulia, conobbe due periodi e due territori distinti.
Il primo riguarda l'Istria e va dal 9 settembre al 13 ottobre 1943 e
cioè subito dopo l'armistizio firmato da Badoglio, quando quasi tutta
la penisola incuneata fra Trieste e Fiume cadde sotto il controllo
degli insorti, rispettivamente dei partigiani di quella regione e
militari italiani; il secondo periodo va dal 1° maggio alla metà di
giugno 1945 e riguarda le città di Trieste e Gorizia con i rispettivi
territori conquistati ed amministrati per 45 giorni dalle truppe
jugoslave.
Quando terminò la prima guerra mondiale e nell'Istria ex
austro-ungarica sbarcarono le truppe italiane, nella regione
risiedevano più di duecentomila croati e sloveni autoctoni (ne erano
stati registrati 225.423 nell'ultimo censimento austriaco nel 1910) e
cioè più del 60 per cento della popolazione totale. Era una
popolazione, quella slava, composta in prevalenza da contadini; la
popolazione italiana invece era composta da lavoratori dell'industria,
da artigiani, da commercianti e proprietari terrieri presenti più o
meno compattamente nelle cittadine costiere.
Ancor prima della firma del Trattato di Rapallo del 1920 che assegnò
definitivamente l'Istria all'Italia, quando ancora la regione era
soggetta al regime di occupazione militare, la popolazione dell'Istria
si trovò di fronte allo squadrismo italiano in camicia nera,
parzialmente importato da Trieste, che in quella regione si manifestò
con particolare aggressività e ferocia, servendosi non soltanto
dell'olio di ricino e del manganello.
Gli stessi storici fascisti, tra i quali spicca l'istriano G.A.
Chiurco, vantandosi delle gesta degli squadristi e glorificandole
nelle loro opere, hanno abbondantemente documentato i misfatti
compiuti dagli assassinii di antifascisti italiani quali Pietro
Benussi a Dignano, Antonio Ive a Rovigno, Francesco Papo a Buie ed
altri, alla distruzione delle Camere del lavoro ed all'incendio delle
Case del popolo, alle sanguinose spedizioni nei villaggi croati e
sloveni della penisola, ecc.
Questi misfatti continuarono sotto altra forma dopo la presa del
potere a Roma da parte di Mussolini
L'avvento del fascismo fu disastroso soprattutto per gli slavi
istriani: furono distrutti e/o aboliti tutti gli enti e associazioni
culturali, sociali e sportivi della popolazione slovena e croata;
sparì ogni segno esteriore della presenza dei croati e sloveni,
vennero abolite le loro scuole di ogni grado, cessarono di uscire i
loro giornali, i libri scritti nelle loro lingue furono considerati
materiale sovversivo; con un decreto del 1927 furono forzosamente
italianizzati i cognomi di famiglia (in alcuni casi il cambio dei
cognomi fu attuato con tale diligenza che due fratelli, o padre e
figlio, ricevettero due cognomi diversi), furono italianizzati anche
i toponimi; migliaia di persone finirono al confino (Tremiti, Ustica,
Ponza, Ventotene, S.Stefano, Portolongone, Lipari, Favignana, ecc.) o
nel migliore dei casi, se dipendenti statali, specialmente ferrovieri
furono trasferiti in altre regioni d'Italia; nelle chiese le messe
poterono essere celebrate soltanto in italiano, le lingue croata e
slovena dovettero sparire perfino dalle lapidi sepolcrali, queste
stesse lingue furono cacciate dai tribunali e dagli altri uffici,
bandite dalla vita quotidiana.
Gli slavi furono discriminati perfino nel servizio militare, finendo
nei cosiddetti "Battaglioni speciali" in Sicilia e Sardegna. Alcune
centinaia di democratici italiani, socialisti, comunisti e cattolici
che lottarono per la difesa dei più elementari diritti delle minoranze
subirono attentati, arresti, processi e lunghi anni di carcere
inflitti dal Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato. Per gli
slavi il risultato fu la fuga dall'Istria circa 80.000 persone, metà
delle quali trovò rifugio nelle due Americhe e l'altra metà nell'ex
Jugoslavia.
Sul piano ideologico il risultato fu che nella stragrande maggioranza
questi esuli istriani slavi e quelli rimasti si schierarono su due
fronti opposti ma accomunati dall'odio contro il fascismo e l'Italia.
Nella primavera del 41 le truppe italo tedesche attaccano la
Yugoslavia quell'aggressione tra il 6 aprile 1941 e l'inizio di
settembre 1943 fu caratterizzata come documenta lo storico triestino
Teodoro Sala ("L'Espresso", Roma, 19 settembre 1996) non soltanto
dalle brutali annessioni delle Bocche di Cattaro, di larghe fette
della Croazia e di una parte della Slovenia, ma anche da una lunga
serie di crimini di guerra compiuti da speciali reparti di
occupazione, fra i quali si distinsero per ferocia le Camicie Nere,
per ordine dello stesso Mussolini e di alcuni generali: "si giunse
alle scelte più draconiane dei comandi militari italiani", ne
derivarono "rapine, uccisioni, ogni sorta di violenza perpetrata a
danno delle popolazioni".
Decine di migliaia di civili furono deportati nei campi di
concentramento disseminati dall'Albania all'Italia meridionale,
centrale e settentrionale, dall'isola adriatica di Arbe (Rab) fino a
Gonars e Visco nel Friuli, a Chiesanuova e Monigo nel Veneto.
Solo nei lager italiani morirono 11.606 sloveni e croati.
Nel solo lager di Arbe (Yugoslavia) ne morirono 4.000 circa, fra cui
moltissimi vecchi e bambini per denutrizione, stenti, maltrattamenti e
malattie.
A proposito ecco un documento del 15 dicembre 1942, in quella data
l'Alto Commissariato per la Provincia di Lubiana, Emilio Grazioli,
trasmise al Comando dell'XI Corpo d'Armata il rapporto di un medico in
visita al campo di Arbe dove gli internati "presentavano nell'assoluta
totalità i segni più gravi dell'inanizione da fame", sotto quel
rapporto il generale Gastone Gambara scrisse di proprio pugno: "Logico
ed opportuno che campo di concentramento non significhi campo
d'ingrassamento. Individuo malato = individuo che sta tranquillo".
Sempre nel 1942, il 4 agosto, il generale Ruggero inviò un fonogramma
al Comando dell'XI Corpo in cui si parlava di "briganti comunisti
passati per le armi" e "sospetti di favoreggiamento" arrestati, in
una nota scritta a mano il generale Mario Robotti impose; "Chiarire
bene il trattamento dei sospetti, cosa dicono le norme 4C e quelle
successive? Conclusione: si ammazza troppo poco!".
L'ultima frase è sottolineata, il generale Robotti alludeva alle
parole d'ordine riassuntive del generale Mario Roatta, comandante
della II Armata italiana in Slovenia e Croazia (Supersloda) il quale
nel marzo del 1942 aveva diramato una Circolare 3C nella quale si
legge:
"Il trattamento da fare ai ribelli non deve essere sintetizzato dalla
formula dente per dente ma bensì da quella testa per dente".
Una frase che ci fa ricordare l'eccidio di Gramozna Jama in Slovenia
dalla quale furono riesumati nel dopoguerra i resti di centinaia di
civili massacrati durante l'occupazione per ordine delle autorità
militari italiane; furono migliaia i civili falciati dai plotoni di
esecuzione italiani, dalla Slovenia alla "Provincia del Carnaro",
dalla Dalmazia fino alle Bocche di Cattaro e Montenegro senza aver
subito alcun processo, ma in seguito a semplici ordini di generali
dell'esercito, di governatori o di federali e commissari fascisti.
In una lettera spedita al Comando supremo dal generale Roatta in data
8 settembre 1942 (N. 08906) fu proposta la deportazione della
popolazione slovena. "In questo caso scrisse si tratterebbe di
trasferire al completo masse ragguardevoli di popolazione, di
insediarle all'interno del regno e di sostituirle in posto con
popolazione italiana".
Il figlio di Nazario Sauro (l'eroe della Prima guerra mondiale), Italo
Sauro, in un "Appunto per il Duce", nel quale riferisce un suo
colloquio con l'SS Brigade Fuehrer Guenter (v. Bollettino n. 1/aprile
1976 dell'Istituto regionale per la storia del Movimento di
liberazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia), lo informava tra l'altro: "Per
quanto riguarda la lotta contro i partigiani, io avevo proposto il
trasferimento in Germania di tutta la popolazione allogena compresa
tra i 15 e i 45 anni con poche eccezioni", ma i tedeschi dissero di
no.
Dopo L'8 settembre l'Istria insorse e gran parte del territorio fu
liberato dai partigiani italiani e slavi con l'appoggio determinante
di gran parte dell'esercito italiano, che era d'istanza sul
territorio, vogliamo ricordare in questa occasione la divisione
Bergamo, decimata dalle truppe naziste, dopo la resa, il 1 ottobre i
nazisti fucilarono con l'accusa di avere collaborato con i partigiani
di Tito tre generali e 47 ufficiali italiani; la divisione Emilia che
si sacrifico nella difesa di Cattaro, prima di arrendersi ai nazisti
ebbe 597 morti, 1000 ferti furono migliaia i deportati, la divisione
Marche dopo una accanita resistenza si arrese il suo generale Giuseppe
Amico fu fucilato. In tutta la Yugoslavia si combatteva, in Istria i
fascisti italiani appoggiarono militarmente l'offensiva nazista
Istrien che puntava a rioccupare i territori liberati, dopo una
strenua resistenza l'Istria fu rioccupata dalle truppe nazi-fasciste,
13000 furono i morti, migliaia i catturati tra cui moltissimi soldati
e cittadini italiani, pochi di essi fecero ritorno dai campi di
concentramento, decine i villaggi dati alle fiamme.
Andremmo troppo lontano se volessimo citare altri documenti,
centinaia, che ci mostrano il volto feroce dell'Italia monarchica e
fascista in Istria e nei territori jugoslavi annessi o occupati nella
seconda guerra mondiale.
Gli stupri, i saccheggi e gli incendi di villaggi si ripetevano in
ogni azione di rastrellamento. Una documentazione di questi crimini la
si può trovare nel libro "Bono Taliano" (Italiani in Jugoslavia
1941-43 - La Pietra, Milano, 1977), nel volume "La dittatura fascista"
di Autori vari (Teti, Milano, 1984) ed altri.
Alla luce di questi fatti, dunque, vanno visti gli avvenimenti
successivi.
Il regime fascista fu un regime caratterizzato da un violento spirito
antislavo, che per un ventennio fece di tutto per distruggere
culturalmente e non solo, le popolazioni croate e slovene con leggi
liberticide, deportazioni di massa, tribunali speciali, condanne a
morte.
E poi nel 41 aggredì la Yugoslavia instaurando un regime di
occupazione durissimo che poco ebbe da invidiare a quello che l'Italia
avrebbe subito dopo l'8 settembre 43.
Regio esercito e camice nere si resero responsabili di veri e propri
crimini di guerra: fucilazioni di massa, incendi di villaggi, stupri,
furti; a tutto ciò va aggiunto il tentativo degli alti comandi di
strumentalizzare le tensioni interetniche tra i diversi popoli
iugoslavi.
In questo senso, delle foibe e delle espulsioni di massa deve essere
considerato corresponsabile il regime monarchico-fascista, con la sua
politica imperiale e aggressiva.
Quando si parla di foibe, si deve avere il coraggio di dire tutto
questo.
Se c'è una questione di cui la repubblica italiana deve farsi carico è
semmai, il non avere mai fatto entrare nella propria coscienza
collettiva i crimini di guerra di cui l'Italia si è macchiata in
Yugoslavia e non solo; e il non avere mai processato alti ufficiali e
gerarchi del regime che emanarono ordini criminali.
E' da tempo che uomini politici di diversi schieramenti e
intellettuali, fanno di tutta un'erba un fascio, fascisti partigiani
tutti sullo stesso piano, c'è chi parla di questi fascisti assassini
come di giovani che fecero scelte sbagliate, che lo fecero per l'onore
della patria, che lo fecero in buona fede.
Che i repubblichini servi dei nazisti, autori dei massacri,
torturatori e aguzzini con simboli di morte ben espliciti sulle
uniformi e sui loro gagliardetti, erano in buona fede e servito la
patria, è un'offesa per tutti quelli che hanno pagato con la vita la
costruzione della democrazia nel nostro paese e in Europa.
Questa verità storica e questa memoria intendiamo difendere senza
cedimenti, non per un pugno di voti, ma per impedire che delle
mistificazioni, dettate da opportunismo politico diventino il nuovo
fondamento della nuova memoria collettiva degli italiani.
Granarolo, lì 14-12-2002
Partito della Rifondazione Comunista
Circolo Granarolo-Minerbio
Al Direttore responsabile
Giancarlo Mazzuca
del quotidiano il Resto del Carlino
E p. c.
a tutti i mezzi d'informazione
con preghiera di pubblicazione
Egregio Direttore
È apparso sul giornale che Lei dirige, il Resto del Carlino del 13
dicembre 2002 a pagina 30, un articolo scritto da un suo
collaboratore, Lorenzo Previato, in cui afferma che Rifondazione
Comunista avrebbe votato in Consiglio Comunale a Minerbio un ordine
del giorno per intitolare una strada alle vittime delle foibe.
Constatiamo con dispiacere come questa notizia sia del tutto
destituita di fondamento e palesemente falsa, dato che il Partito
della Rifondazione Comunista non è rappresentato nel Consiglio
Comunale di Minerbio.
Con tutto il rispetto per il Signor Romano Masi e la lista che
rappresenta (progetto per Minerbio socialisti democratici), facciamo
presente come egli non sia iscritto a Rifondazione Comunista, non lo
è mai stato, non è neanche simpatizzante e non lo è mai stato. La
lista non appartiene a Rifondazione Comunista e nessun iscritto ne fa
parte.
La invitiamo pertanto a riportare sul Carlino, entro pochi giorni, la
smentita di quanto è stato scritto. Non è sufficiente la correzione di
tiro apparsa sul Carlino del giorno dopo che comunque fa intravedere
la complicità dell'elettorato di Rifondazione Comunista.
Qualora questo invito alla correzione dell'articolo non venisse
tempestivamente ottemperato, considerato il grave danno politico e di
immagine subito dal nostro Partito, considerata inoltre la palese ed
inequivocabile falsità della notizia, ci riserviamo ovviamente di
adire le opportune vie legali.
Inoltre, per salvare l'immagine del partito sulla questione delle
foibe, si chiede di pubblicare integralmente la posizione del PRC
rappresentata da quanto segue:
No alla guerra no alla falsificazione della storia
Le foibe come l'espulsione delle minoranze di lingua italiana da vaste
zone dell'Istria e della Dalmazia rappresentano un dramma storico di
vaste proporzioni, una conseguenza della seconda guerra mondiale, che
ha visto morire milioni di uomini e di donne, vittime della pazzia
umana che si chiama guerra.
Le guerre sono portatrici di odio, rancori, sete di vendetta; le
guerre anche quelle cosiddette umanitarie non risolvono i problemi
anzi li rendono ancora più drammatici. È giusto quindi che il dramma
delle foibe venga studiato e discusso, in maniera seria e
approfondita, senza pregiudizi ideologici o addossando responsabilità
unilaterali, come invece strumentalmente la destra italiana fa da
anni, e non solo, ma anche qualche eminente personaggio della sinistra
si è accodato, certamente oltre che a disfarsi dell'ideologia ci si
vuol disfare anche della storia.
Il fenomeno degli infoibati, e cioè del seppellimento di persone
(fucilate o in altro modo giustiziate) nelle cave carsiche dette foibe
e nelle cave di bauxite ad opera degli insorti guidati dal Movimento
resistenziale sloveno, croato e italiano in Istria e nella Venezia
Giulia, conobbe due periodi e due territori distinti.
Il primo riguarda l'Istria e va dal 9 settembre al 13 ottobre 1943 e
cioè subito dopo l'armistizio firmato da Badoglio, quando quasi tutta
la penisola incuneata fra Trieste e Fiume cadde sotto il controllo
degli insorti, rispettivamente dei partigiani di quella regione e
militari italiani; il secondo periodo va dal 1° maggio alla metà di
giugno 1945 e riguarda le città di Trieste e Gorizia con i rispettivi
territori conquistati ed amministrati per 45 giorni dalle truppe
jugoslave.
Quando terminò la prima guerra mondiale e nell'Istria ex
austro-ungarica sbarcarono le truppe italiane, nella regione
risiedevano più di duecentomila croati e sloveni autoctoni (ne erano
stati registrati 225.423 nell'ultimo censimento austriaco nel 1910) e
cioè più del 60 per cento della popolazione totale. Era una
popolazione, quella slava, composta in prevalenza da contadini; la
popolazione italiana invece era composta da lavoratori dell'industria,
da artigiani, da commercianti e proprietari terrieri presenti più o
meno compattamente nelle cittadine costiere.
Ancor prima della firma del Trattato di Rapallo del 1920 che assegnò
definitivamente l'Istria all'Italia, quando ancora la regione era
soggetta al regime di occupazione militare, la popolazione dell'Istria
si trovò di fronte allo squadrismo italiano in camicia nera,
parzialmente importato da Trieste, che in quella regione si manifestò
con particolare aggressività e ferocia, servendosi non soltanto
dell'olio di ricino e del manganello.
Gli stessi storici fascisti, tra i quali spicca l'istriano G.A.
Chiurco, vantandosi delle gesta degli squadristi e glorificandole
nelle loro opere, hanno abbondantemente documentato i misfatti
compiuti dagli assassinii di antifascisti italiani quali Pietro
Benussi a Dignano, Antonio Ive a Rovigno, Francesco Papo a Buie ed
altri, alla distruzione delle Camere del lavoro ed all'incendio delle
Case del popolo, alle sanguinose spedizioni nei villaggi croati e
sloveni della penisola, ecc.
Questi misfatti continuarono sotto altra forma dopo la presa del
potere a Roma da parte di Mussolini
L'avvento del fascismo fu disastroso soprattutto per gli slavi
istriani: furono distrutti e/o aboliti tutti gli enti e associazioni
culturali, sociali e sportivi della popolazione slovena e croata;
sparì ogni segno esteriore della presenza dei croati e sloveni,
vennero abolite le loro scuole di ogni grado, cessarono di uscire i
loro giornali, i libri scritti nelle loro lingue furono considerati
materiale sovversivo; con un decreto del 1927 furono forzosamente
italianizzati i cognomi di famiglia (in alcuni casi il cambio dei
cognomi fu attuato con tale diligenza che due fratelli, o padre e
figlio, ricevettero due cognomi diversi), furono italianizzati anche
i toponimi; migliaia di persone finirono al confino (Tremiti, Ustica,
Ponza, Ventotene, S.Stefano, Portolongone, Lipari, Favignana, ecc.) o
nel migliore dei casi, se dipendenti statali, specialmente ferrovieri
furono trasferiti in altre regioni d'Italia; nelle chiese le messe
poterono essere celebrate soltanto in italiano, le lingue croata e
slovena dovettero sparire perfino dalle lapidi sepolcrali, queste
stesse lingue furono cacciate dai tribunali e dagli altri uffici,
bandite dalla vita quotidiana.
Gli slavi furono discriminati perfino nel servizio militare, finendo
nei cosiddetti "Battaglioni speciali" in Sicilia e Sardegna. Alcune
centinaia di democratici italiani, socialisti, comunisti e cattolici
che lottarono per la difesa dei più elementari diritti delle minoranze
subirono attentati, arresti, processi e lunghi anni di carcere
inflitti dal Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato. Per gli
slavi il risultato fu la fuga dall'Istria circa 80.000 persone, metà
delle quali trovò rifugio nelle due Americhe e l'altra metà nell'ex
Jugoslavia.
Sul piano ideologico il risultato fu che nella stragrande maggioranza
questi esuli istriani slavi e quelli rimasti si schierarono su due
fronti opposti ma accomunati dall'odio contro il fascismo e l'Italia.
Nella primavera del 41 le truppe italo tedesche attaccano la
Yugoslavia quell'aggressione tra il 6 aprile 1941 e l'inizio di
settembre 1943 fu caratterizzata come documenta lo storico triestino
Teodoro Sala ("L'Espresso", Roma, 19 settembre 1996) non soltanto
dalle brutali annessioni delle Bocche di Cattaro, di larghe fette
della Croazia e di una parte della Slovenia, ma anche da una lunga
serie di crimini di guerra compiuti da speciali reparti di
occupazione, fra i quali si distinsero per ferocia le Camicie Nere,
per ordine dello stesso Mussolini e di alcuni generali: "si giunse
alle scelte più draconiane dei comandi militari italiani", ne
derivarono "rapine, uccisioni, ogni sorta di violenza perpetrata a
danno delle popolazioni".
Decine di migliaia di civili furono deportati nei campi di
concentramento disseminati dall'Albania all'Italia meridionale,
centrale e settentrionale, dall'isola adriatica di Arbe (Rab) fino a
Gonars e Visco nel Friuli, a Chiesanuova e Monigo nel Veneto.
Solo nei lager italiani morirono 11.606 sloveni e croati.
Nel solo lager di Arbe (Yugoslavia) ne morirono 4.000 circa, fra cui
moltissimi vecchi e bambini per denutrizione, stenti, maltrattamenti e
malattie.
A proposito ecco un documento del 15 dicembre 1942, in quella data
l'Alto Commissariato per la Provincia di Lubiana, Emilio Grazioli,
trasmise al Comando dell'XI Corpo d'Armata il rapporto di un medico in
visita al campo di Arbe dove gli internati "presentavano nell'assoluta
totalità i segni più gravi dell'inanizione da fame", sotto quel
rapporto il generale Gastone Gambara scrisse di proprio pugno: "Logico
ed opportuno che campo di concentramento non significhi campo
d'ingrassamento. Individuo malato = individuo che sta tranquillo".
Sempre nel 1942, il 4 agosto, il generale Ruggero inviò un fonogramma
al Comando dell'XI Corpo in cui si parlava di "briganti comunisti
passati per le armi" e "sospetti di favoreggiamento" arrestati, in
una nota scritta a mano il generale Mario Robotti impose; "Chiarire
bene il trattamento dei sospetti, cosa dicono le norme 4C e quelle
successive? Conclusione: si ammazza troppo poco!".
L'ultima frase è sottolineata, il generale Robotti alludeva alle
parole d'ordine riassuntive del generale Mario Roatta, comandante
della II Armata italiana in Slovenia e Croazia (Supersloda) il quale
nel marzo del 1942 aveva diramato una Circolare 3C nella quale si
legge:
"Il trattamento da fare ai ribelli non deve essere sintetizzato dalla
formula dente per dente ma bensì da quella testa per dente".
Una frase che ci fa ricordare l'eccidio di Gramozna Jama in Slovenia
dalla quale furono riesumati nel dopoguerra i resti di centinaia di
civili massacrati durante l'occupazione per ordine delle autorità
militari italiane; furono migliaia i civili falciati dai plotoni di
esecuzione italiani, dalla Slovenia alla "Provincia del Carnaro",
dalla Dalmazia fino alle Bocche di Cattaro e Montenegro senza aver
subito alcun processo, ma in seguito a semplici ordini di generali
dell'esercito, di governatori o di federali e commissari fascisti.
In una lettera spedita al Comando supremo dal generale Roatta in data
8 settembre 1942 (N. 08906) fu proposta la deportazione della
popolazione slovena. "In questo caso scrisse si tratterebbe di
trasferire al completo masse ragguardevoli di popolazione, di
insediarle all'interno del regno e di sostituirle in posto con
popolazione italiana".
Il figlio di Nazario Sauro (l'eroe della Prima guerra mondiale), Italo
Sauro, in un "Appunto per il Duce", nel quale riferisce un suo
colloquio con l'SS Brigade Fuehrer Guenter (v. Bollettino n. 1/aprile
1976 dell'Istituto regionale per la storia del Movimento di
liberazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia), lo informava tra l'altro: "Per
quanto riguarda la lotta contro i partigiani, io avevo proposto il
trasferimento in Germania di tutta la popolazione allogena compresa
tra i 15 e i 45 anni con poche eccezioni", ma i tedeschi dissero di
no.
Dopo L'8 settembre l'Istria insorse e gran parte del territorio fu
liberato dai partigiani italiani e slavi con l'appoggio determinante
di gran parte dell'esercito italiano, che era d'istanza sul
territorio, vogliamo ricordare in questa occasione la divisione
Bergamo, decimata dalle truppe naziste, dopo la resa, il 1 ottobre i
nazisti fucilarono con l'accusa di avere collaborato con i partigiani
di Tito tre generali e 47 ufficiali italiani; la divisione Emilia che
si sacrifico nella difesa di Cattaro, prima di arrendersi ai nazisti
ebbe 597 morti, 1000 ferti furono migliaia i deportati, la divisione
Marche dopo una accanita resistenza si arrese il suo generale Giuseppe
Amico fu fucilato. In tutta la Yugoslavia si combatteva, in Istria i
fascisti italiani appoggiarono militarmente l'offensiva nazista
Istrien che puntava a rioccupare i territori liberati, dopo una
strenua resistenza l'Istria fu rioccupata dalle truppe nazi-fasciste,
13000 furono i morti, migliaia i catturati tra cui moltissimi soldati
e cittadini italiani, pochi di essi fecero ritorno dai campi di
concentramento, decine i villaggi dati alle fiamme.
Andremmo troppo lontano se volessimo citare altri documenti,
centinaia, che ci mostrano il volto feroce dell'Italia monarchica e
fascista in Istria e nei territori jugoslavi annessi o occupati nella
seconda guerra mondiale.
Gli stupri, i saccheggi e gli incendi di villaggi si ripetevano in
ogni azione di rastrellamento. Una documentazione di questi crimini la
si può trovare nel libro "Bono Taliano" (Italiani in Jugoslavia
1941-43 - La Pietra, Milano, 1977), nel volume "La dittatura fascista"
di Autori vari (Teti, Milano, 1984) ed altri.
Alla luce di questi fatti, dunque, vanno visti gli avvenimenti
successivi.
Il regime fascista fu un regime caratterizzato da un violento spirito
antislavo, che per un ventennio fece di tutto per distruggere
culturalmente e non solo, le popolazioni croate e slovene con leggi
liberticide, deportazioni di massa, tribunali speciali, condanne a
morte.
E poi nel 41 aggredì la Yugoslavia instaurando un regime di
occupazione durissimo che poco ebbe da invidiare a quello che l'Italia
avrebbe subito dopo l'8 settembre 43.
Regio esercito e camice nere si resero responsabili di veri e propri
crimini di guerra: fucilazioni di massa, incendi di villaggi, stupri,
furti; a tutto ciò va aggiunto il tentativo degli alti comandi di
strumentalizzare le tensioni interetniche tra i diversi popoli
iugoslavi.
In questo senso, delle foibe e delle espulsioni di massa deve essere
considerato corresponsabile il regime monarchico-fascista, con la sua
politica imperiale e aggressiva.
Quando si parla di foibe, si deve avere il coraggio di dire tutto
questo.
Se c'è una questione di cui la repubblica italiana deve farsi carico è
semmai, il non avere mai fatto entrare nella propria coscienza
collettiva i crimini di guerra di cui l'Italia si è macchiata in
Yugoslavia e non solo; e il non avere mai processato alti ufficiali e
gerarchi del regime che emanarono ordini criminali.
E' da tempo che uomini politici di diversi schieramenti e
intellettuali, fanno di tutta un'erba un fascio, fascisti partigiani
tutti sullo stesso piano, c'è chi parla di questi fascisti assassini
come di giovani che fecero scelte sbagliate, che lo fecero per l'onore
della patria, che lo fecero in buona fede.
Che i repubblichini servi dei nazisti, autori dei massacri,
torturatori e aguzzini con simboli di morte ben espliciti sulle
uniformi e sui loro gagliardetti, erano in buona fede e servito la
patria, è un'offesa per tutti quelli che hanno pagato con la vita la
costruzione della democrazia nel nostro paese e in Europa.
Questa verità storica e questa memoria intendiamo difendere senza
cedimenti, non per un pugno di voti, ma per impedire che delle
mistificazioni, dettate da opportunismo politico diventino il nuovo
fondamento della nuova memoria collettiva degli italiani.
Granarolo, lì 14-12-2002
Partito della Rifondazione Comunista
Circolo Granarolo-Minerbio
*** Il giorno 19 dicembre partiva per Kragujevac una delegazione
formata da componenti del coordinamento RSU e del Gruppo ZASTAVA
Trieste per consegnare le rate di adozioni in scadenza e alcune nuove
adozioni aperte soprattutto in Veneto e Friuli.
Nelle settimane precedenti si erano recati a Kragujevac compagni di
Rimini e di Brescia.
In tutto le adozioni rimaste attive sono oltre un migliaio. ***
DOCUMENTI ALLEGATI:
1. Dal Coordinamento RSU: notizie sui progetto del "forno di
panificazione" ed altro
2. Intervento svolto da Gilberto Vlaic di "Zastava Trieste"
all'assemblea dei lavoratori della Zastava il 21 dicembre 2002
3. "Zastava Brescia": relazione del viaggio a Kragujevac del
novembre-dicembre 2002
NOTA:
Per informazioni sul progetto "NON BOMBE MA SOLTANTO CARAMELLE", che
coinvolge diversi soggetti, potete andare al sito del coord. RSU:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/.
Dalla home page cliccare su "Punto Focale".
Sempre da "Punto focale" potete accedere alla pagina sulle iniziative
di solidarietà ai lavoratori della Jugoslavia dove trovate il
materiale.
=== 1 ===
DAL COORD. RSU:
Nei giorni scorsi si sono recati alla Zastava i compagni di Rimini che
dovranno prossimamente montare nella fabbrica un forno per la
preparazione del Pane (25 q.li giorno).
Con i delegati sindacali della Zastava sono state valutate le
necessarie modifiche dei locali dove il forno dovrà essere montato,
modifiche che dovrebbero essere realizzate entro il prossimo gennaio
per poter così trasportare il forno e iniziare il lavoro di montaggio,
prova e avvio della produzione.
Lo scopo del progetto è quello di garantire l'accesso alla
alimentazione primaria alle famiglie dei lavoratori disoccupati, ma
con una attenzione particolare anche ai lavoratori della Zastava,
cacciati ed ora profughi dal Kosovo (stabilimento di Pec - circa 800
persone).
Altro obiettivo è quello di utilizzare il forno per organizzare una
formazione (a rotazione) per i lavoratori tutt'ora senza lavoro dando
così a loro la possibilità di imparare un mestiere. La formazione sarà
tenuta da Panificatori Italiani che si sono dichiarati disponibili a
questo.
L'arrivo e la messa in funzione del forno sarà occasione per una
grande festa che sarà realizzata presso lo stabilimento
Zastava (crediamo verso aprile-maggio) con la presenza di diversi
complessi italiani e slavi coi quali si terrà un concerto.
Sarebbe questa una ottima occasione per organizzare alla Zastava una
presenza anche più massiccia del solito delle famiglie italiane che
hanno attivato una adozione o che sostengono in altro modo la
realizzazione del progetto.
Sarebbe possibile organizzare uno o due pulmann. I costi non sono
eccessivi (da un preventivo fatto, tra l'affitto del pulmann e per il
dormire in pensione per 3 notti non si dovrebbe superare la cifra dei
110 euro a testa. Rimarrebbe fuori solo il mangiare che sul posto non
è caro)
Si sta continuando inoltre a lavorare per organizzare una colonia
estiva (15 giorni) per i figli dei lavoratori Zastava a luglio in una
località messa a disposizione dalle amministrazioni comunali del
Mugello (per circa 35-40 bambini più 10 accompagnatori).
La presenza di questi bambini dovrebbe coincidere con la
manifestazione conclusiva di "Non bombe ma...") che si terrà a Roma.
Di tutte queste cose vi terremo informati.
Ciao alma
Alma Rossi: indirizzo email - alma@...
Coordinamento Rsu: http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/
=== 2 ===
Intervento, a nome del coordinamento RSU e gruppo ZASTAVA Trieste,
svolto da Gilberto Vlaic di ZASTAVATrieste all'assemblea dei
lavoratori della Zastava di Kragujevac il 21 dicembre 2002 in
occasione della consegna delle adozioni a distanza raccolte a favore
delle famiglie dei lavoratori tutt'ora senza lavoro e senza salario a
causa dei bombardamenti delle fabbriche della Jugoslavia.
---
Cari lavoratori della Zastava, eccoci di nuovo insieme in questa
assemblea che rappresenta per me uno degli esempi piu' belli e
significativi della solidarieta' e dell'amicizia tra lavoratori di
paesi diversi, uno dei migliori esempi della fraternita' tra i popoli.
Per noi del coordinamento RSU e del gruppo ZASTAVA di Trieste questo
e' il quarto viaggio nel corso di questo anno.
Oggi portiamo con noi una quarantina di adozioni provenienti da tutta
Italia: dalla Sicilia al Piemonte, dalla Toscana al Friuli; otto sono
nuove, a riprova del fatto che molti lavoratori, molti cittadini
italiani non hanno dimenticato e non dimenticheranno mai che quasi
quattro anni fa l'Italia, insieme agli altri paesi della NATO,
aggrediva brutalmente la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia. La nostra
solidarieta' e amicizia nei vostri confronti e' sempre presente.
Inoltre abbiamo portato alcuni importanti farmaci per l'ospedale della
vostra citta'.
Vorrei anche ricordare che prossimamente porteremo qui a Kragujevac il
forno per la fabbricazione del pane, di cui vi abbiamo informato
durante il viaggio di ottobre e che e' un dono dell'associazione di
Rimini "Il nido del cuculo".
Dopo l'aggressione al vostro Paese, ed in parte come sua conseguenza,
vi e' stata in Europa una netta avanzata dei governi di destra, ed il
peggiore sicuramente e' quello italiano.
Stiamo assistendo ad una progressiva fascistizzazione dell'Italia, che
magari non ha i tratti quotidiani della brutalita' del fascismo
classico, ma che mette a serio rischio i diritti politici e gli
interessi materiali dei lavoratori. Ne' potrebbe essere altrimenti,
visto che gli eredi diretti del fascismo sono oggi al governo nel
nostro paese, insieme alla destra piu' razzista e ultra-liberista.
Circa un mese fa una ventina di compagni sono stati arrestati in
Italia usando vecchie norme del codice fascista, che non venivano
usate da decenni, con l'accusa di opporsi con le loro parole
(attenzione, non atti, PAROLE!) all'attuazione del programma del
governo.
Persino il diritto di sciopero e' messo in discussione.
Contemporaneamente le condizioni materiali di vita dei lavoratori sono
sottoposte a un attacco continuo.
La FIAT ha espulso forse definitivamente dalle fabbriche migliaia di
operai, specialmente in zone del Paese gia' depresse, dove il lavoro
e' scarso.
E le condizioni generali subiscono un arretramento continuo: il lavoro
diventa sempre piu' precario, i fondi alla scuola e alla sanita'
pubbliche subiscono tagli feroci, mentre vengono finanziate e
incoraggiate le strutture private; viene messo in discussione il
diritto ad una decorosa pensione.
Contro questo continuiamo a lottare, malgrado alcune frange sindacali,
per fortuna minoritarie, che non hanno il concetto di uguaglianza,
solidarieta' e fratellanza tra i lavoratori come primo fondamentale
punto della loro azione, e che trattano con il governo la riduzione
dei nostri diritti a fronte di una ridicola diminuzione delle tasse
sui redditi piu' bassi.
Il 18 ottobre scorso, con uno sciopero di otto ore indetto dalla sola
CGIL, abbiamo paralizzato l'Italia. E le lotte continuano.
Dopo l'invenzione dell'ingerenza umanitaria, nome scelto per coprire
la piu' classica delle aggressioni imperialiste, vediamo oggi scenari
di guerra terribili in tutto il mondo, compreso il fatto che gli Stati
Uniti hanno dichiarato che sono pronti a usare le bombe atomiche.
Dopo l'Afghanistan, e' ora il popolo iracheno ad essere nel mirino
della guerra imperialista.
Non dobbiamo meravigliarci del fatto che questa volta alcuni paesi
europei, Francia e Germania soprattutto, frenano rispetto a questa
nuova aggressione. Non e' che siano diventati improvvisamente "buoni"
e che abbiano capito che la guerra e' comunque follia, ma questa
guerra non fa i loro intesessi, in quanto consegnerebbe il petrolio
iracheno ai soli Stati Uniti.
Ricordiamo che la Germania e' stata il paese europeo che piu' degli
altri ha contribuito allo smembramento della Jugoslavia negli anni
1991-1995 e che ha convintamente partecipato alla aggressione alla
Serbia nel 1999, perche' queste cose erano del tutto utili ai suoi
interessi.
E non dobbiamo dimenticare altri popoli, sottoposti ai piu' feroci
ricatti e condizionamenti, dal Venezuela, dove un governo
democraticamente eletto rischia di essere travolto da un colpo di
stato organizzato dagli Stati Uniti, sempre per interessi sul
petrolio, alla Palestina, dove un popolo senza terra viene massacrato
dall'imperialismo sionista, con l'accordo degli imperialismi
statunitense ed europeo.
Come lavoratori dobbiamo essere assolutamente contrari a queste guerre
imperialiste, e dobbiamo opporci con tutte le nostre forze ad esse,
non solo perche' la guerra porta lutti e distruzioni, ma perche' sono
assolutamente contro i nostri interessi come classe sociale.
Non mi stanchero' mai di dire che il mondo non si divide in Italiani,
Jugoslavi ecc., ma si divide in lavoratori e padroni, in chi rivendica
la giustizia sociale e chi pone il profitto capitalista sopra tutto.
L'arma piu' forte che abbiamo in mano e' la solidarieta'
internazionalista dei lavoratori.
Il 9 novembre scorso a Firenze eravamo quasi un milione a dire il
nostro NO alla guerra.
Dovevano essere presenti in questa occasione anche alcuni vostri
rappresentanti, ma l'ambasciata Italiana di Belgrado non ha concesso
i visti ai delegati della Zastava ed alla esponente del sindacato
metalmeccanici nazionale jugoslavo, benche' fossero stati chiesti
direttamente dalla CGIL di Brescia. Si e' trattato chiaramente di una
manovra provocatoria per impedire ai vostri rappresentanti di poter
illustrare la vostra situazione in una occasione importante come il
Social Forum Europeo.
Torno ora alla nostra assemblea, per informarvi di una nuova
iniziativa che abbiamo lanciato tra gli studenti delle scuole
elementari in Italia.
Si tratta di un progetto in cui i bambini sono chiamati a esprimere il
loro rifiuto alla guerra, con la loro sensibilita' di bambini,
attraverso scritti, disegni canzoni. E chiediamo loro di non fermarsi
qui, ma di stabilire rapporti di gemellaggio con altre classi
scolastiche nei Paesi che hanno purtoppo conosciuto la devastazione
dell'aggressione imperialista.
Abbiamo scelto per questo progetto un nome simbolico, tratto da uno
dei disegni che i bambini di Kragujevac ci inviavano:
Non bombe, ma solo caramelle
Termino rivolgendomi alle ragazze e ai ragazzi che tra poco
riceveranno le quote dei loro amici italiani; vi invito caldamente a
scrivere alle famiglie italiane perche' una sola vostra lettera serve
piu' di mille dei nostri discorsi.
Un abbraccio a tutti voi.
Kragujevac, 21 dicembre 2002
=== 2 ===
http://digilander.libero.it/zastavabrescia/
zastavabrescia@...
Brescia, 16/12/2002
Questo è un breve resoconto del viaggio effettuato a Kragujevac da una
nostra delegazione dal 29 novembre al 2 dicembre 2002 per la consegna
delle somme raccolte per le adozioni di 121 bambini figli di
lavoratori, indirizzato a tutti gli adottanti e simpatizzanti del
progetto Zastava, portato avanti dall'Associazione Zastava - onlus -
di Brescia.
---
VIAGGIO A KRAGUJEVAC - DICEMBRE 2002
Sono tornati, lunedì 2 dicembre, i volontari della nostra
Associazione delegati ad effettuare la consegna delle quote delle
adozioni relative al secondo semestre 2002.
La delegazione composta da Alfredo, Beppe, Francesco e Luisa, a cui si
sono aggiunti Anna e Luciano che hanno scelto di accompagnarsi ad essi
per vivere questa esperienza, ha realizzato tutto quello che si era
proposto.
Il viaggio è risultato tranquillo anche se, come al solito,
lungo ( 13 ore ) e, stavolta, un po' più faticoso del solito a causa
del grande numero di pacchi, sacconi di plastica e fagotti vari che
invadevano anche lo spazio passeggeri del pur capace pulmino. Infatti
oltre alle quote, hanno portato i pacchi-dono inviati da numerose
famiglie di adottanti di Brescia ai propri bambini adottati, oltre a
quelli di vestiario usato e di materiale vario, destinato al Sindacato
che provvederà successivamente a distribuirlo alle famiglie che ne
hanno particolare bisogno. Dispiace che a causa della limitatezza dei
nostri mezzi non sia stato possibile trasportare a Kragujevac tutto
quello che molte famiglie di Brescia avevano messo a disposizione, ma
è nostro intendimento cercare un mezzo di trasporto idoneo per poterlo
fare in un prossimo viaggio.
L' accoglienza da parte del sindacato Samostalni è stata
particolarmente calorosa: le delegazioni della solidarietà
internazionale giungono a Kragujevac ormai da tre anni ed ogni volta
l'emozione aumenta anziché diminuire. La sensazione di fare qualcosa
di veramente essenziale per la vita di varie centinaia di famiglie di
lavoratori è palpabile nella realtà in cui i volontari sono
praticamente immersi per tutto il tempo della loro permanenza e dà a
tutti nuove forze per continuare.
La scelta della nostra Associazione di far partecipare ai
viaggi persone sempre diverse è giustissima. Proprio da queste ultime
vengono le conferme alle nostre valutazioni circa la situazione sempre
più catastrofica in cui milioni di cittadini europei, a due passi da
casa nostra, siano costretti a vivere.
Ogni volta, infatti, è il solito pugno nello stomaco: si fa
il giro delle famiglie a cui appartengono i bambini adottati dai
membri della delegazione, si vive per qualche ora nei loro ambienti e,
anche se la dignità e l' orgoglio di queste famiglie cerca di
attenuare l'estremo squallore delle loro condizioni economiche e
sociali, alla fine quando si torna nella propria stanza,in albergo, in
tutti è presente la stessa amara sensazione e ci si chiede quali
crimini possano mai aver compiuto questi uomini semplici per meritare
un tale castigo,?..e i loro bimbi?
Eppure si fanno letteralmente in quattro per organizzare
un'accoglienza degna per degli ospiti provenienti da quei paesi che
tre anni fa hanno inviato i bombardieri che hanno ribaltato le loro
vite oltre alle loro case e luoghi di lavoro. Eppure mai, neanche nei
momenti di maggiore tensione, è venuta fuori una sola parola di rabbia
nei nostri confronti: mi ricorderò sempre di quel padre di famiglia il
quale accogliendoci nella sua umilissima dimora ci disse che al di
sopra di tutti gli aiuti materiali che ogni volta portiamo, poneva il
fatto che noi facevamo migliaia di chilometri per manifestare loro
solidarietà e conforto e questo era un fatto che non avrebbe mai
dimenticato.
C' è una grandissima solidarietà che unisce le poche forze
di queste famiglie e questa fa si che possano affrontare i piccoli e
grandi problemi della vita quotidiana. Si prestano le sedie per gli
ospiti, la povera e magra gallina con la quale riescono a fare un
brodo tanto gustoso e tante altre cose con cui riescono a mettere
insieme un banchetto che da tempo non vedevano. Tante volte non
partecipano al pranzo in ossequio ad una vecchia usanza contro la
quale ogni volta cerchiamo di protestare ma inutilmente: loro stanno
in piedi ai margini del tavolo a colloquiare con gli ospiti che in
questi luoghi sono ancora sacri. Poi con la vecchia "600" Zastava,
concessa in prestito dal vicino, vengono dalla periferia della città
fino alla sede in cui verranno consegnate le quote.
Nel corso dei colloqui avuti con i dirigenti del Sindacato ed
in particolare con Rajka che parla benissimo l' italiano, sono stati
illustrati i progetti preventivati per il 2003 dalla nostra
Associazione. Si è perciò parlato della nostra disponibilità a
realizzare una struttura di uso collettivo e sociale, la cui natura
non è stata ancora stabilita in quanto necessita della partecipazione
e dell' impegno di un gruppo promotore composto da lavoratori di
Kragujevac ( cooperativa? ) in grado di seguirne la nascita e la
successiva gestione.
Altro argomento affrontato è quello relativo al soggiorno in
Italia di un gruppo di bambini, per un periodo di 2 settimane a fine
giugno 2003, ospiti presso quelle famiglie di adottanti che si
dichiarino disponibili e in condizioni di farlo. La nostra
Associazione ha valutato che una vacanza seppur breve in un ambiente
diverso da quello carico di tensioni di ogni tipo in cui vivono questi
bambini, possa essere loro molto utile per riacquistare quella
speranza nel futuro che può essere stata smarrita a causa di un troppo
prolungato periodo di fatica di vivere e di stenti, causati dalla
distruzione della Zastava e dalla sua mancata ricostruzione. Anche
questo punto necessita di approfondimento soprattutto per quanto
riguarda l'espletamento delle pratiche burocratiche che sia in Italia
che in Serbia sono particolarmente lunghe e complesse.
Cogliamo l' occasione di questa comunicazione per invitare
fin da adesso quanti volessero accogliere il loro bambino adottato a
comunicarcelo al più presto possibile: chiediamo solo di valutare con
estrema serietà l' adesione a questa iniziativa che andrà poi
approfondita nei contenuti con tutti coloro che vi aderiranno.
La delegazione ha inoltre proposto al Sindacato di
verificare la possibilità di raccogliere presso le famiglie dei
lavoratori gli oggetti di piccolo artigianato, quali i pizzi che molti
di noi conoscono, i maglioni in lana lavorati a mano e quant'altro
potesse essere posto in vendita sulla nostra bancarella a prezzi equi.
Questa iniziativa potrebbe diventare una occasione di guadagno per
molte famiglie che a Kragujevac hanno difficoltà a sviluppare i
piccoli commerci a causa delle ristrettezze economiche in cui quasi
tutti vivono.
I temi di ordine generale affrontati hanno spaziato sulle
attuali condizioni politiche ed economiche della Serbia e sulle
prospettive nel futuro prossimo.
Particolare emozione hanno suscitato le notizie riguardanti la morte
di numerosi lavoratori della Zastava che, subito dopo i bombardamenti,
avevano partecipato ai lavori di sgombero delle macerie e di
ripristino di due linee di produzione che poi la direzione aziendale e
il governo avevano deciso di bloccare.
Non si hanno dati certi né sul numero di morti né riguardo
la patologia: sembra che qualcuno voglia imporre il silenzio su questo
argomento che però piano piano sta trapelando. Del resto, anche a
Pancevo, a pochi chilometri ad est di Belgrado, città sede di
stabilimenti chimici di grande importanza, pesantemente bombardata e
con il suolo, l' aria e le acque invase da tutti i prodotti chimici
più dannosi alla vita, il numero dei morti è semplicemente raddoppiato
nel 2000 e per quanto riguarda il 2002 sta andando ancora peggio, al
punto che il Comune si è visto costretto a costruire un nuovo
cimitero.
Noi, e non è solo il nostro punto di vista ma è una
valutazione diffusa fra tutti quelli che operano in queste regioni,
crediamo che, visto il disinteresse della comunità internazionale, a
partire da quella europea, ben difficilmente si potrà vedere la luce
nel giro di qualche anno. Purtroppo pensiamo che gli attuali
quarantenni e oltre ben difficilmente vedranno una condizione di vita
normale. E' una ben amara consapevolezza, molto amara soprattutto per
chi è costretto a viverla; ma anche per noi che la constatiamo,
credeteci, è molto dura da digerire.
Ci resta la speranza di poter fare qualcosa di concreto e
di serio per i ragazzi e i bambini i quali, malgrado le precarissime
condizioni in cui vivono la quotidianità, si impegnano molto nello
studio e quindi nella ricerca di vie d' uscita per quando saranno
adulti. Purtroppo nuovi muri, come ben sappiamo noi in Italia dove
proprio ultimamente sono state approvate leggi che restringono di
molto la possibilità di migrare per cercare lavoro, impediscono la
ricerca di una concreta speranza di vita nella emigrazione, che pur
nella sua implicita tristezza, potrebbe rappresentare una soluzione,
anche soltanto temporanea, ai problemi di ordine economico.
Noi continueremo ad impegnarci nella solidarietà concreta
finchè ce ne sarà bisogno e siamo certi di avere tutta la Vostra
comprensione. Ma la nostra battaglia politica sarà diretta ad evitare
che maturino le condizioni che hanno portato tanti paesi della Terra
al grado di miseria e di disperazione in cui versano. Pertanto
svilupperemo le nostre iniziative innanzitutto contro la guerra,
insieme con tutto quel vasto movimento che proprio in questi giorni
sta cercando di fermare l' ennesimo massacro che i soliti potenti
vogliono scatenare in altre parti del mondo, a cominciare dall' Irak.
E dopo a chi toccherà?
GRAZIE. UN CORDIALISSIMO SALUTO A TUTTI INSIEME ALL' AUGURIO DI
BUONE FESTE .
p. l' Associazione Zastava
Riccardo Pilato
COMUNICAZIONI
Cogliamo l' occasione di questa lettera per raccomandare a
quanti hanno effettuato il pagamento delle quote-adozione 2002 tramite
bonifico bancario o bollettino postale di conservarne le ricevute che
rappresentano l' unico documento valido per portare in detrazione le
somme versate tramite il 730 del 2003. Come molti sanno, l'
Associazione ha rivolto un invito a quanti recupereranno con questo
sistema il 19% del versato affinché lo riversino sotto forma di
sottoscrizione: questo, che rimane un invito da accogliere
assolutamente in forma volontaria, ci permetterebbe di attivare nuove
adozioni o di progettare altre iniziative solidaristiche.
Inoltre raccomandiamo di specificare sempre e chiaramente
che si tratta di un versamento effettuato in favore di una " onlus ":
questo è essenziale per avere diritto alla detraibilità.
Stiamo verificando la possibilità di portare a Kragujevac
un certo numero di biciclette usate. La penuria di mezzi di
comunicazione oltre al problema dei costi elevati dei carburanti, ci
ha fatto nascere questa idea.
Pertanto invitiamo quanti avessero delle biciclette
inutilizzate a comunicarcelo ( siamo in grado di far eseguire delle
piccole riparazioni ) , successivamente, qualche giorno prima della
partenza, risolto il problema del mezzo di trasporto che deve
necessariamente essere un furgone, passeremo per le case a ritirarle.
Il protrarsi della crisi ha esaurito anche le scorte di
abiti delle famiglie, in particolare di quelli invernali. Ci è
pervenuta esplicita richiesta da parte del Sindacato Zastava di
vestiti e calzature, in particolare invernali. Pertanto invitiamo
tutti a mettere da parte il vestiario usato e non più utilizzato,
purchè in ottime condizioni e pulito, confezionando delle scatole con
attaccato sopra un elenco dettagliato del contenuto. Anche in questo
caso passeremo noi a ritirarli prima del viaggio.
INVITIAMO TUTTI GLI ADOTTANTI A FARCI PERVENIRE CON TUTTI I
MEZZI ( POSTA ELETTRONICA, TELEFONO O PERSONALMENTE ) PROPOSTE E
SUGGERIMENTI PER QUANTO RIGUARDA IL MIGLIORAMENTO DEL NOSTRO
INTERVENTO IN SERBIA: VE NE SAREMO MOLTO GRATI.
http://digilander.libero.it/zastavabrescia/
zastavabrescia@...
formata da componenti del coordinamento RSU e del Gruppo ZASTAVA
Trieste per consegnare le rate di adozioni in scadenza e alcune nuove
adozioni aperte soprattutto in Veneto e Friuli.
Nelle settimane precedenti si erano recati a Kragujevac compagni di
Rimini e di Brescia.
In tutto le adozioni rimaste attive sono oltre un migliaio. ***
DOCUMENTI ALLEGATI:
1. Dal Coordinamento RSU: notizie sui progetto del "forno di
panificazione" ed altro
2. Intervento svolto da Gilberto Vlaic di "Zastava Trieste"
all'assemblea dei lavoratori della Zastava il 21 dicembre 2002
3. "Zastava Brescia": relazione del viaggio a Kragujevac del
novembre-dicembre 2002
NOTA:
Per informazioni sul progetto "NON BOMBE MA SOLTANTO CARAMELLE", che
coinvolge diversi soggetti, potete andare al sito del coord. RSU:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/.
Dalla home page cliccare su "Punto Focale".
Sempre da "Punto focale" potete accedere alla pagina sulle iniziative
di solidarietà ai lavoratori della Jugoslavia dove trovate il
materiale.
=== 1 ===
DAL COORD. RSU:
Nei giorni scorsi si sono recati alla Zastava i compagni di Rimini che
dovranno prossimamente montare nella fabbrica un forno per la
preparazione del Pane (25 q.li giorno).
Con i delegati sindacali della Zastava sono state valutate le
necessarie modifiche dei locali dove il forno dovrà essere montato,
modifiche che dovrebbero essere realizzate entro il prossimo gennaio
per poter così trasportare il forno e iniziare il lavoro di montaggio,
prova e avvio della produzione.
Lo scopo del progetto è quello di garantire l'accesso alla
alimentazione primaria alle famiglie dei lavoratori disoccupati, ma
con una attenzione particolare anche ai lavoratori della Zastava,
cacciati ed ora profughi dal Kosovo (stabilimento di Pec - circa 800
persone).
Altro obiettivo è quello di utilizzare il forno per organizzare una
formazione (a rotazione) per i lavoratori tutt'ora senza lavoro dando
così a loro la possibilità di imparare un mestiere. La formazione sarà
tenuta da Panificatori Italiani che si sono dichiarati disponibili a
questo.
L'arrivo e la messa in funzione del forno sarà occasione per una
grande festa che sarà realizzata presso lo stabilimento
Zastava (crediamo verso aprile-maggio) con la presenza di diversi
complessi italiani e slavi coi quali si terrà un concerto.
Sarebbe questa una ottima occasione per organizzare alla Zastava una
presenza anche più massiccia del solito delle famiglie italiane che
hanno attivato una adozione o che sostengono in altro modo la
realizzazione del progetto.
Sarebbe possibile organizzare uno o due pulmann. I costi non sono
eccessivi (da un preventivo fatto, tra l'affitto del pulmann e per il
dormire in pensione per 3 notti non si dovrebbe superare la cifra dei
110 euro a testa. Rimarrebbe fuori solo il mangiare che sul posto non
è caro)
Si sta continuando inoltre a lavorare per organizzare una colonia
estiva (15 giorni) per i figli dei lavoratori Zastava a luglio in una
località messa a disposizione dalle amministrazioni comunali del
Mugello (per circa 35-40 bambini più 10 accompagnatori).
La presenza di questi bambini dovrebbe coincidere con la
manifestazione conclusiva di "Non bombe ma...") che si terrà a Roma.
Di tutte queste cose vi terremo informati.
Ciao alma
Alma Rossi: indirizzo email - alma@...
Coordinamento Rsu: http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/
=== 2 ===
Intervento, a nome del coordinamento RSU e gruppo ZASTAVA Trieste,
svolto da Gilberto Vlaic di ZASTAVATrieste all'assemblea dei
lavoratori della Zastava di Kragujevac il 21 dicembre 2002 in
occasione della consegna delle adozioni a distanza raccolte a favore
delle famiglie dei lavoratori tutt'ora senza lavoro e senza salario a
causa dei bombardamenti delle fabbriche della Jugoslavia.
---
Cari lavoratori della Zastava, eccoci di nuovo insieme in questa
assemblea che rappresenta per me uno degli esempi piu' belli e
significativi della solidarieta' e dell'amicizia tra lavoratori di
paesi diversi, uno dei migliori esempi della fraternita' tra i popoli.
Per noi del coordinamento RSU e del gruppo ZASTAVA di Trieste questo
e' il quarto viaggio nel corso di questo anno.
Oggi portiamo con noi una quarantina di adozioni provenienti da tutta
Italia: dalla Sicilia al Piemonte, dalla Toscana al Friuli; otto sono
nuove, a riprova del fatto che molti lavoratori, molti cittadini
italiani non hanno dimenticato e non dimenticheranno mai che quasi
quattro anni fa l'Italia, insieme agli altri paesi della NATO,
aggrediva brutalmente la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia. La nostra
solidarieta' e amicizia nei vostri confronti e' sempre presente.
Inoltre abbiamo portato alcuni importanti farmaci per l'ospedale della
vostra citta'.
Vorrei anche ricordare che prossimamente porteremo qui a Kragujevac il
forno per la fabbricazione del pane, di cui vi abbiamo informato
durante il viaggio di ottobre e che e' un dono dell'associazione di
Rimini "Il nido del cuculo".
Dopo l'aggressione al vostro Paese, ed in parte come sua conseguenza,
vi e' stata in Europa una netta avanzata dei governi di destra, ed il
peggiore sicuramente e' quello italiano.
Stiamo assistendo ad una progressiva fascistizzazione dell'Italia, che
magari non ha i tratti quotidiani della brutalita' del fascismo
classico, ma che mette a serio rischio i diritti politici e gli
interessi materiali dei lavoratori. Ne' potrebbe essere altrimenti,
visto che gli eredi diretti del fascismo sono oggi al governo nel
nostro paese, insieme alla destra piu' razzista e ultra-liberista.
Circa un mese fa una ventina di compagni sono stati arrestati in
Italia usando vecchie norme del codice fascista, che non venivano
usate da decenni, con l'accusa di opporsi con le loro parole
(attenzione, non atti, PAROLE!) all'attuazione del programma del
governo.
Persino il diritto di sciopero e' messo in discussione.
Contemporaneamente le condizioni materiali di vita dei lavoratori sono
sottoposte a un attacco continuo.
La FIAT ha espulso forse definitivamente dalle fabbriche migliaia di
operai, specialmente in zone del Paese gia' depresse, dove il lavoro
e' scarso.
E le condizioni generali subiscono un arretramento continuo: il lavoro
diventa sempre piu' precario, i fondi alla scuola e alla sanita'
pubbliche subiscono tagli feroci, mentre vengono finanziate e
incoraggiate le strutture private; viene messo in discussione il
diritto ad una decorosa pensione.
Contro questo continuiamo a lottare, malgrado alcune frange sindacali,
per fortuna minoritarie, che non hanno il concetto di uguaglianza,
solidarieta' e fratellanza tra i lavoratori come primo fondamentale
punto della loro azione, e che trattano con il governo la riduzione
dei nostri diritti a fronte di una ridicola diminuzione delle tasse
sui redditi piu' bassi.
Il 18 ottobre scorso, con uno sciopero di otto ore indetto dalla sola
CGIL, abbiamo paralizzato l'Italia. E le lotte continuano.
Dopo l'invenzione dell'ingerenza umanitaria, nome scelto per coprire
la piu' classica delle aggressioni imperialiste, vediamo oggi scenari
di guerra terribili in tutto il mondo, compreso il fatto che gli Stati
Uniti hanno dichiarato che sono pronti a usare le bombe atomiche.
Dopo l'Afghanistan, e' ora il popolo iracheno ad essere nel mirino
della guerra imperialista.
Non dobbiamo meravigliarci del fatto che questa volta alcuni paesi
europei, Francia e Germania soprattutto, frenano rispetto a questa
nuova aggressione. Non e' che siano diventati improvvisamente "buoni"
e che abbiano capito che la guerra e' comunque follia, ma questa
guerra non fa i loro intesessi, in quanto consegnerebbe il petrolio
iracheno ai soli Stati Uniti.
Ricordiamo che la Germania e' stata il paese europeo che piu' degli
altri ha contribuito allo smembramento della Jugoslavia negli anni
1991-1995 e che ha convintamente partecipato alla aggressione alla
Serbia nel 1999, perche' queste cose erano del tutto utili ai suoi
interessi.
E non dobbiamo dimenticare altri popoli, sottoposti ai piu' feroci
ricatti e condizionamenti, dal Venezuela, dove un governo
democraticamente eletto rischia di essere travolto da un colpo di
stato organizzato dagli Stati Uniti, sempre per interessi sul
petrolio, alla Palestina, dove un popolo senza terra viene massacrato
dall'imperialismo sionista, con l'accordo degli imperialismi
statunitense ed europeo.
Come lavoratori dobbiamo essere assolutamente contrari a queste guerre
imperialiste, e dobbiamo opporci con tutte le nostre forze ad esse,
non solo perche' la guerra porta lutti e distruzioni, ma perche' sono
assolutamente contro i nostri interessi come classe sociale.
Non mi stanchero' mai di dire che il mondo non si divide in Italiani,
Jugoslavi ecc., ma si divide in lavoratori e padroni, in chi rivendica
la giustizia sociale e chi pone il profitto capitalista sopra tutto.
L'arma piu' forte che abbiamo in mano e' la solidarieta'
internazionalista dei lavoratori.
Il 9 novembre scorso a Firenze eravamo quasi un milione a dire il
nostro NO alla guerra.
Dovevano essere presenti in questa occasione anche alcuni vostri
rappresentanti, ma l'ambasciata Italiana di Belgrado non ha concesso
i visti ai delegati della Zastava ed alla esponente del sindacato
metalmeccanici nazionale jugoslavo, benche' fossero stati chiesti
direttamente dalla CGIL di Brescia. Si e' trattato chiaramente di una
manovra provocatoria per impedire ai vostri rappresentanti di poter
illustrare la vostra situazione in una occasione importante come il
Social Forum Europeo.
Torno ora alla nostra assemblea, per informarvi di una nuova
iniziativa che abbiamo lanciato tra gli studenti delle scuole
elementari in Italia.
Si tratta di un progetto in cui i bambini sono chiamati a esprimere il
loro rifiuto alla guerra, con la loro sensibilita' di bambini,
attraverso scritti, disegni canzoni. E chiediamo loro di non fermarsi
qui, ma di stabilire rapporti di gemellaggio con altre classi
scolastiche nei Paesi che hanno purtoppo conosciuto la devastazione
dell'aggressione imperialista.
Abbiamo scelto per questo progetto un nome simbolico, tratto da uno
dei disegni che i bambini di Kragujevac ci inviavano:
Non bombe, ma solo caramelle
Termino rivolgendomi alle ragazze e ai ragazzi che tra poco
riceveranno le quote dei loro amici italiani; vi invito caldamente a
scrivere alle famiglie italiane perche' una sola vostra lettera serve
piu' di mille dei nostri discorsi.
Un abbraccio a tutti voi.
Kragujevac, 21 dicembre 2002
=== 2 ===
http://digilander.libero.it/zastavabrescia/
zastavabrescia@...
Brescia, 16/12/2002
Questo è un breve resoconto del viaggio effettuato a Kragujevac da una
nostra delegazione dal 29 novembre al 2 dicembre 2002 per la consegna
delle somme raccolte per le adozioni di 121 bambini figli di
lavoratori, indirizzato a tutti gli adottanti e simpatizzanti del
progetto Zastava, portato avanti dall'Associazione Zastava - onlus -
di Brescia.
---
VIAGGIO A KRAGUJEVAC - DICEMBRE 2002
Sono tornati, lunedì 2 dicembre, i volontari della nostra
Associazione delegati ad effettuare la consegna delle quote delle
adozioni relative al secondo semestre 2002.
La delegazione composta da Alfredo, Beppe, Francesco e Luisa, a cui si
sono aggiunti Anna e Luciano che hanno scelto di accompagnarsi ad essi
per vivere questa esperienza, ha realizzato tutto quello che si era
proposto.
Il viaggio è risultato tranquillo anche se, come al solito,
lungo ( 13 ore ) e, stavolta, un po' più faticoso del solito a causa
del grande numero di pacchi, sacconi di plastica e fagotti vari che
invadevano anche lo spazio passeggeri del pur capace pulmino. Infatti
oltre alle quote, hanno portato i pacchi-dono inviati da numerose
famiglie di adottanti di Brescia ai propri bambini adottati, oltre a
quelli di vestiario usato e di materiale vario, destinato al Sindacato
che provvederà successivamente a distribuirlo alle famiglie che ne
hanno particolare bisogno. Dispiace che a causa della limitatezza dei
nostri mezzi non sia stato possibile trasportare a Kragujevac tutto
quello che molte famiglie di Brescia avevano messo a disposizione, ma
è nostro intendimento cercare un mezzo di trasporto idoneo per poterlo
fare in un prossimo viaggio.
L' accoglienza da parte del sindacato Samostalni è stata
particolarmente calorosa: le delegazioni della solidarietà
internazionale giungono a Kragujevac ormai da tre anni ed ogni volta
l'emozione aumenta anziché diminuire. La sensazione di fare qualcosa
di veramente essenziale per la vita di varie centinaia di famiglie di
lavoratori è palpabile nella realtà in cui i volontari sono
praticamente immersi per tutto il tempo della loro permanenza e dà a
tutti nuove forze per continuare.
La scelta della nostra Associazione di far partecipare ai
viaggi persone sempre diverse è giustissima. Proprio da queste ultime
vengono le conferme alle nostre valutazioni circa la situazione sempre
più catastrofica in cui milioni di cittadini europei, a due passi da
casa nostra, siano costretti a vivere.
Ogni volta, infatti, è il solito pugno nello stomaco: si fa
il giro delle famiglie a cui appartengono i bambini adottati dai
membri della delegazione, si vive per qualche ora nei loro ambienti e,
anche se la dignità e l' orgoglio di queste famiglie cerca di
attenuare l'estremo squallore delle loro condizioni economiche e
sociali, alla fine quando si torna nella propria stanza,in albergo, in
tutti è presente la stessa amara sensazione e ci si chiede quali
crimini possano mai aver compiuto questi uomini semplici per meritare
un tale castigo,?..e i loro bimbi?
Eppure si fanno letteralmente in quattro per organizzare
un'accoglienza degna per degli ospiti provenienti da quei paesi che
tre anni fa hanno inviato i bombardieri che hanno ribaltato le loro
vite oltre alle loro case e luoghi di lavoro. Eppure mai, neanche nei
momenti di maggiore tensione, è venuta fuori una sola parola di rabbia
nei nostri confronti: mi ricorderò sempre di quel padre di famiglia il
quale accogliendoci nella sua umilissima dimora ci disse che al di
sopra di tutti gli aiuti materiali che ogni volta portiamo, poneva il
fatto che noi facevamo migliaia di chilometri per manifestare loro
solidarietà e conforto e questo era un fatto che non avrebbe mai
dimenticato.
C' è una grandissima solidarietà che unisce le poche forze
di queste famiglie e questa fa si che possano affrontare i piccoli e
grandi problemi della vita quotidiana. Si prestano le sedie per gli
ospiti, la povera e magra gallina con la quale riescono a fare un
brodo tanto gustoso e tante altre cose con cui riescono a mettere
insieme un banchetto che da tempo non vedevano. Tante volte non
partecipano al pranzo in ossequio ad una vecchia usanza contro la
quale ogni volta cerchiamo di protestare ma inutilmente: loro stanno
in piedi ai margini del tavolo a colloquiare con gli ospiti che in
questi luoghi sono ancora sacri. Poi con la vecchia "600" Zastava,
concessa in prestito dal vicino, vengono dalla periferia della città
fino alla sede in cui verranno consegnate le quote.
Nel corso dei colloqui avuti con i dirigenti del Sindacato ed
in particolare con Rajka che parla benissimo l' italiano, sono stati
illustrati i progetti preventivati per il 2003 dalla nostra
Associazione. Si è perciò parlato della nostra disponibilità a
realizzare una struttura di uso collettivo e sociale, la cui natura
non è stata ancora stabilita in quanto necessita della partecipazione
e dell' impegno di un gruppo promotore composto da lavoratori di
Kragujevac ( cooperativa? ) in grado di seguirne la nascita e la
successiva gestione.
Altro argomento affrontato è quello relativo al soggiorno in
Italia di un gruppo di bambini, per un periodo di 2 settimane a fine
giugno 2003, ospiti presso quelle famiglie di adottanti che si
dichiarino disponibili e in condizioni di farlo. La nostra
Associazione ha valutato che una vacanza seppur breve in un ambiente
diverso da quello carico di tensioni di ogni tipo in cui vivono questi
bambini, possa essere loro molto utile per riacquistare quella
speranza nel futuro che può essere stata smarrita a causa di un troppo
prolungato periodo di fatica di vivere e di stenti, causati dalla
distruzione della Zastava e dalla sua mancata ricostruzione. Anche
questo punto necessita di approfondimento soprattutto per quanto
riguarda l'espletamento delle pratiche burocratiche che sia in Italia
che in Serbia sono particolarmente lunghe e complesse.
Cogliamo l' occasione di questa comunicazione per invitare
fin da adesso quanti volessero accogliere il loro bambino adottato a
comunicarcelo al più presto possibile: chiediamo solo di valutare con
estrema serietà l' adesione a questa iniziativa che andrà poi
approfondita nei contenuti con tutti coloro che vi aderiranno.
La delegazione ha inoltre proposto al Sindacato di
verificare la possibilità di raccogliere presso le famiglie dei
lavoratori gli oggetti di piccolo artigianato, quali i pizzi che molti
di noi conoscono, i maglioni in lana lavorati a mano e quant'altro
potesse essere posto in vendita sulla nostra bancarella a prezzi equi.
Questa iniziativa potrebbe diventare una occasione di guadagno per
molte famiglie che a Kragujevac hanno difficoltà a sviluppare i
piccoli commerci a causa delle ristrettezze economiche in cui quasi
tutti vivono.
I temi di ordine generale affrontati hanno spaziato sulle
attuali condizioni politiche ed economiche della Serbia e sulle
prospettive nel futuro prossimo.
Particolare emozione hanno suscitato le notizie riguardanti la morte
di numerosi lavoratori della Zastava che, subito dopo i bombardamenti,
avevano partecipato ai lavori di sgombero delle macerie e di
ripristino di due linee di produzione che poi la direzione aziendale e
il governo avevano deciso di bloccare.
Non si hanno dati certi né sul numero di morti né riguardo
la patologia: sembra che qualcuno voglia imporre il silenzio su questo
argomento che però piano piano sta trapelando. Del resto, anche a
Pancevo, a pochi chilometri ad est di Belgrado, città sede di
stabilimenti chimici di grande importanza, pesantemente bombardata e
con il suolo, l' aria e le acque invase da tutti i prodotti chimici
più dannosi alla vita, il numero dei morti è semplicemente raddoppiato
nel 2000 e per quanto riguarda il 2002 sta andando ancora peggio, al
punto che il Comune si è visto costretto a costruire un nuovo
cimitero.
Noi, e non è solo il nostro punto di vista ma è una
valutazione diffusa fra tutti quelli che operano in queste regioni,
crediamo che, visto il disinteresse della comunità internazionale, a
partire da quella europea, ben difficilmente si potrà vedere la luce
nel giro di qualche anno. Purtroppo pensiamo che gli attuali
quarantenni e oltre ben difficilmente vedranno una condizione di vita
normale. E' una ben amara consapevolezza, molto amara soprattutto per
chi è costretto a viverla; ma anche per noi che la constatiamo,
credeteci, è molto dura da digerire.
Ci resta la speranza di poter fare qualcosa di concreto e
di serio per i ragazzi e i bambini i quali, malgrado le precarissime
condizioni in cui vivono la quotidianità, si impegnano molto nello
studio e quindi nella ricerca di vie d' uscita per quando saranno
adulti. Purtroppo nuovi muri, come ben sappiamo noi in Italia dove
proprio ultimamente sono state approvate leggi che restringono di
molto la possibilità di migrare per cercare lavoro, impediscono la
ricerca di una concreta speranza di vita nella emigrazione, che pur
nella sua implicita tristezza, potrebbe rappresentare una soluzione,
anche soltanto temporanea, ai problemi di ordine economico.
Noi continueremo ad impegnarci nella solidarietà concreta
finchè ce ne sarà bisogno e siamo certi di avere tutta la Vostra
comprensione. Ma la nostra battaglia politica sarà diretta ad evitare
che maturino le condizioni che hanno portato tanti paesi della Terra
al grado di miseria e di disperazione in cui versano. Pertanto
svilupperemo le nostre iniziative innanzitutto contro la guerra,
insieme con tutto quel vasto movimento che proprio in questi giorni
sta cercando di fermare l' ennesimo massacro che i soliti potenti
vogliono scatenare in altre parti del mondo, a cominciare dall' Irak.
E dopo a chi toccherà?
GRAZIE. UN CORDIALISSIMO SALUTO A TUTTI INSIEME ALL' AUGURIO DI
BUONE FESTE .
p. l' Associazione Zastava
Riccardo Pilato
COMUNICAZIONI
Cogliamo l' occasione di questa lettera per raccomandare a
quanti hanno effettuato il pagamento delle quote-adozione 2002 tramite
bonifico bancario o bollettino postale di conservarne le ricevute che
rappresentano l' unico documento valido per portare in detrazione le
somme versate tramite il 730 del 2003. Come molti sanno, l'
Associazione ha rivolto un invito a quanti recupereranno con questo
sistema il 19% del versato affinché lo riversino sotto forma di
sottoscrizione: questo, che rimane un invito da accogliere
assolutamente in forma volontaria, ci permetterebbe di attivare nuove
adozioni o di progettare altre iniziative solidaristiche.
Inoltre raccomandiamo di specificare sempre e chiaramente
che si tratta di un versamento effettuato in favore di una " onlus ":
questo è essenziale per avere diritto alla detraibilità.
Stiamo verificando la possibilità di portare a Kragujevac
un certo numero di biciclette usate. La penuria di mezzi di
comunicazione oltre al problema dei costi elevati dei carburanti, ci
ha fatto nascere questa idea.
Pertanto invitiamo quanti avessero delle biciclette
inutilizzate a comunicarcelo ( siamo in grado di far eseguire delle
piccole riparazioni ) , successivamente, qualche giorno prima della
partenza, risolto il problema del mezzo di trasporto che deve
necessariamente essere un furgone, passeremo per le case a ritirarle.
Il protrarsi della crisi ha esaurito anche le scorte di
abiti delle famiglie, in particolare di quelli invernali. Ci è
pervenuta esplicita richiesta da parte del Sindacato Zastava di
vestiti e calzature, in particolare invernali. Pertanto invitiamo
tutti a mettere da parte il vestiario usato e non più utilizzato,
purchè in ottime condizioni e pulito, confezionando delle scatole con
attaccato sopra un elenco dettagliato del contenuto. Anche in questo
caso passeremo noi a ritirarli prima del viaggio.
INVITIAMO TUTTI GLI ADOTTANTI A FARCI PERVENIRE CON TUTTI I
MEZZI ( POSTA ELETTRONICA, TELEFONO O PERSONALMENTE ) PROPOSTE E
SUGGERIMENTI PER QUANTO RIGUARDA IL MIGLIORAMENTO DEL NOSTRO
INTERVENTO IN SERBIA: VE NE SAREMO MOLTO GRATI.
http://digilander.libero.it/zastavabrescia/
zastavabrescia@...
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., Rick Rozoff wrote:
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cq/Qyugo-nato.R0ZH_CDK.html
Yugoslavia opens airspace to NATO in rapprochement
hopes
BELGRADE, Dec 20 (AFP) - Yugoslavia Friday opened its
airspace to NATO missions operating in the region,
saying it hoped this would represent a step towards
rapprochement between Belgrade and the western
alliance.
Tanjug news agency quoted the foreign ministry as
saying: "An exchange of letters between Foreign
Minister Goran Svilanovic and NATO Secretary-General
George Robertson today has opened up air routes over
the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
This would serve the needs of NATO, the NATO-led SFOR
peacekeeping force in the neighbouring former Yugoslav
state of Bosnia and the international peace force in
the UN-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo, the
statement said.
"The ministry expects this agreement with NATO to be a
major further step towards rapprochement between the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Euro-Atlantic
structure," the statement added.
During the regime of former hardline president
Slobodan Milosevic, NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999
after Yugoslav forces moved against the ethnic
Albanian community in Kosovo.
Milosevic was later replaced by a moderate reformist
regime led by President Vojislav Kostunica, seeking
better relations with the West.
--- End forwarded message ---
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cq/Qyugo-nato.R0ZH_CDK.html
Yugoslavia opens airspace to NATO in rapprochement
hopes
BELGRADE, Dec 20 (AFP) - Yugoslavia Friday opened its
airspace to NATO missions operating in the region,
saying it hoped this would represent a step towards
rapprochement between Belgrade and the western
alliance.
Tanjug news agency quoted the foreign ministry as
saying: "An exchange of letters between Foreign
Minister Goran Svilanovic and NATO Secretary-General
George Robertson today has opened up air routes over
the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
This would serve the needs of NATO, the NATO-led SFOR
peacekeeping force in the neighbouring former Yugoslav
state of Bosnia and the international peace force in
the UN-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo, the
statement said.
"The ministry expects this agreement with NATO to be a
major further step towards rapprochement between the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Euro-Atlantic
structure," the statement added.
During the regime of former hardline president
Slobodan Milosevic, NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999
after Yugoslav forces moved against the ethnic
Albanian community in Kosovo.
Milosevic was later replaced by a moderate reformist
regime led by President Vojislav Kostunica, seeking
better relations with the West.
--- End forwarded message ---
(Note: the documents are in inverse chronological order)
1. Hague: Outrageous verdict and their way to hide it (22/12/02)
2. ICDSM German Section statement (in English, 18/12/02)
3. PRELIMINARY LEGAL REMARKS OF ICDSM ATTORNEY Ms. TIPHAINE DICKSON,
PRESENT TODAY AT THE HAGUE (18/12/02)
4. Milosevic refuses psychiatric tests (05/12/02)
5. Belgrade protest (by J. Catalinotto, 05/12/02)
6. The Hague requested for information from GB (26/11/02)
7. Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague (Reuters 23/11/02)
LINKS
Jurist: UN Tribunal: Milosevic vs. Mayor of Dubrovnik
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/810368/posts
=== 1 ===
Subject: Hague: Outrageous verdict and their way to hide it
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 01:33:45 +0100
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
In absence of both - text of the "Trial Chamber" decision and
transcript of December 18 hearings - here is their semi-official
"Overview of Proceedings", quoting basically the words of Richard May
in "last three minutes".
What follows is PR of "Carla style" staged in order to hide the deadly
verdict. Note that UN SC also has a role. Carla insists that "export
of the Presidents" should go on. Carla admits that they don't have a
case against President Milosevic. Carla is angry that her followers in
Belgrade have not produced some "evidence". And Carla wants to help
them by attacking them. How controversial!
OVERVIEW OF COURT PROCEEDINGS
Update No. 248 - 20 December 2002
MILOSEVIC Case ("Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina")
Trial Chamber III - Judges May (Presiding), Robinson and Kwon
12th week of the Prosecution case (only on Wednesday 18 December).
On 18 December 2002, the following witness was examined by the
Prosecution and subsequently cross-examined by the Accused and one of
the amici curiae:
· Witness Petar Poljanic
The Trial Chamber gave its conclusions as to the future conduct of the
proceedings:
1. The trial will proceed according to timetable, due allowance being
made for illness and such rest days as appropriate. There will be no
other extension of time for the Prosecution case.
2. Defense counsel will not be imposed upon the accused against his
wishes in the present circumstances. It is not normally appropriate in
adversarial proceedings such as these. The Trial Chamber will keep the
position under review.
3. The Accused will not be provisionally released, as he has asked,
during the course of these proceedings.
The trial was then adjourned until 9 January 2003.
Press Release . Communiqué de presse
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
BUREAU DU PROCUREUR
The Hague, 20 December 2002
FH/P.I.S./ 721-e
ICTY PROSECUTOR, CARLA DEL PONTE ADDRESSES ONCE AGAIN
"THE UNSATISFACTORY CO-OPERATION" OF THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA WITH THE OFFICE OF THE
PROSECUTOR
Please find below the statement delivered by the ICTY Prosecutor, Ms.
Carla del Ponte, at a press conference held at the Tribunal on Friday
20 December 2002:
I regret that I have to address once again the issue of unsatisfactory
co-operation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with my Office.
Just two days ago, the President of the UN Security Council on behalf
of the Council issued a statement reminding all relevant States, and
Yugoslavia first of all, to co-operate fully with the ICTY. It was a
result of the Report of the President of the ICTY, Judge Claude Jorda,
to the Security Council regarding non-compliance of Yugoslavia with
its international obligations.
The Presidential statement of the Security Council stresses the
obligation of Yugoslavia to comply with the requests of the Tribunal
for arrest and transfer of indictees, to make witnesses available and
to assist in ongoing investigations. I would like to underline the
paragraph of the statement which "insists that dialogue or lack of
dialogue between the Tribunal and the Governments must not be used by
the States as an excuse for failure to discharge their obligations to
co-operate fully with the Tribunal as required by the UN Security
Council Resolutions".
My statement today is triggered by the fact that the Yugoslav Foreign
Minister and President of the National Council for Co-operation, Mr.
G. Svilanovic refused to speak to me yesterday exactly on the issues
of co-operation. So much for a dialogue. Instead, as reported by the
media and if it is reported correctly, Minister Svilanovic stated that
the Tribunal is "a stone on the neck of Yugoslavia", that
"co-operation with Prosecution was never at the lower level", also
that the "Prosecution betrayed the confidence of the authorities in
Belgrade" and finally that "all co-operation might stop" due to the
wrong assessment of the situation in Yugoslavia by the Prosecution. It
is obviously not my duty to assess the situation in Yugoslavia.
I am truly disappointed by such inappropriate political statement of
the person who is in charge of co-operation with the ICTY. It is also
not true that my Office was asking for general access to all archives
in Yugoslavia. My Prosecution teams have to meet demands of the Trial
Chambers and have to duty to comply with particular schedules. We are
given limited time to present the prosecution case in each trial.
The Requests for assistance and information send to the authorities in
Belgrade are concrete about the documents sought, as it is for
instance clear from the recent Prosecution's application under Rule 54
bis in the Milosevic case. It is clear from this application that
there are number of outstanding Requests, some of which are 20 months
old. The best results and fair results in the criminal trials of such
importance as here in The Hague are only possible to achieve if best
possible documents are made available in timely manner.
The difficulties faced by the Prosecution in Milosevic case with
access to the documents and witnesses came to the point when it was
not possible to wait any longer, while the Trial Chamber had to be
informed about the problems faced by us.
I want to repeat, in the limited time given by the Trial Chamber in
particular case the Prosecution team must bring the most important
witnesses and most important documents before the court.
Finally, I would like to inform you that I sent yesterday a letter to
the Yugoslav authorities in regard to the accused M. Milutinovic to
ensure his surrender to the custody of the ICTY and his transfer to
The Hague immediately upon the expiry of his term of office.
Thank you.
=== 2 ===
Subject: DANGER OF JUDICIAL MURDER - ICDSM German Section statement
(in English)
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 17:15:06 +0100
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
DANGER OF JUDICIAL MURDER STILL ACUTE
Press statement issued by the German Section of the
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic,
18/12/2002
On 18.12.2002, the last day of the "trial" of Slobodan Milosevic
this year, it was announced that "administrative questions"
would be dealt with. In plain language, the issue was Slobodan
Milosevic's state of health and the possibility of him surviving
the trial. The treatment of this matter by the "court" was fully in
line with what one would expect from the cold-blooded
bureaucratic reduction of a matter of life and death to an
"administrative issue". "Judge" May dealt with the matter in less
than three minutes.
Firstly he stated that that the Chamber had received medical
reports and petitions from "the sides". May, certainly not for
reasons of time, withheld the information that these included
submissions from the International and National Committees for
the Defence of Slobodan Milosevic, appeals from US intellectuals
and German doctors and a unanimous resolution from the
Russian Duma [parliament].
He permitted no discussion of the issues but pronounced three
points as a final decision: maintenance of the previously
established schedule "with monitoring" of the health of the
"accused", no imposition of a defence lawyer - which Carla del
Ponte had asked for - since this would be incompatible with the
rules of the "Court", and, thirdly, no temporary release of
Slobodan Milosevic to allow him specialist treatment by his
long-standing doctors.
Thus, despite repeated warnings, notably from medical
specialists, we see the acceptance of severe damage to the health
and a threat to the life of Slobodan Milosevic. All those who
have assumed that, given the disaster of the trial so far from the
legal point of view, the forces behind the "Tribunal" view the
termination of the trial through death as an option which is at
least worthy of consideration, now feel confirmed in that
supposition.
The state of Slobodan Milosevic's health - he suffers from
exceptionally high blood pressure, weak heart muscles,
hypertrophy of the left ventricle and angina pectoris carrying the
risk of sudden death through heart failure - has swiftly
deteriorated in recent months because of the intolerable
conditions of detention and trial. The first examination by a
Dutch cardiologist on 15.11. 02 predicted an 11% reduction in
the risk of death given appropriate medication. On 23.11.02
newspapers and press agencies reported that Milosevic had over
a long period not only not been receiving effective or ineffective
drugs, but had in fact been given contra-indicated drugs which
actually increased his blood pressure.
A group of practising doctors and therapists from Germany,
including members of "International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War" in their two petitions to the
"Tribunal" have pointed out inter alia that:
"This attitude, which can only be described as irresponsible,
towards a person whose health and life are in your care with all
the consequences flowing from that, raises serious questions as
regards motives. At the very least it is totally at odds with various
UN documents and resolutions concerning the treatment of
prisoners which responsible persons claiming to be
representatives of a UN institution ought of all people fully to
uphold.
The necessary outcome of this situation, for which the ICTY
carries full responsibility, is that Slobodan Milosevic be
immediately released from this health- and life-threatening
situation and set free so that he can receive in Belgrade the long
overdue treatment from the doctors who have treated him for
many years."
By his decision today, Judge May has done more than just ignore
such expert advice. The "Tribunal" is also thereby blatantly
flouting UN General Assembly resolutions and documents
relating to the health of persons in custody, in particular:
* the provisions of UN General Assembly Resolution no. 37/194
of December 1982, which stipulates that "health personnel,
particularly physicians, charged with the medical care of
prisoners and detainees, have a duty to provide them with
protection of their physical and mental health and treatment of
disease of the same quality and standard as is afforded to those
who are not imprisoned or detained".
* Article 6 of the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
adopted by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 1979
which obliges all courts to "ensure the full protection of the
health of persons in their custody".
Moreover, the "Tribunal" is violating its own rules, specifically
article 21 point 4b, which stipulates that every defendant shall
have "adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his
defence".
In the view of the International Committee for the Defence of
Slobodan Milosevic, all the above indicates that the trial is
nothing more than an organised attempt to kill Slobodan
Milosevic.
Immediately after this "potential death sentence", representatives
of the International Committee announced that they were
considering legal steps against "Judge" May. In the next few
days, they want the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
in Geneva to intervene so that UN decisions are at last applied in
"Del Ponte's Circus".
Klaus Hartmann
Vice-President ICDSM (International Committee for the
Defence of Slobodan Milosevic)
mailto:vorstand@...
ICDSM http://www.icdsm.org/
ICDSM - German Section http://www.free-slobo.de/
=== 3 ===
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/dickson/td-12-18.htm
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==========================================================
The following report is from Attorney
Tiphaine Dickson, retained by the ICDSM,
writing from The Hague. A full report on
the ICDSM delegation will be forthcoming.
- Jared Israel
[Posted 18 December 2002]
==========================================================
PRELIMINARY LEGAL REMARKS OF ICDSM
ATTORNEY Ms. TIPHAINE DICKSON, PRESENT
TODAY AT THE HAGUE
18 December 2002, The Hague
Earlier today, Trial Chamber III allocated
a few minutes of its timetable to
summarize a decision with respect to
Slobodan Milosevic's health, trial
conditions, and to rule on requests for
provisional release filed by parties.
The full ruling was unavailable to the
public and the press.
On 5th and 12th of November, the ICDSM
petitioned the Chamber for urgent
specialized medical attention (1) and for
the provisional release of Slobodan
Milosevic.(2) On the basis of medical
reports and international law, we argued
that the current trial conditions
constitute a threat to his life, that lack
of adequate medical attention is
tantamount to torture, and requested that
he be afforded the right to urgent,
specialized medical care by physicians
familiar with his history. This requires
provisional release to Belgrade as well as
full convalescence.
The ICDSM further submitted that President
Milosevic's fundamental right represent
himself, and to not have counsel imposed
on him creates an obligation on the
Chamber to accommodate the exercise of
this right by providing conditions other
than those of a grueling trial schedule
with restricted access to his legal
assistants in a prison. We provided the
Chamber with a legal basis upon which to
order Slobodan Milosevic's release for the
continuation of the trial in a
non-custodial setting, following full
convalescence.
Chamber III has today denied provisional
release, and appears, since they affirm
that they will proceed according to their
"timetable", to have denied requests for
an adjournment so that President Milosevic
may obtain specialized medical evaluation
and treatment. They did not mention the
ICDSM's motion or requests.
Trial Chamber III has disregarded the
reasoning of their colleagues in the Talic
matter who stated:
"It would be inappropriate for this Trial
Chamber to wait until Talic is on the
verge of death before considering
favorably his application for provisional
release."
[Note: "Talic" refers to the Tribunal's
proceedings against Radoslav Brdanin and
Momir Talic - JI]
The ICDSM considers that it would also be
"inappropriate" for the Chamber to wait
until these trial conditions cause severe
cardiac complications, stroke, or death
before "considering favorably" an
application for provisional release. It is
also "inappropriate" to wait until
Slobodan Milosevic is on the verge of
death before "favorably considering" a
request for specialized medical attention.
The Chamber stated that "as previously"
they would deny provisional release.
Previously, that is March 6th 2002,
Slobodan Milosevic's health conditions had
not deteriorated as they have in the past
months. Previously, the arguments of the
court-appointed amici took up only four
transcript pages including the following
remark:
"So I'm not insisting on provisional
release and equality of arms, so to
speak".
The ICDSM did not consider that the matter
had been previously argued in an adequate
manner. It appears from the fragment of
the decision to which the public was made
privy [today] that the Chamber has equated
previous requests with current ones. Such
an interpretation would constitute a gross
misapprehension of the facts and the law.
The Chamber did however refuse to impose
counsel on President Milosevic. The ICDSM
is relieved that Slobodan Milosevic's
arguments supporting his right to
represent himself and not to have counsel
imposed on him have prevailed.
Another statement will follow the
disclosure of the full decision.
Tiphaine Dickson
Attorney ICDSM
[Footnotes follow appeal]
==============================
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**********
Footnotes
**********
1) See "Specialists Must Examine Slobodan
Milosevic Now!" at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/more/specialists.htm
2) See "Full text of ICDSM Motion
Requesting Amicus Curiae Status," at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/motion.htm
ICDSM
www.icdsm.org
Backup ICDSM Website at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm
=== 4 ===
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/more/refuses.htm
Subscribe to the ICDSM email list at
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==============================
Milosevic refuses psychiatric tests!
Reuters 5 December 2002
[Comments by Jared Israel of ICDSM at end]
[5 December 2002]
==============================
Note from ICDSM: In the Reuters dispatch
below, Hague official Landale says
Slobodan Milosevic has "turned down the
opportunity to have a psychiatric
examination." The amazing word here is,
'opportunity.' You gotta love it.
I will post further comments shortly.
-- Jared Israel
****
REUTERS
The Hague -
Slobodan Milosevic has refused to undergo
a psychiatric examination ordered by
judges at The Hague warcrimes tribunal to
gauge the toll his trial is taking on his
mental health, a court spokesman has said.
Judges last month asked a psychiatrist and
a cardiologist to provide medical reports
on the former Yugoslav leader. Milosevic
has suffered bouts of high blood pressure,
flu and exhaustion since his trial started
in February.
Milosevic is willing to be examined by a
cardiologist, but not a psychiatrist,
tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told
Reuters.
"He turned down the opportunity to have a
psychiatric examination. He made it clear
that he did not wish to have a psychiatric
examination," Landale said.
Milosevic, 61, chose to defend himself
against charges of ethnic cleansing in the
Balkans in the 1990s, in a show of
contempt for the tribunal.
Milosevic's poor health has halted
proceedings five times in nine months,
prompting prosecutors to ask the court to
impose a defence lawyer on him. The former
Serb strongman has accused prosecutors of
trying to gag him.
(c) Reuters 2002 - Posted for Educational
Use Only
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=== 5 ===
http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/milo1205.php
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BELGRADE PROTEST DEMANDS RELEASE MILOSEVIC
By John Catalinotto
Efforts to win the release of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic from his prison in The Hague have increased since early
November, when dangers to his health became apparent. They include a
demonstration of thousands in Belgrade on Nov. 19.
Milosevic faces charges for alleged war crimes during NATO's wars on
the Balkans. Defending himself since the trial opened last February,
the former Yugoslav leader has often been able to turn the tables on
NATO. What began as a show trial against Milosevic has been virtually
ignored by the establishment media since his self-defense has been
so convincing.
Milosevic, who has heart and high blood pressure problems, has endured
life in a small cell with little chance for exercise or decent food as
he prepares for daylong court sessions with the minimum of legal
assistance. On top of this constant threat to his health, doctors of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia gave him
improper medicine earlier in November, according to the Nov. 22 NRC
Handelsblad, a Dutch newspaper.
Called on only a few days' notice, the Nov. 19 protest was on the
occasion of a meeting of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
with representatives of the current Yugoslav government. According to
spokespeople for SLOBODA (Freedom), the group calling the action with
the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the nationalists and
other patriotic parties, more than 10,000 people took part.
Protesters in this "Liberty for Slobo" rally included the Serbian
nationalist Vojislav Seselj, who is running in the election for the
Serbian presidency against Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.
Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, and others from his family were also
present.
Other speakers included a famous basketball player, a bishop, a
professor of medicine and several well-known writers.
Supporters of Milosevic also demonstrated against NATO in Prague with
others protesting the eastward expansion
of the aggressive military pact.
The committee asks that messages demanding proper medical care for
Milosevic and his release from prison be sent to:
Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
OHCHR-UNOG, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland;
fax 4122 917 9022; or e-mail tb-petitions@....
- END -
=== 6 ===
Subject: request for information
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:22:47 -0000
From: "canauk" <canauk@...>
To: "Hague Tribunal" <fisk.icty@...>
CC: "Lord Peter Goldsmith QC" <lslo@...>
To the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia
The Hague
Holland
From William Spring 1 Scales Rd London
N17 9HB UK
Tel: 0044 208 376 1454
Date: November 26th 2002
by e mail, fax & recorded delivery
Dear Sirs
I am making an application to the UK Courts
for the prosecution of the learned Judge
May, for engaging in the torture of the
prisoner Milosevic, illegally kidnapped from
Yugoslavia & transferred to your Tribunal
without lawful authority, in which situation
the Court under Judge May's presidency has
persisted in inflicting upon the prisoner a
variety of demeaning treatments, including
torture, through such expedients as denying
him proper exercise, food, family visits,
medical treatment, correspondence, access to
legal advisers etc + a number of other
inhuman & degrading procedures.
I have already complained about this
treatment of the prisoner in a letter sent to
Judge May dated November 6th, also sent to
your Court by e mail & fax. (For your
information I paste below this e mail the full
text of the letter of November 6th.)
As Judge May remains an official of the
British Government, being one of Her
Majesty's judges, & as no official of the UK
Government can engage in torture in any
capacity, either in connection with his/her
official duties, or exterior to them, in seeking
the arraignment of the judge I invoke section
134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, &, of
course, should Mr Milosevic die in your
custody I will press the charge of murder
both against Judge May, & against any other
parties, (resident in The Netherlands or
elsewhere), responsible for the death of the
prisoner Milosevic.
It is clear this prisoner should, either be
released immediately, (a decision which any
competent Court would have taken a long
time ago), or else, @ the very least, if your
honourable Court, with the connivance of the
Netherlands Government, intends to persist
in this ridiculous charade of supposed
international justice, that you should grant
him bail.
I have requested the Law Officers in UK for
the full name & address of Judge May but
have not had a response. I therefore make
this request direct to The Tribunal.
I realise Judge May is outside of the
jurisdiction @ the moment, but should he
return to the UK I hope the Magistrates &
the Attorney General allow the case to go
forward, & we can arrange for the
summonses to be served upon him.
As a variant to requesting Judge May's UK
or Netherlands address, could the learned
Judge please advance an address for service
here in the UK.
I intend to call expert witnesses & a
comprehensive range of specialist testimony.
I trust there will be a prompt reply to this
request.
Failure to acknowledge this communication
will not delay my application which I will
lodge @ Highgate Magistrates Court without
any further notice to your Court, or to the
learned judge.
Yours sincerely
William Spring
To the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia
for the attention of Judge May
From William Spring 1 Scales Road London
N17 9HB
6th November 2002
also by fax & post
Dear Judge May,
As you probably don't know, as your officials
haven't told you, I have sent various e mails
to you in the past relating to your role in the
trial of Mr Milosevic.
I am concerned not only @ the indignities
you & your fellow judges routinely inflict
upon the accused, but at indications you
consistently interfere with his defence,
limiting his time, while seeking to protect
dubious witnesses, (as for example when the
well known war manufacturer /CIA agent/ &
Jesuit massacre defender William Walker
appeared before you).
I have looked @ the transcripts, although I
was not in Court myself.
But you should have known & did know how
important the evidence of Walker was, & in
fact you gave him two days to present his
evidence.
But Mr Milosevic you only allowed him 3
hours to cross examine & in the middle of
that cross examination you cut Mr Milosevic
off, as you have done so many times in the
past, @ the very point when Mr Milosevic
was asking questions relating to Walker's
role in his cover up of the murder of six
Jesuit priests in El Salvador in the 1980's.
At that time Walker was employed as a CIA
agent (using US diplomatic cover), running
the contras, useful experience for him prior
to taking over a similar role in Kosovo.
Walker told your tribunal "I made an
inaccurate statement, in hindsight".
Mr Milosevic then pointed out how, when the
KLA was blamed for the killing of the Serb
teenagers in Pec, he had said, " when you
don't know what has happened, it's a lot
more difficult to sort of pronounce yourself
... to this day we do not know who committed
that act."
But Walker did not exercise the same degree
of caution regarding Racak.
At that point you intervened to stop the cross
examination by saying: "your attempt to
discredit this witness with events so long ago
the Trial Chamber has ruled as irrelevant. "
And later:
"This is an absurd question, absolutely
absurd. Now you're wasting everybody's
time."
But the time spent cross examining the
initiator of the Kosovo War was not wasted.
It is vital to get to the truth about the 1999
NATO war on Yugoslavia.
It may be that as a lawyer you don't have any
regard for the truth, by which I mean you
don't regard its pursuit as a priority.
But as a contemporary historian, & as a
concerned citizen, worried @ the waste of
UK taxpayers' money spent funding your
illicit judicial forum, I do.
My point is you have disqualified yourself by
prejudice & bias from any further conduct of
this case.
I have made a formal complaint to the Lord
Chancellor about your conduct of the trial
I refer as well to the failure of The Tribunal
to provide medical facilities for the prisoner,
nor access to family, nor access to lawyers,
nor access to potential witnesses, such as
myself, nor access to advisers, nor access to
telephones & fax machines, nor access to the
Internet, nor even access to a computer.
You give him inedible meals & you deny him
exercise.
You are engaged in torture.
You sneer @ the prisoner - you generally
seek to demean him, you inflict indignities &
gratuitous humiliation upon him.
I believe you & the other UK officials @ the
Court, including Steven Kay, the MI6 agent
drafted in so the prosecution can also take
over the defence, all of you have
systematically conspired to deny the prisoner
a fair trial, both on account of the numerous
rulings you have made against him, & those
you have not, particularly in respect to the
conditions of his unlawful detention.
You are aware how he is being unlawfully
detained, having been kidnapped, i.e. illegally
abducted, (through the complicity of agents
of the British Government, & the RAF) from
the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia.
These agents & the RAF personnel were
acting upon the instructions of Geoff Hoon
MP.
Yet the crime committed over his person you
refuse to rule on.
You have refused to consider the
circumstances by which Mr Milosevic
arrived @ your Court.
You & Stephen Kay are no better than the
Japs, (who were probably quite humane
gaolers of our men on the Burma Road,
compared to the insidious protracted long
term psychological torture you inflict on Mr
Milosevic).
Nothing is worse than the turning of the
planetary moral & legal order upside down,
the bringing of international law into
disrepute, so that those who are actually
criminals, (such as Walker, & NATO satrap
Paddy Ashdown, + the German NATO air
commander, I think his name is Nauman or
something like that, but all of whom were
responsible for the aggression against
Yugoslavia), they are allowed accuse
Milosevic, but they are not held responsible
for their own crimes.
This is absurd.
Now we hear the Americans are planning
another set of show trials, this time for Iraq.
Corrupt Courts, staffed by corrupt judges, &
corrupt prosecutors, travel in the baggage of
the Allies, as the Bourbons travelled in their
baggage in 1815.
Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988
prevents any official of the UK Covt
engaging in torture in any capacity, for
which reason I am sending a copy to this
letter to the Lord Chancellor & to the A-G.
Yours sincerely
William Spring
=== 7 ===
----- Original Message -----
From: Goran Cvetic
To: artel
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 7:29 AM
Subject: Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague -
Dutch Paper Report
THE BELGRADE FORUM FOR THE WORLD OF
EQUALS ASKS YOU TO KINDLY PAY ATTENTION TO
THE FOLLOWING NEWS AND TAKE ACTION YOU
DEEM APPROPRIATE.
Posted on Sat, Nov. 23, 2002
Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague -Paper
Reuters
THE HAGUE - Wrong medicines given to Slobodan Milosevic in detention
sent his blood pressure shooting up earlier this month, forcing a halt
to his trial, a Dutch newspaper reported on Saturday.
NRC Handelsblad quoted "sources in the (U.N. war crimes) tribunal" as
saying administering the wrong medication had caused blood pressure
problems that triggered the latest in a string of health-related
delays to the former Yugoslav president's war crimes trial.
Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier dismissed the report.
"The medicines received by Milosevic have not changed at all over the
past month. That means the so-called wrong medications are exactly the
same medications that got him back (in court) last week, " Chartier
told Reuters.
He said Milosevic's medication was discussed recently with a
Belgrade cardiologist familiar with the former Serbian leader's
state of health.
"His assessment was that Milosevic couldn't have been given any better
medication," said Chartier.
Milosevic, 61, has suffered bouts of flu, exhaustion and high blood
pressure. He now faces psychiatric tests amid mounting concern his
dogged refusal to appoint defense counsel is taking its toll on his
health and disrupting the trial.
The landmark trial for alleged atrocities in the Balkans last decade
has been suspended five times because of the accused's health problems
since proceedings began in February.
Milosevic has been held in the tribunal's detention center since he
was sent to The Hague in June 2001.
Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte on Wednesday said she opposed a plea
filed by two international lawyers appointed by the court for
Milosevic's release for one year on health grounds, saying he can have
the necessary care he needs in detention.
1. Hague: Outrageous verdict and their way to hide it (22/12/02)
2. ICDSM German Section statement (in English, 18/12/02)
3. PRELIMINARY LEGAL REMARKS OF ICDSM ATTORNEY Ms. TIPHAINE DICKSON,
PRESENT TODAY AT THE HAGUE (18/12/02)
4. Milosevic refuses psychiatric tests (05/12/02)
5. Belgrade protest (by J. Catalinotto, 05/12/02)
6. The Hague requested for information from GB (26/11/02)
7. Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague (Reuters 23/11/02)
LINKS
Jurist: UN Tribunal: Milosevic vs. Mayor of Dubrovnik
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/810368/posts
=== 1 ===
Subject: Hague: Outrageous verdict and their way to hide it
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 01:33:45 +0100
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
In absence of both - text of the "Trial Chamber" decision and
transcript of December 18 hearings - here is their semi-official
"Overview of Proceedings", quoting basically the words of Richard May
in "last three minutes".
What follows is PR of "Carla style" staged in order to hide the deadly
verdict. Note that UN SC also has a role. Carla insists that "export
of the Presidents" should go on. Carla admits that they don't have a
case against President Milosevic. Carla is angry that her followers in
Belgrade have not produced some "evidence". And Carla wants to help
them by attacking them. How controversial!
OVERVIEW OF COURT PROCEEDINGS
Update No. 248 - 20 December 2002
MILOSEVIC Case ("Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina")
Trial Chamber III - Judges May (Presiding), Robinson and Kwon
12th week of the Prosecution case (only on Wednesday 18 December).
On 18 December 2002, the following witness was examined by the
Prosecution and subsequently cross-examined by the Accused and one of
the amici curiae:
· Witness Petar Poljanic
The Trial Chamber gave its conclusions as to the future conduct of the
proceedings:
1. The trial will proceed according to timetable, due allowance being
made for illness and such rest days as appropriate. There will be no
other extension of time for the Prosecution case.
2. Defense counsel will not be imposed upon the accused against his
wishes in the present circumstances. It is not normally appropriate in
adversarial proceedings such as these. The Trial Chamber will keep the
position under review.
3. The Accused will not be provisionally released, as he has asked,
during the course of these proceedings.
The trial was then adjourned until 9 January 2003.
Press Release . Communiqué de presse
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
BUREAU DU PROCUREUR
The Hague, 20 December 2002
FH/P.I.S./ 721-e
ICTY PROSECUTOR, CARLA DEL PONTE ADDRESSES ONCE AGAIN
"THE UNSATISFACTORY CO-OPERATION" OF THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA WITH THE OFFICE OF THE
PROSECUTOR
Please find below the statement delivered by the ICTY Prosecutor, Ms.
Carla del Ponte, at a press conference held at the Tribunal on Friday
20 December 2002:
I regret that I have to address once again the issue of unsatisfactory
co-operation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with my Office.
Just two days ago, the President of the UN Security Council on behalf
of the Council issued a statement reminding all relevant States, and
Yugoslavia first of all, to co-operate fully with the ICTY. It was a
result of the Report of the President of the ICTY, Judge Claude Jorda,
to the Security Council regarding non-compliance of Yugoslavia with
its international obligations.
The Presidential statement of the Security Council stresses the
obligation of Yugoslavia to comply with the requests of the Tribunal
for arrest and transfer of indictees, to make witnesses available and
to assist in ongoing investigations. I would like to underline the
paragraph of the statement which "insists that dialogue or lack of
dialogue between the Tribunal and the Governments must not be used by
the States as an excuse for failure to discharge their obligations to
co-operate fully with the Tribunal as required by the UN Security
Council Resolutions".
My statement today is triggered by the fact that the Yugoslav Foreign
Minister and President of the National Council for Co-operation, Mr.
G. Svilanovic refused to speak to me yesterday exactly on the issues
of co-operation. So much for a dialogue. Instead, as reported by the
media and if it is reported correctly, Minister Svilanovic stated that
the Tribunal is "a stone on the neck of Yugoslavia", that
"co-operation with Prosecution was never at the lower level", also
that the "Prosecution betrayed the confidence of the authorities in
Belgrade" and finally that "all co-operation might stop" due to the
wrong assessment of the situation in Yugoslavia by the Prosecution. It
is obviously not my duty to assess the situation in Yugoslavia.
I am truly disappointed by such inappropriate political statement of
the person who is in charge of co-operation with the ICTY. It is also
not true that my Office was asking for general access to all archives
in Yugoslavia. My Prosecution teams have to meet demands of the Trial
Chambers and have to duty to comply with particular schedules. We are
given limited time to present the prosecution case in each trial.
The Requests for assistance and information send to the authorities in
Belgrade are concrete about the documents sought, as it is for
instance clear from the recent Prosecution's application under Rule 54
bis in the Milosevic case. It is clear from this application that
there are number of outstanding Requests, some of which are 20 months
old. The best results and fair results in the criminal trials of such
importance as here in The Hague are only possible to achieve if best
possible documents are made available in timely manner.
The difficulties faced by the Prosecution in Milosevic case with
access to the documents and witnesses came to the point when it was
not possible to wait any longer, while the Trial Chamber had to be
informed about the problems faced by us.
I want to repeat, in the limited time given by the Trial Chamber in
particular case the Prosecution team must bring the most important
witnesses and most important documents before the court.
Finally, I would like to inform you that I sent yesterday a letter to
the Yugoslav authorities in regard to the accused M. Milutinovic to
ensure his surrender to the custody of the ICTY and his transfer to
The Hague immediately upon the expiry of his term of office.
Thank you.
=== 2 ===
Subject: DANGER OF JUDICIAL MURDER - ICDSM German Section statement
(in English)
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 17:15:06 +0100
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
DANGER OF JUDICIAL MURDER STILL ACUTE
Press statement issued by the German Section of the
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic,
18/12/2002
On 18.12.2002, the last day of the "trial" of Slobodan Milosevic
this year, it was announced that "administrative questions"
would be dealt with. In plain language, the issue was Slobodan
Milosevic's state of health and the possibility of him surviving
the trial. The treatment of this matter by the "court" was fully in
line with what one would expect from the cold-blooded
bureaucratic reduction of a matter of life and death to an
"administrative issue". "Judge" May dealt with the matter in less
than three minutes.
Firstly he stated that that the Chamber had received medical
reports and petitions from "the sides". May, certainly not for
reasons of time, withheld the information that these included
submissions from the International and National Committees for
the Defence of Slobodan Milosevic, appeals from US intellectuals
and German doctors and a unanimous resolution from the
Russian Duma [parliament].
He permitted no discussion of the issues but pronounced three
points as a final decision: maintenance of the previously
established schedule "with monitoring" of the health of the
"accused", no imposition of a defence lawyer - which Carla del
Ponte had asked for - since this would be incompatible with the
rules of the "Court", and, thirdly, no temporary release of
Slobodan Milosevic to allow him specialist treatment by his
long-standing doctors.
Thus, despite repeated warnings, notably from medical
specialists, we see the acceptance of severe damage to the health
and a threat to the life of Slobodan Milosevic. All those who
have assumed that, given the disaster of the trial so far from the
legal point of view, the forces behind the "Tribunal" view the
termination of the trial through death as an option which is at
least worthy of consideration, now feel confirmed in that
supposition.
The state of Slobodan Milosevic's health - he suffers from
exceptionally high blood pressure, weak heart muscles,
hypertrophy of the left ventricle and angina pectoris carrying the
risk of sudden death through heart failure - has swiftly
deteriorated in recent months because of the intolerable
conditions of detention and trial. The first examination by a
Dutch cardiologist on 15.11. 02 predicted an 11% reduction in
the risk of death given appropriate medication. On 23.11.02
newspapers and press agencies reported that Milosevic had over
a long period not only not been receiving effective or ineffective
drugs, but had in fact been given contra-indicated drugs which
actually increased his blood pressure.
A group of practising doctors and therapists from Germany,
including members of "International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War" in their two petitions to the
"Tribunal" have pointed out inter alia that:
"This attitude, which can only be described as irresponsible,
towards a person whose health and life are in your care with all
the consequences flowing from that, raises serious questions as
regards motives. At the very least it is totally at odds with various
UN documents and resolutions concerning the treatment of
prisoners which responsible persons claiming to be
representatives of a UN institution ought of all people fully to
uphold.
The necessary outcome of this situation, for which the ICTY
carries full responsibility, is that Slobodan Milosevic be
immediately released from this health- and life-threatening
situation and set free so that he can receive in Belgrade the long
overdue treatment from the doctors who have treated him for
many years."
By his decision today, Judge May has done more than just ignore
such expert advice. The "Tribunal" is also thereby blatantly
flouting UN General Assembly resolutions and documents
relating to the health of persons in custody, in particular:
* the provisions of UN General Assembly Resolution no. 37/194
of December 1982, which stipulates that "health personnel,
particularly physicians, charged with the medical care of
prisoners and detainees, have a duty to provide them with
protection of their physical and mental health and treatment of
disease of the same quality and standard as is afforded to those
who are not imprisoned or detained".
* Article 6 of the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
adopted by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 1979
which obliges all courts to "ensure the full protection of the
health of persons in their custody".
Moreover, the "Tribunal" is violating its own rules, specifically
article 21 point 4b, which stipulates that every defendant shall
have "adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his
defence".
In the view of the International Committee for the Defence of
Slobodan Milosevic, all the above indicates that the trial is
nothing more than an organised attempt to kill Slobodan
Milosevic.
Immediately after this "potential death sentence", representatives
of the International Committee announced that they were
considering legal steps against "Judge" May. In the next few
days, they want the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
in Geneva to intervene so that UN decisions are at last applied in
"Del Ponte's Circus".
Klaus Hartmann
Vice-President ICDSM (International Committee for the
Defence of Slobodan Milosevic)
mailto:vorstand@...
ICDSM http://www.icdsm.org/
ICDSM - German Section http://www.free-slobo.de/
=== 3 ===
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/dickson/td-12-18.htm
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==========================================================
The following report is from Attorney
Tiphaine Dickson, retained by the ICDSM,
writing from The Hague. A full report on
the ICDSM delegation will be forthcoming.
