Tuesday 26 April 2011
The Washington Times
It is tragic that many Croatians and Croatian-Americans such as Jeffrey Kuhner seem unable to understand that the Serbs had and still have legitimate grievances against a Croatian state that has glorified and resurrected the symbolism and rhetoric of a shameful Nazi-puppet and genocidal past (“The coming Balkan war,” Commentary, Wednesday).
The recent Hague Tribunal finding of Croatian generals guilty of war crimes during Operation Storm - the largest single act of ethnic cleansing during the recent civil wars in Yugoslavia - is a step in the right direction to bring all those who committed war crimes against innocent civilians, regardless of ethnicity, to justice. I’m only sorry that more of the guilty weren’t prosecuted for crimes ranging from bombing fleeing columns of refugees, raping and slaughtering elderly grandmothers, beating up Orthodox Christian nuns and trying to hide the grisly evidence after wiping out entire villages with the approval, aid and encouragement of Franjo Tudjman’s government.
The greatest unresolved problem in the Balkans pertains to the largely unreported and uncompensated genocide of Serbian Orthodox Christians, Jews and Roma in Croatia during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of innocents were slaughtered, ethnically cleansed from a “Greater Croatia” - which absorbed all of Bosnia and a large swath of Serbia - and forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism. Today’s Croatia differs little from the Croatia of that time in its hatred of anything Serbian since the country was never properly de-Nazi-fied. Croatia will never be considered a modern nation until its leaders come to terms with the past and accept what happened to Serbs both during World War II and recent wars, and make amends.
If Croatia is unable to accept responsibility for crimes committed by its citizens, Mr. Kuhner may be correct in asserting that there will be a far more vicious war between Croatia and Serbia.
MICHAEL PRAVICA
Henderson, Nev.
KUHNER: The coming Balkan war:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/19/the-coming-balkan-war/?page=1
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Balkan anniversary
"La Vanguardia" , Spain - July 11, 2010
"Aniversario balc? Nico"
Translated from Spanish to Russian and then into English;
Does not help the tens of thousands killed in the war in Yugoslavia, but there are few among the more disgusting things to a journalist than a falsification, and a dual approach in the information business, when it comes to horrific crimes. The procedure for the old and famous: ignore one another and emphasize the massacre. Thus, the massacre in Srebrenica was, and still remembered by, as "the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War." In reality - a scam, through humanitarian war to which Euro Atlantis pointed to a new continental order.
Legend has it that Srebrenica was a peaceful, demilitarized town under UN control, in which Serbs massacred 8,000 men, when captured the city in July 1995. There is no doubt that in July 1995, there were many deaths in the area of Srebrenica. The bulk of them occurred when a large military contingent of Bosnian Muslims, armed civilians and their families fled the city and were mercilessly attacked by a deadly ambush by Bosnian Serb forces, who also used the penalty.
It cited as examples of "Serbian genocide" for the sole reason that the West's interest to emphasize the guilt of the Serbs, the West's enemies in the Balkan wars. For the same reason, two other mass killings, in which Serbs were as victims, both before and after the events in Srebrenica did not recognize and celebrate today as "the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War."
Ignore a massacre, to notice another
Between 1992 and 1995, before the so-called "Srebrenica", dozens of Serb villages in Srebrenica - Bratunac were destroyed by Bosnian Muslim fighters. In the region of 3,300 Serbs were killed between 1992 and 1995, of which only 880 were soldiers, the rest civilians, according to research conducted Milivoem Ivanisevic. Another author, Alexander Dorin, mentions in his book (History Srebrenitsa. socially acceptable racism, 2010) 41 villages and 1,300 Serbs were killed during the period from April 1992 to April 1993 in the Srebrenica area. Zoran Stankovic, the Serbian coroner and his team found more than a thousand corpses of Serbs in the same area until July 1995.
Throughout that era, "demilitarized" city is a base for insurgency operations Muslim Naser Oric, whose groups and realized the job: the mass killings of Serbs in the vicinity of the city and settling of accounts within it, as explained numerous sources, including the mayor of Muslim Ibrahim Mustafic in the popular book "Plan of chaos", a publication which has made him the object of an assassination attempt in 2008. French General Philippe Morillon, the chief of UN forces in Bosnia in 1992-1993, Naser Oric called "war criminal who did not take prisoners." His colleague, Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie, the head of the UN force, said: "Everything indicates that Naser Oric had killed as many Serbs around Srebrenica, the Bosnian Serbs have been killed after". The media prefer not to talk too much about these facts.
Also unnoticed massacre of Serbs, immediately after the events in Srebrenica, a so-called "Operation Storm" against Croat Krajina in August 1995 that led to the exodus of 200,000 Serb refugees and the death of more than 10,000 Serbian civilians.
The legal arm Pentagon
In the case of Srebrenica Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was never interested in the testimony Stankovic, Ibra Muslim Mustafic, Canadian Mackenzie, as well as in any information that goes beyond a prepared script of events - a phenomenon that is considered a Bulgarian journalist living in the Netherlands, Germinal Sivikovym (Germinal Civikov) in his book "Srebrenica. The main witness »(Srebrenica. Der Kronzeuge), 2009. In general, this tribunal fattened Serbian facts because he was not created by an instrument of justice and the judicial arm of NATO to justify their goals, one of which was, according to Edward S. Herman, "to focus, to demonize, isolate and condemn the Serbs who been the target of NATO. "
Juergen Elseser (Kriegslügen, Der Nato-Angriff auf Jugoslawien, 2008), Alexander Dorin, Edward S. Herman and others emphasize that the leaders of the Bosnian Muslims have already cried "genocide!" before the Serbs captured the town. It was necessary to shake up public opinion to the horrors of the Yugoslav wars with clearly linked to the past and with a menu of Western interests is very simply and effectively pointed to the "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of the Serbs. Excitement around the events in Srebrenica was used for this purpose.
The same thing happened in the explosion on the Sarajevo market on Aug. 28, 1995 on the eve of the NATO summit, an event which decided the issue of bombing the Serbs. It is unclear who was the author of the explosion, the Serbs there, as asserted by the media, whether Muslims, which pointed to many Western observers and NATO security forces, as alleged by Moscow's Russian military intelligence sources, but after that, "genocide" and the slaughter of even the German Greens that ought to be sent the German army in Yugoslavia, to "prevent a new Auschwitz" ...
Manipulation was repeated in the Kosovar campaign. Serbia, which, even in the disbanded Yugoslavia was the most multi-ethnic part of the former federation, had as a program of "ethnic cleansing", said then. Milosevic's famous speech at Kosovo Field, June 28, 1989 again and again presented as an example of Serbian exclusive legions of unqualified journalists who do not even bother to read it (see: http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/bbc_milosevic.htm). It was in Kosovo, where the European media have demonstrated the ability to follow the martial music that many previously considered the prerogative of the United States.
