Hoare: The trial of Ratko Mladic will not mean that justice has been served
The start of Ratko Mladic’s trial today means that the most important Bosnian Serb war-criminal, alongside Radovan Karadzic, is now facing justice. This trial will be crucially important for two reasons.
Firstly, its proceedings may shed some light on the role of Serbia and its military in the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995. At the time of the massacre, Serbia was in a federal union with Montenegro, and the joint state went by the name of the ‘Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’ (Savezna Republika Jugoslavija – SRJ). Its army, the ‘Army of Yugoslavia’, provided logistical support for the Bosnian Serb army – the ‘Army of the Serb Republic’ – and its Croatian Serb counterpart, though these were formally independent of it. The minutes of the SRJ’s Supreme Defence Council (which comprised the presidents of ‘Yugoslavia’, Serbia and Montenegro) were recently used by the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in its case against former Yugoslav army Chief of Staff Momcilo Perisic. They reveal that Perisic regularly appealed to the Supreme Defence Council to provide such logistical support to the Bosnian Serb military, and that these appeals continued up until the eve of the Srebrenica massacre. Hopefully, the trial of Mladic, alongside that of Perisic, will provide more information on the role of the Army of Yugoslavia during the Srebrenica massacre. Indeed, it is likely that Mladic’s ability to provide such information was one of the reasons that Serbia’s military shielded him from arrest for so long. This is, however, an optimistic hope, as Mladic is more likely to continue denying responsibility for the massacre and to shield his former protectors than he is to spill the beans.
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Appeal to the Defenders of the Truth about the Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
March 18, 2011
By: M. Sci Marjan Hajnal
I have been following with great dismay the intensification of attacks on the Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada {IRGC} and the Congress of North American Bosniaks {CNAB} through various channels including the internet and telephone threats towards members of these two organizations.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind: Arms embargo on Bosnia was ‘the most serious mistake made by the UN’
Source: Originally Published on March 16, 2011 in Greater Surbiton Blog, by Dr. Marko Attila Hoare.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, as Defence Secretary until July 1995 and thereafter as Foreign Secretary, was one of the architects of Britain’s disastrous policy toward the war in Bosnia. For over three years, on the basis of this policy, Britain obstructed all meaningful intervention to halt Serbian aggression and genocide in Bosnia, pressurised the Bosnian government to accept the dismemberment of its country, and – most notoriously – mercilessly upheld a UN arms embargo that seriously restricted Bosnia’s ability to defend itself. It was, in effect, an intervention on the side of the aggressor and against the victim. As a direct result of that policy, Bosnia remains a mess to this day.
Yet Sir Malcolm has had time to reconsider. Monday’s edition of The Times published a powerful piece by him calling for intervention in support of the rebels in Libya, in which he argues the following:
‘First and most important should be an open and urgent supply of the necessary weapons to the insurgents so that they can fight Gaddafi on equal terms. The UN has imposed an arms embargo and some have suggested that this makes illegal any supply of weapons to either side in Libya. The UN Resolution, however, refers to a ban on arms supply to the Libyan “Jamahiriya”, which is Gaddafi’s invented name for the state he controls. It need not prevent supplies to those trying to bring him down. Otherwise, we will repeat the mistake of the Bosnian war – when the UN embargo had much less impact on the Bosnian Serbs who were, already, heavily armed. Having been Defence Secretary at that time I have, in retrospect, felt that that was the most serious mistake made by the UN.’ [emphasis added]
Indeed, there had likewise been no legal obligation on the part of UN member states to enforce the arms embargo against Bosnia, since UN Security Council Resolution 713 had been imposed on the state of Yugoslavia, not on the state of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Those enforcing the embargo against Bosnia did so because they wanted to, not because they were legally obliged to. So it is with the Libyan rebels today.
As Jesus said, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Former US president Bill Clinton has similarly admitted his error in failing to intervene to stop the genocide in Rwanda: ‘I feel terrible about it because I think we could have sent 5,000, 10,000 troops there and saved a couple hundred thousand lives. I think we could have saved about half of them. But I’ll always regret that Rwandan thing. I will always feel terrible about it.’
One wonders whether Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will one day regret the shameful policy they are pursuing toward Libya today.
Massacre of children in Srebrenica Serbs attacked Srebrenica’s elementary school, killing 62 Muslim children
The Srebrenica Children Massacre refers to the killing of as many as 62 children among the victims when the elementary school in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, was shelled by the Army of Republika Srpska in April 1993.
2010 in review statistics
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.
Crunchy numbers
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 14 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 63 posts.
