DARKO TRIFUNOVIC, PART 2

Last Updated: March 25, 2009.

INVESTIGATIVE WORK BY OUR READERS:

"I WISH MLADIC KILLED THEM ALL" - Darko Trifunovic (self-proclaimed Serbian "terrorism expert") in an E-mail response to "Stevan Savic"

Editors' notice: Haris Djapic and Alen Jusufovic (both from Sarajevo) have done a bit of investigative work by posing as "Stevan Savic" and befriending Darko Trifunovic. On December 28th 2007, they sent us the following article titled "Darko Trifunovic" and we added "PART 2" to the title. It took us about 3 hours to translate it from Bosnian into English language. We thank them for their contribution. If you would like to publish your articles at Srebrenica Genocide Blog, please mark your comments "PRIVATE" and include your E-mail address where we can contact you. All future articles should be submitted in English language. Thank you and Happy New Year!

Authors: Haris Djapic and Alen Jusufovic
Uploaded: December 31, 2007.

Dear Srebrenica Genocide Blog,

After you published an article about Darko Trifunovic's denial of Srebrenica genocide, we decided to do something about it. So we contacted him by posing as "Stevan Savic".... During our investigation and correspondence with him, we collected more information about his activities than we bargained for. After all, our investigative work paid off, but we were greatly dissapointed by his level of hatred...

PHOTO: Darko Trifunovic (biography), Srebrenica genocide denier, in this undated photo courtesy of New York based Bosnjaci Magazine.

Darko Trifunovic, who proclaimed himself to be so called "terrorism expert" only after being fired from Bosnia-Herzegovina Foreign Ministry, is now attacking journalists who criticize him. Media Development Center and South East Network for Profesionalization for Media concluded that Trifunovic's "wild speculations presented as 'serious' information are an insult to logic." We agree.

(1) Spy-work and Wikipedia
(2) Islamophobic Sources
(3) Response to Myself
(4) Threatening Journalists
(5) "I wish Mladic killed them all"
(6) Excerpt from the Book
(7) Izetbegovic: Anti-Fascist/Anti-Communist

Spy-work and Wikipedia

We posed as "Stevan Savic" and got in touch with Darko Trifunovic through his publically available E-mail address. Apart from his apparent passion for Srebrenica genocide denial and manufacturing stories of "Islamic terrorism", we also learned that he has at least two Wikipedia usernames: Sh3 and AlexandarNYC. He attempted to create various wikipedia articles labeling journalists who criticized him as "Islamic terrorists" and he even asked us for help. We wouldn't know about these activities hadn't he told us. He has been making dozens of revisions every day to his Wikipedia page by adding content that celebrates him and removing content he doesnt' agree with. Take a look at a revised page he made about himself; he even uploaded photo of himself and described it as "Self Made". The changes were rapidly reverted by Wikipedia's administrators, because any type of self-promotion is not suitable for Wiki standards.

A Response to... Myself?

On December 28, 2007 Darko Trifunovic's posted an article labeling his critics as (read carefully): "Al Qaeda Media Committee Attacks on Darko Trifunovic" (note: all people who criticize them are automatically labeled as "Islamic Terrorists") and then Darko Trifunovic commented on his own post under diffferent names posing as somebody else. The post was made at 08:20am, then at 9:33am under nickname "John Johsnon" (he couldn't come up with a better name?) Darko Trifunovic posted a lengthy comment with a copyrighted content from Serbianna about "Islamic Terrorism" and all those terrorism related fairy stories manufactured by Srebrenica genocide deniers and Islamophobes who blame Muslims for every single evil in this world. Four minutes later, at 9:33am, he used another nickname , "Anica", and posted a reply to himself supporting - [guess who?] - himself, duh! He even asked us to post comments in his support. In order to gain more knowledge about his activities and in order to gain more trust from him, we posted a comment supporting him (under a nickname "space"). Of course, he thanked us in his E-mail shortly after and we thank him publicly for being so naive.

Threatening Journalists

We have been in touch with the New York based Bosnjaci Magazine for a very long time. They are wonderful people working for the freedom of the press. They told us that Darko Trifunovic has, on numerous occassions, attempted to silence them with the threats of lawsuits because they criticized his Srebrenica genocide denial.

Trifunovic apparently believes he can silence American journalists and freedom of the press in America, a country where free speech and journalistic freedom is sacred. One might wonder, why doesnt' he do it? It's because he knows he would lose the case and would be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. This would actually be very beneficial to this New York based magazine as it would bring additional income for their exercise of journalistic independence and freedom of speech. After all, Freedom of the press was (and still is) a necessity to any democratic society.

"I wish Mladic killed them all"

After befriending Darko Trifunovic and gaining his trust under a fake E-mail account "Stevan Savic" (stevansavic@lycos.com) we finally asked him to tell us why he denies Srebrenica genocide (we corresponded with him in Serbian language), quote: "So Darko, why the heck do you deny Srebrenica genocide? It certainly does not help our Serb cause, so why are you doing it?"

He replied with a short note, quote: "Are you sure you are Serb? Why do you care about Muslims? I wish Mladic killed them all."

Here is a copy of the original E-mail response that we received from Darko Trifunovic (in Serbian language):

[START QUOTE]
Subject Re: O Srebrenickom Genocidu
Sent Date: 12-23-2007 4:58:29 PM
From Darko Trifunovic <diplomacyun@yahoo.com>
To Stevan Savic <stevansavic@lycos.com>

Postovani Savo,
Jesi li ti siguran da si Srbin? Sta te briga za Muslimanima? Da ih je bogdom Mladic sve pobio.

Darko Trifunovic
[END QUOTE]

We believe there is no need for further comment to his E-mail.

Excerpt from the Book

Darko Trifunovic has been discredited by respected journalistic agencies in the past. According to the "Freedom of Speech in South East Europe: Media Independence and Self-Regulation" (ISBN 978-954-9396-05-8) published by the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media, quote:

An exemplary manipulation article can also be found on p. 2 on March 9 entitled ‘Abuse of religion and faith’ by D. Majstorovic. It reports that Darko Trifunovic, portrayed as “leading Serb expert for international terrorism” from the Belgrade Security Faculty, in one of his recent “lectures before members of the US Congress” stated that radical Islamists from all over the world, who have been assigned in all almost all European states upon order of the terrorist network Al Q’Aida, abuse religious facilities and use them for spreading their fundamentalist-like ideas. Reportedly, Trifunovic also “warned that Kosovo and Metohija and BiH are unfortunately brimming with persons like Talovic (Sulejman, 19-year old from BiH who killed 5 people at Salt Lake City recently) and Bektasevic (Mirsad, sentenced to 20 years prison term for planning terrorist attacks in BiH), mostly thanks to people from the top authority, who at some point in the past brought the most brutal terrorists of the present time to these regions. Hereby he refers to “Haris Silajdzic”, a prominent Bosniak politician.

Although attributed to an “expert” thus fulfilling the formal requirements of the Press Code, these absolutely wild speculations presented as “serious” information are an insult to logic first, Bosniaks second. (Sulejman Talovic was Bosnian American, but his crime was much the same as earlier Columbine crimes, or a subsequent massacre by a Korean American – work of teen angst. Confounding him, a wannabe terrorist Bektasevic, and bringing them in context with a legal and legitimate political representative is a sign of utter malevolence and lack of elementary ethics).

Izetbegovic: Anti-Fascist/Anti-Communist

In an interview with "Glas Javnosti" on October 26, 2003 Dr Trifunovic falsely accused the late President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, of having been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 1946 for allegedly being a former member of the Waffen-SS Mountain "Division Handschar". In fact, Mr Izetbegovic was never a Nazi member, but such inaccurate stories are manufactured and circulated by "terrorism experts" such as Darko Trifunovic, and since Darko Trifunovic has as much credibility as next door "rumor", it is of no importance to even debate this obvious lie. In fact, Mr Izetbegovic was anti-Fascist and anti-Communist, was almost executed by Communists for his pro-Democracy activism.

