MARCO VAN HEES AND ALEKSANDAR GAVRILOVIC: SREBRENICA GENOCIDE DENIERS

People Behind Dutchbat Srebrenica Genocide Denial Project: Marco Van Hees and Alexandar Gavrilovic. Plus, Two New Srebrenica Genocide Denial NGOs: Serbian Investigation Society and Historical Project Srebrenica.

PHOTO: Meet two Srebrenica genocide denial activists:
Aleksandar Gavrilovic (left) and Marco Van Hees (right).

Marco Van Hees (34), a former Dutch peacekeeper who was stationed in Srebrenica in 1995, is the driving force behind the recent Srebrenica genocide denial activism. He runs Dutchbat III web site used to twist facts and recruit like-minded activists to join him in his genocide denial evangelism [update: Dutchbat III veterans have condemned Marco Van Hees's Srebrenica genocide denial activism, read here]. As a Serbian war crimes apologist, Van Hees disagrees with what he calls "the version of events imposed by the Western mainstream media." His mother is reportedly of Serbian ethnic origin, while his father is Dutch - although we could not confirm this independently.

Recently, Marco Van Hees and 15 former Dutchbat members met with the Belgrade-based Srebrenica genocide denier, Milivoje Ivanisevic, and offered to testify on behalf of Radovan Karadzic - former Bosnian Serb leader who publicly wowed to destroy the Bosnian Muslims from the face of Earth. Activist Dutch veterans, led by Van Hees, told Ivanisevic they had to "protect themselves from the Muslims, rather than protect Muslims from the Serbs" in Srebrenica. What they failed to mention is that Serb soldiers wore Dutch helmets and disguised themselves as UN peacekeepers to trick Bosniak men and boys of Srebrenica into surrendering. Then, they killed them.

His Dutch friend of Serbian orgin, Alexandar Gavrilovic (22), recently formed the so called Serbian Investigation Society in Tilburg, Netherlands. According to Serbia's daily Vecernje Novosti, Gavrilovic's parents - originally from Cacak, Serbia - came to the Netherlands 25 years ago. The Serbian Investigation Society is NGO active in translating Milivoje Ivanisevic's genocide denial material and distributing it in the Netherlands.

“My main mission is for the people to learn the truth about suffering of Serbs, not only in the latest wars, but in the entire 20th century," Aleksandar Gavrilovic said and added that “For starters, the Society will translate into Dutch the book by Milivoj Ivanisevic, Director of the Center for Research of the crimes against the Serb nation, ‘Srebrenica, July 1995, In Search for the Truth.'"

Their friend, Stefan Karganovic (info), is not by coincidence head of the so called Historical Project Srebrenica (Istorijski Projekat Srebrenica) - another Srebrenica genocide denial NGO located in the Netherlands. He recently announced a lawsuit against the UN and Netherlands because of the alleged "suffering of the Serb population in the UN safe haven." The Serbs, who never demilitarized around Srebrenica, were not even located inside the U.N. enclave known as 'Safe Haven' of Srebrenica. Instead, they were located in ethnically cleansed Muslim villages around Srebrenica. The Serb Army used those villages around the enclave to keep Srebrenica under the brutal siege, frequently preventing humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, as well as bombarding the town and killing its civilians.

Marco Van Hees is more popularly known by his outrageous claims that "no Dutchbat soldier saw or heard of either the killing or raping of the Muslim civilians in Bosnia," a claim Srebrenica genocide survivors fiercely disagree with (read this book: The United Nations on Srebrenica's Pillar of Shame: 104 testimonies). The Dutch 'peacekeepers' cowardly abandoned the people of Srebrenica in 1995 and left disgusting material behind themselves (see photos of Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica).

In a well scripted Srebrenica genocide denial propaganda, Van Hees twists facts and effectively blames victims for genocide,"There was a lot of crime among the Muslims themselves in Srebrenica… We could see the kind of atrocities Muslims were committing against the Serbs," - he said to Serbia's Vecernje Novosti.

Of course, he conveniently fails to mention that Serb-held villages around Srebrenica were military bases from which Serbs launched daily attacks on Srebrenica. Furthermore, in three years of war, Serbs suffered 151 civilian victims around Srebrenica - a figure not even comparable to the crime of genocide their army had committed against the Bosniak population of the enclave. In fact, in 1992 ethnic cleansing campaign, Serb Army attacked Podrinje region in Eastern Bosnia and slaughtered 1000 civilians in that area alone. The campaign forced thousands of Bosniak civilians to find themselves trapped in the enclave of Srebrenica besieged by genocidal Serb forces led by Serb General Ratko Mladic - an indicted war criminal and a fugitive on the run.

According to Marco Van Hees' twisted mind of genocide denial, “There’s lots of problems with the Muslims”, but “With Serbs there are ‘no problems,'” Dutchbat veteran said to Serbian Vecernje Novosti daily.

Srebrenica genocide resulted in the summary executions of 8,000 Bosniaks, including at last 500 children, and forcible deportations of thousands of women and children. Women would not be spared, but Serbs were sensitive to the public opinion so they opted for forcible deportations instead (read more here) - as concluded by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague.