NKRBiH - #510 INTL - GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA IS A HOT TOPIC IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

ONLINE NEWSLETTER - International

No. 510

November 26, 2007

http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/

CONTENT

1. THE GENOCIDE CASE (BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA V. SERBIA) BEFORE THE ICJ IS A HOT TOPIC IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

2. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF SREBRENICA, MUNICIPALITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.

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1. THE GENOCIDE CASE (BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA V. SERBIA) BEFORE THE ICJ IS A HOT TOPIC IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

By Vahid Sendijarevic
National Congress of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

It was clear from the comments by Judge Bruno Simma of the International Court of Justice given October 22, 2007 at the University of Michigan that the team that led the Genocide lawsuit for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia led the lawsuit in such a way as to lose.

The genocide lawsuit of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia was presented as a hot topic in international law in the introduction of the seminar given by Judge Bruno Simma at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor. The seminar was held in front of a packed lecture hall. There was so much interest in the topic that the lecture hall doors were held open during the lecture so that those for whom there was no room in the lecture hall could listen.

Judge Bruno Simma did not hide the overwhelming responsibility he feels for the first ever lawsuit of one nation against another for genocide. He said that he still had “nightmares” as a result of the entire process and because of the shortcomings of the final decision of the International Court of Justice. He also said that he was still under a duty to the International Court of Justice and because of this duty he could not publicly disclose all that was weighing on him as a result of this historic process; despite this fact, he nonetheless recited some things with which he wrestles in his “nightmares.”

First of all, he said that it is hard to understand that in such a historic lawsuit - one involving genocide and one that will set precedent for all time - that the party bringing the law suit changed the team of lawyers during the process. He mentioned many examples of confusion coming from Bosnia such as who had authorization to lead the lawsuit, etc.

He also said that it is unimaginable that Bosnia and Herzegovina reduced the lawsuit to such narrow grounds, namely that Serbia committed genocide on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina – leaving only two options for the judgment - total genocide or no genocide at all. He said that this is unimaginable because responsibility for genocide under the Genocide convention is multi-layered. A country that has the opportunity to prevent Genocide and does not, or a country that assists in Genocide, is responsible and answerable for Genocide. Bosnia and Herzegovina had the opportunity to claim Serbia’s involvement at many levels, including the claim that Serbia was responsible for not preventing Genocide and that they were complicit in Genocide. He said that it is unbelievable how few resources Bosnia invested in pursuing all available grounds under the Genocide convention against Serbia.

He also expressed his confusion as to why the victims of Genocide were labeled as “non-Serb” population. From his comments one can conclude that the lawsuit did not have the goal of proving Genocide on the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina but rather on a particular religious group. The natural conclusion of his comments is that the lawsuit was administered in such a way as to prove that one nation (Serbia) committed Genocide on a religious group (Muslims) in another country (Bosnia and Herzegovina). At the end of the lecture, he was invited by Bosnians present at the seminar to visit Srebrenica to see first hand the results of Genocide, and to see the Memorial for the victims of genocide which has no reference to the nationality or ethnicity of the victims of Genocide and which has no reference to the aggression and the genocide. He was also told that the Memorial, void of these references, is the best evidence of the fact that those who committed Genocide achieved their goal.

He said that Bosnia and Herzegovina relied mostly on evidence from the cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which was not enough to prove the limited scope of the lawsuit, namely Genocide by Serbia on a religious group in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From this statement one can conclude that victims of genocide should thank Carle Del Ponte, a prosecutor of the ICTY, for most of what Bosnia and Herzegovina got from the final judgment of the Court.

He had a particularly hard time talking about the reparations asked for in the suit. He said that the Court could not have come to a different decision other than to reject the claim, and he said that he struggles with the fact that the victims of Genocide have a small chance of receiving any material reparations. When the floor was open for questions, an audience member commented that the Genocide in Srebrenica, which was confirmed by the decision of the International Court of Justice, took place on a people and territory under the jurisdiction of the United Nations as a Safe Zone established under U.N. resolution and because of this, justice is still possible. Justice can still be achieved by returning Srebrenica to U.N. jurisdiction under the principle of RESTITUTIO IN INTEGRUM which is firmly established under international norms under the principle of JUS COGENES. Judge Bruno Simma said that he could not give his opinion on this matter because of his continuing responsibilities to the Court. He was given a copy of “Decision about the return of the Municipality of Srebrenica to the sole jurisdiction of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Municipality of Srebrenica was before the aggression and genocide” (see article #2 below). He expressed his thanks and said he would read it.


The comments of Judge Bruno Simma that day in Ann Arbor are a testament to the fact that the team which led the lawsuit for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia led the lawsuit in such a way as to lose. The Court was not asked to find and confirm that Serbia committed aggression on the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor was the Court asked to conclude that Serbia aided and failed to prevent genocide. Neither was the Court asked to void the agreements signed as a result of aggression and Genocide, and thereby to return to the legal status as it was before the aggression and Genocide. The opposite took place; the lawsuit was presented without opposition to the Dayton Agreement and “Republika Srpska” which were the result of aggression and genocide.

It is now clear why the team was changed and why Prof. Boyle was removed from the team. Prof. Boyle, in the original lawsuit fought for the citizens of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as victims of genocide regardless on their ethnicity and religion. It is also clear based on the comments of Judge Bruno Simma that the judges of the International Court of Justice did all they could for the victims of Genocide under the limited claims and evidence of the lawsuit. In the end, the Court’s decision gave Bosnia and Herzegovina what Prof. Boyle and Carla Del Ponte had secured with their work. Prof. Boyle fought for and got from the Court at the very inception of the lawsuit the declaration of Serbia’s responsibility to prevent the Genocide; and Carla Del Ponte fought hard for the decision that Genocide took place in Srebrenica.

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2. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF SREBRENICA, MUNICIPALITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The Parliament of the Municipality of Srebrenica in the session of the Parliament held in Srebrenica on March ----, 2007, declares that from this date forward, Srebrenica is an INDEPENDENT MUNICIPALITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pursuant to the plan to carve up the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, officially signed in Paris in December 1995 (“Paris Agreement”), Srebrenica and its people were sacrificed. Genocide was committed against the people of Srebrenica. This has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its decision of February 26, 2007, where it found that Serbia failed to prevent genocide in Srebrenica commited by the Army of Republika Srpska.

The Paris Agreement and Republika Srpska that it created were built on the genocide committed in Srebrenica. Without the genocide in Srebrenica there would be no Paris Agreement and therefore, the resulting Paris Agreement is illegal and invalid. Republika Srpska, which was formed based on the Paris Agreement is therefore a genocidal statelet without any legal basis. Since both have always been genocidal we repudiate both. Therefore, we the people of the Municipality of Srebrenica declare our independence from this genocidal Republika Srpska and the Paris Agreement. We have always and still remain loyal to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our sole loyalty is to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Constitution. Therefore, we reinstate the laws and the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnian and Herzegovina.

The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was never legally terminated, and it is for this reason that we recognize that the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Constitution are still in force here in Srebrenica. We, the people of Srebrenica, will be applying the laws and constitution, and flying the flag of the Republic. We will be a part of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina like Brcko District, but will be applying the laws of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

HISTORY

From the beginning of the aggression on the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1992, until February 1993, the defense forces of the Republic in Srebrenica successfully resisted the aggression from Serbia and Montenegro (the rump Yugoslavia). In that period, it is estimated that about 1800 residence of Srebrenica, mostly civilians, died as victims of “ethnic cleansing.” Subsequent to a major offensive carried out by three corps of the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) at the beginning of February 1993, UNPROFOR forces came to Srebrenica. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution S/RES/819 by which Srebrenica was proclaimed a UN Protected Zone, and at the same time a demilitarization agreement was signed. Unfortunately “demilitarization” practically meant the disarming of the defenders of Srebrenica, and not the forces of the aggressor.

The result of disarming Srebrenica is that in July 1995, the UN Protected Srebrenica became the largest killing site in Europe since World War II, and about 8,500 men, women, and children were brutally murdered there.

Subsequently, through the “General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” which was agreed upon in Dayton, Ohio in the United States, and of which the official and final version was signed in Paris, France at the end of 1995, the perpetrators of genocide were rewarded with 49% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the so-called “Republika Srpska” – in which was included their so-called sovereignty over Srebrenica, thereby granting the aggressors power over the victims of genocide.

By the UN Charter, the United Nations were obligated to protect its member state, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from aggression and genocide, and not to reward the perpetrator of genocide with territory of the victim state.

GENOCIDE

Genocide occurred in Srebrenica. It is on this genocide that the Paris Agreement and Republika Srpska were illegally built.

In several criminal prosecutions before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague, the court has confirmed that the crime of genocide occurred in Srebrenica, e.g. judgments in the cases of General Krstic, Colonel Blagojevic.

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and ICTY President Judge Theodor Meron acknowledged the genocide in Srebrenica when they appeared before the Security Council less than a month before the 10th Anniversary of the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

In 2005, the United States Congress adopted a resolution acknowledging that genocide was committed in Srebrenica.

Most decisively, on February 27, 2006, the International Court of Justice rendered its decision in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro and announced that the Court: “Finds that Serbia has violated the obligation to prevent genocide, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995.” The Court confirmed that genocide was committed by the Army of Republika Srpska and that Serbia had an obligation to prevent it.

Victims of Genocide are still suffering at the hands of their killers

The governing bodies that are currently responsible for the most vital aspects of Srebrenica are in Banja Luka, the capitol of Republika Srpska, which means that power over the people in Srebrenica is in hands of those who committed the genocide. As a result, the people of Srebrenica are unable to exercise their most basic rights and are constantly subjected to “quiet” genocide carried out through insidious methods.

Furthermore, the post war dual citizenship legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, proclaimed by then UN High Representative in B&H, Carl Westendrop, on December 23, 1997, and enacted on January 1, 1998 seeks to finalize the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica. This legislation strips the survivors of genocide of Bosnian citizenship if they have accepted citizenship of the country that hosted them as refugees. This legislation seeks to accomplish through law what the aggressors could not accomplish through force and genocide. It seeks to forever and permanently remove the Srebrenica people from their home.

Once a census takes place, the ethnic structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina will forever be changed and this will finalize the goals of genocide—the people of Srebrenica will be permanently “ethnically cleansed.” Therefore, We, the people of Srebrenica, still claim our citizenship under the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


THE NEW CONSTITUTION & REPUBLIKA SRPSKA WERE NEVER, NOR ARE THEY NOW LEGAL

The Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was never abandoned. Annex 4 of the Paris Agreement, which contains a new constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, never passed through the procedures mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and therefore, as a constitution it is invalid.