Another offensive lie is that war-time president Alija Izetbegovic was a mujaheedin or "Muslim terrorist." Mr Izetbegovic - leader of Party for Democratic Action - was one of key figures responsible for destruction of communism in Yugoslavia. He fought for democratic, secular, multicultural, and internationally recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina. He wrote several books analyzing Islam. Serb propagandists took some of his statements out of context, as Noel Malcom ("Bosnia: Short History") pointed out.

More than any other text, the Islamic Declaration is cited by Serbian nationalist propaganda as evidence of dangerous 'Islamic fundamentalism' in Europe which must be suppressed... or else. Often cited to justify persecution of the Bosnian Muslim civilian population during the former war, the Declaration and its author, Mr. Alija Izetbegovic, former president of Bosnia, have been demonized and frequently blamed for the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. One might explain these accusations as viscous political propaganda brought on by war. However, as early as 1983, Izetbegovic and his writings were the target of a virulent campaign against Islam in Communist Yugoslavia. This campaign had its contemporary roots in the early 1970's when Bosniaks were allowed for the first time to declare themselves as a national group, but its deeper roots may lie in what Serbian scholar Bogdan Denitch calls "the pathological suspicion and hatred of Muslim Slavs."

Serbian propagandists (and other left-apologists) took out of context President Izetbegovic's words from Islamic Declaration (Izetbegovic's book criticising Islamic governments): "There can be no peace or co-existence between the Islamic Faith and non Islamic institutions". Part II of the Declaration, "The Islamic Order," explains how Muslim society should be reorganized based on Islamic principles. Parts of this section are often quoted out of context to prove that the Declaration advocates violence. It is crucial to note that Izetbegovic was speaking here of Islamic countries in which false modernist or conservative Islamic doctrines have been institutionalized in the political and social system. He was simply criticising Islamic governments and in many instances praised Western achievements. He was not speaking of Western countries or his native Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosnia is not even mentioned in the book). A close reading of the Declaration reveals that Izetbegovic was advocating a cultural, not a political revolution, especially in countries (like Yugoslavia) where Muslims were a minority. As Noel Malcolm pointed out, Bosnia was not even mentioned in Izetbegovic's book and he even praised Christian governments and Christian achievements in arts and science.

Maybe it's time for Darko Trifunovic to learn about Serbia's Nazi Past and leave anti-Fascists and anti-Communists alone.

- - - The End - - -

Editor's note
Our readers might be also interested in:
1. Darko Trifunovic - PART 1
2. Serbian Propaganda: Case Alija Selimagic
3. Serbian Photo Propaganda: Fascist Techniques
4. Example of Serbian Propaganda: Rade Rogic
5. Beware of BalkanPeace.org - Serbian nationalists
6. Dissecting Milosevic Propaganda
7. Gen Lewis MacKenzie - paid Serbian lobbyist
8. Justice for 1,500 Children and Markale Massacres
9. Milivoje Ivanisevic: Disturbed Mind of Genocide Denial
10. Falsification of Serb Victims Around Srebrenica

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Srebrenica Genocide Blog wishes all our readers HAPPY HOLIDAYS! You have made this blog super-successful, and the readership is growing every day. Thank you from the bottom of our heart!

Video Title: Christmas Eve in Sarajevo 2007 with 54000+ lights synchronized to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's song titled Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. The song is often misnamed "Carol of the Bells" (due to its use of the melody) on file-sharing networks. Click Play button to watch!

Srebrenica Genocide deniers will continue to twist and distort facts even in the coming years as they continue to dismiss international courts as "kangaroo courts," but contradict themselves in quoting court excerpts that support their pre-conceived conclusions. To learn facts about Srebrenica Genocide, we invite you - yet another time - to read our most comprehensive Questions and Answers, including Srebrenica Numbers.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

JASENOVAC RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Last Updated: January 5, 2008.
DENIAL OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE UNDERMINES CREDIBILITY OF THE "JASENOVAC RESEARCH INSTITUTE"

Note of Caution: The Washington's United States Holocaust Museum should distance itself from this organization, and people should exercise caution when dealing with this propagandist Srebrenica genocide denial group that celebrates war criminals.

The New York based "Jasenovac Research Institute" is a Serbian nationalist-run organization which describes itself as "committed to establishing the truth about the Holocaust in Yugoslavia and dedicated to the search for justice for its victims." However, Bosniak Muslim victims (including women and children) of Jasenovac are conveniently ignored by their research, but that's another story. The website features photos of innocent children who died in the Ustasha's run concentration camp - but there is no mention that those innocent victims belonged to all ethnicities, not just Serb. After all, 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust. The people behind the Jasenovac Research Institute deny the Srebrenica genocide and celebrate Slobodan Milosevic.

The Jasenovac Research Institute recently re-published a book titled: "The Crimes of the Fascist Occupants and their Collaborators against the Jews in Yugoslavia." In the Foreword of this book, this Serbian nationalist-run organization is calling the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) in the Hague "fraudulent." As you know, the ICTY findings concluded that the 1995 Serb massacres of Bosniak Muslims in and around Srebrenica constituted genocide. The Jasenovac Research Institute calls those findings fraudulent, thus far denying genocide. Here is a quote from the foreword of the re-published book (reviewed by Christopher Deliso) , quote:

"It should be noted that the old ideals of rigor in documentation have long since been lost. A look at any of the modern Yugoslavia’s war crimes trials shows a frantic zeal to uncover ever more evidence and, though numerous snafus have emerged in the Hague due to its presentation of erroneous or even willfully fraudulent information, few whether in the media or the 'international community' take much notice of the inconsistencies."

These types of Srebrenica Genocide denial claims have seriously shattered the credibility of the "Jasenovac Research Institute. But that's not all; continue reading...

Institute ran by Srebrenica Genocide Deniers

The main contributor to the Institute, and one of its main board members, is Dr. Milan Bulajic. Not surprisingly, Mr Bulajic also denies Srebrenica genocide (source: external link to the Serbian extremist web site), quote:

"Dr. Milan Bulajic said for Glas Javnosti that High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown and the President of the Institute for War Crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Smail Cekic want (at any price) to manipulate science to prove that the Serbian Army committed genocide in Srebrenica."

Mr. Bulajic was the Director of the "War Crimes Commission" of the FRY, an organization formed by Slobodan Milosevic in early 1990s in Serbia to "prove" the crimes the world has comitted against the Serbs. Mr Bulajic published most of his books and works during the war era, with characteristic Serb opinion at the time. The publisher for most of his book is listed as: "The Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia".

Dr. Darko Trifunovic, another Srebrenica genocide denier, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jasenovac Research Institute (more about him here), quote:

"On the page 34. of that report, Trifunovic concludes his 'analysis' of the number of Bosniak men and boys who disappeared during the events surrounding the Bosnian Serb take-over of the United Nations ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica with the 'finding' that Armed Forces of the Republic of Srpska (VRS) might have executed only less than 100 of 'Muslim soldiers'".

Another director of the Jasenovac Research Institute is Srebrenica genocide denier Milo Yelesiyevich. He is the author of the book about: "Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero" in which he denied Srebrenica genocide and celebrated indicted war criminals Gen Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

And here is what Barry Lituchy - self-titled "Holocaust Research Director" of the Jasenovac Research Institute - thinks of Slobodan Milosevic, quote:

"When I heard the news that Slobodan Milosevic had died I did not want to believe it. I did not want to believe that evil had triumphed over good, or that the evil that had been done to this brave and beautiful man could have finally killed him... But you can take solace in the fact that Slobo died a martyr's death... He is the most famous and most courageous Serb of our time... As I said before, he lived and died for us and for a better world. I know you are proud of him. I feel the same way." [11 March 2006, "To The Family of Slobodan Milosevic"]

It is obvious that the people behind this organization have as much credibility as Adolph Hitler. The sad part is they are a driving force behind the Jasenovac Research Institute.