"Within 79 days of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, I can not remember more than 5 or 6 questions of journalists, who even remotely doubted would be in the rubbish, thrown into the box Jamie Shea (NATO Spokesman), George Robertson, and, moreover, Javier Solana," - wrote the ill-fated Edward Said (Al-Ahram Weekly, 24-30 June 1999). Said about 500,000 dead Albanians. In total, counted about 5-7 thousand dead and missing on both sides, including victims of NATO bombing, and no organization and no media has not apologized. In summer 1999, several weeks of occupation of Kosovo by NATO forces, 230,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma and Albanians - "collaborators" were expelled from Kosovo, while in the region, there were 46,000 NATO soldiers, that is, one soldier for every four exiles .
Unemployed NATO
In Europe in the early nineties there were two "strategic" problem: what to do with the territories, remaining after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and the continent, and what to do with NATO, the instrument under the authority of Europe, the United States in the security field. Disappeared "communism", and for NATO's existence did not have any excuses. Violence in the Balkans was the ideal solution.
After reunification in 1990, and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Germany has decided that its interests in Europe to separation of Slovenia and Croatia. The last time Berlin directed at those edges of its army, the Nazis were supported by Bosnian Muslims and Croats - Catholics who have killed a million Serbs in the Balkan Holocaust. It was clear that under any scenario, the breakup of Yugoslavia would be crazy to ask for the Serb minority in Croatia and Bosnia, that they lost their memory, and agreed with the board their former oppressors - pro-Nazi Croats and Muslims, but Germany, the United States and Britain have counted on it .
The European Union should continue to link with the United States, said at the time Washington strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, pulling back as far as possible, "the inevitable economic and technological competition with the United States, which is able to form a" geopolitical interests in the Middle East and other regions of the world that could differ significantly from the (interests - prim.perev.) United States. "
"U.S. involvement in NATO peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia (" the only European region, in which there is no guarantee either peace or stability "), you need to keep the leadership in Washington in the Atlantic Union," - explained Ivo H. Daalder, coordinator of policy with regard to Bosnia and a member of the National Security Council in the first Clinton administration.
Ex-socialist countries of Eastern Europe were invited to join NATO as a sort of waiting room for membership in the European Union. In addition, Russia, with spectacles on his political regime, "defending democracy", with a tank firing at the Parliament, fascinating privatization and the Chechen war, worked hard to give these countries more than enough arguments for seeking asylum. Adding it to the bitter experience of half a century of Soviet domination, these images are aggravated by the fear - such as long as reasonable - to such an extent that did not need to bother much to convince eastern countries to flee to take place in the queue for admission to NATO.
Serbia, as the continental anomaly
Violence in the Balkans has a variety of sources and motives, but one of them in Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic absented several "anomalies" that turned the country into an ideal candidate, which can be regarded as the sole source of all evil.
Like other countries of Eastern Europe, the Yugoslav regime was born with the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, but, unlike others, his victory in the war, little dependent on foreign liberators, the question, so to say, 'national'. To protect its national sovereignty, the Yugoslavs had to face after the war with the Russian, who became great enemies of the Belgrade than the Western powers.
Another difference is that if citizens of other countries in Central / Eastern Europe between the two world wars was a "good times", in Yugoslavia the good times were associated with the time of Tito as a national point of view (the pride of the society that has been redesigned and improved alone), and with the material, because then almost all lived better than in the past. Meanwhile, like Eastern Europe in the sixties and seventies, is going through an era of "satellitizma" USSR, Yugoslavia was one of the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, it invented its own socio-economic recipes, etc. etc.
We must remember about all this, to understand how little of what happened in Eastern Europe since the end of Soviet tutelage, can be transferred to the Serbs. In Serbia, as well as in Russia, there were no glitches or crashes of political regimes in Eastern Europe. Serbia continues to claim the title and the characters still one, "Titov" of Yugoslavia and their leaders have won elections, posing as Serbian nationalists and the heirs of "Titov" nostalgia for socialism. Dead "communism", and national traditions preserved in the Belgrade system, anomalous in terms of the new European order.
While the rest of Europe ex-communist countries are ranked at the tail of the queue in the European Union and NATO, including in their programs and discourses in Belgrade changed little understanding of sovereignty. With all this Yugoslavia, Milosevic reduced, remained a "socialist state", and in this sense we must understand the words of former Justice Minister and dissident American Ramsey Clark, "we destroyed Yugoslavia because it was the last island of socialism in Europe" . The horrific violence in the Balkans and falsification can not be explained by these concepts, as inexplicable and concealment of these facts.
"Aniversario balc? Nico"
Translated from Spanish to Russian and then into English;
Does not help the tens of thousands killed in the war in Yugoslavia, but there are few among the more disgusting things to a journalist than a falsification, and a dual approach in the information business, when it comes to horrific crimes. The procedure for the old and famous: ignore one another and emphasize the massacre. Thus, the massacre in Srebrenica was, and still remembered by, as "the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War." In reality - a scam, through humanitarian war to which Euro Atlantis pointed to a new continental order.
Legend has it that Srebrenica was a peaceful, demilitarized town under UN control, in which Serbs massacred 8,000 men, when captured the city in July 1995. There is no doubt that in July 1995, there were many deaths in the area of Srebrenica. The bulk of them occurred when a large military contingent of Bosnian Muslims, armed civilians and their families fled the city and were mercilessly attacked by a deadly ambush by Bosnian Serb forces, who also used the penalty.
It cited as examples of "Serbian genocide" for the sole reason that the West's interest to emphasize the guilt of the Serbs, the West's enemies in the Balkan wars. For the same reason, two other mass killings, in which Serbs were as victims, both before and after the events in Srebrenica did not recognize and celebrate today as "the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War."
Ignore a massacre, to notice another
Between 1992 and 1995, before the so-called "Srebrenica", dozens of Serb villages in Srebrenica - Bratunac were destroyed by Bosnian Muslim fighters. In the region of 3,300 Serbs were killed between 1992 and 1995, of which only 880 were soldiers, the rest civilians, according to research conducted Milivoem Ivanisevic. Another author, Alexander Dorin, mentions in his book (History Srebrenitsa. socially acceptable racism, 2010) 41 villages and 1,300 Serbs were killed during the period from April 1992 to April 1993 in the Srebrenica area. Zoran Stankovic, the Serbian coroner and his team found more than a thousand corpses of Serbs in the same area until July 1995.
Throughout that era, "demilitarized" city is a base for insurgency operations Muslim Naser Oric, whose groups and realized the job: the mass killings of Serbs in the vicinity of the city and settling of accounts within it, as explained numerous sources, including the mayor of Muslim Ibrahim Mustafic in the popular book "Plan of chaos", a publication which has made him the object of an assassination attempt in 2008. French General Philippe Morillon, the chief of UN forces in Bosnia in 1992-1993, Naser Oric called "war criminal who did not take prisoners." His colleague, Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie, the head of the UN force, said: "Everything indicates that Naser Oric had killed as many Serbs around Srebrenica, the Bosnian Serbs have been killed after". The media prefer not to talk too much about these facts.