Furthermore, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide, genocide cannot be the basis for creating a new state and constitution.

THE LAWS AND CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA RE-INSTATED

The existing state of matters in Srebrenica is nothing more than an attempt to legalize the genocide that occurred.

Therefore, from this day of March __, 2007, the laws and Constitutional of the Republic of Bosnia ad Herzegovina are reinstated and the powers of the genocidal Republika Srpska cease to apply in the Municipality of Srebrenica.

The area of the Municipality of Srebrenica will be ruled by the valid laws of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which we have always remained loyal. The application of the laws and Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue until a new, legitimate Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is established. Until then, Srebrenica will be a separate district in the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but will be governed by the Constitution and Laws of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Parliament of the Municipality of Srebrenica will in the future as necessary enact laws consistent with the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

NKRBH - #507 INTL

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

ONLINE NEWSLETTER - International

No. 507

November 18, 2007

http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/

CONTENT

1. Why did Silajdzic go to USA?

2. Why the Whistle-blower Has Been Killed in the “Serbian Entity” of Bosnia-Herzegovina

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1. Why did Silajdzic go to USA?

Last week the ethnic Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH, or Bosnia, for short), Haris Silajdzic, in the middle of a political crisis that brought the resignation of Premier Nikola Spiric, unexpectedly went on an "official" visit to the capital of the US, Washington DC. His trip completely surprised the Bosnian people as it was unscheduled and unpublicized beforehand, and it caused him miss a scheduled Presidency meeting about the pressing business of Mr. Spiric's resignation, which had to be postponed. In addition, the true nature of his business in the U.S. capital was not revealed either before he left or after he returned.

Indeed, upon his return to the Sarajevo airport, he was asked by reporters exactly that - what the purpose of his visit was? He answered that he had to lobby on behalf of Bosnia, because we, the Bosnian people, have neglected to do so in the past. He implied that, as a result, the U.S. is now conspired against our country, and the consequences are dire. He actually said, with a grave tone in his voice, that he "was asked, twice, why not divide Bosnia?" He neglected to mention who exactly asked him that preposterous question. Perhaps two of the U.S. lawmakers that he reportedly met with:

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, OH
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, KY
U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, KS (Retired)
U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, NY
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, IL
U.S. Rep. George Radanovich, CA
U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, CA
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, AK
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, IL
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, NJ
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, FL
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, VA

It is simply not plausible that it was any of them who asked that ridiculous question. Most of the people on the list above are members of the Bosnian Congressional Caucus, which means that they consider themselves to be friends of our country, and have acted in the Congress on resolutions in the past that were and are very helpful in the Bosnian people's struggle toward nullifying effects of genocide and aggression in our country. For example, Congressman Smith recently introduced a resolution into procedure in the House that calls for a new constitution for our country to strengthen the state, and to do away with the territorial division based on results of ethnic cleansing contained in the Dayton constitution (H. Res. 679).

Also, none of the people on that list could have possibly asked Silajdzic that question because none of those people are stupid.

No, no, Silajdzic's dire warnings to the Bosnian public simply follow a well rehearsed pattern of deflecting own culpability immediately prior to, or immediately following, a catastrophic subversion of the country or its people in favor of its enemies - the Serb ultra-nationalists. Former President Alija Izetbegovic invented the technique to explain his Dayton signature: he was forced to sign that occupied and ethnically cleansed parts of our country would become a "Republic of the Serbs" (RS), because "the world" decided that Serbs deserve a part of Bosnia for themselves. The second common excuse involves some cooperation from Serb politicians, who would make threats in the media, and then the catastrophic deals would be sold to the people as being rather good, compared to total annihilation.

We are getting a heavy dose of both of these excuses in this crisis. At a time when Europe and its High Representative Lajcak are actually pressuring the RS with the intent of abolishing its criminal and genocidal police, and forcing it to respect the institutions of the state BiH, Silajdzic helps the RS by creating agreements with it that undermine Europe. When that leads to loss of support from the Bosniak people whom he is supposed to represent, he needs to make a show to prove that despite whatever the U.S. says about supporting the High Representative, the U.S. really wants to support the RS and it wants to allow Bosnia to fall apart. Furthermore, because of Lajcak's measures to enforce attendance in the BiH Parliament, which has the effect of forcing RS politicians to actively sabotage the legislative process in BiH, instead of just declining to show up as in the past, the RS has started to saber-rattle again. They are threatening to collectively resign from state institutions; there is talk of an independence referendum; Premier Spiric, who is a Serb, has already taken down the government with his resignation in protest, etc. This provides Silajdzic with the right conditions to invoke the second excuse - we have to make a bad deal again, in order to avoid a bloody war.

Silajdzic has already done much to help the RS in its conflict against Europe. Notably, he recently made two agreements with the RS, both of which we discussed previously. The first was the agreement on police structures, which sought to preserve the RS police, but was accordingly rejected by Europe as insufficient to allow Bosnia to continue along the path to integration. The second was aimed to hold off any further measures by Mr. Lajcak to unblock the functioning of BiH at the expense of the RS entity, and also to preempt and undermine the aforementioned U.S. Congress resolution. Namely, they agreed that police and the constitution would be reformed, at some later time but only by consensus of the parties in BiH, and that the new formulation would respect Dayton. Both of those are simply the exact opposite from what he promised to the Bosnian people at election time, and he has to blame those actions on someone else. In this case, given the clear position of Europe and the High Representative, he chose to imply that it is the U.S.

However, his show for the Bosnian public was likely not the primary reason for his trip to Washington. One possibility is that he wanted to undermine Congressman Smith's resolution. The resolution in question, although obviously non-binding to Bosnia, would still give a huge boost to the Bosnian people. It would be another message, and strongest yet, that the U.S. does not actually favor the RS, and the ethnic division of our country. In fact, a failure to pass that resolution will surely be publicized by the Bosnian media as "proof" of the conspiracy theory that Silajdzic is using right now. (This is very similar to the way that Izetbegovic had used the wartime arms embargo on Bosnia as proof that the U.S. wanted Bosnia to lose the war, neglecting to mention that initiatives for removal of the arms embargo, such as Sen. Dole's resolution, were directly undermined by Izetbegovic's own insistence on perpetually negotiating with Karadzic and Milosevic.) So Silajdzic supposedly meets with a group of congressmen that originated and are very likely to support this very helpful resolution, with the explanation that he is lobbying for Bosnia. Is he fixing something that isn't broken? Or did he want to communicate to them to hold off on pushing this resolution, perhaps for the sake of "stability" of Bosnia? If his message to them really was along these lines, we counter with a plea to the Congressmen to continue pushing for this resolution, as drafted, because it is the best thing that they can do for Bosnia and its people at the moment.

Another possibility for the true purpose of Silajdzic's visit to Washington is to undermine High Representative Lajcak's current efforts. Perhaps coincidentally, but possibly in anticipation of such subterfuge by Silajdzic, Deputy High Representative Raffi Gregorian testified last Friday at the U.S. Congress Helsinki Commission that Silajdzic as well as RS Premier Milorad Dodik seem to prefer isolation for Bosnia by not allowing reforms that can advance the state toward European integration. He noted that over 70 percent of the people of Bosnia want to join Europe. So Mr. Gregorian clearly communicated to Congress that Silajdzic and Dodik belong in the same category of people who are hindering Bosnia. Dodik does not hide it - it is his job as the Premier of the RS. Silajdzic does it covertly, claiming to work in the best interest of Bosnia, but joining the RS in thwarting Europe's intentions to help Bosnia.

Perhaps in the long run nobody can help a person who is truly determined to commit suicide. However, that is not the case with Bosnia. Silajdzic's very election victory last year actually proves that the people of Bosnia want to save their country. Namely, Silajdzic was the candidate who promised to strengthen Bosnia at the expense of the entities, to abolish the genocidal RS police, to lead Bosnia as a unified country into European membership. He promised not to compromise on these most important points. The Bosnian people chose him for those promises, and their only fault is that they did not know that he was insincere. We ask the friends of Bosnia in the U.S.

Congress and elsewhere to see past the lies of this snake-oil salesman, and to trust their own instincts when they think about what is best for Bosnia.

Sahin Pasic

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

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2. Why the Whistle-blower Has Been Killed in the “Serbian Entity” of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Certainly all of our readers are aware that the police of the Republic of the Serbs (RS) was judged by the International Court of Justice at the Hague to have organized and carried out genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), specifically in the UN safe haven of Srebrenica in July 1995, when, within only a few days, 8,000 captive non-Serb men and boys were executed. Following that massacre and through the subsequent signing of the Dayton agreement, the self proclaimed state "Republic of the Serbs" became a legal "entity" on the ethnically cleansed half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Srebrenica The police of the Republic of the Serbs thus became the organization officially charged with upholding law and order within the RS entity borders, which means that one of its tasks became protecting those surviving non-Serbs who wished to return to their homes. Indeed, in Bosnian newspapers we often read about examples, some very recent, of the RS police either attacking and abusing returnees, or declining to protect them when they are attacked by other parties.

(As an aside, note that both the RS and the Dayton constitution are still not actually legal, because Dayton was never accepted by the parliament of the Republic of BiH, either as an international agreement, or as a new constitution. Dayton was simply implemented against the existing laws of the Republic of BiH, and against the objections of many elected officials.)

BiH is in the early stages of the process of joining the EU, which the vast majority of the people in BiH support. However, Europe certainly cannot allow the RS police to be granted the label of a "European" police force when BiH does join the EU. As described in our previous posts, the EU has therefore set three conditions for police reform which must be carried out before BiH can continue on its integration path, and those conditions leave no room for the survival of the entity police forces, only a single police for all of BiH. Yet it is unclear whether the genocide is even the main reason for such demands from Europe. Namely, the police of the Republic of the Serbs is not only an enforcer of ethnic politics, but it is also corrupt and deeply connected with organized crime. Of this also, the Bosnian media have documented many examples, and the following two are recent.

The first is the story of Radenko Momic, a former RS policeman, and one of the very few sent to prison for corruption. He was sent there for having falsified an accident report so that some friend of his could collect insurance money, of which he is guilty, by own admission. He was caught when a colleague snitched on him. However, from behind bars he revealed, to reporters from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) the shocking extent, and the sophisticated mechanisms of corruption of police in the RS. By his estimation the RS police is "responsible for 70 percent of the criminal activity in the city [of Banja Luka]". He brags that he has become rather wealthy over the years, and that he has started his own company with a large investment of cash from his exploits as a policeman. Punishment for those who get caught, if any, is almost always handled internally, and almost never involves prison time. He says: "Cases are covered up, because policemen protect each other". He describes that one needs to gain the trust of superiors, because the superiors can give more lucrative assignments, such as traffic control. Of course, the superiors expect a share of the money, which he says is thirty percent.

