SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: THE SPIRIT OF HATRED STILL LIVES ON

Minor Update: October 18, 2008.

Over 8,000 and up to 10,000 lives perished in Srebrenica Genocide, mostly men and elderly. At least 500 children were summarily executed by the Serb Army. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest U.N. court, ruled Serbia failed to prevent genocide in Srebrenica, but cleared Serbia of direct responsibility. Instead, the blame was shifted to the Bosnian Serb Government (RS) which was de facto under Slobodan Milosevic control. He even signed the Dayton Peace Agreement for them...

Although Serbs as people are not inherently evil, same cannot be said for radical and ultra-nationalist Serbian politicians and activists. It is interesting how Milosevic-era propaganda, partly inspired by the Srebrenica Genocide denier Milivoje Ivanisevic (read more), still lives on.

The second anniversary of Slobodan Milosevic's death is coming on March 11, 2008. The former president of Serbia died in a cell of the UN war crimes tribunal's detention center in The Hague two years ago. Unfortunately, his death prevented him from completing the trial and facing the judgment on 66 charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Although Milosevic is gone, his propaganda is still alive and spreading like cancer among various conspiracy theorist circles who deny Srebrenica Genocide.

Some facts Srebrenica Genocide deniers will not tell you, and we think you should know...

Serbian Propaganda About Serb Casualties Around Srebrenica

In order to justify Srebrenica genocide of 8,000 - 10,000 Bosniaks, Serbian nationalists have claimed that "over 3,000" Serb civilians were murdered around Srebrenica. The International Criminal Tribunal, Human Rights Watch, as well as B&H state-level Research and Documentation Center concluded that Serbian claims do not meet reality (read more).

Now, let's shift our attention to the document that had been carefully drafted by Slobodan Milosevic's "Yugoslav State Commission for War Crimes and Genocide" and submitted to the U.N. on June 2 1993 by a right-wing Serbian ambassador Dragomir Djokic. Here is the title of the document (note the length):

"Memorandum on War Crimes and Crimes of Genocide in Eastern Bosnia (communes of Bratunac, Skelani and Srebrenica) committed against the Serbian population from April 1992 to April 1993." (UN id # A/46/171 and S/25635) [also see: Dissecting Milosevic Propaganda]

Srebrenica genocide denial web sites have been circulating above document as "official U.N. conclusions" about alleged "Moslem terror" against Serb civilians around Srebrenica. The problem is that these Serb allegations are NOT official U.N. conclusions - as deniers tirelesly portray them. In fact, the document "A/46/171 and S/25635", does NOT contain any official U.N. conclusions. This document had been carefully drafted by Slobodan Milosevic's "Yugoslav State Commission for War Crimes and Genocide" and submitted to the U.N. on June 2 1993 by a right-wing Serbian ambassador Dragomir Djokic. The Serb allegations contained in the above document have been discredited by the United Nations War Crimes Court, Serbia's Human Rights Watch, as well as internationally backed Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo. When Djokic submitted these allegations about "Moslem terror" against "Serb civilians" to the U.N. in 1993, he conveniently avoided mentioning that Bosnian Serb forces, with full logistical support of his Government, killed about 15,000 Bosniaks in various parts of Eastern Bosnia and ethnically cleansed over 90% of predominantly Bosniak territory of Podrinje. He conveniently left that part out, because Djokic was nothing more than disposable hand of Slobodan Milosevic's propaganda machine of the 90's.

Serbian Propaganda About Srebrenica Demilitarization

Serbian nationalists justify Serb attacks on Srebrenica by claiming that Bosniaks never demilitarized in Srebrenica and that Bosniaks attacked surrounding Serb-held villages, so somehow "heroic" Serbs had to committ genocide against Bosniaks (read more). What they avoid mentioning is that the Serb Army is the one that never demilitarized around Srebrenica and that Serb villages were used as military bases from which Serb Army launched brutal attacks on the Srebrenica enclave (read more). In 1990's, Serbs had no business in even being present on a predominantly Bosniak territory of Eastern Bosnia, let alone committing genocide against innocent people.