The busiest day of the year was November 30th with 105 views. The most popular post that day was Mass rape of Bosnian Muslim women.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were juliagorin.blogspot.com, en.wordpress.com, bosnjackifrontforum.yuku.com, search.conduit.com, and christinebednarz.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for bosnian war, bosnian war facts, bosnian genocide facts, balkan wars 1990s, and map of concentration camps.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Mass rape of Bosnian Muslim women November 2006
Map of the Serbian concentration camps for Muslims and Croats in Bosnia May 2008
Bosnian war casualties, death toll, figures, research, documents, August 2007
1 comment
The Breakdown of Communism: Collapse and War in Yugoslavia April 2008
1 comment
How Balkan wars started explanation history timeline (Focus Kosovo) November 2006
Bosnians discover largest mass grave in Europe containing over 2000 bodies
SARAJEVO, Sept 18 (KUNA) — Chairman of the committee tasked with searching for missing persons in the Bosnian war, Amor Masovic, said tens of volunteers helped the committee to recover more than 300 bodies from Lake Perucac, believed to have been executed by Serbian forces.
He said the committee predicted over 2,000 bodies lying in the Lake bed, making it the largest mass grave in Europe.
He said the search teams could not recover more bodies because the Serbian authorities opened the dam on the Lake thus hampering the recovery.
Amor, speaking to KUNA, said the remains of the bodies that were receoved belonged to Bosnian Muslims. The Serbian forces assembed them in public squares and cleansed them before dumping them in the Lake, he added.
It is believed that thousands of bodies are still in Lake Perucac, he said. Locals have mentioned that Serbian forces had erased traces of their crimes by getting rid of the bodies in the Lake.
Amor criticized the Serbian authorities for hampering the work of the committee. (end) aa.bs KUNA 181913 Sep 10NNNN
Short Chronology of the Bosniak-Croat war
19. October 1990. The presidency of the Socialist Republic Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the order of the Headquarters of armed forces of Socialist Federal Republic Yugoslavia draws a decision to withdraw all of the weapons and the military equipment in possession of Territorial defense in to the Yugoslav Peoples Army military depot. This decision was not obeyed by 23 municipalities with Bosnian Croat majority population and 17 municipalities with Bosnian Serb majority population.
18. November 1991. The extreme elements of the HDZBiH, led by Mate Boban and Dario Kordić later convicted by ICTY of war crimes, proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate “political, cultural, economic and territorial whole,” with Croat Defence Council (HVO) as its military part on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of ethnic cleansing of non-Croat population and crimes against humanity as well as war crimes committed by the Croatian authorities on Bosniak civilians, HDZ had much of influence in municipalities claimed by Herzeg-Bosnia. The Bosnian government did not recognize it. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared Herzeg-Bosnia illegal, first on September 14, 1992 and again on January 20, 1994.
31. December 1991. President Franjo Tuđman of the Republic of Croatia in the interview for newspaper ‘Slobodna Dalmacije’ concludes the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be avoided only if there would be and agreement in which Serbia and Croatia would gain parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniaks, by Tuđmans reasoning would get smaller part of central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tuđman in that interview has characterized Bosnia and Herzegovina as colonial creation.
08. April 1992. HVO units in Mostar even though they were well armed did not react on the Serbian attacks on the City of Mostar.
24. April 1992. So called the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia reacted on the decision made by the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to unite all of the military forces opposing the Serb aggression under one joint command of Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by refusing to put HVO under its joint command. Those sort of political decisions made by leadership of so called Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia was not accepted by all HVO units especially those in the north and north-eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
08. May 1992. Serb forces consisting of tank and infantry units are successfully attacking and capturing left bank of Mostar. The Mostar battalion of Bosnian Army did not have any ant-tank weapons which they can use to stop tanks T-84 belonging to the Yugoslav People Army (Serbs). In that battle the Mostar battalion suffers heavy losses and was forced onto the right bank of Mostar.
10. May 1992. HVO Busovača municipally headquarters issued the order to put Busovača under total blockade from all directions and to make connections with Serb army in Kaonik so they can peacefully evacuate the Yugoslav Peoples Army barracks. HVO Busovača municipally headquarters issued ultimatum to the Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) to surrender its weapons and be placed under the total command of HVO. The order was signed by second in command of HVO Dario Kordić and the commander of the municipally headquarters Busovača Ivo Brnada. Dario Kordić takes the leadership of HDZ after the death of Mate Boban, and in February 2001 ICTY in the Hague has handed down to him 25 years of imprisonment for the crimes committed on the Bosnian Muslim population of central Bosnia.
09. June 1992. Blaž Kraljević was killed by members of HVO. Blaž Kraljević was a Croat paramilitary leader during the first few months of the Serb Aggression on Bosnia who commanded the HOS. When the war began Kraljević began to position his group as the main Croat militia in Bosnia. Unlike the other Croat militia, the HVO (Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane-Croatian Defence Council, he opposed the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the creation of an ethnically cleansed Greater Croatia.
14. June 1992. Joint military operation between the Bosnian Army Mostar battalion and HVO has forced Serb forces to retreat back towards Nevesinje and freed the left bank of Mostar.