The other news we cite from AFP, (via Southeast European Times):

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) -- A man who accused Republika Srpska officials of corruption died when his car blew up on Wednesday (November 7th). Milan Vukelic, an employee of the town planning authority, accused his boss of taking bribes and the police of threatening him. Police have refused to comment on the accusations, but revealed they had been investigating the bombing of another car owned by the victim and an arson attack on his mother's home. Two people were seriously injured when Vukelic's car exploded on Banja Luka's main street, near the interior ministry building.

end citation.

At the same time, the RS government and parliament are furiously resisting police reform mandated by the three principles, which would give BiH police oversight and control. Milorad Dodik, RS Premier, recently stated that the RS will never give up its police, even at the cost of isolation from the EU. Such insistence by Premier Dodik and other officials in the RS, likely has two reasons. The first, which is stated publicly as if it is something to be proud of, is that they want to preserve the RS as a Serbian entity with all the attributes of statehood, including police, that were given to it in Dayton. That firmly puts Premier Dodik on the same line with war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic who created the RS through ethnic cleansing. (Curious, isn't it, that both are known as war criminals, yet the Republic of the Serbs, the creation of which was the very reason for those crimes, still exists, and is vouched for by all the nations that are signers of the Dayton Agreement.)

The second possible reason for such a firm stand by the RS politicians like Dodik to protect that corrupt police from reform may be precisely that the corruption that Mr. Momic describes goes up to not only his former superiors, but to the superiors of his superiors. The two news stories above, and countless others, indicate that the RS police functions as an organized crime syndicate, with layers of corrupt bosses. We can only speculate how high that corruption goes, but certainly there does not seem to be any effective oversight from the top. Perhaps Dodik does not fear isolation from the EU, because perhaps he will live comfortably as long as he can protect the RS police.

S. P.
NCRBiH

The U.S., Bosnia, and Henry Kissinger's Lie

The U.S., Bosnia, and Henry Kissinger's Lie
By Michael Sells

Mon, 16 Oct 95

On the Charlie Rose Show, Sept 14, 1995, Henry Kissinger argued for what
would be in effect an ethnic-partition and religious apartheid in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Kissinger urged a dividing up the country between
Croatia and Serbia and, in effect, forcing the Muslims (and any Bosnians
who wanted a state not based on "ethnic-cleansing") into a ghetto in the
center. The basis of Kissinger's argument was his claim that "There is no
Bosnian culture."

Ironically, the person who has done most to disprove Kissinger's remark is
none other than Serb General Ratko Mladic, who has spent four years busily
trying to destroy the vast testimony to Bosnian culture.

He burned down the National Library in Sarajevo with three days of shelling
by incendiary grenades--the largest book burning in modern history. Over a
million books and 100,000 manuscripts and rare books were burned, including
much of the ancient South Slavic heritage of Bosnia.

He selected out and shelled the Oriental Institute manuscript collection in
Sarajevo, with its collection of 5000 Bosnian manuscripts in Hebrew,
Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Adzamijski (Bosnian Slavic written in Arabic
script).

He shelled repeatedly and deliberately the National Museum with its
priceless collection of Bosnian art. A few objects, such as the Sarajevo
Haggadah were saved by courageous Bosnians (Croat, Muslim, Serb, and
Jewish) who risked their lives to save as much of their Bosnian cultural
heritage as possible. One of his soldiers even lined up the Bosnian art
collection of a Sarajevan artist (who was Serb) and "executed" them by
drilling them with machine-gun fire.

Mladic's soldiers selected out artists, writers, teachers, and scholars for
particularly brutal tortures and killings in his concentration camps.

Mladic's army joined irregular Serb militias in dynamiting over 600 mosques
, including the masterworks of European architecture and Bosnian heritage:
the Colored Mosque in Foca (built in 1551) and the Ferhadija Mosque in
Banja Luka (1583). Mladic's men also dynamited Catholic
churches throughout the area of occupation.

In places he couldn't occupy, Mladic deliberately shelled hundreds of other
Bosnian architectural treasures . The famous Ghazi Husrev Beg Mosque in
Sarajevo (1531) was repeatedly targeted. In Mostar, Mladic's army shelled
the cathedral in Mostar, the Karadjoz Bey Mosque, entire historical
districts, as well as the regional archives of Herzegovina. The Jewish
graveyard in Sarajevo was dug up and scattered all over by Mladic's troops.
Mladic's troops annihilated, systematically, the ancient
heritage of Trebinje, another city in Herzegovina. These shellings and
demolitions were not the result of collateral damage. The targets were
selected carefully and the areas around them were left unscathed./1/

Why would General Ratko Mladic spend four years destroying a culture that
didn't exist in the first place?

No possible reason. The idea is absurd. Mladic's four years of frantic
destruction was an attempt to destroy something that very much existed and
very much still exists.

Mladic targeted the vibrant, powerful, and beautiful testimonies to Bosnian
culture so that some day, advocates of religious apartheit in Bosnia, such
as Henry Kisssinger, could declare: "there is no
Bosnian culture." People looking at the parking lots where mosques and
churches and art museums and music schools and libraries and manuscript
collections once stood would say: "I guess Kissinger is right."