Also unnoticed massacre of Serbs, immediately after the events in Srebrenica, a so-called "Operation Storm" against Croat Krajina in August 1995 that led to the exodus of 200,000 Serb refugees and the death of more than 10,000 Serbian civilians.
The legal arm Pentagon
In the case of Srebrenica Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was never interested in the testimony Stankovic, Ibra Muslim Mustafic, Canadian Mackenzie, as well as in any information that goes beyond a prepared script of events - a phenomenon that is considered a Bulgarian journalist living in the Netherlands, Germinal Sivikovym (Germinal Civikov) in his book "Srebrenica. The main witness »(Srebrenica. Der Kronzeuge), 2009. In general, this tribunal fattened Serbian facts because he was not created by an instrument of justice and the judicial arm of NATO to justify their goals, one of which was, according to Edward S. Herman, "to focus, to demonize, isolate and condemn the Serbs who been the target of NATO. "
Juergen Elseser (Kriegslügen, Der Nato-Angriff auf Jugoslawien, 2008), Alexander Dorin, Edward S. Herman and others emphasize that the leaders of the Bosnian Muslims have already cried "genocide!" before the Serbs captured the town. It was necessary to shake up public opinion to the horrors of the Yugoslav wars with clearly linked to the past and with a menu of Western interests is very simply and effectively pointed to the "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of the Serbs. Excitement around the events in Srebrenica was used for this purpose.
The same thing happened in the explosion on the Sarajevo market on Aug. 28, 1995 on the eve of the NATO summit, an event which decided the issue of bombing the Serbs. It is unclear who was the author of the explosion, the Serbs there, as asserted by the media, whether Muslims, which pointed to many Western observers and NATO security forces, as alleged by Moscow's Russian military intelligence sources, but after that, "genocide" and the slaughter of even the German Greens that ought to be sent the German army in Yugoslavia, to "prevent a new Auschwitz" ...
Manipulation was repeated in the Kosovar campaign. Serbia, which, even in the disbanded Yugoslavia was the most multi-ethnic part of the former federation, had as a program of "ethnic cleansing", said then. Milosevic's famous speech at Kosovo Field, June 28, 1989 again and again presented as an example of Serbian exclusive legions of unqualified journalists who do not even bother to read it (see: http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/bbc_milosevic.htm). It was in Kosovo, where the European media have demonstrated the ability to follow the martial music that many previously considered the prerogative of the United States.
"Within 79 days of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, I can not remember more than 5 or 6 questions of journalists, who even remotely doubted would be in the rubbish, thrown into the box Jamie Shea (NATO Spokesman), George Robertson, and, moreover, Javier Solana," - wrote the ill-fated Edward Said (Al-Ahram Weekly, 24-30 June 1999). Said about 500,000 dead Albanians. In total, counted about 5-7 thousand dead and missing on both sides, including victims of NATO bombing, and no organization and no media has not apologized. In summer 1999, several weeks of occupation of Kosovo by NATO forces, 230,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma and Albanians - "collaborators" were expelled from Kosovo, while in the region, there were 46,000 NATO soldiers, that is, one soldier for every four exiles .
Unemployed NATO
In Europe in the early nineties there were two "strategic" problem: what to do with the territories, remaining after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and the continent, and what to do with NATO, the instrument under the authority of Europe, the United States in the security field. Disappeared "communism", and for NATO's existence did not have any excuses. Violence in the Balkans was the ideal solution.
After reunification in 1990, and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Germany has decided that its interests in Europe to separation of Slovenia and Croatia. The last time Berlin directed at those edges of its army, the Nazis were supported by Bosnian Muslims and Croats - Catholics who have killed a million Serbs in the Balkan Holocaust. It was clear that under any scenario, the breakup of Yugoslavia would be crazy to ask for the Serb minority in Croatia and Bosnia, that they lost their memory, and agreed with the board their former oppressors - pro-Nazi Croats and Muslims, but Germany, the United States and Britain have counted on it .
The European Union should continue to link with the United States, said at the time Washington strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, pulling back as far as possible, "the inevitable economic and technological competition with the United States, which is able to form a" geopolitical interests in the Middle East and other regions of the world that could differ significantly from the (interests - prim.perev.) United States. "
"U.S. involvement in NATO peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia (" the only European region, in which there is no guarantee either peace or stability "), you need to keep the leadership in Washington in the Atlantic Union," - explained Ivo H. Daalder, coordinator of policy with regard to Bosnia and a member of the National Security Council in the first Clinton administration.
Ex-socialist countries of Eastern Europe were invited to join NATO as a sort of waiting room for membership in the European Union. In addition, Russia, with spectacles on his political regime, "defending democracy", with a tank firing at the Parliament, fascinating privatization and the Chechen war, worked hard to give these countries more than enough arguments for seeking asylum. Adding it to the bitter experience of half a century of Soviet domination, these images are aggravated by the fear - such as long as reasonable - to such an extent that did not need to bother much to convince eastern countries to flee to take place in the queue for admission to NATO.
Serbia, as the continental anomaly
Violence in the Balkans has a variety of sources and motives, but one of them in Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic absented several "anomalies" that turned the country into an ideal candidate, which can be regarded as the sole source of all evil.
Like other countries of Eastern Europe, the Yugoslav regime was born with the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, but, unlike others, his victory in the war, little dependent on foreign liberators, the question, so to say, 'national'. To protect its national sovereignty, the Yugoslavs had to face after the war with the Russian, who became great enemies of the Belgrade than the Western powers.
Another difference is that if citizens of other countries in Central / Eastern Europe between the two world wars was a "good times", in Yugoslavia the good times were associated with the time of Tito as a national point of view (the pride of the society that has been redesigned and improved alone), and with the material, because then almost all lived better than in the past. Meanwhile, like Eastern Europe in the sixties and seventies, is going through an era of "satellitizma" USSR, Yugoslavia was one of the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, it invented its own socio-economic recipes, etc. etc.
We must remember about all this, to understand how little of what happened in Eastern Europe since the end of Soviet tutelage, can be transferred to the Serbs. In Serbia, as well as in Russia, there were no glitches or crashes of political regimes in Eastern Europe. Serbia continues to claim the title and the characters still one, "Titov" of Yugoslavia and their leaders have won elections, posing as Serbian nationalists and the heirs of "Titov" nostalgia for socialism. Dead "communism", and national traditions preserved in the Belgrade system, anomalous in terms of the new European order.