Nazi Croatia's Ethnic Make-up

The territory of the Independent State of Croatia included two constituent units of former Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a total population of about 6.3 million. More than half of the population, or 3.3 million, were ethnic Croats (Catholics). The 1.9 million Serbs (Orthodox) were the largest ethnic minority. Other minorities included approximately 700,000 Bosniaks (Muslims), 40,000 Jews, and 30,000 Roma (Gypsies).

PHOTO: The Bosniak Muslim family being taken away to the Jasenovac concentration camp by the Ustasha's collaborationist regime during the 2nd World War. [Bosnjaci.net Magazine]

Numbers of Jasenovac Victims
(Serbs, Bosniaks, Jews, Roma, Croats, and others)

Bosniaks and Croats were also victims of Jasenovac. According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum:

"The Ustaša authorities established numerous concentration camps in Croatia between 1941 and 1945. These camps were used to isolate and murder Serbs, Jews, Roma, Muslims [Bosniaks], and other non-Catholic minorities, as well as Croatian political and religious opponents of the regime."

Jasenovac Research Institute claims that 300,000 to 700,000 Serbs died in Jasenovac - the numbers challenged even by the United States Holocaust Museum, quote:

"The most reliable figures place the number of Serbs killed by the Ustasha between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac." [USHMM and Jewish Virtual Library]

In 1998, the Bosniak Institute published SFR Yugoslavia's List of war victims from the Jasenovac camp. The list contained 49,602 total victims at Jasenovac with 26,170 Serbs, 8,121 Jews, 5,900 Croats, 1471 Roma, 787 Bosniak Muslims, 6,792 of unidentifiable ethnicity and the rest others.

According to another historian, Dr Vladimir Zerjavic, over 12,000 Bosniaks and Croats perished in Jasenovac. One might also read Dr Nihad Halilbegovic's study about the Bosniak victims of Jasenovac concentration camp (currently, only the Bosnian language version is available - Bosnjaci u Jasenovackom Logoru, 502 pages, ISBN: 9789958471025 can be purchased at Interliber, popular Bosnian book sale web site).

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the precise number of Jews murdered in Jasenovac is not known, but estimates range between 8,000 and 20,000 Jewish victims; and the estimate of the number of Romani (Gipsy) victims is beteween 8,000 and 15,000 who perished in Jasenovac.

May souls of all victims rest in peace...

FORGOTTEN 1943 GENOCIDE BY NAZI CHETNIK FASCISTS

FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE OF BOSNIAK MUSLIMS AROUND SREBRENICA REGION IN 1943; SERBIAN CHETNIK COLLABORATION WITH NAZI FASCISTS 1941-45 & SERBIAN GENOCIDE AGAINST JEWS AND ROMA

Editor's note: This is our official response to the Wikipedia's Draza Mihailovich article, which has been hijacked by WikiProject of Serbia's Point of View with an attempt to 'rehabilitate' Nazi fascist who committed genocide.

We Shall Never Forget!

+++ In just a few days of February 1943, the Serbian Chetniks under the leadership of Draza Mihailovich committed genocide of close to 20,000 Bosniak Muslims in the Podrinje area (around Srebrenica region) - mostly women, children and elderly. Serbian Chetniks themselves admitted killing over 9,000 people in this genocidal campaign alone.

+++ Serbs portray themselves as the major Balkan victims of the Second World War, but conceal the Chetnik collaboration with Nazi fascists, including systematic genocide that they had committed against several peoples, including the Bosniaks and Jews. Although Serbian historians contend that the persecution of the Jews of Serbia was entirely the responsibility of Germans and began only with the German occupation, this is self- serving fiction. Fully six months before the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, Serbia had issued legislation restricting Jewish participation in the economy and university enrolment. 94 percent of Serbia's 16,000 Jews were exterminated, with the considerable cooperation of the Serbian government, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian State Guard, the Serbian police and the Serbian public. The largest proportion of anti-fascist Bosnian partisans were Bosniaks Muslims, who were being slaughtered by all sides (Ustashas, Chetniks and Nazis). Attempts to form a pro-Axis Bosniak division failed when the Bosniak Muslim conscripts revolted against the Germans at a training base south of Le Puy, France in September 1943.

+++ While it is true that during the War, both the Partisans and pro-German Serbian-Nazi Chetniks aided Allied pilots in escaping, they did so because they were paid in gold for each one. However, only NAZI collaborator and fascist Draza Mihailovic received Medal, due to intensive Serbian lobbying and propaganda in the U.S.

The full article starts below:

PHOTO: Serbian Chetnik Commander Pavle Djurisic reporting to the Chetnik General Draza Mihailovich on the extermination of over 9,200 Bosniak Muslims (including women and children) on February 13, 1943. May their souls rest in peace.

The Chetnik apologists like to argue that Draza Mihailovic didn't know anything about genocidal campaigns his forces were committing against the Bosniak Muslim population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. A closer look at the above document reveals that Draza Mihailovic was well aware of genocide his forces were committing in 1943.

In the above document, Serbian Chetnik Commander Pavle Djurisic reported directly to the Chetnik General Draza Mihailovic about the "successes" of Chetnik operations in the extermination campaigns against the Bosniak Muslim population in the area of Pljevlje, Cajnice, and Foca region. This is the region of Podrinje where Srebrenica is located.

In his briefing to the Serb General Draza Mihailovich, the Chetnik Commander Pavle Djurisic writes, (note: this is a translation of key points from Serbian cyrillic), quote:

All Moslem villages in three mentioned locations [municipalities of Pljevlje, Cajnice, and Foca] were burned down, and not even one home remained intact.... During military operations, we engaged in total destruction of Moslem population without regard to their sex or age. Our victims include 22 dead, of which 2 by accident, and 32 wounded. We killed about 1,200 Muslim soldiers and about 8,000 of their women, elderly and children.

Therefore, it is perfectly clear that Draza Mihajlovich knew what was going on, but he did nothing to stop the genocide of Bosniak Muslim civilians. He was complicit in Genocide against the Bosniak Muslim population of Podrinje in 1943. While the Serbian Chetniks admited killing 9,200 people in this genocide, the documented killings show close to 20,000 Bosniaks massacred, 98% of them being civilian men, women, children, and elderly. (See: "Srpski zlocini nad Bosnjacima Muslimanima 1941. - 1945." by Semso Tucakovic).

Attempts to Deny 1943 Genocide

This genocide of Bosniak Muslim population in Podrinje occured in February of 1943. Since then, the leftist apologist genocide deniers have been actively denying any wrong-doings of Serbian Chetnik forces who collaborated with Nazi fascists in World War II. The most vocal Draza Mihajlovic's apologist and opinionist (he doesn't deserve to be called historian) - Lucien Karchmar - even came up with a list of philosophical reasons attacking the evidence against Chetnik crimes. In his book "Draza Mihailovic and the Rise of the Chetnik Movement, 1941–1942", Lucien Karchmar devotes his study in apologizing for Draza Mihailovich's crimes and dismissing each piece of historical evidence presented as a fraud or forgery. That's exactly how Chetnik-apologists write history to justify, downplay or deny crimes of Chetniks against the Bosniak Muslim population of Bosnia-Herzegovina; not to mention Chetnik collaboration with Nazi fascists.

Instead of reading Lucien Karchmar's make-belief stories about Chetnik innocence, one might read the book written by a respected Serbian historian Nikola P. Ilic who did a great job documenting collaboration of Chetniks with Fascists. The book is titled (in Serbian) "Kolaboracija Cetnika sa Okupatorima i Kvislinzima u Srbiji."