And if there is no Bosnian culture, why not divide Bosnia, as Kissinger and
General Mladic wish, between Croatia and Serbia, and herd the Muslims into
a central ghetto? (How many non-Christian ghettoes have survived in Europe
since 1096, the first crusade?)

The same Kissinger-type reasoning was used by advocates of apartheid in
South Africa. There was no "African culture", they said, so why not put
Africans on reservations called homelands and have apartheid?

The same approach was used during the extermination of the American Indian
nations. There was no Native American Culture so why not put the American
Indians on reservations or "ethncially cleanse" those who refuse to go to
the reservations?

There is only one problem with Kissinger's statement and his plan. As with
South Africa and the American Indians, so with Bosnia, cultures are hard to
kill.

You can kill people and you can dynamite mosques or desecrate cemeteries.
You can build the concentration camps and killing centers that are now
being exposed before the world at the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
After the people have been "cleansed" (killed or driven into refugee
camps) and their monuments have been destroyed, you can, like Kissinger,
claim these the culture never existed in the first place.

But you cannot kill the spirit of a great culture. Present-day South Africa
is testimony to that. The very survival of the American Indian culture is
testimony to that. And the perseverance and survival
of Bosnians, rooted in their ancient and powerful culture that was made up
of a variety of religions and cultural influences powerfully blended into a
great culture, gives the lie to Kissinger.

All the bombs, shells, concentration camps, rapes, and mass-killings of
General Mladic have only served to do one thing: to put Bosnian culture
into the fire and steel it into purer and more resilient metal /2/.

And at a time when extremists of all sides in the U.S. are demanding
apartheit, separation of races and religions, and religious and racial
wars--at a time when some people are saying "American culture doesn't
exist"-- Bosnian culture survives the overwhelming destructiveness of the
Serb army, the betrayal by Croat extremists, the collaboration with the
genocide by the NATO nations which could have stopped it in 1992, and the
lie by the likes of Henry Kissinger.

Bosnian culture is sending us a message.

In the United States, if we want a society where people of different races,
religion, and backgrounds share a common culture and build a united nation,
then we are Bosnians. If we insist that cultures are not made by "ethnic
cleansing" or apartheid and if we insist that division of people into
ethnic, religious, and racial ghettoes is not a solution, we are Bosnians.
If we insist that people of different races, religions, and background can
work together and build a common culture, then we are
Bosnians.

And if we sit back and allow the authors of genocide like General Mladic
and the apostles of apartheit like Henry Kissinger to triumph in Bosnia, we
will not likely be able to save our own culture /3/.
The end
_________________
1. This piece was originally posted on the internet newsgroup
alt.current-events.bosnia on October 14, 1995.

For information on the war on Bosnian culture, see Andras Riedlmayer,
"Erasing the Past: The Destruction of Libraries and Archives in
Bosnia-Herzegovina MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION BULLETIN, vol. 29 no. 1
(July 1995), pp. 7-11" and "Killing Memory: Bosnia's Cultural Heritage and
its Destruction" VHS videocassette, 41 minutes (Haverford, PA: Community
of Bosnia Foundation, 1994).

Also see Rabia Ali and Lawrence Lifschultz, WHY BOSNIA (Pampleteer's Press,
1993). For a historical overview, see Noel Malcolm, BOSNIA: A SHORT
HISTORY (New York University Press, 1994).

2. For one example of the Bosnian response to destruction, see Sarajevo
Expo 92, an exhibit of seventeen works by major Sarajevan artists created
during the worst period of the shelling of Sarajevo. The exhibit is being
displayed at various places in the U.S. by Aida Musanovic, one of the
artists.

3. This short article is dedicated to the hundreds of Bosnians who have
been killed while risking their lives to save art, manuscripts, and other
testimonies to their cultural heritage.

Russian terrorists with Serbs attacking Bosnia

Russian terrorists with Serbs attacking Bosnia



Russian terrorists in the Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina during the Bosnian war of Independence. Russian government has always supported the Serbian campaign of GENOCIDE in Bosnia. They sent the Serbs military aid, intelligence and there was a large number of Russian "volunteers" in Bosnia who came there to murder non-Serb civilians and help the Serbs establish an ethnically clean occupied Bosnia. Apart from Russians, the Serbs had help from Greek terrorists, Bulgarian terrorists, Armenian terrorists and other Orthodox Christian terrorists from ex-Russian territories.
Because of the campaign of GENOCIDE by the Serbs and their terrorist helpers, Bosnia today is half occupied by the Serbs and a terrorist "quasi-state" called "republic of the serbs" is in existence (one of the entities of the post Dayton Bosnia). This serb state is a direct result of GENOCIDE (as was found by the International Court of Justice and other courts) YET IT IS STILL IN EXISTENCE.

Fight the injustice, abolish the so called "republic of the serbs" that is

keeping half of Bosnia occupied.

-----------

Vlaska ruska govna u Republici Bosni i Hercegovini tokom srpske agresije i

genocida u devedesetim.

Masakar u Derventi, prvi dan okupacije 1992

Massacre in Derventa, first day of the occupation, 1992



Serb acts of GENOCIDE in Derventa (Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina).
Serbs massacred civilians (1992 - first day of serb occupation) and now they are back to check for survivors and to mock the dead civilians.

The so called "republic of the serbs" (half of Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina under serb ocupation) is the direct result of acts like these, acts of GENOCIDE.