- Jared Israel
[Posted 18 December 2002]
==========================================================
PRELIMINARY LEGAL REMARKS OF ICDSM
ATTORNEY Ms. TIPHAINE DICKSON, PRESENT
TODAY AT THE HAGUE
18 December 2002, The Hague
Earlier today, Trial Chamber III allocated
a few minutes of its timetable to
summarize a decision with respect to
Slobodan Milosevic's health, trial
conditions, and to rule on requests for
provisional release filed by parties.
The full ruling was unavailable to the
public and the press.
On 5th and 12th of November, the ICDSM
petitioned the Chamber for urgent
specialized medical attention (1) and for
the provisional release of Slobodan
Milosevic.(2) On the basis of medical
reports and international law, we argued
that the current trial conditions
constitute a threat to his life, that lack
of adequate medical attention is
tantamount to torture, and requested that
he be afforded the right to urgent,
specialized medical care by physicians
familiar with his history. This requires
provisional release to Belgrade as well as
full convalescence.
The ICDSM further submitted that President
Milosevic's fundamental right represent
himself, and to not have counsel imposed
on him creates an obligation on the
Chamber to accommodate the exercise of
this right by providing conditions other
than those of a grueling trial schedule
with restricted access to his legal
assistants in a prison. We provided the
Chamber with a legal basis upon which to
order Slobodan Milosevic's release for the
continuation of the trial in a
non-custodial setting, following full
convalescence.
Chamber III has today denied provisional
release, and appears, since they affirm
that they will proceed according to their
"timetable", to have denied requests for
an adjournment so that President Milosevic
may obtain specialized medical evaluation
and treatment. They did not mention the
ICDSM's motion or requests.
Trial Chamber III has disregarded the
reasoning of their colleagues in the Talic
matter who stated:
"It would be inappropriate for this Trial
Chamber to wait until Talic is on the
verge of death before considering
favorably his application for provisional
release."
[Note: "Talic" refers to the Tribunal's
proceedings against Radoslav Brdanin and
Momir Talic - JI]
The ICDSM considers that it would also be
"inappropriate" for the Chamber to wait
until these trial conditions cause severe
cardiac complications, stroke, or death
before "considering favorably" an
application for provisional release. It is
also "inappropriate" to wait until
Slobodan Milosevic is on the verge of
death before "favorably considering" a
request for specialized medical attention.
The Chamber stated that "as previously"
they would deny provisional release.
Previously, that is March 6th 2002,
Slobodan Milosevic's health conditions had
not deteriorated as they have in the past
months. Previously, the arguments of the
court-appointed amici took up only four
transcript pages including the following
remark:
"So I'm not insisting on provisional
release and equality of arms, so to
speak".
The ICDSM did not consider that the matter
had been previously argued in an adequate
manner. It appears from the fragment of
the decision to which the public was made
privy [today] that the Chamber has equated
previous requests with current ones. Such
an interpretation would constitute a gross
misapprehension of the facts and the law.
The Chamber did however refuse to impose
counsel on President Milosevic. The ICDSM
is relieved that Slobodan Milosevic's
arguments supporting his right to
represent himself and not to have counsel
imposed on him have prevailed.
Another statement will follow the
disclosure of the full decision.
Tiphaine Dickson
Attorney ICDSM
[Footnotes follow appeal]
==============================
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the ICDSM!
==============================
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**********
Footnotes
**********
1) See "Specialists Must Examine Slobodan
Milosevic Now!" at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/more/specialists.htm
2) See "Full text of ICDSM Motion
Requesting Amicus Curiae Status," at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/motion.htm
ICDSM
www.icdsm.org
Backup ICDSM Website at
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm
=== 4 ===
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/more/refuses.htm
Subscribe to the ICDSM email list at
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==============================
Milosevic refuses psychiatric tests!
Reuters 5 December 2002
[Comments by Jared Israel of ICDSM at end]
[5 December 2002]
==============================
Note from ICDSM: In the Reuters dispatch
below, Hague official Landale says
Slobodan Milosevic has "turned down the
opportunity to have a psychiatric
examination." The amazing word here is,
'opportunity.' You gotta love it.
I will post further comments shortly.
-- Jared Israel
****
REUTERS
The Hague -
Slobodan Milosevic has refused to undergo
a psychiatric examination ordered by
judges at The Hague warcrimes tribunal to
gauge the toll his trial is taking on his
mental health, a court spokesman has said.
Judges last month asked a psychiatrist and
a cardiologist to provide medical reports
on the former Yugoslav leader. Milosevic
has suffered bouts of high blood pressure,
flu and exhaustion since his trial started
in February.
Milosevic is willing to be examined by a
cardiologist, but not a psychiatrist,
tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told
Reuters.
"He turned down the opportunity to have a
psychiatric examination. He made it clear
that he did not wish to have a psychiatric
examination," Landale said.
Milosevic, 61, chose to defend himself
against charges of ethnic cleansing in the
Balkans in the 1990s, in a show of
contempt for the tribunal.
Milosevic's poor health has halted
proceedings five times in nine months,
prompting prosecutors to ask the court to
impose a defence lawyer on him. The former
Serb strongman has accused prosecutors of
trying to gag him.
(c) Reuters 2002 - Posted for Educational
Use Only
* Our Comment follows fund-raising appeal
*
===================================
Help Get the ICDSM
Delegation to The Hague!
===================================
Slobodan Milosevic has defied his captors
once again. Won't you give your support?
Now more than ever the ICDSM needs to get
our delegation to The Hague to back up
Slobodan Milosevic's truly heroic stand.
Your contribution - large or small - can
help get us there.
** Here is How to Make a Donation **
* Make a donation at our secure server. Go
to
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3282491 or 381 638 862 301
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Thank you!
ICDSM
www.icdsm.org
***
=== 5 ===
http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/milo1205.php
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BELGRADE PROTEST DEMANDS RELEASE MILOSEVIC
By John Catalinotto
Efforts to win the release of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic from his prison in The Hague have increased since early
November, when dangers to his health became apparent. They include a
demonstration of thousands in Belgrade on Nov. 19.
Milosevic faces charges for alleged war crimes during NATO's wars on
the Balkans. Defending himself since the trial opened last February,
the former Yugoslav leader has often been able to turn the tables on
NATO. What began as a show trial against Milosevic has been virtually
ignored by the establishment media since his self-defense has been
so convincing.
Milosevic, who has heart and high blood pressure problems, has endured
life in a small cell with little chance for exercise or decent food as
he prepares for daylong court sessions with the minimum of legal
assistance. On top of this constant threat to his health, doctors of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia gave him
improper medicine earlier in November, according to the Nov. 22 NRC
Handelsblad, a Dutch newspaper.
Called on only a few days' notice, the Nov. 19 protest was on the
occasion of a meeting of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
with representatives of the current Yugoslav government. According to
spokespeople for SLOBODA (Freedom), the group calling the action with
the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the nationalists and
other patriotic parties, more than 10,000 people took part.
Protesters in this "Liberty for Slobo" rally included the Serbian
nationalist Vojislav Seselj, who is running in the election for the
Serbian presidency against Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.
Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, and others from his family were also
present.
Other speakers included a famous basketball player, a bishop, a
professor of medicine and several well-known writers.
Supporters of Milosevic also demonstrated against NATO in Prague with
others protesting the eastward expansion
of the aggressive military pact.
The committee asks that messages demanding proper medical care for
Milosevic and his release from prison be sent to:
Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
OHCHR-UNOG, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland;
fax 4122 917 9022; or e-mail tb-petitions@....
- END -
=== 6 ===
Subject: request for information
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:22:47 -0000
From: "canauk" <canauk@...>
To: "Hague Tribunal" <fisk.icty@...>
CC: "Lord Peter Goldsmith QC" <lslo@...>
To the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia
The Hague
Holland
From William Spring 1 Scales Rd London
N17 9HB UK
Tel: 0044 208 376 1454
Date: November 26th 2002
by e mail, fax & recorded delivery
Dear Sirs
I am making an application to the UK Courts
for the prosecution of the learned Judge
May, for engaging in the torture of the
prisoner Milosevic, illegally kidnapped from
Yugoslavia & transferred to your Tribunal
without lawful authority, in which situation
the Court under Judge May's presidency has
persisted in inflicting upon the prisoner a
variety of demeaning treatments, including
torture, through such expedients as denying
him proper exercise, food, family visits,
medical treatment, correspondence, access to
legal advisers etc + a number of other
inhuman & degrading procedures.
I have already complained about this
treatment of the prisoner in a letter sent to
Judge May dated November 6th, also sent to
your Court by e mail & fax. (For your
information I paste below this e mail the full
text of the letter of November 6th.)
As Judge May remains an official of the
British Government, being one of Her
Majesty's judges, & as no official of the UK
Government can engage in torture in any
capacity, either in connection with his/her
official duties, or exterior to them, in seeking
the arraignment of the judge I invoke section
134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, &, of
course, should Mr Milosevic die in your
custody I will press the charge of murder
both against Judge May, & against any other
parties, (resident in The Netherlands or
elsewhere), responsible for the death of the
prisoner Milosevic.
It is clear this prisoner should, either be
released immediately, (a decision which any
competent Court would have taken a long
time ago), or else, @ the very least, if your
honourable Court, with the connivance of the
Netherlands Government, intends to persist
in this ridiculous charade of supposed
international justice, that you should grant
him bail.
I have requested the Law Officers in UK for
the full name & address of Judge May but
have not had a response. I therefore make
this request direct to The Tribunal.
I realise Judge May is outside of the
jurisdiction @ the moment, but should he
return to the UK I hope the Magistrates &
the Attorney General allow the case to go
forward, & we can arrange for the
summonses to be served upon him.
As a variant to requesting Judge May's UK
or Netherlands address, could the learned
Judge please advance an address for service
here in the UK.
I intend to call expert witnesses & a
comprehensive range of specialist testimony.
I trust there will be a prompt reply to this
request.
Failure to acknowledge this communication
will not delay my application which I will
lodge @ Highgate Magistrates Court without
any further notice to your Court, or to the
learned judge.
Yours sincerely
William Spring
To the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia
for the attention of Judge May
From William Spring 1 Scales Road London
N17 9HB
6th November 2002
also by fax & post
Dear Judge May,
As you probably don't know, as your officials
haven't told you, I have sent various e mails
to you in the past relating to your role in the
trial of Mr Milosevic.
I am concerned not only @ the indignities
you & your fellow judges routinely inflict
upon the accused, but at indications you
consistently interfere with his defence,
limiting his time, while seeking to protect
dubious witnesses, (as for example when the
well known war manufacturer /CIA agent/ &
Jesuit massacre defender William Walker
appeared before you).
I have looked @ the transcripts, although I
was not in Court myself.
But you should have known & did know how
important the evidence of Walker was, & in
fact you gave him two days to present his
evidence.
But Mr Milosevic you only allowed him 3
hours to cross examine & in the middle of
that cross examination you cut Mr Milosevic
off, as you have done so many times in the
past, @ the very point when Mr Milosevic
was asking questions relating to Walker's
role in his cover up of the murder of six
Jesuit priests in El Salvador in the 1980's.
At that time Walker was employed as a CIA
agent (using US diplomatic cover), running
the contras, useful experience for him prior
to taking over a similar role in Kosovo.
Walker told your tribunal "I made an
inaccurate statement, in hindsight".
Mr Milosevic then pointed out how, when the
KLA was blamed for the killing of the Serb
teenagers in Pec, he had said, " when you
don't know what has happened, it's a lot
more difficult to sort of pronounce yourself
... to this day we do not know who committed
that act."
But Walker did not exercise the same degree
of caution regarding Racak.
At that point you intervened to stop the cross
examination by saying: "your attempt to
discredit this witness with events so long ago
the Trial Chamber has ruled as irrelevant. "
And later:
"This is an absurd question, absolutely
absurd. Now you're wasting everybody's
time."
But the time spent cross examining the
initiator of the Kosovo War was not wasted.
It is vital to get to the truth about the 1999
NATO war on Yugoslavia.
It may be that as a lawyer you don't have any
regard for the truth, by which I mean you
don't regard its pursuit as a priority.
But as a contemporary historian, & as a
concerned citizen, worried @ the waste of
UK taxpayers' money spent funding your
illicit judicial forum, I do.
My point is you have disqualified yourself by
prejudice & bias from any further conduct of
this case.
I have made a formal complaint to the Lord
Chancellor about your conduct of the trial
I refer as well to the failure of The Tribunal
to provide medical facilities for the prisoner,
nor access to family, nor access to lawyers,
nor access to potential witnesses, such as
myself, nor access to advisers, nor access to
telephones & fax machines, nor access to the
Internet, nor even access to a computer.
You give him inedible meals & you deny him
exercise.
You are engaged in torture.
You sneer @ the prisoner - you generally
seek to demean him, you inflict indignities &
gratuitous humiliation upon him.
I believe you & the other UK officials @ the
Court, including Steven Kay, the MI6 agent
drafted in so the prosecution can also take
over the defence, all of you have
systematically conspired to deny the prisoner
a fair trial, both on account of the numerous
rulings you have made against him, & those
you have not, particularly in respect to the
conditions of his unlawful detention.
You are aware how he is being unlawfully
detained, having been kidnapped, i.e. illegally
abducted, (through the complicity of agents
of the British Government, & the RAF) from
the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia.
These agents & the RAF personnel were
acting upon the instructions of Geoff Hoon
MP.
Yet the crime committed over his person you
refuse to rule on.
You have refused to consider the
circumstances by which Mr Milosevic
arrived @ your Court.
You & Stephen Kay are no better than the
Japs, (who were probably quite humane
gaolers of our men on the Burma Road,
compared to the insidious protracted long
term psychological torture you inflict on Mr
Milosevic).
Nothing is worse than the turning of the
planetary moral & legal order upside down,
the bringing of international law into
disrepute, so that those who are actually
criminals, (such as Walker, & NATO satrap
Paddy Ashdown, + the German NATO air
commander, I think his name is Nauman or
something like that, but all of whom were
responsible for the aggression against
Yugoslavia), they are allowed accuse
Milosevic, but they are not held responsible
for their own crimes.
This is absurd.
Now we hear the Americans are planning
another set of show trials, this time for Iraq.
Corrupt Courts, staffed by corrupt judges, &
corrupt prosecutors, travel in the baggage of
the Allies, as the Bourbons travelled in their
baggage in 1815.
Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988
prevents any official of the UK Covt
engaging in torture in any capacity, for
which reason I am sending a copy to this
letter to the Lord Chancellor & to the A-G.
Yours sincerely
William Spring
=== 7 ===
----- Original Message -----
From: Goran Cvetic
To: artel
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 7:29 AM
Subject: Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague -
Dutch Paper Report
THE BELGRADE FORUM FOR THE WORLD OF
EQUALS ASKS YOU TO KINDLY PAY ATTENTION TO
THE FOLLOWING NEWS AND TAKE ACTION YOU
DEEM APPROPRIATE.
Posted on Sat, Nov. 23, 2002
Milosevic Given Wrong Medicines in the Hague -Paper
Reuters
THE HAGUE - Wrong medicines given to Slobodan Milosevic in detention
sent his blood pressure shooting up earlier this month, forcing a halt
to his trial, a Dutch newspaper reported on Saturday.
NRC Handelsblad quoted "sources in the (U.N. war crimes) tribunal" as
saying administering the wrong medication had caused blood pressure
problems that triggered the latest in a string of health-related
delays to the former Yugoslav president's war crimes trial.
Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier dismissed the report.
"The medicines received by Milosevic have not changed at all over the
past month. That means the so-called wrong medications are exactly the
same medications that got him back (in court) last week, " Chartier
told Reuters.
He said Milosevic's medication was discussed recently with a
Belgrade cardiologist familiar with the former Serbian leader's
state of health.
"His assessment was that Milosevic couldn't have been given any better
medication," said Chartier.
Milosevic, 61, has suffered bouts of flu, exhaustion and high blood
pressure. He now faces psychiatric tests amid mounting concern his
dogged refusal to appoint defense counsel is taking its toll on his
health and disrupting the trial.
The landmark trial for alleged atrocities in the Balkans last decade
has been suspended five times because of the accused's health problems
since proceedings began in February.
Milosevic has been held in the tribunal's detention center since he
was sent to The Hague in June 2001.
Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte on Wednesday said she opposed a plea
filed by two international lawyers appointed by the court for
Milosevic's release for one year on health grounds, saying he can have
the necessary care he needs in detention.
SCUSA COLLEGA NON VOLEVO ARRESTARTI
COPENHAGEN - La polizia arresta un agente in borghese
E' tutto vero: durante la manifestazione di sabato a Copenhagen, la
polizia danese ha arrestato un poliziotto in borghese. Oltre
l'assurdo, la notizia certifica non solo la pratica
dell'infiltrazione, ma soprattutto quella della provocazione che ha
contrassegnato il contro-vertice. Il portavoce della polizia non ha
avuto il coraggio di specificare il motivo per cui è stato fermato
l'agente, ma già l'ammissione - raro atto di correttezza - ha fatto da
sabato notte della benemerita locale lo zimbello del paese. La polizia
sembra oltretutto l'unica a non riconoscere i suoi uomini in abiti
civili. Durante il corteo veniva infatti allontanato a più riprese un
gruppo di 7 poliziotti che cercavano di passare per anarchici e, con
minimi cambi di look, per disobbedienti. La notizia dell'arresto è
stata data dal tg della sera scatenando scene di risa nei bar
sintonizzati sul notiziario. Non vanno dimenticati gli altri fermi
frutto di una strategia asfissiante di controllo che bloccava anche il
server Catpipe che ospita un'importante rete di contro-informazione.
Pure con questo clima, la stampa locale ha celebrato la manifestazione
come un successo. (a. d'a.)
Tratto da: il manifesto, 17 Dicembre 2002
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "Coordinamento Nazionale per
la Jugoslavia" ha scritto:
GLI INFILTRATI
Per scovare gli infiltrati presenti nelle manifestazioni contro la
guerra e la NATO e' utile «armarsi di macchina fotografica e
telecamera»: lo garantiscono i militanti di Praga, che hanno una certa
esperienza in proposito, avendo notato una massiccia presenza di finti
manifestanti nelle manifestazioni dei giorni scorsi «come già accadde
due anni fa in occasione delle proteste contro Fondo monetario
internazionale e Banca mondiale, quando la stessa polizia ha ammesso
che, su 12 mila manifestanti, c'erano ben 900 infiltrati» ("Il
Manifesto" 21/11/2002 pag. 7).
A cosa servono gli infiltrati? Beh, dipende. Si possono usare per dare
alle forze dell'ordine pretesti per scatenarsi sui manifestanti, come
avvenne a Genova nel luglio 2001; oppure per monitorare i cortei e
determinarne il percorso; oppure per accreditarsi tra i partecipanti
ed infiltrarsi stabilmente nelle attivita' del movimento; oppure per
provocare gruppi di manifestanti e spaccare l'unita' della piazza;
oppure per garantire che in TV non si veda quello che vuole la
maggioranza dei manifestanti, bensi' solamente quello che e' stato
deciso attorno a qualche scrivania.
Nei giorni scorsi a Praga i "compagni infiltrati" tra i dimostranti
anti-NATO hanno fanno un lavorone: travestiti in massima parte da
"tute nere" (i famigerati "black block"), essi hanno monopolizzato
l'attenzione dei media con buffonate parateatrali, ed hanno provocato
ed aggredito i comunisti ed i pacifisti presenti in piazza. Hanno
spedito all'ospedale, con il naso rotto, un militante del PRC di
Bologna ed uno dell'Akel cipriota. Se due anni fa la percentuale degli
infiltrati a Praga sfiorava il 10 per cento, in questa ultima
occasione essi sono stati certamente di piu', vista la rilevanza del
vertice NATO. Sarebbe interessante provare, ogni tanto, a fare una
stima di quanti siano gli infiltrati nelle nostre manifestazioni e
nelle nostre organizzazioni. (I.Slavo)
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
COPENHAGEN - La polizia arresta un agente in borghese
E' tutto vero: durante la manifestazione di sabato a Copenhagen, la
polizia danese ha arrestato un poliziotto in borghese. Oltre
l'assurdo, la notizia certifica non solo la pratica
dell'infiltrazione, ma soprattutto quella della provocazione che ha
contrassegnato il contro-vertice. Il portavoce della polizia non ha
avuto il coraggio di specificare il motivo per cui è stato fermato
l'agente, ma già l'ammissione - raro atto di correttezza - ha fatto da
sabato notte della benemerita locale lo zimbello del paese. La polizia
sembra oltretutto l'unica a non riconoscere i suoi uomini in abiti
civili. Durante il corteo veniva infatti allontanato a più riprese un
gruppo di 7 poliziotti che cercavano di passare per anarchici e, con
minimi cambi di look, per disobbedienti. La notizia dell'arresto è
stata data dal tg della sera scatenando scene di risa nei bar
sintonizzati sul notiziario. Non vanno dimenticati gli altri fermi
frutto di una strategia asfissiante di controllo che bloccava anche il
server Catpipe che ospita un'importante rete di contro-informazione.
Pure con questo clima, la stampa locale ha celebrato la manifestazione
come un successo. (a. d'a.)
Tratto da: il manifesto, 17 Dicembre 2002
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "Coordinamento Nazionale per
la Jugoslavia" ha scritto:
GLI INFILTRATI
Per scovare gli infiltrati presenti nelle manifestazioni contro la
guerra e la NATO e' utile «armarsi di macchina fotografica e
telecamera»: lo garantiscono i militanti di Praga, che hanno una certa
esperienza in proposito, avendo notato una massiccia presenza di finti
manifestanti nelle manifestazioni dei giorni scorsi «come già accadde
due anni fa in occasione delle proteste contro Fondo monetario
internazionale e Banca mondiale, quando la stessa polizia ha ammesso
che, su 12 mila manifestanti, c'erano ben 900 infiltrati» ("Il
Manifesto" 21/11/2002 pag. 7).
A cosa servono gli infiltrati? Beh, dipende. Si possono usare per dare
alle forze dell'ordine pretesti per scatenarsi sui manifestanti, come
avvenne a Genova nel luglio 2001; oppure per monitorare i cortei e
determinarne il percorso; oppure per accreditarsi tra i partecipanti
ed infiltrarsi stabilmente nelle attivita' del movimento; oppure per
provocare gruppi di manifestanti e spaccare l'unita' della piazza;
oppure per garantire che in TV non si veda quello che vuole la
maggioranza dei manifestanti, bensi' solamente quello che e' stato
deciso attorno a qualche scrivania.
Nei giorni scorsi a Praga i "compagni infiltrati" tra i dimostranti
anti-NATO hanno fanno un lavorone: travestiti in massima parte da
"tute nere" (i famigerati "black block"), essi hanno monopolizzato
l'attenzione dei media con buffonate parateatrali, ed hanno provocato
ed aggredito i comunisti ed i pacifisti presenti in piazza. Hanno
spedito all'ospedale, con il naso rotto, un militante del PRC di
Bologna ed uno dell'Akel cipriota. Se due anni fa la percentuale degli
infiltrati a Praga sfiorava il 10 per cento, in questa ultima
occasione essi sono stati certamente di piu', vista la rilevanza del
vertice NATO. Sarebbe interessante provare, ogni tanto, a fare una
stima di quanti siano gli infiltrati nelle nostre manifestazioni e
nelle nostre organizzazioni. (I.Slavo)
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
1. "Fearsome Muslim warlord eludes Bosnian Serb forces"
(Toronto Star 16/08/1995)
2. Interview with Hakija Meholjic, president of Social Democratic
Party for Srebrenica
(Dani 22/06/1998)
=== 1 ===
Full Text of Reporter's Account of Evening Spent with Commander of
Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica
URL is
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/oric.htm
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- the movie shown by Milosevic
at The Hague *
==========================================================F
Full Text of Reporter's Account
of Evening Spent with
Commander of Bosnian Muslims
in Srebrenica
[Posted 21 December 2002]
==========================================================
Dear Emperor's Clothes,
Re: "A Rare Glimpse at the
Reality of the Bosnian War "
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/gorazde.htm
Thanks for this little antidote to
the view of the Jugoslavian wars
peddled so assiduously by the
mainstream media! One minor
suggestion: if possible, it would be
nice to have access to the entire
Toronto Star article in which
Nasir Oric boasts about his
"Greatest Hits." That way,
Emperor's Clothes would not
open itself to an accusation of
selective citation....
H. Day
Norway
***
Dear Mr. Day,
The article can be accessed only
on special search engines, those
which archive past news. (E.g.,
Lexis) Therefore, I cannot give a
url. However, here is the full text.
Best regards,
Jared Israel
***
The Toronto Star
July 16, 1995, Sunday, SUNDAY
SECOND EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 816 words
HEADLINE: Fearsome Muslim
warlord eludes Bosnian Serb
forces
BYLINE: Bill Schiller Toronto
Star
DATELINE: BELGRADE,
Yugoslavia
BODY:
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - When
Bosnian Serb commander Gen.
Ratko Mladic swept triumphantly
into Srebrenica last week, he not
only wanted to sweep Srebrenica
clean of Muslims - he wanted
Nasir Oric.
In Mladic's view, the powerfully
built Muslim commander had
made life too difficult and too
deadly for Serb communities
nearby.
Even though the Serbs had
Srebrenica surrounded, Oric was
still mounting commando raids by
night against Serb targets.
Oric, as blood-thirsty a warrior as
ever crossed a battlefield, escaped
Srebrenica before it fell. Some
believe he may be leading the
Bosnian Muslim forces in the
nearby enclaves of Zepa and
Gorazde. Last night these forces
seized armored personnel carriers
and other weapons from U.N.
peacekeepers in order to better
protect themselves.
Oric is a fearsome man, and proud
of it.
I met him in January, 1994, in his
own home in Serb-surrounded
Srebrenica.
On a cold and snowy night, I sat in
his living room watching a
shocking video version of what
might have been called Nasir
Oric's Greatest Hits.
There were burning houses, dead
bodies, severed heads, and people
fleeing.
Oric grinned throughout, admiring
his handiwork.
"We ambushed them," he said
when a number of dead Serbs
appeared on the screen.
The next sequence of dead bodies
had been done in by explosives:
"We launched those guys to the
moon," he boasted.
When footage of a bullet-marked
ghost town appeared without any
visible bodies, Oric hastened to
announce: "We killed 114 Serbs
there."
Later there were celebrations,
with singers with wobbly voices
chanting his praises.
These video reminiscences,
apparently, were from what
Muslims regard as Oric's glory
days. That was before most of
eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica
became a "safe zone" with U.N.
peacekeepers inside - and Serbs
on the outside.
Lately, however, Oric increased
his hit-and-run attacks at night.
And in Mladic's view, it was far
too successful for a community
that was supposed to be
suppressed.
The Serbs regard Oric, once Serb
President Slobodan Milosevic's
personal bodyguard, as a war
criminal.
But they don't want to send him to
the international war crimes
tribunal in The Hague,
Netherlands. They want to track
him down and kill him.
The only songs they want sung of
Nasir Oric are funeral dirges.
But that hasn't happened.
Srebrenica, surrounded by 3,000
armed Serbs as it was then, was a
strange town. It held a desperate
kind of life - a life in suspended
animation.
People talked about what they
used to do, or used to be. Or about
what they would do or would
become once they were free
again.
Sleeping beneath the sheltering
sky near Tuzla as Srebrenica's
surviving residents did last week
- after having been driven from
their homes - was not in their
catalogue of expectations.
I remember steep streets lined
with snow and, everywhere,
firewood.
Srebrenica, an old silver mining
town, was built to hold 4,500
residents, but was then crammed
with 22,500. And the overall
pocket, some 14 kilometres wide
by 16 kilometres long, had
swelled to 46,000 in all.
It had the look and feel of an
overcrowded, somewhat
dilapidated, ski resort town.
But it was anything but.
Still, people were friendly. The
face of an outsider, an
unexplained newcomer, came as a
pleasant surprise to them and I
was welcomed into their homes,
served tea brewed on makeshift
firewood stoves, and treated with
kindness.
There was, even then, some
tension in the air about our
Canadian peacekeepers there. But
they were still doing a good job -
even an excellent one - despite
extraordinarily high expectations.
I got into Srebrenica by
convincing Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic that the time
was right for a journalist to visit.