While the rest of Europe ex-communist countries are ranked at the tail of the queue in the European Union and NATO, including in their programs and discourses in Belgrade changed little understanding of sovereignty. With all this Yugoslavia, Milosevic reduced, remained a "socialist state", and in this sense we must understand the words of former Justice Minister and dissident American Ramsey Clark, "we destroyed Yugoslavia because it was the last island of socialism in Europe" . The horrific violence in the Balkans and falsification can not be explained by these concepts, as inexplicable and concealment of these facts.
Monday, April 11, 2011
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: DUTCHBAT COMMANDER SAW NO EXECUTIONS IN SREBRENICA
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MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: DUTCHBAT COMMANDER SAW NO EXECUTIONS IN SREBRENICA
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ^ | November 13, 2003 | Andy Wilcoxson
Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 7:58:09 PM by joan
Merced Kucanin finished his testimony today at the Hague Tribunal. As you remember from yesterday Kucanin was a Sarajevo police officer who testified about shelling and sniping in Sarajevo.
He testified today about a certain Milo Vaselovic who had been shot by a sniper in Sarajevo. Vaselovic was a Serb, and Kucanin testified that he had been shot by Vojislav Seselj. He didn’t do any ballistic analysis on the corpse or anything like that but he saw Seselj on Television that night and so he concluded that Seselj must have been the gunman…impeccable logic indeed.
Kucanin also retracted his previous assertion that he didn’t know if civilians could leave Sarajevo or not. Today he confirmed that civilians were not allowed to leave the city. He said that there was only one way out and that a pass, issued by the B-H Interior Ministry, was required in order to leave the city. He also confirmed that very few people actually received this pass. But he only admitted that people couldn’t leave the city when confronted with the fact that his witness statement said that people couldn’t leave.
Kucanin, when asked by President Milosevic, also confirmed that the first victims of the war in Sarajevo were the members of a Serb wedding party who were fired on and killed while en route to the Orthodox Church in Sarajevo.
The next witness to testify was Col. Robert Franken. Franken was a DutchBat Major, and he was the deputy UNPROFOR commander in Srebrenica in July of 1995.
First of all I should say that Col. Franken said quite unequivocally that he saw no evidence which would indicate that there was any political or military cooperation between Belgrade and the VRS units that came into Srebrenica when the enclave fell. The Dutch Government conducted an exhaustive investigation into the alleged events at Srebrenica and drew the conclusion in point 10 of their report that Belgrade had nothing to do with any of the events in Srebrenica.
This evidence exonerates Slobodan Milosevic personally, but since the Serbs are on trial as a group at the Hague and President Milosevic is their foremost defender. President Milosevic is none the less endeavoring to prove the truth about what happened at Srebrenica even though it is totally outside the realm of possibility that he could in any way be connected to the events there.
According to Col. Franken Srebrenica was supposed to be demilitarized. However Franken said that the Muslims did not demilitarize, in fact he says the Muslims even received weapons at the airport and UNPROFOR was unable to stop them.
Col. Franken confirmed that the Muslims had a whole division of troops stationed in Srebrenica. He testified that the 8th Operation Group was there, and that it later became known as the 28th Infantry Division. The 28th Infantry Division consisted of the 280th Brigade, the 281st Brigade, the 282nd Brigade, the 283rd Brigade, the 284th Brigade, a Mountain battalion, 9 sabotage groups and a reserve police force. At a given time the 28th Division had over 4,000 men under arms, and Franken confirmed that every man in Srebrenica was at the disposal of the 28th Division. There was also a special unit that Srebrenica’s notorious Muslim war-lord Nasir Oric had at his own personal disposal. The 28th Infantry Division, according to Franken, was a poorly trained and poorly disciplined group.
Col. Franken testified that there was heavy fighting around Srebrenica. He testified that thousands of members of the 28th Infantry Division tried to break-out of the enclave across Serbian territory towards Tuzla, and that they took massive casualties in the process.
Franken also testified that there was internal Muslim fighting among the members of the 28th Infantry Division in Srebrenica and that casualties were inflicted by the Muslims on each other over the course of that fighting.
Franken also confirmed that Muslim soldiers attempted to attack the eastern flank of the VRS near Srebrenica and that they took heavy casualties during that offensive.
President Milosevic asked the obvious question. He asked if the members of the 28th Infantry Division who died during combat operations were being counted as the victims of the alleged “massacre” at Srebrenica. Col. Franken didn’t know.
An important point to observe here is that Col. Franken testified that none of the UN soldiers who were in Srebrenica at the critical time saw any executions taking place. In fact the only casualties they saw were of people who had been killed in the fighting. Again, none of the DutchBat personnel who composed the UNPROFOR battalion in Srebrenica saw any executions or mass-killings taking place there.
Col. Franken also testified that before the break-out operation that the Muslim Soldiers in Srebrenica would launch attacks out of the enclave onto the surrounding Serbian villages. To bear this out President Milosevic cited examples such as the time when Visnica was attacked by Muslim troops from Srebrenica and many Serbs were killed, and he cited the example when Muslim soldiers attacked and killed a group of Serbian woodcutters who were just cutting down trees in a forested area near Srebrenica, and of course there are many more examples.
Col. Franken testified that the only ones to kill a UNPROFOR soldier in Srebrenica were the Muslims. The VRS did not kill a single UNPROFOR soldier.
Col. Franken testified that the Muslims in Srebrenica would position themselves near UNPROFOR observation posts and then open fire on the Serbs in order to make the Serbs think that UNPROFOR was firing on them, with the ultimate objective being for the Serbs to retaliate and shoot at the UNPROFOR observation post.
Col. Franken recounted one occasion when Muslim soldiers in Srebrenica stole some UNPROFOR uniforms, disguised themselves as UNPROFOR members, approached a UN observation post and opened fire on the real UNPROFOR personnel who were there.
Lt. Col. Ton Karremans was Col. Franken’s commanding officer and President Milosevic read from a briefing paper that Karremans provided to Franken. Karremans negotiated the evacuation of the civilian population from Srebrenica with Ratko Mladic. It should also be noted here that it was Akashi’s idea that Srebrenica should be evacuated.
From the briefing paper we can see that Mladic wanted the evacuation of Srebrenica to be voluntary. Mladic explained that the refugees could stay because he didn’t have any problems with civilians since they were not to blame for anything.
It was Mladic’s position that the wounded, the elderly, and the women and children should be evacuated first. Mladic also wanted the Red Cross to escort the refugees, according to the briefing paper.
Mladic wanted the men to be questioned before being allowed to leave, and indeed men were questioned at a place near Potocari called the “white house,” an UNMO (UN Military Observer) was stationed at that location and saw as many men leaving the white house as he saw going in.
President Milosevic’s cross-examination was cut short because of time restrictions imposed by the so-called “court.” Col. Franken was what the so-called “tribunal” calls a “92-bis witness”. This means that a summary of his testimony is read out by the prosecutor, followed by a very brief examination-in-chief. President Milosevic then only has 1 hour for cross-examination. This practice frequently means that President Milosevic is unable to fully cross-examine important witnesses and that was again the case today.