-----------

Cetnici pobise civile.
Borite se protiv nepravde i takozvane republike srpske.

Serbs shell civilians in Sarajevo in 1995

Serbs shell civilians in Sarajevo in 1995 .



Many dead and wounded. This was one of hunderds of thousands acts of GENOCIDE serbs committed in order to create the so called "republic of the serbs" on as much of the Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina as they could. TOday they hold half of Bosnia under their occupation where non-serbs are virtually non existant (from being majority before the serb aggression and campaign of GENOCIDE).
The so called "republic of the serbs" must not be allowed to continue it's existance.

Cetnik prepricava

Sokolac, mjesto u istocnoj Bosni. Ljeto 1996.Biljeske iz razgovora s Radomirom M., minobacaclijom srpske vojske u Bosni

Kako je pucati na covjeka?
Lako! K`o na ticu, ribu ili kakvu ovecu zvijer. To ti je slicno lovu. Treba se samo malo naviknuti.
Narocito ovo kako smo ratovali u Sarajevu. Pogotovo mi, minobacaclije. Pravo da ti kazem, to nije bilo nikakvo ratovanje. To ti je potpuno drugaciji osjecaj. Vremenom postane slicno zabavi. Nalazis se na sigurnom, ukopanom polozaju, a dole ispod tebe je grad. Ponekad ga i ne vidis od magle, za hladnih dana cijela se sarajevska kotlina pretvori u sivo jezero.
I, tako, povlacis kanap potpuno nesvjesan da si mozda, ne mozda, vec vrlo vjerovatno, nekog ubio, a sasvim sigurno nesto srusio...
Jednostavno, ne osjecas da si u ratu, da ubijas...
Nije to bas isto k`o kad gledas u oci covjeka na kojeg pucas.

Sjecam se da je, ko god bi nam dolazio u posjetu na polozaje oko Sarajeva-iz Beograda, Rusije i Grcke, pisci, novinari,politicari, pa cak i oni sto su dijelili humanitarnu pomoc-povukao kanap poneki put...
Tako, raspolozenja radi.
- Da li se neko od njih osjecao ubicom?
- Sumnjam!I pak su dole bili pretezno muslimani.
- A oni Srbi koji su se zadesili s njima?
- Pa, sta im ja mogu? Gdje su im bile oci i usi,dje im je bila pamet da vide,da prepoznaju sta se dogadja, kakva se velika gradjevina pocela praviti-nasa, samo nasa, srpska drzava! Cista, bez Turaka, bez dzamija i hodzinskog arlaukanja... Zlo mi je kad se samo sjetim tog odvratnog zvuka sto para usi, ono kad nesto mrmljaju, nesto na arapskom, obracajuci se svom Bogu na dzenazama, tim njihovim sahranama... Vala smo im u ovom ratu pruzili priliku da zazivaju tog njihovog Boga, do mile volje! Kad ih se samo sjetim kako se naguraju u dzamiju u vrijeme nekog njiovog sveca, pa poljube celom zemlju. Kad proviris kroz vrata, samo im guzice vidis.. Ama, muka mi je vec od pomisli da sam s njima zivot proveo!

A znas od cega mi je najveca muka? Od toga sto smo se mi Srbi morali pretvarati da zivimo u ljubavi s njima, sto smo morali izigravat nekakve dobre komsije, glumit... Ma, nijesmo mi glumili, covjece! Vjerovali smo u to, u taj komsiluk!I ja, ovaj, imao sam prijatelja medju njima, volio sam neke od njih vise nego rodjenog brata. Eto, tako ti se taj balija zna pod kozu zavuci!
Ali, eto, hvala Bogu, dosli su ovi nasi mudri ljudi, i u Beogradu i na Palama, i u crkvi, i u vojsci, i u miliciji...Oducili su nas od tog zla na koje smo skoro bili navikli. Nasi su politicari znali kako se narod u tor uceruje, znali su kad treba podviknuti, kad sta obecat, a, bogami, i kad je vrijeme da se sta masno slaze, narocito kad bi ko iz svijeta dos`o da brani naseg neprijatelja. Vojska nam je dala oruzja koliko volis, nikada nijesi mor`o brojat granate i municiju, bilo je i uniformi, i hrane, i cigara, i odradili smo ovaj pos`o.

Posteno, ljudski. Pustili smo krv balijama, rascerali ih, i sad je sve ovo nase. Pogledaj naokolo: dokle ti pogled puca, sve je samo srpsko! Nigdje neces vidjet ni dzamiju, nit ces sresti kakva muslimana. Nema ih vise ovdje. Nema da brines: bice ovdje i fabrika i skola, bice i sud i drzava, bice i reda i zakona, ali samo za nas, Srbe. Za koju godinu vise se niko nece ni sjecat da je ovdje ikad bilo Turaka. Imamo mi svoje ljude od pameti koji ce znat napisat knjige o ovoj zemlji, a da se-ne samo Turcin!-ne spomene ni u jednom slovu, vec da se i rijec Bosna zagubi i sakrije da je vise niko nikad ne pronadje. Kad ti ja ovo ovako pricam, sve ti, mozebit, izgleda lako, ko da smo mi ovu nasu srpsku zemlju i drzavu dobili na tanjiru, bez i da smo se oznojili za nju. Nije bas bilo tako. Branile su se balije i jos uvijek nesto pokusavaju. Srecom, nijesu imali cime na nas pucat. Niko im ne doturi oruzje. I na tome hvala nasim mudrim vodjama, i to je njihova zasluga...

