Well well, what do you know? The “evil” Serbs were exonerated and I’m reading about it on Iranian, Russian and Mexican newspapers. What a “surprise” that no major western European or American paper is covering this.
English here, Spanish here, Serbian here.
Many moons ago I wrote about Serbia’s so-called “genocide” over on the orange site and I got a lot of angry comments. I’ve always been “politically incorrect” in this issue because the illegal invasion of Yugoslavia was a Clinton policy and yet in my mind there is virtually no difference between that war and the 2003 Iraqi invasion. But since “evil Bush” did what he did in 2003 then it’s okay for some on the left to openly criticize it but good old Bill Clinton and his war criminal general Wesley Clark did the Yugoslav one then by all means, let’s defend it.
Anyway, for those of you who are interested, the official ICJ court ruling is here (in English). It basically states that those “evil Serbs” did not commit genocide nor have a policy of committing genocide nor even “conspire” to commit genocide.
Don’t worry, they did find that Serbia failed to prevent genocide in Srebrenica so it’s okay for that particular sop to the west to continue to live on. I wasn’t there in 1995 and I certainly don’t justify or defend acts of war but I will add for the (extremely unpopular) record that I hardly think it was genocide.
Of course quibbling over whether it was genocide or just a whole lot of people getting killed in the middle of a war is drawing a mighty fine distinction. What happened both in Srebrenica as well as throughout all of former Yugoslavia was horrific. There’s no joy in saying “Oh it wasn’t genocide, it was just a few thousand people getting killed, some in armed conflicts, some in inter-faction fighting, some in prison camps and some through malnutrition.”
I had the privilege of visiting Yugoslavia back when it was still a nation and I’ve lived right on Serbia’s border for a while in the post-war era and I’ve known people of all ethnicities from the former Yugoslavia. Absolutely nothing came from this war, nothing whatsoever, except maybe for in Slovenia where they joined the EU and also got a brand-new access to the Istrian coast.
Anyway if you’d like to read my full story on Srebrenica over at the orange site, click here. If you’re fully convinced you know the facts about it and those boil down to “evil Serbs slaughtered 8,000 unarmed men in Srebrenica” then please do me a favor and just keep your comments civil. I already know it’s a sensitive topic and I know my opinion isn’t overly welcome on this subject.
I’m not trying to anger anyone here today, just point out that Serbia finally got a little justice today and it’s being ignored by the MSM so I thought I’d write a brief Diary on it.
Pax
Justice for Serbia will occur when someone Serbian pays for 5000 dead at Srebernica.
Justice for Serbia would involve a very large percentage of the male population of Serbia either being hung for war crimes or being in jail for life for war crimes.
Serbian scumbags (now there’s a redundancy for you) like Radovan Karadjic and Mladic are free, and you talk about justice.
The more Serbian that are hung, the more justice there is.
exhibit so many errors and misstatements that you would be well advised to say nothing more about FRY.
You clearly are not well informed.
I looked at the findings. In point of fact, the findings say that “Serbia” is not guilty of genocide.
It does not exonerate “Serbians” from genocide.
You are a serbian troll.
Actually I’m American. And if you want to stick to the party line, it’s 8000 dead not 5000.
Peace
You should read more carefully. The document is about state responsibility. It says nothing about individual responsibility.
Your lies about the exoneration of the “evil Serbs” are noted. The individual “evil Serbs” are not exonerated, because the trial was about states, not persons.
Do not misconstrue such issues. Without the Serbian people and their insane ideas about greater Serbia and Prince Lazar and the field of crows in 1389 and all the idiotic shit, millions would be alive today.
It was reported in Canada today, and I listened to a lengthy interview this morning about it on the way to work.
Excellent. I am very glad to hear that!
Pax
.
As I understand the ruling, the ‘state’ Serbia was exonerated, however as we have seen at the Nuremberg trials, ‘individuals’ are convicted for genocide. Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic should be brought to justice for their acts in mass killings of civilians.
This is the committee’s second in a series of hearings on United States policy towards Bosnia. The administration has stated in reports as recent as April 30th that Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, with a particular animus towards Americans overseas.
The purpose of our hearing today is to provide the Congress and the American people with the fullest possible understanding of how and why the administration permitted Iran to establish a pipeline of arms to Bosnia in early 1994. The administration took this position without informing the Congress, the American people or our allies. The administration’s action circumvented an international arms embargo that it was pledged to uphold. It also enabled Iran to establish a substantial beachhead in the Balkans.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Well I might be wrong but that’s kind of what the point of genocide is, right? I mean it’s an organized political movement to exterminate an ethnicity.
It’s sort of like the difference between a serial killer and Dick Cheney. The serial killer is a person doing evil, horrific acts but Dick Cheney is using an organized political structure in the furtherance of evil, horrific acts. One is a murderer, the other is committing crimes against humanity.
In other words, they’re both horrible and I’m hardly defending either. But my point is that the government of Yugoslavia or of Serbia or of RS never had a program or policy of genocide. Individuals committed evil acts but it was never in the furtherance of government policy or directives.
Anyway, I won’t extend this out any further. I just wanted to point out the news. I thank all of you for your comments.
Pax
is either deeply disingenous or actively trollish.
We have a situation in which thousands and thousands and thousands were killed, due to a war initiated by Serbia and Milosevich, propaged by Mladic, and partly handled by Karadcjic.
You come to us and say that you are not a Serb but that Serbia is not at fault. Yet the actors who started this horror were all Serbs. Yes, I know that Croats were involved, and others as well, including Albanians and many other ethnic players.
Milosevich and the Serbs started it. Serbs were centrally involved in the atrocities and Srebernica was a Serbian slaughter.
Why is anyone defending mass murderers? Why are you celebrating the acquittal of mass murderers?
You are a sick puppy, jack.
Well I might be wrong but that’s kind of what the point of genocide is, right? I mean it’s an organized political movement to exterminate an ethnicity.
The definition is substantially broader than that:
From here.
In sum, an illegal war is an illegal war and the Bush gangsters have a point when they compare their precious adventure in Iraq to Clinton’s imperial intervention in Yugoslavia.
What a pile of crap.
This was a NATO exercize, bozo. Clinton, as a NATO member, committed US forces to advance NATO objectives.
And the Serbian people were fully culpable in the crimes of Milosevic, Mladic, Karadjic and the other war criminals.
My only regret is that the entire Serbian people were not tried for their crimes.
Serbs like you would have been found guilty and hung.
(1) NATO is a military alliance and has no special status under international law. It has no more right to decide to conduct a military intervention than does the “coalition of the willing.”
(2) Your notion that the Serbian people- or any people- are “fully culpable” for the alleged crimes of their leadership is nonsense. That is a principle that you pulled out of your ass rather than from international law.
(3) I am not a Serb. However, as a person of Jewish heritage, I pay homage to the astonishing resistance that the Serbs offered to Hitler.
(4) I think you want me to be “hanged” not hung. Hung is something completely different.