None had been allowed for more
than 100 days. People were
wondering what was going on
behind the curtain.
In the end, another journalist
asked to come along. He had a
vehicle, and I didn't. It was a good
trade-off.
But what we smelled there,
besides the smoke of thousand and
one cooking fires, was the slow
death of hope.
No one wanted to admit it was a
hopeless situation. They wanted to
believe that someone, something,
perhaps some extraordinary act of
fate, was going to save them and
their town.
They just didn't know what it was.
And that not knowing ate away at
them, just as their thinning food
supplies, having been choked off
by the Serbs, did.
At the very end of the only real
street that led all the way down
into the town and became, in
effect, main street, I'll always
remember dozens of kids taking
turns whizzing across a pool of
sheer ice, their bottoms protected
by worn pieces of thin cardboard.
We don't use the word "glee"
anymore. But that's what it was
then. Glee on Main Street,
Downtown Srebrenica.
A bit of laughter against the cold.
A bit of glee in the face of
inevitable doom.
(c) The Toronto Star 1992 -
Posted for educational and fair use
only
=======================================
'JUDGMENT!' - The Video
Shown As Evidence at The Hague
Tribunal!
{It can now be shipped gift
wrapped...Order details after text}
=======================================
September 26 was the first day of
the Bosnian part of the Hague trial
against Slobodan Milosevic. That
day Mr. Milosevic showed
excerpts from a video which
demonstrates how the British TV
station, ITN, fabricated evidence
of Serbian death camps in Bosnia.
The video, co-produced by
Emperor's Clothes and reporters
from Serbian Television, is called
'JUDGMENT!' It demonstrates
that the famous Bosnian pictures,
especially the tall, seemingly
starved man behind barbed wire in
a death camp, were a hoax. It was
not a death camp. The Muslim
men were not behind barbed wire.
This is eminently clear from video
footage shot that day and
reproduced in 'JUDGMENT!'
The movie shows step-by-step
how the phony pictures were
created.
The Bosnian pictures had a huge
impact in 1992. Twenty minutes
after they were shown on TV on
August 6th, George Bush Sr. held
a press conference to proclaim a
whole new get-tough policy
against the Bosnian Serbs. This
was followed by a worldwide
media campaign - all based on the
Bosnian pictures.
If we at Emperor's Clothes are
right that these pictures were a
fraud, then the implications are
staggering: the pictures were
staged to justify a coordinated
US/European policy of
demonizing the Serbian people to
justify war. The press conference
was planned to coincide with the
release of the pictures. The
worldwide press campaign against
the Bosnian Serbs was planned in
advance.
You can view the same video Mr.
Milosevic showed at The Hague.
If you conclude that we are not
telling the truth, send the video
back and we'll refund the
purchase price in full. You don't
risk a penny.
You can purchase a copy of
'JUDGMENT!' for $25 in the US,
$26 outside the US. (If you want
gift-wrapping please indicate
whether you'd like 'Christmas' or
'all-purpose' gift paper and add
$2 to the price)
Here's how you can order:
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Gift wrapping $2.00, please
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=== 2 ===
5,000 Muslim Lives for Military Intervention
Dani, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, June 22 1998
Interview with Hakija Meholjic, president of Social Democratic Party
for Srebrenica, by Hasan Hadzic
In your accusations of the state leadership, and particularly of
President Izetbegovic, over a share of the Bosniak blame for the
Srebrenica tragedy, the departure of the Srebrenica delegation to
Sarajevo in September 1993 for talks on the fate of this enclave
cannot be avoided?
The invitation came from President Izetbegovic. At a meeting of the
municipal war presidency we designated the delegation for Sarajevo. We
immediately had some premonition that big issues would be resolved
there because it was the first time we were leaving Srebrenica and we
were provided transport in two helicopters. We exited safely, yet ever
since we had became a demilitarized zone not a single civilian or
military delegation had come to us. It was envisaged that Naser Oric
would be going also, but he did not want to go. We were transported
in armored personnel carriers from Sarajevo airport to the Holiday Inn
hotel. That was the time of the Bosniak Convention, where a decision
was being made on the peace plan and the division of Bosnia. We were
received there by President Izetbegovic, and immediately after the
welcome he asked us: "What do you think about the swap of Srebrenica
for Vogosca [a Sarajevo suburb]?" There was a silence for a while and
then I said: "Mr. President, if this is a done thing, then you should
not have invited us here, because we have to return and face the
people and personally accept the burden of that decision."
So you rejected Izetbegovic's decision?
We rejected it without any discussion. Then he said: "You know, I was
offered by Clinton in April 1993 (after the fall of Cerska and
Konjevic Polje) that the Chetnik forces enter Srebrenica, carry out a
slaughter of 5,000 Muslims, and then there will be a military
intervention." Our delegation was composed of nine people, one among
us was from Bratunac and unfortunately he is the only one not alive
now, but all the others from the delegation are alive and can confirm
this. Since the Convention had started the President entered to
announce us, and when he did it all the present stood up and welcomed
us with an applause as heroes. We had a request, in case the peace
plan was accepted, that Srebrenica be provided a physical link with
Tuzla and not with Gorazde.
Therefore, we asked for Bratunac and Zvornik because a link across the
desolate stretches and mountains did not suit us and we had never been
linked to that area anyway. It was said the President would receive
all delegations, but he accepted them all except ours.
Srebrenica Was Sold
Did you talk to someone else?
Then they somehow judged I was the toughest nut to crack, so Hazim
Rancic, the then chief of the Tuzla police, told me it was the
politicians' stance that I should stay behind for some seven days in
order for us to discuss and agree on something. Then they would
transport me by a helicopter to Zepa and I should then go on foot from
Zepa to Srebrenica. I told them I was to go to Srebrenica because the
people would think I did not want to return. I also told them if they
really wanted it I would go to Zepa from Srebrenica if they would send
a helicopter. Since the people there were already disappointed, during
the trip back we decided not to tell the people we were offered a
swap; otherwise they would understand it as if we were written off. I
can say that, regardless of the mistakes, the municipal presidency was
good and tried to work for the good of the people. We understood
everything clearly. We connected that with the fact that nobody had
organized us for defense since the ruling party surrendered Srebrenica
in April 1992 without resistance. I had been asked then to surrender
weapons because I had organized a unit of my own, but I had refused to
do so. My most difficult moment was when at the departure from
Sarajevo my colleague Adnan Karovic told me: "Hakija, you have been
sold! Please, if Srebrenica does fall, kill my mother, I beg of you.
Just do not let her fall into their hands!"
Even after the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 you had a chance to address
President Izetbegovic?
I requested then that a state commission be formed to examine the
responsibility of the international community, the President, the Army
General Staff, the Second Army corps, our responsibility.... The
people are missing, hey.... He (President Izetbegovic) asked me what I
would achieve with that? Rasim Delic tried to say something, too, but
nobody gave him a chance to speak. I did not interfere, but,
generally, I have a very bad opinion about the majority of the General
Staff members. Never in the history of wars had the people,
"processed" by other armies, been appointed commanders. You spend five
to six months in their prison, then you come through an exchange, and
become a commander. On the second day after Srebrenica fell we heard
on the radio in the woods Rasim Delic calling us to return as the
situation in Srebrenica was normal. That provoked a total confusion.
You had another interesting meeting with the President?
That was immediately after the liberation of Vozuca. I was informed
that the President was waiting in Kozlovac to talk to me. We went
through the complete history of Srebrenica. I told him I was going to
sue him when his power weakens. He asked me again what I was going to
achieve with that. I told him again that an investigation must be
conducted because the people were missing.... He then said: "You know,
these investigations remind me of my own investigation." He meant the
political one he had undergone [1983 trial of Izetbegovic]. I told
him: "There is a difference there, hey, you are an individual, and
there are no more people...."
One of the most puzzling personalities from Srebrenica is the
commander Naser Oric. He has avoided speaking, and the others are
divided in their opinion about him.
I have a normal relationship with Naser. I said that we should all be
held responsible, but as they did not initiate anything that means
Naser is not to blame for anything. All that must be proven. Naser
knows a lot and I told him once he must have been given "something" to
keep quiet. He laughed at that. I told him he would speak sooner or
later. If he was guilty then that should have been proven and he
should have been punished; if not, he should have been kept in the
army or police.... They left the man on the street and now they say he
deals with this or that. Well, he has to do something. Alija is giving
up the people. He is getting rid of the greatest commanders and
fighters.
The Role of Ibran Mustafic
An interesting individual in the Srebrenica story, both the wartime
and the postwar one, is Ibran Mustafic. He has accused everybody else
for the tragedy, yet he is being reproached for rescuing himself
through Serb contacts. Then he founded a new party, after which the
authorities denounced him, and then the authorities sent him to
suppress the revolt of the Srebrenica women. What kind of conclusion
should one draw from all that?
As a deputy of the SDA [Party of Democratic Action] Ibran was a "hawk"
in the prewar assembly. He was not in Srebrenica in the beginning of
the war because he was in Sarajevo. When we advanced well, despite all
our internal disputes, suddenly Ibran came, somewhere from the
woods.... Then he started spreading stories that our army was not
good, so bit by bit there was a split among the soldiers. He wanted
power again, so the SDA split into two camps. One evening someone
attacked him, Hamed Salihovic and Hamed Efendic. Salihovic was killed
then. Ibran was wounded and transported to the hospital. I was the
police chief then and we wanted to carry out an inquiry. But Ibran and
Hamed, as eye-witnesses, did not want to give a statement. Then there
was a session of the municipal assembly at which Ibran asked to be
given a radio set to talk to Momcilo Krajisnik so that Krajisnik could
take him out of Srebrenica.
Naturally, he was not allowed to do that. I connected these facts only
later. Ibran came to "wreck" Srebrenica while we advanced as that did
not suit someone's plan, and I assume that was the SDA's plan. When
Srebrenica fell he went straight to Potocari instead of going with all
of us through the forest. It is difficult to explain how he managed to
get out while the others were killed. Later he gave statements in
Bijeljina that we killed one another. Many people who did not have any
clue as to what the SDA was were killed, yet he went out and arrived
in Sarajevo.
Then again in 1996 Alija invited us to a meeting in the SDA main
office where Ibran stood up and recited a poem: "Alija, without you
the Sun will not shine, without you there will be darkness." And he
cried at the same time. Ibran is the President's man. He openly tells
the people not to return to Srebrenica, and the women who are content
are on his side. Those are the women who receive good money from the
SDA in order not to go there, since it is better for them to talk hot
air and halt the traffic here. All that is a scenario. Srebrenica was
first glorified, then mourned, and, in the end, made odious by taking
people to the streets. The goal of the authorities is to discredit us
in the face of other citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina so that they say
we are savages and that the authorities should do to us what they have
been doing.
What is the position of your minister, Adib Djozic?
Before the war Adib Djozic spoke on the Srebrenica radio station
protecting Goran Zekic, a Chetnik leader, who we had denounced as
an organizer of Chetnik training. Upon his arrival to Tuzla in the
beginning of the war Djozic presented himself as a founder of the SDA,
organizer of the uprising, and the like. The best illustration of what
kind of person he is, is one detail regarding the petition that
thousands of Srebrenica people signed against him. He then came to the
premises of the Srebrenica municipality in Tuzla and said: "Dear
people, I was called by President Izetbegovic, who asked me if I could
'wreck' Srebrenica, and if I could, then I would be a minister. I
promised I could." That took place in front of a large number of
witnesses.
You are now in the SDP [Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina]
and in that political framework you have been trying to do something
for the return of refugees. How does it go?
I have a reason to trust the people like Bogic Bogicevic, Nijaz
Durakovic, Zlatko Lagumdzija, Mirsad Djapo, and many others. They
have proved that they are most sincerely for Bosnia-Herzegovina as a
normal state. For me, Bosnia-Herzegovina without my Srebrenica does
not exist and my biggest goal in life is to return. The current
authorities have shown thousand of times so far that they do not want
that.
(Toronto Star 16/08/1995)
2. Interview with Hakija Meholjic, president of Social Democratic
Party for Srebrenica
(Dani 22/06/1998)
=== 1 ===
Full Text of Reporter's Account of Evening Spent with Commander of
Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica
URL is
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/oric.htm
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==========================================================F
Full Text of Reporter's Account
of Evening Spent with
Commander of Bosnian Muslims
in Srebrenica
[Posted 21 December 2002]
==========================================================
Dear Emperor's Clothes,
Re: "A Rare Glimpse at the
Reality of the Bosnian War "
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/gorazde.htm
Thanks for this little antidote to
the view of the Jugoslavian wars
peddled so assiduously by the
mainstream media! One minor
suggestion: if possible, it would be
nice to have access to the entire
Toronto Star article in which
Nasir Oric boasts about his
"Greatest Hits." That way,
Emperor's Clothes would not
open itself to an accusation of
selective citation....
H. Day
Norway
***
Dear Mr. Day,
The article can be accessed only
on special search engines, those
which archive past news. (E.g.,
Lexis) Therefore, I cannot give a
url. However, here is the full text.
Best regards,
Jared Israel
***
The Toronto Star
July 16, 1995, Sunday, SUNDAY
SECOND EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 816 words
HEADLINE: Fearsome Muslim
warlord eludes Bosnian Serb
forces
BYLINE: Bill Schiller Toronto
Star
DATELINE: BELGRADE,
Yugoslavia
BODY:
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - When
Bosnian Serb commander Gen.
Ratko Mladic swept triumphantly
into Srebrenica last week, he not
only wanted to sweep Srebrenica
clean of Muslims - he wanted
Nasir Oric.
In Mladic's view, the powerfully
built Muslim commander had
made life too difficult and too
deadly for Serb communities
nearby.
Even though the Serbs had
Srebrenica surrounded, Oric was
still mounting commando raids by
night against Serb targets.
Oric, as blood-thirsty a warrior as
ever crossed a battlefield, escaped
Srebrenica before it fell. Some
believe he may be leading the
Bosnian Muslim forces in the
nearby enclaves of Zepa and
Gorazde. Last night these forces
seized armored personnel carriers
and other weapons from U.N.
peacekeepers in order to better
protect themselves.
Oric is a fearsome man, and proud
of it.
I met him in January, 1994, in his
own home in Serb-surrounded
Srebrenica.
On a cold and snowy night, I sat in
his living room watching a
shocking video version of what
might have been called Nasir
Oric's Greatest Hits.
There were burning houses, dead
bodies, severed heads, and people
fleeing.
Oric grinned throughout, admiring
his handiwork.
"We ambushed them," he said
when a number of dead Serbs
appeared on the screen.
The next sequence of dead bodies
had been done in by explosives:
"We launched those guys to the
moon," he boasted.
When footage of a bullet-marked
ghost town appeared without any
visible bodies, Oric hastened to
announce: "We killed 114 Serbs
there."
Later there were celebrations,
with singers with wobbly voices
chanting his praises.
These video reminiscences,
apparently, were from what
Muslims regard as Oric's glory
days. That was before most of
eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica
became a "safe zone" with U.N.
peacekeepers inside - and Serbs
on the outside.
Lately, however, Oric increased
his hit-and-run attacks at night.
And in Mladic's view, it was far
too successful for a community
that was supposed to be
suppressed.
The Serbs regard Oric, once Serb
President Slobodan Milosevic's
personal bodyguard, as a war
criminal.
But they don't want to send him to
the international war crimes
tribunal in The Hague,
Netherlands. They want to track
him down and kill him.
The only songs they want sung of
Nasir Oric are funeral dirges.
But that hasn't happened.
Srebrenica, surrounded by 3,000
armed Serbs as it was then, was a
strange town. It held a desperate
kind of life - a life in suspended
animation.
People talked about what they
used to do, or used to be. Or about
what they would do or would
become once they were free
again.
Sleeping beneath the sheltering
sky near Tuzla as Srebrenica's
surviving residents did last week
- after having been driven from
their homes - was not in their
catalogue of expectations.
I remember steep streets lined
with snow and, everywhere,
firewood.
Srebrenica, an old silver mining
town, was built to hold 4,500
residents, but was then crammed
with 22,500. And the overall
pocket, some 14 kilometres wide
by 16 kilometres long, had
swelled to 46,000 in all.
It had the look and feel of an
overcrowded, somewhat
dilapidated, ski resort town.
But it was anything but.
Still, people were friendly. The
face of an outsider, an
unexplained newcomer, came as a
pleasant surprise to them and I
was welcomed into their homes,
served tea brewed on makeshift
firewood stoves, and treated with
kindness.
There was, even then, some
tension in the air about our
Canadian peacekeepers there. But
they were still doing a good job -
even an excellent one - despite
extraordinarily high expectations.
I got into Srebrenica by
convincing Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic that the time
was right for a journalist to visit.
None had been allowed for more
than 100 days. People were
wondering what was going on
behind the curtain.
In the end, another journalist
asked to come along. He had a
vehicle, and I didn't. It was a good
trade-off.
But what we smelled there,
besides the smoke of thousand and
one cooking fires, was the slow
death of hope.
No one wanted to admit it was a
hopeless situation. They wanted to
believe that someone, something,
perhaps some extraordinary act of
fate, was going to save them and
their town.
They just didn't know what it was.
And that not knowing ate away at
them, just as their thinning food
supplies, having been choked off
by the Serbs, did.
At the very end of the only real
street that led all the way down
into the town and became, in
effect, main street, I'll always
remember dozens of kids taking
turns whizzing across a pool of
sheer ice, their bottoms protected
by worn pieces of thin cardboard.
We don't use the word "glee"
anymore. But that's what it was
then. Glee on Main Street,
Downtown Srebrenica.
A bit of laughter against the cold.
A bit of glee in the face of
inevitable doom.
(c) The Toronto Star 1992 -
Posted for educational and fair use
only
=======================================
'JUDGMENT!' - The Video
Shown As Evidence at The Hague
Tribunal!
{It can now be shipped gift
wrapped...Order details after text}
=======================================
September 26 was the first day of
the Bosnian part of the Hague trial
against Slobodan Milosevic. That
day Mr. Milosevic showed
excerpts from a video which
demonstrates how the British TV
station, ITN, fabricated evidence
of Serbian death camps in Bosnia.
The video, co-produced by
Emperor's Clothes and reporters
from Serbian Television, is called
'JUDGMENT!' It demonstrates
that the famous Bosnian pictures,
especially the tall, seemingly
starved man behind barbed wire in
a death camp, were a hoax. It was
not a death camp. The Muslim
men were not behind barbed wire.
This is eminently clear from video
footage shot that day and
reproduced in 'JUDGMENT!'
The movie shows step-by-step
how the phony pictures were
created.
The Bosnian pictures had a huge
impact in 1992. Twenty minutes
after they were shown on TV on
August 6th, George Bush Sr. held
a press conference to proclaim a
whole new get-tough policy
against the Bosnian Serbs. This
was followed by a worldwide
media campaign - all based on the
Bosnian pictures.
If we at Emperor's Clothes are
right that these pictures were a
fraud, then the implications are
staggering: the pictures were
staged to justify a coordinated
US/European policy of
demonizing the Serbian people to
justify war. The press conference
was planned to coincide with the
release of the pictures. The
worldwide press campaign against
the Bosnian Serbs was planned in
advance.
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Milosevic showed at The Hague.
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=== 2 ===
5,000 Muslim Lives for Military Intervention
Dani, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, June 22 1998
Interview with Hakija Meholjic, president of Social Democratic Party
for Srebrenica, by Hasan Hadzic
In your accusations of the state leadership, and particularly of
President Izetbegovic, over a share of the Bosniak blame for the
Srebrenica tragedy, the departure of the Srebrenica delegation to
Sarajevo in September 1993 for talks on the fate of this enclave
cannot be avoided?
The invitation came from President Izetbegovic. At a meeting of the
municipal war presidency we designated the delegation for Sarajevo. We
immediately had some premonition that big issues would be resolved
there because it was the first time we were leaving Srebrenica and we
were provided transport in two helicopters. We exited safely, yet ever
since we had became a demilitarized zone not a single civilian or
military delegation had come to us. It was envisaged that Naser Oric
would be going also, but he did not want to go. We were transported
in armored personnel carriers from Sarajevo airport to the Holiday Inn
hotel. That was the time of the Bosniak Convention, where a decision
was being made on the peace plan and the division of Bosnia. We were
received there by President Izetbegovic, and immediately after the
welcome he asked us: "What do you think about the swap of Srebrenica
for Vogosca [a Sarajevo suburb]?" There was a silence for a while and
then I said: "Mr. President, if this is a done thing, then you should
not have invited us here, because we have to return and face the
people and personally accept the burden of that decision."
So you rejected Izetbegovic's decision?
We rejected it without any discussion. Then he said: "You know, I was
offered by Clinton in April 1993 (after the fall of Cerska and
Konjevic Polje) that the Chetnik forces enter Srebrenica, carry out a
slaughter of 5,000 Muslims, and then there will be a military
intervention." Our delegation was composed of nine people, one among
us was from Bratunac and unfortunately he is the only one not alive
now, but all the others from the delegation are alive and can confirm
this. Since the Convention had started the President entered to
announce us, and when he did it all the present stood up and welcomed
us with an applause as heroes. We had a request, in case the peace
plan was accepted, that Srebrenica be provided a physical link with
Tuzla and not with Gorazde.
Therefore, we asked for Bratunac and Zvornik because a link across the
desolate stretches and mountains did not suit us and we had never been
linked to that area anyway. It was said the President would receive
all delegations, but he accepted them all except ours.
Srebrenica Was Sold
Did you talk to someone else?
Then they somehow judged I was the toughest nut to crack, so Hazim
Rancic, the then chief of the Tuzla police, told me it was the
politicians' stance that I should stay behind for some seven days in
order for us to discuss and agree on something. Then they would
transport me by a helicopter to Zepa and I should then go on foot from
Zepa to Srebrenica. I told them I was to go to Srebrenica because the
people would think I did not want to return. I also told them if they
really wanted it I would go to Zepa from Srebrenica if they would send
a helicopter. Since the people there were already disappointed, during
the trip back we decided not to tell the people we were offered a
swap; otherwise they would understand it as if we were written off. I
can say that, regardless of the mistakes, the municipal presidency was
good and tried to work for the good of the people. We understood
everything clearly. We connected that with the fact that nobody had
organized us for defense since the ruling party surrendered Srebrenica
in April 1992 without resistance. I had been asked then to surrender
weapons because I had organized a unit of my own, but I had refused to
do so. My most difficult moment was when at the departure from
Sarajevo my colleague Adnan Karovic told me: "Hakija, you have been
sold! Please, if Srebrenica does fall, kill my mother, I beg of you.
Just do not let her fall into their hands!"
Even after the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 you had a chance to address
President Izetbegovic?
I requested then that a state commission be formed to examine the
responsibility of the international community, the President, the Army
General Staff, the Second Army corps, our responsibility.... The
people are missing, hey.... He (President Izetbegovic) asked me what I
would achieve with that? Rasim Delic tried to say something, too, but
nobody gave him a chance to speak. I did not interfere, but,
generally, I have a very bad opinion about the majority of the General
Staff members. Never in the history of wars had the people,
"processed" by other armies, been appointed commanders. You spend five
to six months in their prison, then you come through an exchange, and
become a commander. On the second day after Srebrenica fell we heard
on the radio in the woods Rasim Delic calling us to return as the
situation in Srebrenica was normal. That provoked a total confusion.
You had another interesting meeting with the President?
That was immediately after the liberation of Vozuca. I was informed
that the President was waiting in Kozlovac to talk to me. We went
through the complete history of Srebrenica. I told him I was going to
sue him when his power weakens. He asked me again what I was going to
achieve with that. I told him again that an investigation must be
conducted because the people were missing.... He then said: "You know,
these investigations remind me of my own investigation." He meant the
political one he had undergone [1983 trial of Izetbegovic]. I told
him: "There is a difference there, hey, you are an individual, and
there are no more people...."
One of the most puzzling personalities from Srebrenica is the
commander Naser Oric. He has avoided speaking, and the others are
divided in their opinion about him.
I have a normal relationship with Naser. I said that we should all be
held responsible, but as they did not initiate anything that means
Naser is not to blame for anything. All that must be proven. Naser
knows a lot and I told him once he must have been given "something" to
keep quiet. He laughed at that. I told him he would speak sooner or
later. If he was guilty then that should have been proven and he
should have been punished; if not, he should have been kept in the
army or police.... They left the man on the street and now they say he
deals with this or that. Well, he has to do something. Alija is giving
up the people. He is getting rid of the greatest commanders and
fighters.
The Role of Ibran Mustafic
An interesting individual in the Srebrenica story, both the wartime
and the postwar one, is Ibran Mustafic. He has accused everybody else
for the tragedy, yet he is being reproached for rescuing himself
through Serb contacts. Then he founded a new party, after which the
authorities denounced him, and then the authorities sent him to
suppress the revolt of the Srebrenica women. What kind of conclusion
should one draw from all that?
As a deputy of the SDA [Party of Democratic Action] Ibran was a "hawk"
in the prewar assembly. He was not in Srebrenica in the beginning of
the war because he was in Sarajevo. When we advanced well, despite all
our internal disputes, suddenly Ibran came, somewhere from the
woods.... Then he started spreading stories that our army was not
good, so bit by bit there was a split among the soldiers. He wanted
power again, so the SDA split into two camps. One evening someone
attacked him, Hamed Salihovic and Hamed Efendic. Salihovic was killed
then. Ibran was wounded and transported to the hospital. I was the
police chief then and we wanted to carry out an inquiry. But Ibran and
Hamed, as eye-witnesses, did not want to give a statement. Then there
was a session of the municipal assembly at which Ibran asked to be
given a radio set to talk to Momcilo Krajisnik so that Krajisnik could
take him out of Srebrenica.
Naturally, he was not allowed to do that. I connected these facts only
later. Ibran came to "wreck" Srebrenica while we advanced as that did
not suit someone's plan, and I assume that was the SDA's plan. When
Srebrenica fell he went straight to Potocari instead of going with all
of us through the forest. It is difficult to explain how he managed to
get out while the others were killed. Later he gave statements in
Bijeljina that we killed one another. Many people who did not have any
clue as to what the SDA was were killed, yet he went out and arrived
in Sarajevo.
Then again in 1996 Alija invited us to a meeting in the SDA main
office where Ibran stood up and recited a poem: "Alija, without you
the Sun will not shine, without you there will be darkness." And he
cried at the same time. Ibran is the President's man. He openly tells
the people not to return to Srebrenica, and the women who are content
are on his side. Those are the women who receive good money from the
SDA in order not to go there, since it is better for them to talk hot
air and halt the traffic here. All that is a scenario. Srebrenica was
first glorified, then mourned, and, in the end, made odious by taking
people to the streets. The goal of the authorities is to discredit us
in the face of other citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina so that they say
we are savages and that the authorities should do to us what they have
been doing.
What is the position of your minister, Adib Djozic?
Before the war Adib Djozic spoke on the Srebrenica radio station
protecting Goran Zekic, a Chetnik leader, who we had denounced as
an organizer of Chetnik training. Upon his arrival to Tuzla in the
beginning of the war Djozic presented himself as a founder of the SDA,
organizer of the uprising, and the like. The best illustration of what
kind of person he is, is one detail regarding the petition that
thousands of Srebrenica people signed against him. He then came to the
premises of the Srebrenica municipality in Tuzla and said: "Dear
people, I was called by President Izetbegovic, who asked me if I could
'wreck' Srebrenica, and if I could, then I would be a minister. I
promised I could." That took place in front of a large number of
witnesses.
You are now in the SDP [Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina]
and in that political framework you have been trying to do something
for the return of refugees. How does it go?
I have a reason to trust the people like Bogic Bogicevic, Nijaz
Durakovic, Zlatko Lagumdzija, Mirsad Djapo, and many others. They
have proved that they are most sincerely for Bosnia-Herzegovina as a
normal state. For me, Bosnia-Herzegovina without my Srebrenica does
not exist and my biggest goal in life is to return. The current
authorities have shown thousand of times so far that they do not want
that.
[Note: even if we don't agree with the conservative, anticommunist
standpoint of Antiwar.com, we think some articles - like the following
- are worth reading. CNJ]
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html
December 19, 2002
More Dirty Lies
Courtesy of The Hague Inquisition
Just recently, this column examined the many facets of falsifying
history, noting in passing the role of the Hague Inquisition in
currently the largest such effort in the world. Indeed, the ICTY is an
endeavor more massive even than the current campaign to conjure a
reason for invading Iraq, and it seeks not merely to modify history,
but to rewrite it wholesale.