A bilo je i medju nama onih koji nikad nijesu, ovako kao ja, prelomili i rekli sami sebi: dosta! Zaboravi da si ikakvog baliju znao, sret`o se s njim, da ti je, mozda, i drag bio! Prema njima nema milosti i njima jedino s nase strane sleduje metak u celo, ili kama u vratnu zilu.
Takav kolebljivac ti je bio Sinisa, taj za koga me pitas. Jasta radi, znao sam ga, ratovali smo u istoj jedinici, na Sarajevu. On je bio otuda, iz grada. Zavrsio je puno skole i mozda je zato je bio onako mekan. Imao je i rezervni oficirski vojnicki cin, pa ga komanda nikad nije cerala u vatru. Ne bi se mog`o zakleti, ali mislim da on svojom rukom nije smak`o nijednog muslimana. Jos ih je branio kad bismo doveli zarobljenike u zatvor na Kuli. Kad je on bio komandant straze nije dozvoljav`o da se balije degenece, niko nije smio ni pipnut njiove zene, a jos im je i hljeba davo! Kazu da je gore, na Kobiljaci-gdje smo sa Hrvatima posteno bili dogovorili da bude granica i da se ne napadamo medjusobno-Sinisa vise puta pustio autobuse pune muslimana da pobjegnu iz Sarajeva...

Ma, odma sam znao da je on rodjeni dezerter. Trebalo ga je davno ucmekat, ali nijesu ga dali oni iz komande. Jednu mu stvar moras priznat. Te njegove skole sto je izucio, nije to bilo zadzaba. Nije bilo boljeg od njega da isplanira kuda treba kopat rovove i transeje oko Sarajeva. Ne znas sta je bolje poznav`o-teren oko grada ili svoj zanat? Jos u jednome je bio pravi majstor. Znao je bolje od svakog drugog napravit nacrt za one zemunice na Trebevicu. Kako ih je Sinisa dobro pravio! Ma, bilo mi je ljepse u onoj njegovoj zemunici nego u rodjenoj kuci! Sve ukopano u zemlju, samo cijev viri. Balija ti ne moze nista. Sjedis i rokas po gradu. Sve si imao u zemunici: i cigara, i toplu pec, i hrane, a Sinisa je nacrt`o i kako da se struja sprovede. Fino sjedis u toplom i na suhom, morebit gledas televiziju, pijuckas rakiju i samo, s vremena na vrijeme, opalis pokoju granatu dole po balijama. Lijepo im cujes zube kako cvokocu, ne znas samo jel od straha ili od zime. Eto, to su bile Sinisine zasluge zbog kojih mu se medju vojskom gledalo kroz prste i oprastala ta njegova popustljivost prema balijama. Znam ja i zasto je on bio takav. Dok je isao u te svoje skole, a dugo je to trajalo, mora da se puno druzio s njima, navik`o se na njih, a ti gradski Srbi su se, inace, suvise srodili s muslimanima, pa im je bilo tesko da ih prezale, isto kao kakvom pusacu da ostavi duvan. Osim toga, Sinisa je im`o i zenu druge vjere. Pobjegla mu je odmah s pocetka rata, ali ni to ga nije opametilo. Umjesto da shvati da je na jednoj strani Srbin, njegov brat, a da su na drugoj strani svi drugi (pa, makar bila i tvoja rodjena zena!) sami srpski dusmani, on je nastavio po svome. Ako si htio kakvom zarobljenom baliji da prebijes kosti, da ga naceras da progovori, saznas gdje su im polozaji i sta imaju od oruzja, ili da ga izmlatis onako, da olaksas sebi dusu, mor`o si se skrivat od Sinise.

Slagao se on, nije da nije, s nasom srpskom politikom, ali ja mislim da je nije bas razumio do kraja... Im`o je obicaj reci kako mi Srbi treba da stvorimo nasu drzavu, ali da se ne smijemo sluzit zlocinima. Ama,kakvim zlocinima? Kako mores napravit zlocin nad Turcinom? Drugo je kad ubijes Srbina, ali mi smo, slavom ti se kunem, ubijali samo muslimane, a to nikakav zlocin nije. Pokazalo se da mi nijesmo trebali popustat ni prema mekim Srbima. S njima je trebalo isto k`o i prema balijama. Drugog nacina nema.

Bilo je jal druge, jal trece godine, ne sjecam se vise dobro, kad smo ono posli s helikopterima da uzmemo Igman. Tu su nam javili da je Sinisa izdao. Na mjestu gdje su on i njegovi trebali drzat polozaje bila je rupa. Nigdje nikog. Vojska nije znala gdje se treba ukopati, jer nijesu dobili nikakvu naredbu, a komandir jedinice dezertir`o. Uvatili su ga u Zvorniku kad je htio da predje u Srbiju s laznom licnom kartom. Sve je priznao. Rekao je da mu je dosta rata i da je pokusao da pobjegne u Svedsku, da trazi tu njegovu zenu, sokicu. Sudjeno mu je po kratkom postupku. Kako i treba. Pravo da ti kazem, krivo mi je sto nijesam bio u stroju koji ga je strijeljao. Ja mislim da se Sinisi ni za grob ne zna. Bio je izdajnik srpstva i sto bismo ga pamtili? Imamo mi Srbi koga da pamtimo i kome spomen da dizemo...