Draza Mihailovic's people with NAZI Fascists

PHOTO: Chetnik Draza Mihailovich's commanders with the German nazi fascists: 1) Colonel Lucic, 2) Major Dongic, formerly of the Yugoslav Army, Chetnik commander, cooperator with the Germans and Nedic's men, 3) Ilija Trifunovic-Bircanin, Draza Mihailovich's commander for Dalmatia, 4) Milorad Ljanovski, 5) Daka Tesanovic, Chetnik commander, and 6) Lieutenant Ignjatovic. - A German officer is shown by a cross. Photo Credit: The United States holocaust Memorial Museum. (Public Domain)

According to Serbian scholars, Dr. Jovan Marjanovic & Mihail Stanisic, "The collaboration of Draza Mihailovic's Chetniks with the enemy forces of occupation", 1976, quote:

The Serbian chetniks of Draza Mihailovic were represented as fighters against the occupier, while in fact they were the allies of the Nazi fascists in Yugoslavia....The documents in this collection indicate clearly and unequivocally that the Chetniks collaborated with the occupiers, both in the military and political sphere, as well as in the domain of economic activity, intelligence and propaganda...

Serbia's Union of Anti-Fascists has - on numerous occasions - protested growing falsification of history committed by Chetnik apologists who present Chetniks as "anti-fascists" who fought alongside allies.

Serbian Lobbying and Medal for a Fascist

Draza Mihailovic was the only NAZI fascist to be awarded the Legion of Merit for his "contribution" to the Allied victory. So, how did he receive this medal? According to the respected British historian and world renowned scholar of Balkan history, Dr. Marko Attila Hoare, quote:

Mihailovic continued his opportunistic game of seeking to collaborate with both Axis and Allies. In this context, he assisted the US airborne evacuation of about two-hundred and fifty airmen from Chetnik territory in August 1944. This simply meant that the Chetniks allowed the Americans to use their airstrip for the evacuation - scarcely a particularly heroic action - while at the same time, Mihailovic sent a delegation along with the departing US planes in a fruitless effort to win back Allied support. Yet it was for the rescue of US airmen that Mihailovic would posthumously receive the Legion of Merit. On other occasions, however, Mihailovic’s Chetniks rescued German airmen and handed them over safely to the German armed forces - were he so inclined, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could follow Washington’s example and decorate Mihailovic for saving the lives of his country’s servicemen. Yet none of Mihailovic’s intrigues saved him or his Chetnik movement from destruction at the hands of the victorious Partisans: the revolution in the western Balkans - Europe’s second and last successful Communist revolution - succeeded thanks to British and American military intervention, which enabled the reestablishment of Yugoslavia. This is a fact that Milosevic’s left-wing supporters usually prefer not to mention. The Left Revisionists, November 2003]

Draza Mihailovich's apologists like to point out that: "an independent American commission concluded in 1946, these Allied airmen were instructed by their American and British superiors to look for any signs of collaboration, they were given freedom of movement by Mihailovic forces, and yet not one of these hundreds testified of Mihailović collaboration with the Axis."

In fact, this was far from so called "independent American commission" and the medal for Nazi collaborator Draza Mihajlovic was result of intensive lobbying by Serbian-Americans who were part of Chetnik forces. These included Lieutenant Nick Nikola Lalich (an American of Serbian heritage), Captain George Musulin (also an American of Serbian heritage), Pro-Serbian US Army Colonel Robert H. McDowell (friend of Nikola Lalich) and Ruth Mitchell, the sister of the late Gen. William (Billy) Mitchell. They lobbied for Draza Mihajlovich's medal, and he got it as a result of their lobbying, and as a result of testimonies of many other pro-Serb oriented members of Chetnik forces who emigrated as "refugees" to the USA and other countries to avoid prosecution for war crimes.

PHOTO: In the Ranger Mission, the U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert H. McDowell "with the help of Lieutenant Nick Lalich" (Nikola Lalich, an American of Serbian heritage), gathered intelligence on Nazi troop movements and wrote a report on Draza's Chetniks movement. McDowell wrote a report that he "never saw any type of collaboration between Mihailovich and the Germans", however the photo of Draza Mihailovich and pro-Serbian US Army Lt. Col. McDowell with Ustasha's and German Nazis was recorded in this photograph taken at Dvori near Bijeljina, September 28 1944. 1) Draza Mihailovich, 2) Pro-Serbian US Army Colonel Robert H. McDowell (friend of Nikola Lalich, an American of Serbian origin who fought in Draza Mihailovich's Chetniks), and 3) Mustafa Mulalic and a group of Ustashas. Source: Web Archive - the Trial of Dragoljub Draza Mihailovich 1946.

Allies confirm Chetnik NAZI Collaboration

At first, the western Allies had viewed the Chetniks as the core of the resistance movements in Yugoslavia against the invaders. But reports from British parachutists who had joined the fighting forces in Yugoslavia began to reach the West, indicating that the Chetniks' policy was to fight the anti-fascist Partisans under Josip Broz Tito, rather than the Germans and their allies. Consequently, the attitude of the western Allies underwent a change in the second half of 1942, and they switched their aid to the Partisans who were fighting the German enemy. By the end of 1943, the break beetween the west and the Chetniks was complete. The Chetniks had become collaborators and joined the forces fighting the Partisans.

The first experiments in mass executions of camp inmates by poison gas were carried out in Serbia. Serbia was the first country to proudly declare itself "Judenfrei" ("cleansed" of Jews) The long concealed Historical Archives in Belgrade reveal that Banjica, a concentration camp located in Belgrade, was primarily staffed by Serbs.

As Dr Hoare points in his article "Adding Insult to Injury: Washington Decorates a Nazi Collaborator," quote:

According to Israel Gutman’s Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, “There were many instances of Chetniks murdering Jews or handing them over to the Germans”.... The sixtieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany is not, one might imagine, the time when one would expect the US government to decorate Nazi collaborators. But one would be wrong. Last month, a delegation of US war-veterans posthumously presented the Legion of Merit to Serbia’s General Dragoljub ‘Draza’ Mihailovic, leader of the ‘Chetnik’ movement during World War II; a convicted war-criminal and Nazi collaborator. The award was originally made to Mihailovic in 1948, two years after his execution by the Yugoslav authorities. Yet it is only now that the US has decided to hand over the award to Mihailovic’s daughter. It is as if the US had chosen the anniversary of VE day to present an award to Marshal Petain, or to the Dutch policemen who arrested Anne Frank. The US action has provoked sharp protests from Croatians, Bosnians and Kosovars. To understand this bizarre decision, the tangled threads leading up to it require some untangling.

After War Attempts to Rewrite History

In the late 1980s, with the blessing of Slobodan Milosevic, a group of Serbs organized the Serbian Jewish Friendship Society, which has propagandized endlessly about Serbia's 'Holocaust decency.' The attempts to rewrite history in Nazi Chetnik favor had limited success.

In conjunction with the war in former Yugoslavia, Serbia has undertaken a campaign to persuade the Jewish community of Serbian friendship for Jews (the Serbian Jewish Friendship Society). This same campaign portrays Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats (Catholics) as a common threat to both Jews and Serbs, in an attempt to gain Jewish sympathy and support at a time when most nations have isolated Serbia as a Balkan pariah. However, even as Serbia courts Jewish public opinion, their propagandists conceal a history of well-ingrained antisemitism, which continues unabated in 1992. To make their case, Serbs portray themselves as victims in the Second World War, but conceal the systematic genocide that Serbs had committed against several peoples including the Jews. Thus Serbs have usurped as propaganda the Holocaust that occurred in neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia, but do not give an honest accounting of the Holocaust as it occurred in Serbia.

During four centuries of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, the Jewish communities of Serbia enjoyed religious tolerance, internal autonomy, and equality before the law, that ended with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Serbian state. Soon after a Serbian insurrection against Turkish rule in 1804, Jews were expelled from the interior of Serbia and prohibited from residing outside of Belgrade. In 1856 and 1861, Jews were further prohibited from travel for the purpose of trade. In official correspondence from the late 19th century, British diplomats detailed the cruel treatment of the Jews of Serbia, which they attributed to religious fanaticism, commercial rivalries, and the belief that Jews were the secret agents of the Turks. Article 23 of the Serbian constitution granted equality to every citizen but Article 132 forbade Jews the right of domicile. The Treaty of Berlin 1878, which formally established the Serbian state, accorded political and civil equality to the Jews of Serbia, but the Serbian Parliament resisted abolishing restrictive decrees for another 11 years. Although the legal status of the Jewish community subsequently improved, the view of Jews as an alien presence persisted.