After President Milosevic’s cross-examination, the Amicus Curiae Mr. Tapuskovic was able to cross-examine Col. Franken for approximately 15 minutes.
Col. Franken told Mr. Tapuskovic that the Muslim forces inside of Srebrenica were essentially using UNPROFOR as a cover for carrying out prohibited military activities. In other words they were abusing the safe area.
Mr. Tapuskovic then embarked on an interesting line of questioning that I feel needs to be explored much further.
One of Col. Franken’s subordinates named Van Duyn had testified at another trial, I believe Tapuskovic said that it was at Obrenovic’s trial, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to go back and look at the tape when it is available.
Apparently, this Van Duyn testified in that trial that the UNPROFOR battalion in Srebrenica had been ordered to fire on Serbian artillery positions that were just minding their own business on the mountain tops some 10 to 15 kilometers away from the enclave.
The objective was apparently to induce the Serbs to attack the enclave itself and thereby provide a justification for NATO air strikes. Or could the objective have been to suck the Serbs into the enclave so that they could be accused of perpetrating a massacre there later on?
Unfortunately, Mr. Nice intervened, questioning the relevance, and Tapuskovic’s cross-examination was abruptly ended.
After Col. Franken was finished with his testimony a secret witness called “B-1524” was called to testify. B-1524 was allegedly a Serb from Zvornik that the SDA had recruited to spy on the SDS. B-1524 was also allegedly taken prisoner by Arkan.
B-1524’s cross-examination will take place next Tuesday.
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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; bosnia; colrobertfranken; dutchbat; milosevic; sarajevo; srebrenica
1 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 7:58:11 PM by joan
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To: Seselj
He testified today about a certain Milo Vaselovic who had been shot by a sniper in Sarajevo. Vaselovic was a Serb, and Kucanin testified that he had been shot by Vojislav Seselj. He didn’t do any ballistic analysis on the corpse or anything like that but he saw Seselj on Television that night and so he concluded that Seselj must have been the gunman…impeccable logic indeed.
2 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:00:57 PM by joan
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: joan
Bill & Hillary's wag-the-dog war. And Wesley Clark wants to be President?!!! And Madeline No-Bright is touting some book. They're all monsters.
3 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:07:08 PM by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Saundra Duffy
Funny how so few people are paying attention to Milosevic's trial - even though many Milosevic haters sounded as if they were salivating with anticipation to watch it. I guess they expected him to go down in flames and for the trial to prove their closeminded propagandistic induced version of the truth.
They were clearly stating how much they'd enjoy the trial, yet they aren't even commenting on it these days. And those Freepers are still posting on FR all the time, but on different topics.
4 posted on Friday, November 14, 2003 8:03:12 PM by joan
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MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: DUTCHBAT COMMANDER SAW NO EXECUTIONS IN SREBRENICA
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ^ | November 13, 2003 | Andy Wilcoxson
Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 7:58:09 PM by joan
Merced Kucanin finished his testimony today at the Hague Tribunal. As you remember from yesterday Kucanin was a Sarajevo police officer who testified about shelling and sniping in Sarajevo.
He testified today about a certain Milo Vaselovic who had been shot by a sniper in Sarajevo. Vaselovic was a Serb, and Kucanin testified that he had been shot by Vojislav Seselj. He didn’t do any ballistic analysis on the corpse or anything like that but he saw Seselj on Television that night and so he concluded that Seselj must have been the gunman…impeccable logic indeed.
Kucanin also retracted his previous assertion that he didn’t know if civilians could leave Sarajevo or not. Today he confirmed that civilians were not allowed to leave the city. He said that there was only one way out and that a pass, issued by the B-H Interior Ministry, was required in order to leave the city. He also confirmed that very few people actually received this pass. But he only admitted that people couldn’t leave the city when confronted with the fact that his witness statement said that people couldn’t leave.
Kucanin, when asked by President Milosevic, also confirmed that the first victims of the war in Sarajevo were the members of a Serb wedding party who were fired on and killed while en route to the Orthodox Church in Sarajevo.
The next witness to testify was Col. Robert Franken. Franken was a DutchBat Major, and he was the deputy UNPROFOR commander in Srebrenica in July of 1995.
First of all I should say that Col. Franken said quite unequivocally that he saw no evidence which would indicate that there was any political or military cooperation between Belgrade and the VRS units that came into Srebrenica when the enclave fell. The Dutch Government conducted an exhaustive investigation into the alleged events at Srebrenica and drew the conclusion in point 10 of their report that Belgrade had nothing to do with any of the events in Srebrenica.
This evidence exonerates Slobodan Milosevic personally, but since the Serbs are on trial as a group at the Hague and President Milosevic is their foremost defender. President Milosevic is none the less endeavoring to prove the truth about what happened at Srebrenica even though it is totally outside the realm of possibility that he could in any way be connected to the events there.
According to Col. Franken Srebrenica was supposed to be demilitarized. However Franken said that the Muslims did not demilitarize, in fact he says the Muslims even received weapons at the airport and UNPROFOR was unable to stop them.
Col. Franken confirmed that the Muslims had a whole division of troops stationed in Srebrenica. He testified that the 8th Operation Group was there, and that it later became known as the 28th Infantry Division. The 28th Infantry Division consisted of the 280th Brigade, the 281st Brigade, the 282nd Brigade, the 283rd Brigade, the 284th Brigade, a Mountain battalion, 9 sabotage groups and a reserve police force. At a given time the 28th Division had over 4,000 men under arms, and Franken confirmed that every man in Srebrenica was at the disposal of the 28th Division. There was also a special unit that Srebrenica’s notorious Muslim war-lord Nasir Oric had at his own personal disposal. The 28th Infantry Division, according to Franken, was a poorly trained and poorly disciplined group.
Col. Franken testified that there was heavy fighting around Srebrenica. He testified that thousands of members of the 28th Infantry Division tried to break-out of the enclave across Serbian territory towards Tuzla, and that they took massive casualties in the process.
Franken also testified that there was internal Muslim fighting among the members of the 28th Infantry Division in Srebrenica and that casualties were inflicted by the Muslims on each other over the course of that fighting.
Franken also confirmed that Muslim soldiers attempted to attack the eastern flank of the VRS near Srebrenica and that they took heavy casualties during that offensive.
President Milosevic asked the obvious question. He asked if the members of the 28th Infantry Division who died during combat operations were being counted as the victims of the alleged “massacre” at Srebrenica. Col. Franken didn’t know.
An important point to observe here is that Col. Franken testified that none of the UN soldiers who were in Srebrenica at the critical time saw any executions taking place. In fact the only casualties they saw were of people who had been killed in the fighting. Again, none of the DutchBat personnel who composed the UNPROFOR battalion in Srebrenica saw any executions or mass-killings taking place there.