19. June 1992. HVO made a decision to leave its positions on the left bank of Mostar and to pull out all of its anti-tank weapons and artillery peaces. Because of that decision the Bosnian Army was fighting Serb forces on its own.
20. August 1992. Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) from Igman, Hrasnice and Sokolović Kolonije have began attacking Serb positions on Ilidža, Stupska petlja and Nedžarići, with the intention to break the blockade of Sarajevo. On the Ilidžia from the Serb lines were broken, but the Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) did not connect with the Bosnian Army troops in the city. HVO Kiseljak stopped the Bosnian Army units from Visoko to cross the territory under HVO control.
01. October 1992. Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) starts the offensive on the Brčko front against Serb forces and manages to break through and create corridor which was on the smallest position only 4 km wide. It was planned that Croatian Army (HV Hrvatska Vojska) from the left side of the river Sava with 37 tanks give support to Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine), but that did not happen. Soldiers of the Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine), had created a corridor near village of Gorice and managed to break through on to a right bank of river Sava, and after 48 hours of waiting had to withdrew.
05. October 1992. Mladić meeting with the delegations from Croatia and Herceg-Bosna in Pećuj. Bruno Stojić and Slobodan Praljak – attended the meeting together with Jadranko Prlić. During the meeting Praljak said, ‘The goal is the Banovina of 1939; if not, we’ll continue the war’. An agreement on cease-fire, exchange of prisoners and repairs to the hydroelectric power plant in Jajce was reached at the meeting.
06. October 1992. Another meeting between Mladić and Slobodan Praljak took place in Njivice; general Milivoj Petković, attended a meeting as well. Praljak told Mladić, ‘We are making good headway in our effort to convince Alija to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina’.
12. November 1992. In Grude a meeting of presidents of Crisis Management Committee of Hervcegovačka and Travnik region communities took place. This meetings agenda was to join Herzeg-Bosna to Croatia. So to achieve this goal two regional communities have formulated all legal and political acts, including proclamation of the Croat Banate in Bosnia. One other conclusion of this meeting was a military preparation for conflicts with “all those who are going to try to stop creation of free Croat state”. The chairperson of this meeting was mate Boban.
15. November 1992. In the spirit of decisions of the Hervcegovačka and Travnička regional community agreement HVO (Croatian Defence Council) with the support of Croatian Army create a total blockade of the positions controlled by Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine). This blockade lasted till March 1994. During the blockade all of the attempts to re supply Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) with weapons, ammunition and equipment on fronts against Serb forces was blocked by HVO and Croatian Army.
14. April 1993. HVO troops with direct military support and help of Croatian Army went on all out offensive against the Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) in Herzegovina and central Bosnia. Before that the Bosniak members of HVO and the smaller more isolated units of Bosnian Army (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) were disarmed. HVO attacks and occupies Prozor. The fiercest fights take place in Gornji Vakuf, Fojnica and Mostar (west side of Mostar which was occupied by HVO which was declared Croatian city and a capital of the so called Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia).
16. April 1993. In village Ahmići, central Bosnia, HVO troops have rounded up and killed 120 Bosniak civilians.
09. May 1993. HVO conducts strong attacks on to east side of Mostar (part of the city under the control of Bosnian Army). Bosnian Army troops found them selves surrounded on a territory of only few square kilometers. Heavy infantry fights are taking place on the west side of Mostar in Šantića Street which is the front line between HVO and Bosnian Army. HVO starts to set up concentration camps for Bosniaks mainly civilians. These HVO concentration camps included Heliodrom in Mostaru, Dretelj, Gabelu and many others.
12. June 1993. HVO Kiseljak and the Serb forces from Ilidža in village Grahovica (between Kiseljak and Ilidža) kill 37 Bosniak civilians.
01. July 1993. 111. brigade of HVO from Žepče attacks Bosnian Army troops in Novi Šeher.
08. July 1993. Meeting between Slobodan Milošević, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić took place. Radovan Karadžić ordered general Ratko Mladić, ‘Help the Croats in order to force the Muslims to accept the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina’. Mladić left Belgrade the same day and went to Njivice, where he met with Petković. The two made deals on the military cooperation between the VRS and the HVO, sale of weapons and equipment and ‘renting’ artillery pieces which then fired on the BH Army positions north of Mostar.
01. November 1993. Old Bridge in Mostar was destroyed by the HVO Croatian Defence Council. After the war Arif Pašalić who was the commander of the 4th Corps of Bosnian Army said “With the destruction of Old Bridge Croats have pissed all over their thousand year old tradition and culture”.
23. February 1994. The Croat-Bosniak war officially ended when the Commander of HVO, general Ante Roso and commander of Bosnian Army, general Rasim Delić, signed a ceasefire agreement in Zagreb. In March 1994 a peace agreement mediated by the USA between the warring Croats (represented by Republic of Croatia) and Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Washington and Vienna which is known as the Washington Agreement. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Croat and Bosnian government forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