Although Serbian historians contend that the persecution of the Jews of Serbia was entirely the responsibility of Germans and began only with the German occupation, this is self- serving fiction. Fully six months before the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, Serbia had issued legislation restricting Jewish participation in the economy and university enrolment. One year later on 22 October 1941, the rabidly antisemitic "Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibit" opened in occupied Belgrade, funded by the city of Belgrade. The central theme was an alleged Jewish-Communist-Masonic plot for world domination. Newspapers such as Obnova (Renewal) and Nasa Borba (Our Struggle) praised this exhibit, proclaiming that Jews were the ancient enemies of the Serbian people and that Serbs should not wait for the Germans to begin the extermination of the Jews. A few months later, Serbian authorities issued postage stamps (see picture bellow) commemorating the opening of this popular exhibit. These stamps, which juxtaposed Jewish and Serbian symbols, portrayed Judaism as the source of world evil and advocated the humiliation and violent subjugation of Jews.

Serbia as well as neighboring Croatia was under Axis occupation during the Second World War. Although the efficient destruction of Serbian Jewry in the first two years of German occupation has been well documented by respected sources, the extent to which Serbia actively collaborated in that destruction has been less recognized. The Serbian government under General Milan Nedic worked closely with local Nazi officials in making Belgrade the first "Judenfrei" city of Europe. As late as 19 September 1943, Nedic made an official visit to Adolf Hitler, Serbs in Berlin advanced the idea that the Serbs were the "Ubermenchen" (master race) of the Slavs.

PHOTO: Serbian Nazi Chetnik Milan Nedic and Adolph Hitler meeting, September 19 1943.

Although the Serbian version of history portrays wartime Serbia as a helpless, occupied territory, Serbian newspapers of the period offer a portrait of intensive collaboration. In November 1941, Mihajlo Olcan, a minister in Nedic's government boasted that "Serbia has been allowed what no other occupied country has been allowed and that is to establish law and order with its own armed forces". Indeed, with Nazi blessings, Nedic established the Serbian State Guard, numbering about 20,000, compared to the 3,400 German police in Serbia. Recruiting advertisements for the Serb police force specified that "applicants must have no Jewish or Gypsy blood". Nedic's second in command was Dimitrije Ljotic, founder of the Serbian Fascist Party and the principal Fascist ideologist of Serbia. Ljotic organized the Serbian Volunteers Corps, whose primary function was rounding up Jews, Bosniaks, Gypsies, and partisans for execution. Serbian citizens and police received cash bounties for the capture and delivery of Jews.

Jews are, according to Serbian Chetnik Dimitrije Ljotic, a cursed people. In his views, there are 4 methods the Jews have of ruling over other nations and the whole world, which include: Capitalism, Democracy, Freemasonry, and Marxism. He openly called for action against Jews because they were, in his opinion, the most cynical and dangerous opponents of Christian values.

The Serbian Orthodox Church openly collaborated with the Nazis, and many priests publicly defended the persecution of the Jews. On 13 August 1941, approximately 500 distinguished Serbs signed "An Appeal to the Serbian Nation", which called for loyalty to the occupying Nazis. The first three signers were bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 30 January 1942, Metropolitan Josif, the acting head of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, officially prohibited conversions of Jews to Serbian Orthodoxy, thereby blocking a means of saving Jewish lives. At a public rally, after the government Minister Olcan "thanked God that the enormously powerful fist of Germany had not come down upon the head of the Serbian nation" but instead "upon the heads of the Jews in our midst", the speaker of these words was then blessed by a high-ranking Serbian Orthodox priest.

A most striking example of Serbian antisemitism combined with historical revisionism is the case of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (1880-1956), revered as one of the most influential church leaders and ideologists after Saint Sava, founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church. To Serbs, Bishop Velimirovic was a martyr who survived torture in the Dachau prison camp. In truth he was brought to Dachau (as were other prominent European clergy), because the Nazis believed he could be useful for propaganda. There he spent approximately two months as an "Ehrenhaftling" (honour prisoner) in a special section, dining on the same food as the German officers, living in private quarters, and making excursions into town under German escort. From Dachau, this venerated Serbian priest endorsed the Holocaust, quote:

Europe is presently the main battlefield of the Jew and his father, the devil, against the heavenly Father and his only begotten Son... (Jews) first need to become legally equal with Christians in order to repress Christianity next, turn Christians into atheist, and step on their necks. All the modern European slogans have been made up by Jews, the crucifiers of Christ: democracy, strikes, socialism atheism, tolerance of all religions, pacifism, universal revolution, capitalism and communism... All this has been done with the intention to eliminate Christ... You should think about this, my Serbian brethren, and correspondingly correct your thoughts, desires and acts. (Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic: Addresses to the Serbian People--Through the Prison Window. Himmelsthur, Germany: Serbian Orthodox Eparchy for Western Europe, 1985, pp. 161-162).

Despite Serbian claims to the contrary, Germans were not alone in killing the Jews of Serbia. The long concealed Historical Archives in Belgrade reveal that Banjica, a concentration camp located in Belgrade, was primarily staffed by Serbs. Funding for the conversion of the former barracks of the Serbian 18th infantry division to a concentration, came from the municipal budget of Belgrade. The camp was divided into German and Serbian sections. From Banjica there survive death lists written entirely in Serbian in the Cyrillic alphabet. At least 23,697 victims passed through the Serbian section of this camp. Many were Jews, including at least 798 children, of whom at least 120 were shot by Serbian guards. The use of mobile gassing vans by Nazis in Serbia for the extermination of Jewish women and children has been well documented. It is less appreciated, however, that a Serbian business firm had contracted with the Gestapo to purchase these same victims cloths, which sometimes contained hidden money or jewelry in the linings. In August 1942, following the virtual liquidation of Serbia's Jews, Nedic's government attempted to claim all Jewish property for the Serbian state. In the same month, Dr. Harald Turner; the chief of the Nazi civil administration of Serbia, boasted that Serbia was the only country in which the "Jewish question" was solved. Turner himself attributed this "success" to Serbian help. Thus, 94 percent of Serbia's 16,000 Jews were exterminated, with the considerable cooperation of the Serbian government, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian State Guard, the Serbian police and the Serbian public.

Today, many Serbs proudly cite the Chetniks as a resistance force and even claim that the Chetniks were somehow allied with the United States during the Second World War, but this is simply historical revisionism. According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Chetnik resistance against the Nazis came to a complete stop as early as the end of 1941. Thereafter, the Chetnik resistance actively collaborated with the both Nazis and Fascists, and for this reason Jewish fighters found it necessary to abandon the Chetniks, in favour of Tito's Partisans. In reality, the Chetniks, dedicated primarily to the restoration of the Serbian throne and territorial expansion of the Serbian state, were the moral counterpart of Croatia's Ustatsha. Both were quintessentially genocidal; the Chetniks committed systematic genocide against Bosniaks Muslims, who, for nearly all of 500 years had lived peacefully with the Sephardic Jewish community. Under explicit orders from their leader Draze Mihajlovic, the Chetniks attempted to depopulate Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia of all non-Serbs and in the process, massacred most of the 103,000 Bosniaks who perished during the war.

The main force of Serbian Chetniks rallied around Draza Mihailovic, a 48 year-old Army officer who had been court-martialed by Nedic and who had close ties to Britain. Early in the war, Mihailovic offered some resistance to the German forces while collaborating with the Italians. By July 22, 1941, the Yugoslav Government-in-Exile in Britain announced that continued resistance was impossible. Although Mihailovic and his exiled government would maintain a fierce propaganda campaign to convince the Allies that his Chetniks were inflicting great damage to the Axis, they did little for the war effort and often openly collaborated with the Germans and Italians while fighting the Partizans. At its peak, Mihailovic's Chetniks claimed to have 300,000 troops. In fact they never numbered over 31,000.