Lubyanka, not Nuremberg
Its main thesis, that Slobodan Milosevic and other Serb leaders
organized a vast conspiracy, a "joint criminal enterprise," to murder,
expel or conquer other Balkan peoples and "defy the West" in the
process, is a transparent attempt to recast Balkans actors as
modern-day Axis and Allies. In this production, Slobodan Milosevic is
starring as Hitler, his fellow Serbs as Nazis, and Albanians, Croats
and Bosnian Muslims as their innocent victims, while the ICTY invokes
the spirit of Nuremberg.
Apart from this being a deeply ironic role reversal from the original
production, which ran in blood from 1941 to 1945, the "Tribunal?s"
methods and practices reflect far more the Soviet show trials of the
Stalin era. It doesn't help that the accused are presumed guilty until
proven innocent, just like those in Lubyanka, or that its "holding
facilities" in Scheveningen were used by the Nazis to imprison Dutch
patriots.
For almost a year, however, Milosevic has been making a mockery of the
prosecutors' efforts to railroad him. He has successfully demolished
every witness and every argument brought out against him, while
refusing to recognize either the Inquisition's authority or its rules.
Milosevic's outspoken defense made a striking contrast to the
conquered Balkans, where the Empire had managed to silence virtually
all the voices of dissent and resistance.
Beria's Heirs
Having failed in a head-on confrontation, despite playing with heavily
loaded dice, the Inquisitors tried a different route. In September,
they managed to extort a confession from a former Bosnian Serb leader,
Biljana Plavsic, in which she not only admitted to participating in
the planning of atrocities, but also implicated Milosevic and other
Serb dignitaries.
Bits of Plavsic's plea cited by the media sound like they were written
by the prosecutors:
[She] acknowledged she covered up crimes, ignored widespread
allegations of criminal acts and "publicly rationalized and justified
the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs" in a document setting out facts
underpinning her guilty plea.
"Mrs. Plavsic embraced and supported the objective of ethnic
separation by force and contributed to achieving it," said the
document admitting her role in killings, expulsions and cruelty
inflicted by Bosnian Serbs on non-Serbs in 1992. (Reuters)
It's as if the Inquisitors took lessons in purging "traitors to the
Party" directly from Lavrenti Beria's NKVD. Such extorted confessions
are part and parcel of any show trial, but even the ICTY has not been
this blatant before.
Why Plavsic confessed is a mystery. She claims it was remorse, and
that Serbs committed crimes out of fear, but both explanations sound
more pathetic than reasonable. She does have a strong dislike for
Milosevic, and she enthusiastically collaborated with Bosnia's NATO
occupiers between 1996 and 1998. Plavsic's true motives may be an
enigma, but the Inquisition's are not. They have seized upon the
confession to re-launch allegations of Nazi-like conduct by the Serbs,
while "rewarding" Plavsic with a "lenient" sentence of life
imprisonment.
'Nazi' Slander Resurrected
The assault came this week, at Plavsic's sentencing hearings. One of
the Inquisitors' star witnesses was no other than Madeleine Albright.
The former U.S. Secretary of State has never tried to hide her
Serbophobia, nor has she ever expressed an ounce of remorse for
masterminding the criminal act of NATO aggression in 1999, which led
to the present occupation of Kosovo. In fact, she has been outright
proud of it, as well as of her support in establishing the
Inquisition.
Albright was supposed to testify to Plavsic's willingness to
collaborate with the NATO occupiers, but also to provide the
association between the alleged Serb crimes and the Holocaust. Events
in Bosnia were "reminiscent of pictures that reminded one of World War
II," she said, adding, "We saw pictures of people being taken into
what could only be labeled as concentration camps."
Reinforcing the Nazi analogy further was Holocaust celebrity Elie
Wiesel. Even during the war, Wiesel sided with the Bosnian Muslim
campaign to depict their side as the victim of "Serb Nazis," despite
the fact that many Muslims joined the actual Nazis sixty years ago.
Since he neither knew Plavsic or possessed intimate knowledge of the
alleged atrocities in Bosnia, Wiesel's testimony was intended purely
for emotional value in absence of real arguments.
In case anyone missed the point, the prosecutors then showed the
pictures of emaciated Muslims in Serb "death camps," recycling that
1992 canard long after its expiration date. The photo, actually
depicting a tuberculosis-ridden Muslim standing in front of a
chicken-wire fence with barbed-wire top, was debunked as a malicious
camera trick by 1997.
Trotting Albright to the stand, invoking Wiesel's fame and recycling
trashy propaganda photos only goes to show that, while the
Inquisition's vitriolic assault on Serbs as "genocidal Nazis" shows no
sign of slowdown, the actual case against Plavsic - or Milosevic, for
that matter - is pretty much nonexistent. The only "joint criminal
enterprise" is between them, NATO and the Empire.
Champions of Falsehood
But that is not all. Having long since collapsed into itself under the
burden of lies and fabrications, like a black hole, the ICTY attracts
ever more such material from all over the world. The following two
cases come from the UK, but there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around.
As the Plavsic hearings unfolded and the Milosevic trial continued,
the London Guardian published a tear-jerking piece by Jadranka Cigelj,
a "rape victim" of a "Serb death camp." Cigelj's passionate diatribe
is a masterpiece of propaganda. It blames Milosevic for horrendous
atrocities without a shred of evidence, while also damning the "West"
for its supposed inability to stop him then, or punish him now.
Though an author of a book about her alleged ordeal (for it was never
proven in court), and a prominently featured celebrity victim,
Jadranka Cigelj is also a high official of the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ), party of the late Croatian president, ardent Serbophobe
and Holocaust revisionist Franjo Tudjman. She also worked for the
Croatian Information Center, a propaganda arm of the HDZ aimed at
Western reporters, and single-handedly provided most of the "evidence"
for stories of mass rape and genocide in Bosnia, none of which have
ever been proven. In other words, Ms. Cigelj is a professional
propagandist and a committed Croatian national-socialist. Her story,
however tempting, ought to be taken with healthy skepticism.
Speaking of accomplished propagandists, one cannot ignore the real
champion in the category, the London-based Institute for War and Peace
Reporting. Their take on reporting about the Inquisition simply reeks
of falsehoods. They dare use such terms as "hate speech,"
"misconceptions" and "negative propaganda," even as their own
coverage is nothing but. One look at their Balkans report page is
enough: tabloid-style headlines heading columns of malicious drivel.
Lascivious services of media hacks have been a powerful factor in the
rise of the modern repressive State, but IWPR has taken shameless
prostitution of journalism to a whole new level.
Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!
It is disturbing to see the ease with which outlandish concepts such
as the "Tribunal" itself and the outrageous lies it peddles are
accepted by the general public in the Empire and elsewhere. But the
sad fact of human nature is that violations of truth and justice are
seen as somehow less despicable the more they are committed.
The sheer gall of the violators seems to know no bounds. One of the
Inquisitors actually said, "It is only through the establishment of
the truth that the unhealthy shackles of revisionism that debilitate
the former Yugoslavia and that foster suspicion, ethnic hatred and
civil unrest can be broken."
Everything in this sentence is a lie. The Inquisition does not
establish truth, but rather forges those very shackles of revisionism,
making sure that the debilitating miseries of former Yugoslavia are
perpetuated!
Burden of Fiction
Since its illegal inception in 1993, the "International Criminal
Tribunal" has faithfully pursued its one and only purpose: to serve
the Empire's interests in the Balkans. It has done so in part by
usurping the authority of sovereign states and subverting
international treaties and accords, but its focus has been on
fabricating a recent history of the Balkans that would justify
Imperial intervention, occupation and war.
What makes the ICTY's lies and hypocrisy so hard to swallow is the
fact that many Balkans atrocities they claim to be prosecuting
actually happened - but not in the way they present them, and not to
the degree alleged by the combatants or the media. By manipulating
very real crimes into false history, the Hague Inquisition is
poisoning the well of collective memory for generations to come.
Driven by their demented obsession to falsify facts by casting Serbs
(and sometimes others, for the sake of "diversity" and political
expedience) as evil incarnate, the Inquisition and its patrons have
come to willfully ignore reality. And in reality, their actions have
disastrous consequences, perfectly exemplified in the recent terrorist
attack on Pristina's Bill Clinton Avenue, and the situation in Kosovo
in general.
Those who seek to control things that by nature cannot be controlled
are doomed to fail. When the truth finally emerges, and it has a nasty
habit of doing so when least expected, there will be Hell to pay.
Nebojsa Malic
standpoint of Antiwar.com, we think some articles - like the following
- are worth reading. CNJ]
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html
December 19, 2002
More Dirty Lies
Courtesy of The Hague Inquisition
Just recently, this column examined the many facets of falsifying
history, noting in passing the role of the Hague Inquisition in
currently the largest such effort in the world. Indeed, the ICTY is an
endeavor more massive even than the current campaign to conjure a
reason for invading Iraq, and it seeks not merely to modify history,
but to rewrite it wholesale.
Lubyanka, not Nuremberg
Its main thesis, that Slobodan Milosevic and other Serb leaders
organized a vast conspiracy, a "joint criminal enterprise," to murder,
expel or conquer other Balkan peoples and "defy the West" in the
process, is a transparent attempt to recast Balkans actors as
modern-day Axis and Allies. In this production, Slobodan Milosevic is
starring as Hitler, his fellow Serbs as Nazis, and Albanians, Croats
and Bosnian Muslims as their innocent victims, while the ICTY invokes
the spirit of Nuremberg.
Apart from this being a deeply ironic role reversal from the original
production, which ran in blood from 1941 to 1945, the "Tribunal?s"
methods and practices reflect far more the Soviet show trials of the
Stalin era. It doesn't help that the accused are presumed guilty until
proven innocent, just like those in Lubyanka, or that its "holding
facilities" in Scheveningen were used by the Nazis to imprison Dutch
patriots.
For almost a year, however, Milosevic has been making a mockery of the
prosecutors' efforts to railroad him. He has successfully demolished
every witness and every argument brought out against him, while
refusing to recognize either the Inquisition's authority or its rules.
Milosevic's outspoken defense made a striking contrast to the
conquered Balkans, where the Empire had managed to silence virtually
all the voices of dissent and resistance.
Beria's Heirs
Having failed in a head-on confrontation, despite playing with heavily
loaded dice, the Inquisitors tried a different route. In September,
they managed to extort a confession from a former Bosnian Serb leader,
Biljana Plavsic, in which she not only admitted to participating in
the planning of atrocities, but also implicated Milosevic and other
Serb dignitaries.
Bits of Plavsic's plea cited by the media sound like they were written
by the prosecutors:
[She] acknowledged she covered up crimes, ignored widespread
allegations of criminal acts and "publicly rationalized and justified
the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs" in a document setting out facts
underpinning her guilty plea.
"Mrs. Plavsic embraced and supported the objective of ethnic
separation by force and contributed to achieving it," said the
document admitting her role in killings, expulsions and cruelty
inflicted by Bosnian Serbs on non-Serbs in 1992. (Reuters)
It's as if the Inquisitors took lessons in purging "traitors to the
Party" directly from Lavrenti Beria's NKVD. Such extorted confessions
are part and parcel of any show trial, but even the ICTY has not been
this blatant before.
Why Plavsic confessed is a mystery. She claims it was remorse, and
that Serbs committed crimes out of fear, but both explanations sound
more pathetic than reasonable. She does have a strong dislike for
Milosevic, and she enthusiastically collaborated with Bosnia's NATO
occupiers between 1996 and 1998. Plavsic's true motives may be an
enigma, but the Inquisition's are not. They have seized upon the
confession to re-launch allegations of Nazi-like conduct by the Serbs,
while "rewarding" Plavsic with a "lenient" sentence of life
imprisonment.
'Nazi' Slander Resurrected
The assault came this week, at Plavsic's sentencing hearings. One of
the Inquisitors' star witnesses was no other than Madeleine Albright.
The former U.S. Secretary of State has never tried to hide her
Serbophobia, nor has she ever expressed an ounce of remorse for
masterminding the criminal act of NATO aggression in 1999, which led
to the present occupation of Kosovo. In fact, she has been outright
proud of it, as well as of her support in establishing the
Inquisition.
Albright was supposed to testify to Plavsic's willingness to
collaborate with the NATO occupiers, but also to provide the
association between the alleged Serb crimes and the Holocaust. Events
in Bosnia were "reminiscent of pictures that reminded one of World War
II," she said, adding, "We saw pictures of people being taken into
what could only be labeled as concentration camps."
Reinforcing the Nazi analogy further was Holocaust celebrity Elie
Wiesel. Even during the war, Wiesel sided with the Bosnian Muslim
campaign to depict their side as the victim of "Serb Nazis," despite
the fact that many Muslims joined the actual Nazis sixty years ago.
Since he neither knew Plavsic or possessed intimate knowledge of the
alleged atrocities in Bosnia, Wiesel's testimony was intended purely
for emotional value in absence of real arguments.
In case anyone missed the point, the prosecutors then showed the
pictures of emaciated Muslims in Serb "death camps," recycling that
1992 canard long after its expiration date. The photo, actually
depicting a tuberculosis-ridden Muslim standing in front of a
chicken-wire fence with barbed-wire top, was debunked as a malicious
camera trick by 1997.
Trotting Albright to the stand, invoking Wiesel's fame and recycling
trashy propaganda photos only goes to show that, while the
Inquisition's vitriolic assault on Serbs as "genocidal Nazis" shows no
sign of slowdown, the actual case against Plavsic - or Milosevic, for
that matter - is pretty much nonexistent. The only "joint criminal
enterprise" is between them, NATO and the Empire.
Champions of Falsehood
But that is not all. Having long since collapsed into itself under the
burden of lies and fabrications, like a black hole, the ICTY attracts
ever more such material from all over the world. The following two
cases come from the UK, but there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around.
As the Plavsic hearings unfolded and the Milosevic trial continued,
the London Guardian published a tear-jerking piece by Jadranka Cigelj,
a "rape victim" of a "Serb death camp." Cigelj's passionate diatribe
is a masterpiece of propaganda. It blames Milosevic for horrendous
atrocities without a shred of evidence, while also damning the "West"
for its supposed inability to stop him then, or punish him now.
Though an author of a book about her alleged ordeal (for it was never
proven in court), and a prominently featured celebrity victim,
Jadranka Cigelj is also a high official of the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ), party of the late Croatian president, ardent Serbophobe
and Holocaust revisionist Franjo Tudjman. She also worked for the
Croatian Information Center, a propaganda arm of the HDZ aimed at
Western reporters, and single-handedly provided most of the "evidence"
for stories of mass rape and genocide in Bosnia, none of which have
ever been proven. In other words, Ms. Cigelj is a professional
propagandist and a committed Croatian national-socialist. Her story,
however tempting, ought to be taken with healthy skepticism.
Speaking of accomplished propagandists, one cannot ignore the real
champion in the category, the London-based Institute for War and Peace
Reporting. Their take on reporting about the Inquisition simply reeks
of falsehoods. They dare use such terms as "hate speech,"
"misconceptions" and "negative propaganda," even as their own
coverage is nothing but. One look at their Balkans report page is
enough: tabloid-style headlines heading columns of malicious drivel.
Lascivious services of media hacks have been a powerful factor in the
rise of the modern repressive State, but IWPR has taken shameless
prostitution of journalism to a whole new level.
Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!
It is disturbing to see the ease with which outlandish concepts such
as the "Tribunal" itself and the outrageous lies it peddles are
accepted by the general public in the Empire and elsewhere. But the
sad fact of human nature is that violations of truth and justice are
seen as somehow less despicable the more they are committed.
The sheer gall of the violators seems to know no bounds. One of the
Inquisitors actually said, "It is only through the establishment of
the truth that the unhealthy shackles of revisionism that debilitate
the former Yugoslavia and that foster suspicion, ethnic hatred and
civil unrest can be broken."
Everything in this sentence is a lie. The Inquisition does not
establish truth, but rather forges those very shackles of revisionism,
making sure that the debilitating miseries of former Yugoslavia are
perpetuated!
Burden of Fiction
Since its illegal inception in 1993, the "International Criminal
Tribunal" has faithfully pursued its one and only purpose: to serve
the Empire's interests in the Balkans. It has done so in part by
usurping the authority of sovereign states and subverting
international treaties and accords, but its focus has been on
fabricating a recent history of the Balkans that would justify
Imperial intervention, occupation and war.
What makes the ICTY's lies and hypocrisy so hard to swallow is the
fact that many Balkans atrocities they claim to be prosecuting
actually happened - but not in the way they present them, and not to
the degree alleged by the combatants or the media. By manipulating
very real crimes into false history, the Hague Inquisition is
poisoning the well of collective memory for generations to come.
Driven by their demented obsession to falsify facts by casting Serbs
(and sometimes others, for the sake of "diversity" and political
expedience) as evil incarnate, the Inquisition and its patrons have
come to willfully ignore reality. And in reality, their actions have
disastrous consequences, perfectly exemplified in the recent terrorist
attack on Pristina's Bill Clinton Avenue, and the situation in Kosovo
in general.
Those who seek to control things that by nature cannot be controlled
are doomed to fail. When the truth finally emerges, and it has a nasty
habit of doing so when least expected, there will be Hell to pay.
Nebojsa Malic
PROVERBIO SLAVO
"Vidila zaba da se konja kuje (potkiva) pa i ona digla nogu"
(Quando vide che il cavallo veniva ferrato, anche la rana alzò la
gamba)
Dedicato all'Ungheria, che ha accettato che la base militare di
Taszar - già usata per le operazioni di "peacekeeping" antijugoslavo -
sia usata per addestramento di truppe ausiliarie della NATO, e che ha
zelantemente richiesto agli USA di partecipare alla aggressione contro
l'Iraq. Vedi:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2179
"Vidila zaba da se konja kuje (potkiva) pa i ona digla nogu"
(Quando vide che il cavallo veniva ferrato, anche la rana alzò la
gamba)
Dedicato all'Ungheria, che ha accettato che la base militare di
Taszar - già usata per le operazioni di "peacekeeping" antijugoslavo -
sia usata per addestramento di truppe ausiliarie della NATO, e che ha
zelantemente richiesto agli USA di partecipare alla aggressione contro
l'Iraq. Vedi:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2179
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/more/gorazde.htm
Subscribe to our email list at
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*Receive articles from the ICDSM Website*
Please send the link to this text to a friend. Or if
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forward it to your friends!
==================================================
A Rare Glimpse at the Reality of the Bosnian War
-- Associated Press Article
-- Comments by Jared Israel
[Posted 18 December 2002]
==================================================
During the trial of ex-Bosnian Serb official Biljana
Plavsic, Madeleine Albright and Elie Wiesel made
speeches about the supposedly monstrous Bosnian Serbs.
They portrayed Bosnian Muslims as analogous to Jews and
Bosnian Serbs as analogous to Nazis. As I shall
demonstrate in an upcoming article on that trial, what
Albright and Wiesel said amounts to Holocaust denial.
In addition, I will demonstrate that in his so-called
testimony, Mr. Wiesel lied.
Anyway, while researching Elie Wiesel's earlier
statements about Yugoslavia, I happened to read a most
revealing 1992 Associated Press (AP) dispatch. It is
posted below.
The AP dispatch is notable for three reasons:
1) It describes an all-out attack on the Serbian
civilian population in and around the Bosnian town of
Gorazde.
Prior to the attack, there had been sustained fighting
between Bosnian Serb troops and Muslim military forces
who controlled the town of Gorazde which had a mixed
Muslim/Serb population. The Serbian troops withdrew as
a peace gesture. After that, on August 26th, a column
of cars and buses including:
"3,000 Serbs, mostly women and children, was ambushed
by Muslims at Gnjila canyon, 11 miles north of
Gorazde."
The attackers were merciless:
"People were trapped in their burning cars. Others
crawled looking for their relatives, or jumped down the
cliff in panic," she said, standing frozen next to the
grave of her 11-year-old son, Dragan, who was killed in
the ambush."
The AP dispatch was published on September 12th, that
is, 17 days after the attack. Yet up until then,
"No one has dared to remove the remaining corpses,
fearing another attack from nearby forests."
The attack was not limited to the one gruesome ambush:
"After the Serb forces left their positions on the
hills above Gorazde, Muslim residents, 70 percent of
the town's prewar population of 40,000, looted and
torched the houses of fleeing Serbs, witnesses said."
This AP dispatch is unusual in that it actually
*mentions* the attack on these Serbs. Mostly the media
was silent when Serbs were attacked. As we shall show
in a soon-to-be-published article by Prof. Francisco
Gil-White, in fact it was the Serbs and also their
moderate Muslim allies who were the main victims of
anti-civilian terror in Bosnia. This was not because
the Serbs were saints. It was because the people whom
they and their Muslim allies were fighting were
fanatical Islamic Fundamentalists, misportrayed in the
Western media as peace loving, moderate democrats. But
all that is discussed in Prof. Gil-White's forthcoming
article. (When posted, it will be at
http://www.icdsm/more/bsn.htm
The point here is: this AP dispatch stands out because
it at least reports the anti-Serb atrocities.
2) But even this article reveals anti-Serb media bias.
From the start the article refers to anti-Serb violence
as "revenge." Revenge for what? What does the AP claim
happened to provoke such "revenge"? The article gives
no details, saying only that the town had been under
siege.
By using the terms, "siege" and "revenge," the writer
creates the impression that monstrous crimes must have
been committed *by the Serbs* because how else could
what the Muslims did constitute "revenge"?
Let us consider this a bit more.
The article says the Muslims outnumbered the Serbs in
the Gorazde area, 70% to 30%. A 30% minority is
probably not in a position to terrorize a 70% majority.
Moreover, this particular majority included people who
were armed and prepared to carry out the sort of
atrocities described in the AP dispatch.
Supporting this point, the AP uses the term, "siege."
If Gorazde was under siege *from Serbian forces* then
it must have been controlled *by Muslim forces.* So:
the town had a mainly Muslim population; it was
militarily controlled by Muslims; some of them were
quite capable of carrying out massacres. This hardly
sounds like a situation in which the Serbian forces
would feel safe in provoking the Muslims, even if they
wanted to.
Moreover, as the article states, the Serbs withdrew
their forces as a peace gesture. Would they have done
so without first rescuing the Serb civilian inhabitants
of Gorazde if, having committed outrages, they had
every reason to expect anti-Serb "revenge?"
The withdrawal of Serbian troops, the coordinated
assault on the Serbian neighborhoods, the desperate
flight of columns of cars and buses without troops to
protect them, the ambush and the extreme violence all
suggest that a) the Serbs naively misestimated their
foes' capacity for terror and b) after the troops
withdrew, the Serbian civilians were caught unaware by
the anti-Serb attack and fled in disarray.
The comments of a Serbian man supports this view:
"'The decision to give up Gorazde is a treason.
Karadzic should be ashamed,' said 68-year-old Marko
Ratkovic, who *managed* to flee to Mladenovac, 75 miles
northeast of Rogatica, in neighboring Serbia." (My
emphasis. Note the word, "managed." That suggests he
was caught unaware. That suggests he had no reason to
expect "revenge.")
And a Serbian military official says: "'Muslims have
abused our peace gesture by launching attacks on
innocent civilians.'"
Based on all of the above, I would suggest this
hypothesis: the presence of Serb military forces near
Gorazde *prevented* atrocities against Serbian
civilians. When the Serbian military withdrew, the
extremists among Muslims launched a pogrom: ambushes,
horrific murder, torching and looting of houses,
slaughter of livestock.
3) Speaking of livestock, note that the article
describes the attackers as having slaughtered pigs in
the Serbs' yards. The Bosnian Serbs were/are mostly
peasant farmers, many of whom do indeed breed pigs.
This is an important detail. Let me explain why.
The AP dispatch states that, "The Serb forces hold
about two-thirds of Bosnia's territory." It was common
for the Western media to make such statements,
suggesting that the Serbs had *seized* most of Bosnia,
i.e., they were aggressors.
A small point that the media neglected to mention was:
the Serbs *owned and occupied* roughly 2/3 of Bosnia.
Before the fighting broke out in Bosnia, the Slavic
*Muslim* population was comprised mainly of city
dwellers. The Slavic *Orthodox* population was
overwhelmingly farmers.
Because farming is land-intensive, in 1991 the Serbian
population owned about 2/3 of the land in Bosnia - that
is, they owned the land they lived on and farmed.
Bosnian Serb farmers were important food producers for
Yugoslavia and other European countries.
(We'll soon post an ethnic map of Bosnia that
demonstrates this.)
During the Bosnian conflict, many media reports
included sentences like the following, taken from a
different Associated Press dispatch:
"During the first two years of the war, Serb forces
took about two-thirds of Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the
Muslim-led government controlling the remainder." (AP,
October 27, 1994,
In fact, by limiting their military presence to the 2/3
of Bosnia where Serbs and their Muslim allies were
concentrated, the Bosnian Serb army was demonstrating a
defensive strategy. As Prof. Gil-White's article will
show, the Bosnian "Government" army was Islamic
Fundamentalist. One 6000-man division was named after
the World War II Waffen SS Division, Handzar, which
means "scimitar." These Fundamentalist troops, often
trained and led by fanatical veterans of the Afghan war
of the 1980s, preyed on Serbian peasants.
One such detachment controlled the town of Srebrenica.
Its leader was Nasir Oric, a Yugoslav Islamist. Here is
a Toronto Star reporter's account of an evening spent
listening to Oric boast about slaughtering Serb
farmers:
[Start Toronto Star Quote]
...I sat in his living room watching a shocking video
version of what might have been called Nasir Oric's
Greatest Hits.
There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads,
and people fleeing.
Oric grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork.
"We ambushed them," he said when a number of dead Serbs
appeared on the screen.
The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by
explosives: "We launched those guys to the moon," he
boasted.
When footage of a bullet-marked ghost town appeared
without any visible bodies, Oric hastened to announce:
"We killed 114 Serbs there."
Later there were celebrations, with singers with wobbly
voices chanting his praises.
These video reminiscences, apparently, were from what
Muslims regard as Oric's glory days. That was before
most of eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica became a
"safe zone" with U.N. peacekeepers inside - and Serbs
on the outside.
[End Toronto Star Quote]
Note the sentence: "These video reminiscences,
apparently, were from what Muslims regard as Oric's
glory days." Oric's glory days! When he could raid
Serbian villages with impunity, cutting off heads and
launching people to the moon. His *glory* days! And the
Fundamentalist monsters who committed these crimes were
portrayed as moderate democrats by the Western media.
Note also that Oric curtailed his raids *because of the
increased strength of Serbian military forces*!
What the Western media called "laying siege to Muslim
towns," was in fact the heart of Serb military
strategy: to have sufficient military presence to
protect civilians from being slaughtered by the Islamic
Fundamentalist army.
Here's the AP dispatch on Gorazde.
-- Jared Israel
==========================================================
September 12, 1992, Saturday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 660 words
HEADLINE: Serb Refugees Face Bloody Muslim Revenge
BYLINE: By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: ROGATICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina
BODY:
Charred human skeletons, decomposing corpses and
burned-out cars are the grim remnants of a Muslim
assault on a column of Serb refugees fleeing
war-ravaged Gorazde.
When Serb forces on Aug. 26 eased their four-month
siege of the town in southeastern Bosnia, most of
Gorazde's Serb inhabitants tried to escape. Many feared
retaliation by majority Muslims who had been under
Serbian guns during the siege.
At dawn the next day, one of the columns of cars and
buses carrying 3,000 Serbs, mostly women and children,
was ambushed by Muslims at Gnjila canyon, 11 miles
north of Gorazde. Witnesses said at least 50 people
were killed and many more injured. Others managed to
escape the hail of bullets and grenades by jumping down
the steep rocky ravine or by hiding in bushes and
woods, they said.
"It was like hell. Everyone was screaming as people and
children, some cut in half by volleys of bullets,
stumbled all over the place," said Dragica Gavrilovic,
one of the refugees.
"People were trapped in their burning cars. Others
crawled looking for their relatives, or jumped down the
cliff in panic," she said, standing frozen next to the
grave of her 11-year-old son, Dragan, who was killed in
the ambush.
She said she carried Dragan's body so she could bury
him in Rogatica.
"Many others were not that lucky. They had to leave
their dear ones behind," Gavrilovic said.
Evidence of the massacre was still visible two weeks
after the ambush. No one has dared to remove the
remaining corpses, fearing another attack from nearby
forests.