Col. Franken also testified that before the break-out operation that the Muslim Soldiers in Srebrenica would launch attacks out of the enclave onto the surrounding Serbian villages. To bear this out President Milosevic cited examples such as the time when Visnica was attacked by Muslim troops from Srebrenica and many Serbs were killed, and he cited the example when Muslim soldiers attacked and killed a group of Serbian woodcutters who were just cutting down trees in a forested area near Srebrenica, and of course there are many more examples.
Col. Franken testified that the only ones to kill a UNPROFOR soldier in Srebrenica were the Muslims. The VRS did not kill a single UNPROFOR soldier.
Col. Franken testified that the Muslims in Srebrenica would position themselves near UNPROFOR observation posts and then open fire on the Serbs in order to make the Serbs think that UNPROFOR was firing on them, with the ultimate objective being for the Serbs to retaliate and shoot at the UNPROFOR observation post.
Col. Franken recounted one occasion when Muslim soldiers in Srebrenica stole some UNPROFOR uniforms, disguised themselves as UNPROFOR members, approached a UN observation post and opened fire on the real UNPROFOR personnel who were there.
Lt. Col. Ton Karremans was Col. Franken’s commanding officer and President Milosevic read from a briefing paper that Karremans provided to Franken. Karremans negotiated the evacuation of the civilian population from Srebrenica with Ratko Mladic. It should also be noted here that it was Akashi’s idea that Srebrenica should be evacuated.
From the briefing paper we can see that Mladic wanted the evacuation of Srebrenica to be voluntary. Mladic explained that the refugees could stay because he didn’t have any problems with civilians since they were not to blame for anything.
It was Mladic’s position that the wounded, the elderly, and the women and children should be evacuated first. Mladic also wanted the Red Cross to escort the refugees, according to the briefing paper.
Mladic wanted the men to be questioned before being allowed to leave, and indeed men were questioned at a place near Potocari called the “white house,” an UNMO (UN Military Observer) was stationed at that location and saw as many men leaving the white house as he saw going in.
President Milosevic’s cross-examination was cut short because of time restrictions imposed by the so-called “court.” Col. Franken was what the so-called “tribunal” calls a “92-bis witness”. This means that a summary of his testimony is read out by the prosecutor, followed by a very brief examination-in-chief. President Milosevic then only has 1 hour for cross-examination. This practice frequently means that President Milosevic is unable to fully cross-examine important witnesses and that was again the case today.
After President Milosevic’s cross-examination, the Amicus Curiae Mr. Tapuskovic was able to cross-examine Col. Franken for approximately 15 minutes.
Col. Franken told Mr. Tapuskovic that the Muslim forces inside of Srebrenica were essentially using UNPROFOR as a cover for carrying out prohibited military activities. In other words they were abusing the safe area.
Mr. Tapuskovic then embarked on an interesting line of questioning that I feel needs to be explored much further.
One of Col. Franken’s subordinates named Van Duyn had testified at another trial, I believe Tapuskovic said that it was at Obrenovic’s trial, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to go back and look at the tape when it is available.
Apparently, this Van Duyn testified in that trial that the UNPROFOR battalion in Srebrenica had been ordered to fire on Serbian artillery positions that were just minding their own business on the mountain tops some 10 to 15 kilometers away from the enclave.
The objective was apparently to induce the Serbs to attack the enclave itself and thereby provide a justification for NATO air strikes. Or could the objective have been to suck the Serbs into the enclave so that they could be accused of perpetrating a massacre there later on?
Unfortunately, Mr. Nice intervened, questioning the relevance, and Tapuskovic’s cross-examination was abruptly ended.
After Col. Franken was finished with his testimony a secret witness called “B-1524” was called to testify. B-1524 was allegedly a Serb from Zvornik that the SDA had recruited to spy on the SDS. B-1524 was also allegedly taken prisoner by Arkan.
B-1524’s cross-examination will take place next Tuesday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; bosnia; colrobertfranken; dutchbat; milosevic; sarajevo; srebrenica
1 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 7:58:11 PM by joan
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Seselj
He testified today about a certain Milo Vaselovic who had been shot by a sniper in Sarajevo. Vaselovic was a Serb, and Kucanin testified that he had been shot by Vojislav Seselj. He didn’t do any ballistic analysis on the corpse or anything like that but he saw Seselj on Television that night and so he concluded that Seselj must have been the gunman…impeccable logic indeed.
2 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:00:57 PM by joan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: joan
Bill & Hillary's wag-the-dog war. And Wesley Clark wants to be President?!!! And Madeline No-Bright is touting some book. They're all monsters.
3 posted on Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:07:08 PM by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Saundra Duffy
Funny how so few people are paying attention to Milosevic's trial - even though many Milosevic haters sounded as if they were salivating with anticipation to watch it. I guess they expected him to go down in flames and for the trial to prove their closeminded propagandistic induced version of the truth.
They were clearly stating how much they'd enjoy the trial, yet they aren't even commenting on it these days. And those Freepers are still posting on FR all the time, but on different topics.
4 posted on Friday, November 14, 2003 8:03:12 PM by joan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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Saturday, April 2, 2011
My political Rant.
For the good of the people of Canada is a great concept. But if they actually work together than why have different parties? To me that is a good question; the US have only 2 parties and we have 5. Down there they are either republican or democratic; which I guess means either capitalist or socialist leaning folks. What the definition between communism and socialism is probably a fine line. They are the dreams of folks to live in harmony where all is shared and everyone is equal, which I agree is a good concept. It seemed to work in the hippie communes, but didn't work so well in Soviet Russia. There, greed of the few with power totally corrupted the system and kept the masses poor while the few got more powerful and wealthy.
Unfortunately the reverse, capitalism, doesn't seem to work so well for the US. Yes, everyone has the chance to build themselves a secure financial life, but is is like a footrace where some folks start way ahead of others. In sports that levels the playing field, not so much in life. How W got elected, and then re-elected is an embarrassment to the US population. And then they swung the other way and elected a virtual unknown the next election! All that means is that big money controls the elections in the US. Backroom deals and subversion is commonplace in Washington. And when the US go on some sort of humanitarian tangent, that means only that there is something good in it for themselves.
And then we go to the 5 party Canadian political system. Like the US, I believe we started with 2 parties that mirror the US parties. Conservatives = Republicans and Liberals = Democrats. And I believe like the US we went from one party to the other, more or less, throughout our political history. How can the public elect one side in at one election, and in the space of a few years vote in the other side? Well I believe that when one sides wins and then does a shite job, the population naturally leans to the other party, which in their turn does a shite job and the population, instead of demandiing a better government, gets amnesia and votes in the previous shite party. And I think that eventually the main focus of both parties got closer and closer together over time.
Now in Canada, the NDP came about, offering to be more liberal than the Liberal party had become, to return to the values they once held precious. And of course they attracted their followers and voters. But everyone knew by then that socialism has never proved itself to work on a grand scale of a country. Sure it's a great idea in a village type setting or being shipwrecked on a island scenario. Again their concept was sound, but only the silly folks actually thought it could work.