Meanwhile, Josip Broz Tito, organized multi-ethnic resistance group, which took up the fight against the Nazis, as well as against the Ustasha's and Chetniks. The overwhelming bulk of resistance activity against German nazis occurred in Bosnia and Croatia. According to Yugoslav statistics, at the height of the war in late 1943, there were 122,000 partisans active in Croatia, 108,000 in Bosnia, and only 22,000 in Serbia. The largest proportion of Bosnian partisans were Bosniaks Muslims, who were being slaughtered by all sides.

Attempts to form a pro-Axis Bosniak division failed when the Bosniak Muslim conscripts revolted against the Germans at a training base south of Le Puy, France in September 1943. It was the only large-scale mutiny within the German army during the War.

The Bosniak-Muslim clergy in 1941 issued resolutions condemning atrocities being carried out by Ustashe and Chetniks, and condemned persecution of Jews and Serbs. Bosniaks Muslims suffered the highest per capita losses of any nationality in Yugoslavia.

Serbian Chetnik forces initially fought against the Ustashe regime, as its goal of a “Greater Serbia” was in conflict with the Ustashe's “Greater Croatia”. But the Chetniks' main enemy was the partisans, so Chetniks eventually became full-scale collaborators of the Nazis.

By February 1943 the Western Allies condemned the Chetniks as collaborators, threw their support to the Partisans and began to airdrop supplies to the Partisans. Mihailovic was executed in 1946 for treason. Ironically, his son and daughter Branko and Gordana went over to the Partisans in 1943 and both publicly supported their father's execution after the war.

While it is true that during the War, both the Partisans and pro-German Serbian-Nazi Chetniks aided Allied pilots in escaping, they did so because they were paid in gold for each one.

For years, the Serbian dominated Belgrade government has supported and trained PLO terrorists. Immediately after the murder of Leon Klinghoffer aboard the Achille Lauro in 1985, the terrorist mastermind Abu Abbas was welcomed in Belgrade. Since the late 1980's, Abu-Nidal has maintained a large terrorist infrastructure in Yugoslavia, in coordination with Libyan, Iraqi, and Yugoslav intelligence services. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, as Iraqi missiles landed in Israel, Belgrade supported its ally Iraq.

Although the Jewish community of Serbia is not currently experiencing persecution, overt expressions of Serbian antisemitism do surface in such mainstream institutions as the Serbian Orthodox Church and the official news media. The 15 January 1992 issue of the official publication of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pravoslavlje (Orthodoxy), carried an article entitled, "Jews Crucify Christ Again." In this polemic, "treacherous" and "surreptitious" Israeli politicians were said to be constrained from expressing their "pathological" hatred of Christians openly because "they know that Christian countries gave them the state." Allegedly, nuns are so frequently beaten in Israel, that one nun was actually "happy, because they only spit in her face." Only weeks later, when Russia extended diplomatic recognition to the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia, the official Yugoslav (Serbian perspective) news agency Tanjug blamed "a Jewish conspiracy" against Serbia, hauntingly reminiscent of the theme of the 1941 anti-Masonic exhibit.

The essential strategy of Serbian propaganda is to portray the spiritual kinship between Jews and Serbs as victims of the Holocaust and endangered by Croats. This concept is disseminated through the Serbian-Jewish Friendship Society, founded in Belgrade in 1988 and supported by the Serbian government. In January and February 1992, Dr. Klara Mandic, the secretary-general and principal voice of this organization, syndicated a chilling article in the North American Jewish press. This article alleged that Ankica Konjuh, an elderly Jewish woman, was tortured and murdered by "Croat extremists" in September 1991. However, even as she released this story to the press, Dr. Mandic knew that Ankica Konjuh was neither a Jew nor could have been killed by Croats. Bona-fide witnesses have testified that Ankica Konjuh, a 67 year-old Croat, was one of 240 civilians massacred by Serbian forces after the last Croat defenders were driven from the region. Moreover on 23 December 1991, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia met in Belgrade and demanded in writing that Dr. Mandic cease and desist misrepresenting Ankica Konjuh as the first Jewish victim of the war. Nevertheless, in late February 1992, when Dr. Mandic lectured at the Hillel House of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., she provided the rabbi with a copy of that misleading article, delivered without further comment. It is noteworthy that this speaking engagement was part of a tour arranged by Wise Communications, a Washington-based public relations firm representing the Serbian oil company Jugopetrol, a thinly veiled proxy for the Communist Belgrade government. Beginning with the proposition that antisemitism has never existed in Serbia, Dr. Mandic portrayed Croatia as preparing to repeat the Holocaust. She claimed to be a "Jewish leader," although Jews are distinctly absent from her constituency. Less than half a dozen Jews are actual members of her society of several thousand. She introduced herself as an "eyewitness" speaking on behalf of Croatian Jews, although since the war began, she has had no contact with any of the nine Jewish communities of Croatia. When Dr. Mandic was asked to comment on Serbian (Yugoslav Army) shelling of the synagogue of Dubrovnik, the second oldest surviving synagogue in Europe, she denied that the synagogue had ever been damaged at all. Meanwhile, the attack has been well documented by the Jewish community of Dubrovnik and the World Monument Fund.

Jewish sensitivity to the Holocaust is similarly exploited by the Jewish-Serbian Friendship Society of America (Granada Hills, California), an offshoot of Dr. Mandic's organization. Its newsletter equates the Jewish and Serbian positions during World War II, both as victims of Croats, but fails to mention Serbian complicity in the Holocaust, Serbian collaboration with the Nazis, and Serbian genocide against Croats, Gypsies, and Bosniaks Muslims. It warns of an imminent Holocaust being initiated in Croatia. A contrasting portrayal of Croatia, however, emerges from a spectrum of Croatian Jews, American Jews who have visited Croatia, and international Jewish agencies monitoring events on site. All concur that there is no state-sponsored antisemitism in Croatia; the rights of the Jewish minority are respected; and antisemitic incidents are virtually unknown. Thus, only a few dozen of the 2,000 Jews of Croatia have chosen to emigrate to Israel since the war began.

Serbia of today and Germany in World War II offer striking parallels. In 1991, Vojislav Seselj, a member of the Serbian Parliament and leader of the Serbian irregulars who call themselves Chetniks, declared, "We want no one else on our territory and we will fight for our true borders." Croats and Bosniaks in Serbian conquered regions are forced to wear red-and-white armbands, analogous to the yellow armbands worn by Jews in Serbia during the Holocaust. The stated purpose of the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats from captured regions is "ethnic cleansing." The indigenous non-Serbian populations of the invaded territories are being driven from their homes, exterminated, or imprisoned in concentration camps, to create regions of Serbian ethnic purity. Jewish community centres, synagogues, and cemeteries have been damaged and destroyed by characteristically indiscriminate Serbian artillery attacks. To all of this, the Jewish-Serbian Friendship Society has remained conspicuously silent.

Belgrade has promoted the myth of Serbian kinship with the Jews as fellow victims of Nazi oppression, while concealing the true extent of Serbian collaboration with the Nazis. It is ironic that Serbia is now seeking Jewish support for a war in which both the idealogy and methodology so tragically echo nazism. The European Community, the Helsinki Commission, the United Nations, and the United States have all condemned Serbia as the aggressor. Western diplomats have characterized the current Serbian regime as "a lying, terrorist criminal organization." Serbia, however, claims to be the victim and campaigns for Jewish sympathy and support, exploiting the powerful symbolism of the Holocaust. Serbia's professed solicitude for the Jewish people must be reexamined.

DARKO TRIFUNOVIC: SREBRENICA GENOCIDE DENIER

Update: "You may ask again Dr. Trifunovic to clarify why he was expelled from the diplomatic service of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001. (only after expulsion he became self proclaimed expert on terrorism writing mostly against Bosnia and Herzegovina) ..." - commented by Edin.