Skeletons sat in burned-out cars, and decomposing
corpses lay on the side of the dusty road. Stray dogs
were eating the remains.
Many Western governments and international
organizations, including the United Nations and the
European Community, have blamed Serb forces for much of
the violence in the civil war that has killed
thousands. The Serb forces hold about two-thirds of
Bosnia's territory.
But rival Muslims and Croats have also come under
increasing international criticism for crimes and human
rights abuses, including "ethnic cleansing" of
territories under their control.
"Ethnic cleansing" is the term used to describe the
expulsion of people to create ethnically homogeneous
areas.
After the Serb forces left their positions on the hills
above Gorazde, Muslim residents, 70 percent of the
town's prewar population of 40,000, looted and torched
the houses of fleeing Serbs, witnesses said.
Almost every building, including Serb Orthodox
churches, has been torched in the Serb quarter on the
southeastern bank of the Drina River that divides
Gorazde, a trading center about 35 miles southeast of
the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
Pigs with slashed throats sprawl in yards belonging to
Serbs.
The move to loosen the siege on Gorazde coincided with
an international London peace conference in which all
warring groups participated. The decision by Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic angered local Serb
warlords - and those who had to flee.
"Muslims have abused our peace gesture by launching
attacks on innocent civilians. We may have to
counterattack to regain the territory," Dusan Kornjaca,
the commander of Serb forces, said in an interview.
The Serbs still hold sway on the approaches to Gorazde.
In Rogatica, heavy cannon and machine-gun fire could be
heard from the direction of Gorazde as trucks towing
howitzers headed there.
"The decision to give up Gorazde is a treason. Karadzic
should be ashamed," said 68-year-old Marko Ratkovic,
who managed to flee to Mladenovac, 75 miles northeast
of Rogatica, in neighboring Serbia.
"All of us here have lost at least one family member in
this brutal war. It has to stop before we all
exterminate each other," said Ruza Blagojevic, one of
about 200 Gorazde Serbs who settled in the Mladenovac
refugee center after a harrowing journey.
She said when a charity organization offered them
clothes, all the women chose black - for mourning.
(c) AP 1992 - Posted for educational and fair use only
=======================================
'JUDGMENT!' - The Video Shown As Evidence at The Hague
Tribunal!
{It can now be shipped gift wrapped...Order details
after text}
=======================================
September 26 was the first day of the Bosnian part of
the Hague trial against Slobodan Milosevic. That day
Mr. Milosevic showed excerpts from a video which
demonstrates how the British TV station, ITN,
fabricated evidence of Serbian death camps in Bosnia.
The video, co-produced by the Emperor's Clothes website
and reporters from Serbian Television (RTS), is called
'JUDGMENT!' It demonstrates that the famous Bosnian
pictures, especially the tall, seemingly starved man
behind barbed wire in a death camp, were a hoax. It was
not a death camp. The Muslim men were not behind barbed
wire. This is eminently clear from video footage shot
that day and reproduced in 'JUDGMENT!' The movie shows
step-by-step how the phony pictures were created.
The Bosnian pictures had a huge impact in 1992. Twenty
minutes after they were shown on TV on August 6th,
George Bush Sr. held a press conference to proclaim a
whole new get-tough policy against the Bosnian Serbs.
This was followed by a worldwide media campaign - all
based on the Bosnian pictures.
If we are right that these pictures were a fraud, then
the implications are staggering: the pictures were
staged to justify a coordinated US/European policy of
demonizing the Serbian people to justify war. The press
conference was planned to coincide with the release of
the pictures. The worldwide press campaign against the
Bosnian Serbs was planned in advance.
You can view the same video Mr. Milosevic showed at The
Hague. If you conclude that we are not telling the
truth, send the video back and we'll refund the
purchase price in full. You don't risk a penny.
You can purchase a copy of 'JUDGMENT!' for $25 in the
US, $26 outside the US. (If you want gift-wrapping
please indicate whether you'd like 'Christmas' or
'all-purpose' gift paper and add $2 to the price)
Here's how you can order:
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URL for this article is
http://www.icdsm.org/more/gorazde.htm
Subscribe to our email list at
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*Receive articles from the ICDSM Website*
Please send the link to this text to a friend. Or if
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forward it to your friends!
==================================================
A Rare Glimpse at the Reality of the Bosnian War
-- Associated Press Article
-- Comments by Jared Israel
[Posted 18 December 2002]
==================================================
During the trial of ex-Bosnian Serb official Biljana
Plavsic, Madeleine Albright and Elie Wiesel made
speeches about the supposedly monstrous Bosnian Serbs.
They portrayed Bosnian Muslims as analogous to Jews and
Bosnian Serbs as analogous to Nazis. As I shall
demonstrate in an upcoming article on that trial, what
Albright and Wiesel said amounts to Holocaust denial.
In addition, I will demonstrate that in his so-called
testimony, Mr. Wiesel lied.
Anyway, while researching Elie Wiesel's earlier
statements about Yugoslavia, I happened to read a most
revealing 1992 Associated Press (AP) dispatch. It is
posted below.
The AP dispatch is notable for three reasons:
1) It describes an all-out attack on the Serbian
civilian population in and around the Bosnian town of
Gorazde.
Prior to the attack, there had been sustained fighting
between Bosnian Serb troops and Muslim military forces
who controlled the town of Gorazde which had a mixed
Muslim/Serb population. The Serbian troops withdrew as
a peace gesture. After that, on August 26th, a column
of cars and buses including:
"3,000 Serbs, mostly women and children, was ambushed
by Muslims at Gnjila canyon, 11 miles north of
Gorazde."
The attackers were merciless:
"People were trapped in their burning cars. Others
crawled looking for their relatives, or jumped down the
cliff in panic," she said, standing frozen next to the
grave of her 11-year-old son, Dragan, who was killed in
the ambush."
The AP dispatch was published on September 12th, that
is, 17 days after the attack. Yet up until then,
"No one has dared to remove the remaining corpses,
fearing another attack from nearby forests."
The attack was not limited to the one gruesome ambush:
"After the Serb forces left their positions on the
hills above Gorazde, Muslim residents, 70 percent of
the town's prewar population of 40,000, looted and
torched the houses of fleeing Serbs, witnesses said."
This AP dispatch is unusual in that it actually
*mentions* the attack on these Serbs. Mostly the media
was silent when Serbs were attacked. As we shall show
in a soon-to-be-published article by Prof. Francisco
Gil-White, in fact it was the Serbs and also their
moderate Muslim allies who were the main victims of
anti-civilian terror in Bosnia. This was not because
the Serbs were saints. It was because the people whom
they and their Muslim allies were fighting were
fanatical Islamic Fundamentalists, misportrayed in the
Western media as peace loving, moderate democrats. But
all that is discussed in Prof. Gil-White's forthcoming
article. (When posted, it will be at
http://www.icdsm/more/bsn.htm
The point here is: this AP dispatch stands out because
it at least reports the anti-Serb atrocities.
2) But even this article reveals anti-Serb media bias.
From the start the article refers to anti-Serb violence
as "revenge." Revenge for what? What does the AP claim
happened to provoke such "revenge"? The article gives
no details, saying only that the town had been under
siege.
By using the terms, "siege" and "revenge," the writer
creates the impression that monstrous crimes must have
been committed *by the Serbs* because how else could
what the Muslims did constitute "revenge"?
Let us consider this a bit more.
The article says the Muslims outnumbered the Serbs in
the Gorazde area, 70% to 30%. A 30% minority is
probably not in a position to terrorize a 70% majority.
Moreover, this particular majority included people who
were armed and prepared to carry out the sort of
atrocities described in the AP dispatch.
Supporting this point, the AP uses the term, "siege."
If Gorazde was under siege *from Serbian forces* then
it must have been controlled *by Muslim forces.* So:
the town had a mainly Muslim population; it was
militarily controlled by Muslims; some of them were
quite capable of carrying out massacres. This hardly
sounds like a situation in which the Serbian forces
would feel safe in provoking the Muslims, even if they
wanted to.
Moreover, as the article states, the Serbs withdrew
their forces as a peace gesture. Would they have done
so without first rescuing the Serb civilian inhabitants
of Gorazde if, having committed outrages, they had
every reason to expect anti-Serb "revenge?"
The withdrawal of Serbian troops, the coordinated
assault on the Serbian neighborhoods, the desperate
flight of columns of cars and buses without troops to
protect them, the ambush and the extreme violence all
suggest that a) the Serbs naively misestimated their
foes' capacity for terror and b) after the troops
withdrew, the Serbian civilians were caught unaware by
the anti-Serb attack and fled in disarray.
The comments of a Serbian man supports this view:
"'The decision to give up Gorazde is a treason.
Karadzic should be ashamed,' said 68-year-old Marko
Ratkovic, who *managed* to flee to Mladenovac, 75 miles
northeast of Rogatica, in neighboring Serbia." (My
emphasis. Note the word, "managed." That suggests he
was caught unaware. That suggests he had no reason to
expect "revenge.")
And a Serbian military official says: "'Muslims have
abused our peace gesture by launching attacks on
innocent civilians.'"
Based on all of the above, I would suggest this
hypothesis: the presence of Serb military forces near
Gorazde *prevented* atrocities against Serbian
civilians. When the Serbian military withdrew, the
extremists among Muslims launched a pogrom: ambushes,
horrific murder, torching and looting of houses,
slaughter of livestock.
3) Speaking of livestock, note that the article
describes the attackers as having slaughtered pigs in
the Serbs' yards. The Bosnian Serbs were/are mostly
peasant farmers, many of whom do indeed breed pigs.
This is an important detail. Let me explain why.
The AP dispatch states that, "The Serb forces hold
about two-thirds of Bosnia's territory." It was common
for the Western media to make such statements,
suggesting that the Serbs had *seized* most of Bosnia,
i.e., they were aggressors.
A small point that the media neglected to mention was:
the Serbs *owned and occupied* roughly 2/3 of Bosnia.
Before the fighting broke out in Bosnia, the Slavic
*Muslim* population was comprised mainly of city
dwellers. The Slavic *Orthodox* population was
overwhelmingly farmers.
Because farming is land-intensive, in 1991 the Serbian
population owned about 2/3 of the land in Bosnia - that
is, they owned the land they lived on and farmed.
Bosnian Serb farmers were important food producers for
Yugoslavia and other European countries.
(We'll soon post an ethnic map of Bosnia that
demonstrates this.)
During the Bosnian conflict, many media reports
included sentences like the following, taken from a
different Associated Press dispatch:
"During the first two years of the war, Serb forces
took about two-thirds of Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the
Muslim-led government controlling the remainder." (AP,
October 27, 1994,
In fact, by limiting their military presence to the 2/3
of Bosnia where Serbs and their Muslim allies were
concentrated, the Bosnian Serb army was demonstrating a
defensive strategy. As Prof. Gil-White's article will
show, the Bosnian "Government" army was Islamic
Fundamentalist. One 6000-man division was named after
the World War II Waffen SS Division, Handzar, which
means "scimitar." These Fundamentalist troops, often
trained and led by fanatical veterans of the Afghan war
of the 1980s, preyed on Serbian peasants.
One such detachment controlled the town of Srebrenica.
Its leader was Nasir Oric, a Yugoslav Islamist. Here is
a Toronto Star reporter's account of an evening spent
listening to Oric boast about slaughtering Serb
farmers:
[Start Toronto Star Quote]
...I sat in his living room watching a shocking video
version of what might have been called Nasir Oric's
Greatest Hits.
There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads,
and people fleeing.
Oric grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork.
"We ambushed them," he said when a number of dead Serbs
appeared on the screen.
The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by
explosives: "We launched those guys to the moon," he
boasted.
When footage of a bullet-marked ghost town appeared
without any visible bodies, Oric hastened to announce:
"We killed 114 Serbs there."
Later there were celebrations, with singers with wobbly
voices chanting his praises.
These video reminiscences, apparently, were from what
Muslims regard as Oric's glory days. That was before
most of eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica became a
"safe zone" with U.N. peacekeepers inside - and Serbs
on the outside.
[End Toronto Star Quote]
Note the sentence: "These video reminiscences,
apparently, were from what Muslims regard as Oric's
glory days." Oric's glory days! When he could raid
Serbian villages with impunity, cutting off heads and
launching people to the moon. His *glory* days! And the
Fundamentalist monsters who committed these crimes were
portrayed as moderate democrats by the Western media.
Note also that Oric curtailed his raids *because of the
increased strength of Serbian military forces*!
What the Western media called "laying siege to Muslim
towns," was in fact the heart of Serb military
strategy: to have sufficient military presence to
protect civilians from being slaughtered by the Islamic
Fundamentalist army.
Here's the AP dispatch on Gorazde.
-- Jared Israel
==========================================================
September 12, 1992, Saturday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 660 words
HEADLINE: Serb Refugees Face Bloody Muslim Revenge
BYLINE: By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: ROGATICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina
BODY:
Charred human skeletons, decomposing corpses and
burned-out cars are the grim remnants of a Muslim
assault on a column of Serb refugees fleeing
war-ravaged Gorazde.
When Serb forces on Aug. 26 eased their four-month
siege of the town in southeastern Bosnia, most of
Gorazde's Serb inhabitants tried to escape. Many feared
retaliation by majority Muslims who had been under
Serbian guns during the siege.
At dawn the next day, one of the columns of cars and
buses carrying 3,000 Serbs, mostly women and children,
was ambushed by Muslims at Gnjila canyon, 11 miles
north of Gorazde. Witnesses said at least 50 people
were killed and many more injured. Others managed to
escape the hail of bullets and grenades by jumping down
the steep rocky ravine or by hiding in bushes and
woods, they said.
"It was like hell. Everyone was screaming as people and
children, some cut in half by volleys of bullets,
stumbled all over the place," said Dragica Gavrilovic,
one of the refugees.
"People were trapped in their burning cars. Others
crawled looking for their relatives, or jumped down the
cliff in panic," she said, standing frozen next to the
grave of her 11-year-old son, Dragan, who was killed in
the ambush.
She said she carried Dragan's body so she could bury
him in Rogatica.
"Many others were not that lucky. They had to leave
their dear ones behind," Gavrilovic said.
Evidence of the massacre was still visible two weeks
after the ambush. No one has dared to remove the
remaining corpses, fearing another attack from nearby
forests.
Skeletons sat in burned-out cars, and decomposing
corpses lay on the side of the dusty road. Stray dogs
were eating the remains.
Many Western governments and international
organizations, including the United Nations and the
European Community, have blamed Serb forces for much of
the violence in the civil war that has killed
thousands. The Serb forces hold about two-thirds of
Bosnia's territory.
But rival Muslims and Croats have also come under
increasing international criticism for crimes and human
rights abuses, including "ethnic cleansing" of
territories under their control.
"Ethnic cleansing" is the term used to describe the
expulsion of people to create ethnically homogeneous
areas.
After the Serb forces left their positions on the hills
above Gorazde, Muslim residents, 70 percent of the
town's prewar population of 40,000, looted and torched
the houses of fleeing Serbs, witnesses said.
Almost every building, including Serb Orthodox
churches, has been torched in the Serb quarter on the
southeastern bank of the Drina River that divides
Gorazde, a trading center about 35 miles southeast of
the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
Pigs with slashed throats sprawl in yards belonging to
Serbs.
The move to loosen the siege on Gorazde coincided with
an international London peace conference in which all
warring groups participated. The decision by Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic angered local Serb
warlords - and those who had to flee.
"Muslims have abused our peace gesture by launching
attacks on innocent civilians. We may have to
counterattack to regain the territory," Dusan Kornjaca,
the commander of Serb forces, said in an interview.
The Serbs still hold sway on the approaches to Gorazde.
In Rogatica, heavy cannon and machine-gun fire could be
heard from the direction of Gorazde as trucks towing
howitzers headed there.
"The decision to give up Gorazde is a treason. Karadzic
should be ashamed," said 68-year-old Marko Ratkovic,
who managed to flee to Mladenovac, 75 miles northeast
of Rogatica, in neighboring Serbia.
"All of us here have lost at least one family member in
this brutal war. It has to stop before we all
exterminate each other," said Ruza Blagojevic, one of
about 200 Gorazde Serbs who settled in the Mladenovac
refugee center after a harrowing journey.
She said when a charity organization offered them
clothes, all the women chose black - for mourning.
(c) AP 1992 - Posted for educational and fair use only
=======================================
'JUDGMENT!' - The Video Shown As Evidence at The Hague
Tribunal!
{It can now be shipped gift wrapped...Order details
after text}
=======================================
September 26 was the first day of the Bosnian part of
the Hague trial against Slobodan Milosevic. That day
Mr. Milosevic showed excerpts from a video which
demonstrates how the British TV station, ITN,
fabricated evidence of Serbian death camps in Bosnia.
The video, co-produced by the Emperor's Clothes website
and reporters from Serbian Television (RTS), is called
'JUDGMENT!' It demonstrates that the famous Bosnian
pictures, especially the tall, seemingly starved man
behind barbed wire in a death camp, were a hoax. It was
not a death camp. The Muslim men were not behind barbed
wire. This is eminently clear from video footage shot
that day and reproduced in 'JUDGMENT!' The movie shows
step-by-step how the phony pictures were created.
The Bosnian pictures had a huge impact in 1992. Twenty
minutes after they were shown on TV on August 6th,
George Bush Sr. held a press conference to proclaim a
whole new get-tough policy against the Bosnian Serbs.
This was followed by a worldwide media campaign - all
based on the Bosnian pictures.
If we are right that these pictures were a fraud, then
the implications are staggering: the pictures were
staged to justify a coordinated US/European policy of
demonizing the Serbian people to justify war. The press
conference was planned to coincide with the release of
the pictures. The worldwide press campaign against the
Bosnian Serbs was planned in advance.
You can view the same video Mr. Milosevic showed at The
Hague. If you conclude that we are not telling the
truth, send the video back and we'll refund the
purchase price in full. You don't risk a penny.
You can purchase a copy of 'JUDGMENT!' for $25 in the
US, $26 outside the US. (If you want gift-wrapping
please indicate whether you'd like 'Christmas' or
'all-purpose' gift paper and add $2 to the price)
Here's how you can order:
In U.S. - $25.00
Outside U.S. - $26.00 (USD)
Gift wrapping $2.00, please indicate 'Christmas' or
'all-purpose'.
[If you can donate more, please do!]
* Send us a check:
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http://www.resistenze.org/
popoli resistenti - jugoslavia - 12-12-02
http://www.resistenze.org/sito/te/po/yu/poyu2n12.htm
Si informa che è disponibile il nuovo numero di
"Yugoslavia Notizie" Dicembre 2002 n. 10
16 pagine di informazione a cura del Comitato Yugoslavia di Torino
In questo numero:
"Il paese di cui non si parla più"
Il "punto" sulla situazione in Yugoslavia di Michel Collon
Notizie da Serbia, Croazia e Macedonia
Pancevo, a tre anni dalle bombe della Nato
Riconosciuta ufficialmente la contaminazione da U238 in Bosnia
Informativa dell'Ass. "S.O.S. Yugoslavia"
Appello del Comitato per la difesa di S. Milosevic
Per averlo rivolgersi a 338/1755563 o posta@...
popoli resistenti - jugoslavia - 12-12-02
http://www.resistenze.org/sito/te/po/yu/poyu2n12.htm
Si informa che è disponibile il nuovo numero di
"Yugoslavia Notizie" Dicembre 2002 n. 10
16 pagine di informazione a cura del Comitato Yugoslavia di Torino
In questo numero:
"Il paese di cui non si parla più"
Il "punto" sulla situazione in Yugoslavia di Michel Collon
Notizie da Serbia, Croazia e Macedonia
Pancevo, a tre anni dalle bombe della Nato
Riconosciuta ufficialmente la contaminazione da U238 in Bosnia
Informativa dell'Ass. "S.O.S. Yugoslavia"
Appello del Comitato per la difesa di S. Milosevic
Per averlo rivolgersi a 338/1755563 o posta@...
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., Rick Rozoff wrote:
1)Reprising Role In War On Yugoslavia In 1999, US-NATO
Base In Hungary To Host Training For War Against Iraq
2)3,000 Exiles To Train In Hungary For Attack Against
Iraq
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/
FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1039523815808&p=1012571727172
Financial Times
December 19, 2002
Hungary permits training for Arabs
By Robert Wright in Budapest
-The pro-opposition newspaper Magyar Nemzet has
suggested that the US prefers to use Hungary for the
training because of security worries over admitting
some of the opposition activists to the US.
Taszár has been used by the US since 1994, mainly as a
base for peacekeeping operations in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It also played a role in the Nato-led attack on
Federal Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis.
The United States has won permission to use Hungarian
territory to train up to 3,000 Arabs - mainly Iraqi
opposition activists - for an invasion of Iraq.
The Hungarian cabinet agreed yesterday to the use of
the US-run Taszár airbase, near Kaposvar in south-west
Hungary, for the training.
According to the MTI news agency, Zoltán Gál, a
government spokesman, said the first of two expected
groups of trainees would arrive in January.
The cabinet decision follows a request delivered last
week from Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary.
Mr Gál told reporters that training would be given in
civil-military co-operation, likely to mean training
in setting up civil administration after any US-led
invasion of Iraq.
There would also be training in translation skills, Mr
Gál said.
There has been widespread speculation that the
trainees will be mainly exiled opponents of Saddam
Hussein, the Iraqi leader.
Mr Gál said only that the trainees would be Arabs
currently living in Europe or the US.
The decision on the base's use was taken by the
cabinet after the centre-left government decided that
parliamentary approval was unnecessary and likely to
be blocked by the centre-right opposition.
The opposition had claimed that allowing the training
in Hungary would lay the country open to terrorist
attack.
Hungary has so far been largely unaffected by
international terrorism.
Ferenc Juhász, the defence minister, visited the area
around the base two weeks ago to talk to residents and
reassure them.
The pro-opposition newspaper Magyar Nemzet has
suggested that the US prefers to use Hungary for the
training because of security worries over admitting
some of the opposition activists to the US.
Taszár has been used by the US since 1994, mainly as a
base for peacekeeping operations in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It also played a role in the Nato-led attack on
Federal Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis.
The trainees will not be allowed to leave the base,
nor will they be allowed to go directly from the base
to Iraq. None of the training should be for roles in
combat units.
The present government, elected in April, has sought a
more active part in international military operations.
Under its centre-right predecessor, Hungary was seen
as doing little to live up to its international
obligations as a member of Nato, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation, which it joined in 1999.
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/12/19/
wirq119.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/12/19/ixnewstop.html
Daily Telegraph
December 19, 2002
3,000 exiles will train in Hungary to aid attack
-Some Hungarians have voiced fears that aiding a
central plank of the invasion plan could attract
reprisals. Similar fears were expressed during the
Nato-led campaign against Yugoslavia in Kosovo.
-The Taszar base has been used by American forces
since 1995.
More than 3,000 Iraqi exiles hired to accompany
American troops during any invasion to topple Saddam
Hussein are to be trained at a base in Hungary, it was
agreed yesterday.
The men will be housed from next month at the air
force base of Taszar, 120 miles south-east of the
capital, Budapest, where they will be trained to aid
troops and air strike spotters during an advance into
Iraq.
Although the Iraqis will receive rudimentary military
training, they would be expected to carry out a number
of auxiliary roles including work as interpreters with
combat units.
Up to 1,500 American training and security personnel
will also be stationed at the base.
Hungary, a Nato member since 1998, did everything
possible to play down the military aspects of the
scheme.
A spokesman, Zoltan Gal, said: "The training is
primarily theoretical, which means military and civil
relations, interpreting and translating, and
theoretical training for military police."
Hungary has insisted that those trained at the camp
should not be deployed directly in combat roles in any
conflict with Iraq.
Some Hungarians have voiced fears that aiding a
central plank of the invasion plan could attract
reprisals. Similar fears were expressed during the
Nato-led campaign against Yugoslavia in Kosovo.
Other restrictions imposed by Budapest included a
limitation to two rounds of training lasting no longer
than 90 days each. The men will not be allowed to
leave the base.
The government had wanted parliament to give its
backing to the plan, but decided to grant permission
on its own after opposition parties expressed doubts.
The Taszar base has been used by American forces since
1995.
--- End forwarded message ---
1)Reprising Role In War On Yugoslavia In 1999, US-NATO
Base In Hungary To Host Training For War Against Iraq
2)3,000 Exiles To Train In Hungary For Attack Against
Iraq
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/
FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1039523815808&p=1012571727172
Financial Times
December 19, 2002
Hungary permits training for Arabs
By Robert Wright in Budapest
-The pro-opposition newspaper Magyar Nemzet has
suggested that the US prefers to use Hungary for the
training because of security worries over admitting
some of the opposition activists to the US.
Taszár has been used by the US since 1994, mainly as a
base for peacekeeping operations in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It also played a role in the Nato-led attack on
Federal Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis.
The United States has won permission to use Hungarian
territory to train up to 3,000 Arabs - mainly Iraqi
opposition activists - for an invasion of Iraq.
The Hungarian cabinet agreed yesterday to the use of
the US-run Taszár airbase, near Kaposvar in south-west
Hungary, for the training.
According to the MTI news agency, Zoltán Gál, a
government spokesman, said the first of two expected
groups of trainees would arrive in January.
The cabinet decision follows a request delivered last
week from Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary.
Mr Gál told reporters that training would be given in
civil-military co-operation, likely to mean training
in setting up civil administration after any US-led
invasion of Iraq.
There would also be training in translation skills, Mr
Gál said.
There has been widespread speculation that the
trainees will be mainly exiled opponents of Saddam
Hussein, the Iraqi leader.
Mr Gál said only that the trainees would be Arabs
currently living in Europe or the US.
The decision on the base's use was taken by the
cabinet after the centre-left government decided that
parliamentary approval was unnecessary and likely to
be blocked by the centre-right opposition.
The opposition had claimed that allowing the training
in Hungary would lay the country open to terrorist
attack.
Hungary has so far been largely unaffected by
international terrorism.
Ferenc Juhász, the defence minister, visited the area
around the base two weeks ago to talk to residents and
reassure them.
The pro-opposition newspaper Magyar Nemzet has
suggested that the US prefers to use Hungary for the
training because of security worries over admitting
some of the opposition activists to the US.
Taszár has been used by the US since 1994, mainly as a
base for peacekeeping operations in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It also played a role in the Nato-led attack on
Federal Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis.
The trainees will not be allowed to leave the base,
nor will they be allowed to go directly from the base
to Iraq. None of the training should be for roles in
combat units.
The present government, elected in April, has sought a
more active part in international military operations.
Under its centre-right predecessor, Hungary was seen
as doing little to live up to its international
obligations as a member of Nato, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation, which it joined in 1999.
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/12/19/
wirq119.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/12/19/ixnewstop.html
Daily Telegraph
December 19, 2002
3,000 exiles will train in Hungary to aid attack
-Some Hungarians have voiced fears that aiding a
central plank of the invasion plan could attract
reprisals. Similar fears were expressed during the
Nato-led campaign against Yugoslavia in Kosovo.
-The Taszar base has been used by American forces
since 1995.
More than 3,000 Iraqi exiles hired to accompany
American troops during any invasion to topple Saddam
Hussein are to be trained at a base in Hungary, it was
agreed yesterday.
The men will be housed from next month at the air
force base of Taszar, 120 miles south-east of the
capital, Budapest, where they will be trained to aid
troops and air strike spotters during an advance into
Iraq.
Although the Iraqis will receive rudimentary military
training, they would be expected to carry out a number
of auxiliary roles including work as interpreters with
combat units.
Up to 1,500 American training and security personnel
will also be stationed at the base.
Hungary, a Nato member since 1998, did everything
possible to play down the military aspects of the
scheme.
A spokesman, Zoltan Gal, said: "The training is
primarily theoretical, which means military and civil
relations, interpreting and translating, and
theoretical training for military police."
Hungary has insisted that those trained at the camp
should not be deployed directly in combat roles in any
conflict with Iraq.
Some Hungarians have voiced fears that aiding a
central plank of the invasion plan could attract
reprisals. Similar fears were expressed during the
Nato-led campaign against Yugoslavia in Kosovo.
Other restrictions imposed by Budapest included a
limitation to two rounds of training lasting no longer
than 90 days each. The men will not be allowed to
leave the base.
The government had wanted parliament to give its
backing to the plan, but decided to grant permission
on its own after opposition parties expressed doubts.
The Taszar base has been used by American forces since
1995.
--- End forwarded message ---
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