Then came the Bloc party out of Quebec; a federal party with the goal of splitting the country apart if they get enough votes. How these guys were allowed to form a federal party is unbelievable, probably Trudeau fault. And why they even stay in the race is a mystery, they will never win! Although,,,, they were the official opposition for a while and had actual power over federal things. A dangerous group.
Then this Green party got formed with some sort of platform that promotes the environment above all else, or something; I like the majority of the country don't really care about them. Although, their redeeming value has been to force the big parties to include environmental policies in their platforms.
So the good part about our 5 parties is it mostly gives most folks a party to really believe in and vote for. The worst part is minority govt after minority govt. Folks are more or less wasting their votes on the 3 smaller parties. Yes, I know that some candinates get elected to be a MP, and go to Ottawa to rant and rave about something, and eventually form a serious drinking and Bare Fax addiction (or the male stripper bar above Bare Fax), they may not serve their poeple very well.
And a minority govt can't really put forward anything without at least 2 of the other parties teaming up against them.
I have no doubt that the PC will win the next election and that it will be another minority govt. If the Liberals could ever decide on an actual leader and offer a sensible converse political platform, then maybe they could win some time.
Which leads me to another point; the population of today are much more educated than our grandparents and even out parents. We have so much knowledge available that we form educated opinions about what is good for our country. So if we are offered 5 different styles or types of political leadership, we should be able to decypher all the election bull shite and vote in what we believe to be the best for the country. So why don't we? Is there really 5 types of personallities in this country? Being so intelligent, why do we continue to waste votes on the little 3 instead of voting for the big 2 and get this country a solid govt, supported by over half of the country? And then this doesn't give free reign to the winning party, because they have one strong party in parliment to question and oppose their motions, not 4 opposing for their own reasons or ganging up against them.
So I believe that there should be only 2 parties in Canada. But with very little to differentiate between our best educated population in history - how could they differ? I'm sure the majority of our population knows what is good for our country. Unfortunately, I'll end this lecture on a "I don't know". There will always be special interest groups and lobbyist, aka bribers and blackmailers, that will mess up the democratic system. And every election we get grand promises from the leaders to do actual change, and after everything is said and done, the status quo seems to take over and reign superior.
Knowing the collapse of the little 3 ain't going to happen anytime soon, I think that the sitting govt, with a majority win, will stay in power.
Sleep warm amigos,
Chris.
Unfortunately the reverse, capitalism, doesn't seem to work so well for the US. Yes, everyone has the chance to build themselves a secure financial life, but is is like a footrace where some folks start way ahead of others. In sports that levels the playing field, not so much in life. How W got elected, and then re-elected is an embarrassment to the US population. And then they swung the other way and elected a virtual unknown the next election! All that means is that big money controls the elections in the US. Backroom deals and subversion is commonplace in Washington. And when the US go on some sort of humanitarian tangent, that means only that there is something good in it for themselves.
And then we go to the 5 party Canadian political system. Like the US, I believe we started with 2 parties that mirror the US parties. Conservatives = Republicans and Liberals = Democrats. And I believe like the US we went from one party to the other, more or less, throughout our political history. How can the public elect one side in at one election, and in the space of a few years vote in the other side? Well I believe that when one sides wins and then does a shite job, the population naturally leans to the other party, which in their turn does a shite job and the population, instead of demandiing a better government, gets amnesia and votes in the previous shite party. And I think that eventually the main focus of both parties got closer and closer together over time.
Now in Canada, the NDP came about, offering to be more liberal than the Liberal party had become, to return to the values they once held precious. And of course they attracted their followers and voters. But everyone knew by then that socialism has never proved itself to work on a grand scale of a country. Sure it's a great idea in a village type setting or being shipwrecked on a island scenario. Again their concept was sound, but only the silly folks actually thought it could work.
Then came the Bloc party out of Quebec; a federal party with the goal of splitting the country apart if they get enough votes. How these guys were allowed to form a federal party is unbelievable, probably Trudeau fault. And why they even stay in the race is a mystery, they will never win! Although,,,, they were the official opposition for a while and had actual power over federal things. A dangerous group.
Then this Green party got formed with some sort of platform that promotes the environment above all else, or something; I like the majority of the country don't really care about them. Although, their redeeming value has been to force the big parties to include environmental policies in their platforms.
So the good part about our 5 parties is it mostly gives most folks a party to really believe in and vote for. The worst part is minority govt after minority govt. Folks are more or less wasting their votes on the 3 smaller parties. Yes, I know that some candinates get elected to be a MP, and go to Ottawa to rant and rave about something, and eventually form a serious drinking and Bare Fax addiction (or the male stripper bar above Bare Fax), they may not serve their poeple very well.
And a minority govt can't really put forward anything without at least 2 of the other parties teaming up against them.
I have no doubt that the PC will win the next election and that it will be another minority govt. If the Liberals could ever decide on an actual leader and offer a sensible converse political platform, then maybe they could win some time.
Which leads me to another point; the population of today are much more educated than our grandparents and even out parents. We have so much knowledge available that we form educated opinions about what is good for our country. So if we are offered 5 different styles or types of political leadership, we should be able to decypher all the election bull shite and vote in what we believe to be the best for the country. So why don't we? Is there really 5 types of personallities in this country? Being so intelligent, why do we continue to waste votes on the little 3 instead of voting for the big 2 and get this country a solid govt, supported by over half of the country? And then this doesn't give free reign to the winning party, because they have one strong party in parliment to question and oppose their motions, not 4 opposing for their own reasons or ganging up against them.
So I believe that there should be only 2 parties in Canada. But with very little to differentiate between our best educated population in history - how could they differ? I'm sure the majority of our population knows what is good for our country. Unfortunately, I'll end this lecture on a "I don't know". There will always be special interest groups and lobbyist, aka bribers and blackmailers, that will mess up the democratic system. And every election we get grand promises from the leaders to do actual change, and after everything is said and done, the status quo seems to take over and reign superior.
Knowing the collapse of the little 3 ain't going to happen anytime soon, I think that the sitting govt, with a majority win, will stay in power.
Sleep warm amigos,
Chris.
Read LPC Article On Srebrenica Case Study
Click on Title to go to this report of events around Srebrenica.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Arrest made in UN Afghan office killings
An Afghan official says police have arrested the suspected mastermind behind the attack on a UN mission compound in northern Afghanistan that killed at least 12 people, including seven of the world body's foreign staff.
Deputy police chief in Balkh province, Rawof Taj, said the suspected mastermind was from Kapisa province, a hotbed of the insurgency about 400 kilometres southeast of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the attack occurred.