Pro-Milosevic conspiracy theorists tirelessly point out how Bosnian defenders of Srebrenica never demilitarized, but what they don't tell you is that Serbs were the one who refused to demilitarize and they used surrounding Serb villages as military bases from which they carried attacks against Srebrenica. The Bosnian Government had entered into demilitarization agreements with the Bosnian Serbs. Shortly after, on 21 April 1993, the UNPROFOR issued press release saying that the process of demilitarization of Bosnian defenders of Srebrenica had been a success. According to the Agreement, the Serbs should withdraw their heavy weapons before the Bosniaks gave up their weapons. The Serbs never honored their part of agreement. Instead, Serb military and paramilitary troops continued using surrounding Serb villages as military bases for attacks on (and brutal siege of) Srebrenica (read more).

Serbian Propaganda About Gen Ratko Mladic's Compassion

Srebrenica genocide deniers also like to point out how humane Gen Ratko Mladic was to "save" Bosniak women and children, but they fail to mention that "heroic" Serb Army under his leadership slaughtered at least 500 Bosniak children after the fall of Srebrenica (read more) and forcibly expelled (ethnically cleansed) thousands of Bosniak civilians from Srebrenica with many women being violently raped.

Serbian Propaganda About Srebrenica Mass Graves

Recently, Serbian nationalist newspaper "Glas Javnosti"- known by its extreme radical rhetoric and publishings of Srebrenica genocide denial material - went one step further in its fascist propaganda by misusing photos of Bosniak Srebrenica genocide mass graves and portraying them as mass graves of Serb victims of the so called "Muslim-Croat terror" (read more).

Serbian Propaganda About Markale Market Massacres

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".

Five mortar rounds landed in a crowded area of downtown Sarajevo on 28 August 1995 (Markale Massacre 2). Four of the rounds caused only minimal material damage; one round, however, landed in the Markale marketplace, the scene of a similar attack on 5 February 1994 (Markale Massacre 1). Thirty-seven people, most of them civilians, were killed in and around the marketplace, and approximately 90 were injured. A confidential report to the UNPROFOR Commander concluded that the five rounds had been fired from the Serb-held area of Lukavica, to the west of Sarajevo. The secrecy surrounding the UNPROFOR investigation into this incident gave rise to speculation, fueled by the Serbs, that there was doubt as to which side had fired the mortar rounds. A review of United Nations documentation, however, confirms that UNPROFOR considered the evidence clear: all five rounds had been fired by the Bosnian Serbs. To learn more about Markale Massacres, read the following articles: UN Conclussions: Markale Massacres, UN Court: Serbs Responsible, Serb Gen. Stanislav Galic Convicted on Terrorism Charges, David Harland Testimony, and another Serb General Dragoljub Milosevic Convicted for Sarajevo Terrorism.

Serbian Propaganda About Serb Children in Sarajevo Zoo

Unverified stories, presented as fact, were turned into common knowledge, for example, that Bosniaks were feeding Serb children to animals in the Sarajevo zoo. According to Renaud de la Brosse, the easier it was to fear other ethnic groups; the easier to justify their expulsion or killing:

"Another lie meant to feed the hatred of the enemy that was bandied about in the Serbian media concerned the allegation that the besieged Muslims of Sarajevo were feeding Serb children to the municipal zoo’s starving animals."

Acording to the prosecution at the ICTY trial of Milosevic, Serbian television and radio's repetitive use of pejorative descriptions, such as "Ustashe hordes", "Vatican fascists", "Mujahedin fighters", "fundamentalist warriors of Jihad", and "Albanian terrorists", became part of common usage. Two members of the Federal Security Service (KOG) testified for the Prosecution in Milosevic's trial about their involvement in Milosevic's propaganda campaign. Slobodan Lazarevic revealed alleged KOG clandestine activities designed to undermine the peace process, including mining a soccer field, a water tower and the reopened railway between Zagreb and Belgrade. These actions were blamed on Croats. The other KOG operative, Mustafa Candic, described the use of technology to fabricate conversations, making it sound as if Croat authorities were telling Croats in Serbia to leave for an ethnically pure Croatia. The conversation was broadcast following a Serb attack on Croatians living in Serbia, forcing them to flee. He testified that the propaganda war was code named "Operation Opera." He also testified to another instance of disinformation involving a television broadcast of corpses, described as Serb civilians killed by Croats. Candic testified that he believed they were in fact the bodies of Croats killed by Serbs, though this statement has not been verified. (see: Feeding the Vampire, and we also recommend EXPERT REPORT OF RENAUD DE LA BROSSE "Political Propaganda and the Plan to Create 'A State For All Serbs:' Consequences of using media for ultra-nationalist ends" in five parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5),

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