PHOTO: Darko Trifunovic, disgraced Srebrenica genocide denier and falsifier of history, in this undated photo. Courtesy New York -based Bosnjaci.net Magazine.

Srebrenica genocide denial is the most dangerous obstacle to the lasting peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and yet - it is a 'weapon' of choice for hate-mongerers. One of them is Darko Trifunovic who likes to think of himself as a "terrorism expert" or "specialist in terrorism and security studies" and is obsessed with only one specific kind of terrorism: "Islamic terrorism." However, a closer look at his activities reveals that he is far from being expert on anything, and can most accurately be described as a fringe conspiracy theorist and disgraced denier and justifier of Genocide in Srebrenica - nothing more, nothing less.

Tip: As an alternative to inaccurate, out-dated, and out-of-context taken analysis of Srebrenica victims' numbers used by deniers, please read our Frequently Asked Questions, including Srebrenica Numbers (Quick Facts), and DNA Analysis from the ICMP.

Mr Trifunovic's manufactured stories about "Islamic terrorism in Bosnia-Herzegovina" and his obsession with Islamic terrorism in general is rather biased and one-sided; he conveniently avoids to acknowledge judgments against the Serb terrorists (Generals Stanislav Galic and Dragomir Milosevic) who were sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal to lengthy prison sentences for terrorism that claimed lives of 12,000 citizens of Sarajevo - including 1,500 Sarajevo children. In the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serb side was responsible for 85% of the crimes, but that doesn't stop Mr Trifunovic from falsifying facts, manufacturing stories, and justifying genocidal crimes of former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (see Radovan Karadzic and Srebrenica Genocide).

The Association of Bosniaks in the Netherlands has reacted angrily at Mr Trifunovic's denials of Srebrenica genocide and has encouraged survivors of genocide to file a lawsuit against Mr Trifunovic. Srebrenica genocide denial is a hate crime in many European countries which Mr Trifunovic regularly visits to feed media and government officials with his hatred inspired propaganda (there is a protest letter available in the Bosnian language here).

Recently, the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), issued a letter to the organizers of the "11th European Police Congress" requesting Darko Trifunovic to be excluded from the forthcoming Congress. In this letter, CNAB stated, quote:

One of the speakers scheduled for the Panel Session “European Counterterrorism Strategies - Detection, Financing, Prosecution” is Dr. Darko Trifunovic from Belgrade. The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB)... is sternly protesting to the organizers of the 11th Congress, requesting that Dr. Darko Trifunovic is excluded from the forthcoming Congress.... Dr. Trifunovic is the author of the scandalous “Report About Case Srebrenica Case (the first part)”... which he conveniently omitted from his Congress' biography.

Of course, Darko Trifunovic ommitted this information from his "biography" attempting to hide his Srebrenica genocide denial background. His report was discredited as a fraudulent attempt to deny the facts and was rejected by the international courts and by the Office of the the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the letter, CNAB explains, quote:

On the page 34. of that report, Trifunovic concludes his 'analysis' of the number of Bosniak men and boys who disappeared during the events surrounding the Bosnian Serb take-over of the United Nations ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica with the 'finding' that Armed Forces of the Republic of Srpska (VRS) might have executed only less than 100 of "Muslim soldiers".

Moreover, Trifunovic went even further with his Srebrenica genocide denial and justification of killings by concluding that, quote:

As a consequence, the remaining figure in the missing list would be the number of Muslims soldiers who were executed by Bosnian Serb forces for personal revenge or for simple ignorance of the international law. It would probably stand less than 100.

As an alternative to Darko Trifunovic's make-belief stories, one might read Srebrenica Genocide Questions and Answers: Responding to the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, containing factual judgments from the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague, the International Court of Justice, and other credible sources. Of course, Mr Trifunovic conveniently avoids acknowledging judicial facts issued by the highest international courts.

There you have it. Darko Trifunovic's techniques of attempting to present himself as credible individual seem rather childish, because no survivor of genocide will sit quiet while Mr Trifunovic is humiliating victims of Srebrenica genocide. As a conspiracy theorist by occupation, Mr Trifunovic should know better, and he should start disclosing "full resume" about his background. As CNA rightfully protested, quote:

It is mind-boggling that such an 'expert' in, and proponent of, the genocide denial and the psychological warfare of hate mongering could have been invited to speak to European policemen, interior and justice ministers, members of parliaments about the “European Counterterrorism Strategies". He who himself is an 'expert' defender of Serbian terrorism of violating all applicable international conventions.... He is part of the notorious Belgrade state-security apparatus and locales, admitted even by the Serbian Government members to be behind Serbia's active violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Mladic in Belgrade etc.). With other readily available details about his other extremist activities and involvements, one has to ask: what is the real agenda here?

But, a closer look at Darko Trifunovic, as well as people and institutions he associate himself with, reveals even more disturbing picture.

He works at the University of Belgrade (Faculty of Security Studies), and the official website of this Faculty features Srebrenica genocide denial links prominently displayed on its front page. For historical reasons, we have made a screenshot of their web site (see on the left) just in case they change their links in the meantime. Judging from the links promoted on their web site, we can only show our disgust at what these "academics" teach students in Serbia. It seems little has changed in Serbia in terms of extremist propaganda being promoted and thaught on Belgrade universities. No wonder Slobodan Milosevic's propaganda is still active (see example of Serbs misusing photos of Srebrenica genocide mass graves by portraying them as mass graves of Serbs), which is the propaganda of the sickest dimensions.

One of the featured links at the Mr Trifunovic's "Faculty" is (not surprisingly) "The International Strategic Studies Association" - a global group of conspiracy theorists (also on record as Srebrenica genocide deniers and justifiers) who are trying to present themselves as highly skilled "terrorism experts" and "media analysts." They even designated Darko Trifunovic as their Serbian representative. These kinds of obscure occupations, not requiring any education or diploma, are favorite choice for opinionists attempting to gain credibility, e.g. Srebrenica genocide deniers Edward S. Herman and David Peterson enjoy refering to themselves as "media analysts," while another Srebrenica genocide denier - Milivoje Ivanisevic - liked to think of himself as a "researcher" and "statistician." Even Holocaust denier David Irving enjoyed refering to himself as a "historian" (more on him ad Deborah Lipstadt's blog). There you have it.

Darko Trifunovic's propaganda is not confined only to the walls of the Faculty of Begrade and Serbia's government institutions. His manufactured stories about the "Islamic terrorism in Bosnia" and the Srebrenica genocide denial go well beyond the walls of this disgraced "Faculty".

He is also actively involved with the Serbian Unity Congress lecturing "Serbian Caucus Congressmen" about individual crimes committed by Croats and Bosniaks. Of course, Mr Trifunovic failed to mention that the Serb side was responsible for 85% of the crimes in 1992-95 Bosnian war, as well as the fact that only Serb side committed genocide. Mr Trifunovic conveniently left that fact out.

Mr Trifunovic has been also feeding his stories to the various government agencies, or "strategic partners" which include (as noted on the "Faculty's" web site): Serbia's Army, Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Serbia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Serbia's Security Information Agency, and also to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska. He

As CNAB noted in the letter: "Being such hate monger and denier of aggression and genocide, culturocide, ecocide, ethnocide, urbicide and elitocide, his place is with those who deny Holocaust and other war crimes - behind the bars, and not on the same podium with European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Franco Frattini. It would be a mockery."

We suggest a different approach - let him "blow the wind;" his credibility has already been shattered in pieces by his blatant Srebrenica genocide denial. He has done irreparable damage to himself and to the people he claims to represent.

JUSTICE FOR 1,500 KILLED CHILDREN; 12,000 CIVILIANS IN SARAJEVO

SERB GEN. DRAGOMIR MILOSEVIC GETS 33 YEARS FOR TERROR CAMPAIGN AGAINST SARAJEVO CITIZENS

At least 12,000 civilians including 1,500 children were killed during the 44-month siege of Sarajevo - the longest siege in the history of modern warfare - one of the worst atrocities in Europe since the Second World War.