The victims died after Afghans protesting the burning of Islam's holy book by a U.S. pastor stormed the compound in Mazar-i-Sharif. The protest began peacefully when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the UN office after Friday prayers to denounce the Qur'an's destruction, said Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the governor in Balkh. It turned violent when some protesters grabbed weapons from the UN guards, opened fire on the police, stormed the building and set fires inside, he said. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the building.
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region, was quoted by Reuters as saying two of the dead were beheaded by attackers during the three-hour rampage.
The topic of Qur'an burning stirred outrage among some Muslims after a small American church in Florida threatened to destroy the holy book last year. The Florida pastor had backed down then but apparently went through with the burning last Sunday, prompting protests in three Afghan cities. "I've seen the video. They essentially put the Qur'an on trial, find it guilty of murder and say that there are four possible punishments," CBC's David Common said. "They chose to burn it and carried out that 'punishment' right there in their parish."
A police source said the chief of the mission in Mazar-i-Sharif was wounded but survived, and that the dead included employees of Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish nationalities. The Norwegian Defence Ministry said one of the victims was Lt.-Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot. A Swede and four UN guards from Nepal were also killed. A western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the seventh victim was a citizen of Romania.
'The situation is still confusing and we are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff.' —UN spokesman Dan McNorton. There were reports that four protesters had also died. An earlier report had said five were killed.
Canada's Foreign Affairs department issued a statement Friday afternoon condemning the attack and disclosing that no Canadians were identified among the civilians killed or injured.
Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, confirmed that people working for the UN had died in an attack on the operation centre, but he could not provide details. "The situation is still confusing and we are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff," he said from his office in Kabul. Staffan de Mistura, the top UN official in Afghanistan, had left Kabul for Mazar-i-Sharif to personally handle the situation, he said.
Clerics issue call to protest. Mohammad Azim, a businessman in Mazer-i-Sharif, said that clerics with loudspeakers drove around the city in two cars on Thursday to invite residents to the protest. After Friday prayers at a large blue mosque in the city centre, clerics again called on worshippers to attend a peaceful protest.
Several hundred people also protested the reported Qur'an burning at several sites in Herat, a city in western Afghanistan. Protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium in Herat and chanted "Death to the U.S." and "They broke the heart of Islam." About 100 people also gathered at a traffic circle near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Police directed traffic around the demonstration in the capital. One protester carried a sign that said: "We want these bloody bastard Americans with all their forces to leave Afghanistan."
The protesters were condemning the reported burning of the Qur'an at the Rev. Terry Jones' small church, Dove Outreach Center, in Gainesville, Fla.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a "crime against a religion." He denounced it as a "disrespectful and abhorrent act" and called on the U.S. and the United Nations to bring to justice those who burned the holy book and issue a response to Muslims around the world.
When the plan was first made public, U.S. President Barack Obama intervened and urged that Jones and his congregation not to go through with it.
Obama responded to the killings of UN employees in Afghanistan with another statement Friday. "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan today," he said. "Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence."
Canada, which has a combat mission in Afghanistan, also condemned the attack on UN staff and Afghan civilians. "This senseless act of violence was carried out by opponents of peace and progress in Afghanistan," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in the statement. "Those responsible for this cowardly attack must be held accountable."
All this fuss about someone burning a book full of religious nonsense. Why didn't they just burn a bible, another book of religious madness, and been satisfied with that. These aghani cave creatures aren't worth the price of a bullet to send them to hell or what ever they call it.
Deputy police chief in Balkh province, Rawof Taj, said the suspected mastermind was from Kapisa province, a hotbed of the insurgency about 400 kilometres southeast of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the attack occurred.
The victims died after Afghans protesting the burning of Islam's holy book by a U.S. pastor stormed the compound in Mazar-i-Sharif. The protest began peacefully when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the UN office after Friday prayers to denounce the Qur'an's destruction, said Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the governor in Balkh. It turned violent when some protesters grabbed weapons from the UN guards, opened fire on the police, stormed the building and set fires inside, he said. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the building.
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region, was quoted by Reuters as saying two of the dead were beheaded by attackers during the three-hour rampage.
The topic of Qur'an burning stirred outrage among some Muslims after a small American church in Florida threatened to destroy the holy book last year. The Florida pastor had backed down then but apparently went through with the burning last Sunday, prompting protests in three Afghan cities. "I've seen the video. They essentially put the Qur'an on trial, find it guilty of murder and say that there are four possible punishments," CBC's David Common said. "They chose to burn it and carried out that 'punishment' right there in their parish."
A police source said the chief of the mission in Mazar-i-Sharif was wounded but survived, and that the dead included employees of Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish nationalities. The Norwegian Defence Ministry said one of the victims was Lt.-Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot. A Swede and four UN guards from Nepal were also killed. A western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the seventh victim was a citizen of Romania.
'The situation is still confusing and we are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff.' —UN spokesman Dan McNorton. There were reports that four protesters had also died. An earlier report had said five were killed.
Canada's Foreign Affairs department issued a statement Friday afternoon condemning the attack and disclosing that no Canadians were identified among the civilians killed or injured.
Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, confirmed that people working for the UN had died in an attack on the operation centre, but he could not provide details. "The situation is still confusing and we are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff," he said from his office in Kabul. Staffan de Mistura, the top UN official in Afghanistan, had left Kabul for Mazar-i-Sharif to personally handle the situation, he said.
Clerics issue call to protest. Mohammad Azim, a businessman in Mazer-i-Sharif, said that clerics with loudspeakers drove around the city in two cars on Thursday to invite residents to the protest. After Friday prayers at a large blue mosque in the city centre, clerics again called on worshippers to attend a peaceful protest.
Several hundred people also protested the reported Qur'an burning at several sites in Herat, a city in western Afghanistan. Protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium in Herat and chanted "Death to the U.S." and "They broke the heart of Islam." About 100 people also gathered at a traffic circle near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Police directed traffic around the demonstration in the capital. One protester carried a sign that said: "We want these bloody bastard Americans with all their forces to leave Afghanistan."
The protesters were condemning the reported burning of the Qur'an at the Rev. Terry Jones' small church, Dove Outreach Center, in Gainesville, Fla.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a "crime against a religion." He denounced it as a "disrespectful and abhorrent act" and called on the U.S. and the United Nations to bring to justice those who burned the holy book and issue a response to Muslims around the world.
When the plan was first made public, U.S. President Barack Obama intervened and urged that Jones and his congregation not to go through with it.
Obama responded to the killings of UN employees in Afghanistan with another statement Friday. "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan today," he said. "Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence."
Canada, which has a combat mission in Afghanistan, also condemned the attack on UN staff and Afghan civilians. "This senseless act of violence was carried out by opponents of peace and progress in Afghanistan," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in the statement. "Those responsible for this cowardly attack must be held accountable."
All this fuss about someone burning a book full of religious nonsense. Why didn't they just burn a bible, another book of religious madness, and been satisfied with that. These aghani cave creatures aren't worth the price of a bullet to send them to hell or what ever they call it.
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