On December 12th 2007, Serb General Dragomir Milosevic was sentenced to 33 years in prison for the shelling and terrorism campaign (all 5 counts of terror) against Sarajevo and its citizens from August 1994 to late 1995.

PHOTO: Former Bosnian Serb Gen. Dragomir Milosevic enters the courtroom of the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday Dec. 12, 2007. Milosevic was convicted of orchestrating months of deadly shelling and sniping to spread terror during the siege of Sarajevo in 1994 and 1995 and sentenced to 33 years.

Both Markale Massacres Committed by the Serb Army

Despite overhelming evidence against the Serb side, their propaganda has for a long time claimed that Sarajevo citizens bombed themselves to gain world sympathy and get the Bosnian-Serb army 'in trouble'; Serbs even claimed that the markale market massacre in Sarajevo was "staged".

The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague highlighted the Markale Market massacre of 28 August 1995, which killed 34 civilians and wounded 78 civilians, as one of the most horrendous Serb terror campaigns against Sarajevo citizens. The Trial Chamber found that the markale market was shelled by the Bosnian Serb army. It rejected the defence’s argument that the shelling of the markale market was a staged event by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH).

The shell landed near Mesuda Klaric and her husband, Ismet. As she regained consciousness, her husband told her: "I lost my arm," according to the judgment. Rescuers pushed her into a car next to a girl whose foot had been blown off and put her husband — who also had lost a foot — in the trunk. He was rushed into surgery but did not survive, Klaric told judges during the trial.

"One of the police officers who investigated the incident described what he saw as 'the last, deepest circle of Dante's Hell,'" judges wrote.

Back in 2005, another Serb General - Stanislav Galic - was also found guilty of terrorizing Sarajevo including the responsibility for an earlier massacre that happened at the same place, 1994 Markale Market massacre in Sarajevo. The judge said that prosecutors proved beyond reasonable doubt 18 of the 26 sniping incidents they charged and all five of the shellings. That included the 1994 Sarajevo marketplace shelling in which 68 people were killed and more than 100 injured.

Also back in 1999, the the United Nations Report also concluded that Serb Army was responsible for the markale market massacre in Sarajevo (copy of U.N. Report).

Guilty as Charged; Used Modified Air Bombs

Dragomir Milosevic was found guilty of crimes against humanity and of a violation of the laws or customs of war. He was convicted on all five counts of terror, murder and inhumane acts conducted during a campaign of sniping and shelling which resulted in the injury and death of at least 12,000 Sarajevo citizens including 1,500 children in the besieged Bosnian capital.

In its summary of the judgement, the Trial Chamber found that it was under Milosevic’s command of the Bosnian Serb Army that illegal modified air bombs were deployed, noting that these were “….inaccurate and served no military purpose.”

The Trial Chamber found that Milosevic “….abused his position and that he, through his orders, planned and ordered gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian law. Moreover, the Accused made regular use of a highly inaccurate weapon with great explosive power: the modified air bomb.”

The Trial Chamber considered the repeated use of this weapon to be an aggravating factor in reaching its judgement stating that by using modified air bombs, Milosevic was playing with the lives of the civilians of Sarajevo.

"The evidence discloses a horrific tale of the encirclement and entrapment of a city," said Judge Patrick Robinson.

Alma Cutuna was one victim highlighted in the verdict. Shrapnel grazed her head and a sniper's bullet severed an artery in her leg as she stood on a crowded tram in Sarajevo. The high-powered rifles of Bosnian Serb sharpshooters were supposed to be stilled by a cease-fire on that day, Oct. 8, 1994. But at noon, as the tram slowed to negotiate an S-shaped curve near the Holiday Inn on the street known as Sniper Alley, shots rang out. One person was killed and 11 were wounded, including children shot while running near the tram. Emergency surgery saved Cutuna's life.

Reactions from Survivors of Serb Terrorism

Sarajevo resident Dzemail Cilas, 63, said Milosevic deserved an even harsher sentence. "It's not enough," he said.

"All those people killed, the children ... and he ordered it. He should have received a life sentence, just to drag his soul through life till the end."

Dragomir "Milosevic was found guilty. Justice has been served, and victims can be satisfied," said Senida Carovic, the head of an association of civilian victims of the siege.

"However, no sentence is appropriate for what he has done. It cannot bring back our dead or our limbs," she said.

In spite of her relief, Carovic said that judges should have handed Milosevic the same life sentence as was given to his predecessor, former general Stanislav Galic.

"Milosevic only continued what Galic had started and therefore he should serve the same sentence," she said.

Witnesses described feeling like "sitting ducks" or "clay pigeons" as they travelled by tram along a major road of Sarajevo nicknamed "sniper alley".

Related documents:
- Serb Generals sentenced for terrorizing Sarajevo, ICTY Judgments:
1. Trial Chamber Judgement, MILOSEVIC, Dragomir (IT-98-29/1) "Sarajevo"
2. Trial Chamber Judgment, GALIC, Stanislav (IT-98-29) "Sarajevo"
3. Appeals Chamber Judgment, GALIC, Stanislav (IT-98-29) "Sarajevo"
4. Excerpts from "The Fall of Srebrenica", 54th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (15 November 1999)

HOLOCAUST WAS GENOCIDE, TOO

KEEPING FACTS IN PERSPECTIVE

Our friends at the United States Holocaust Museum's Conscience Committee have recently revised the description on their page commemorating "an exhibition of photos documenting the murders of 7,800 Bosnian men and boys on the tenth anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica." (page link)

They even contacted our blog to let us know of these changes (see here) and asked us to update these changes at our 'What We're Reading' page. We welcome the changes they made and we believe they were necessary.

Here is an excerpt of the original description published at the United States Holocaust Museum's web site, quote:

Murdering individuals solely on the basis of their ethnic identities [in Srebrenica], it has been called the largest single massacre in Europe since the end of World War II. Significantly, it is the first time in history that genocide has been found to have occurred in Europe.

Here is an excerpt of the revised description published at the United States Holocaust Museum's web site, quote:

It has been called the largest single massacre in Europe since the end of World War II, and is the only incident in Europe that has been judged by an international criminal court to have been genocide (the crime did not exist before 1948).

There are two important facts to understand. First, the Srebrenica genocide was the first legally established case of genocide in Europe. Second, the Holocaust was also a genocide, but unfortunately at the time of Nuremberg trials, the crime of genocide did not legally exist. Nevertheless, the Holocaust was a genocide; it was a combination of genocides that resulted in the destruction of Jewish people in Europe and it is important that people remember this fact.

You can read the transcript of the revised description statement at this page - Abandoned at Srebrenica: 10 years later (the article was originally published on July 11 2005 commemorating 10th anniversary of Srebrenica genocide).

And let us not forget that the term Genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar in 1943. In the wake of The Holocaust, Lemkin successfully campaigned for the universal acceptance of international laws defining and forbidding genocide.

This was achieved in 1948, with the promulgation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The CPPCG was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and came into effect on 12 January 1951 (Resolution 260 (III)).

It contains an internationally-recognized definition of genocide which was incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also adopted by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) [which also ruled Srebrenica massacre constituted genocide in a case of Bosnia vs. Serbia].

SREBRENICA NUMBERS (QUICK FACTS)

Page last updated: 9 July 2010.

Some forty-thousand [40,000] Bosniaks were targeted for extinction in Srebrenica, according to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (source). More than 8,000 were executed, while approximately 30,000 were forcibly expelled from the enclave in a massive scale ethnic cleansing campaign.

The most up to date research results come from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). Of 8,372 victims of the Srebrenica genocide, who died in July of 1995, 6481 have been identified through DNA forensic technology conducted by the ICMP. However, the ICMP's analysis of blood-samples support an estimate of 8,100 victims killed in July 1995.