RICHARD HOLBROOKE & ELIE WIESEL
TWO JEWS THAT STOOD UP AGAINST GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA
Richard Holbrooke and Elie Wiesel
Richard Holbrooke and Elie Wiesel
Contrary to public opinion, but Richard Holbrooke indeed fought hard to put an end to the genocide in Bosnia. A little known fact is that another Jewish activist and a former Holocaust survivor Ellie Wiesel also directly called upon Bill Clinton to get involved and stop the bloodshed. He did that at the opening ceremony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington. USHMM is one of the most respected cultural and educational institutions in the world. They have also devoted their resources to raise the awareness about 1995 Srebrenica genocide in which Serbs targeted for extinction 40,000 Bosnian Muslims. Approximately 30,000 Bosniaks were forcibly expelled from their homes, while more than 8,000 Bosniaks were summarily killed, dumped in the mass graves, and then relocated to secondary mass graves in an attempt o hide the crime.
Please take a look at the following two segments taken from CNN's "Scream Bloody Murder" and hosted by a distinguished and highly respected journalist - Christiane Amanpour.
Please take a look at the following two segments taken from CNN's "Scream Bloody Murder" and hosted by a distinguished and highly respected journalist - Christiane Amanpour.
PART 1 (Richard Holbrooke was there when it mattered)
[ Watch this part in full ]
[ Watch this part in full ]
PART 2 (Elie Wiesel's call to Clinton to stop the bloodshed)
[ From 00:34 to 1:30 minutes ]
[ From 00:34 to 1:30 minutes ]
posted by Srebrenica Genocide at 9:42 PM
3 Comments:
The truly tragic part of it all is that once the United States finally committed to action, was how quickly the conflict was brought to a conclusion. Within three weeks, the combination Federation offensive and NATO air campaign shattered the VRS and ended the war.
Odds are had that been undertaken in 1992, the campaign would have ended with similar speed. In 1992, tens of thousands of Serbs had not yet compromised themselves by engaging in war crimes, they had less to fight in terms of land and less fear of revenge. A workable Bosnian state probably would emerged and the violence of the early days would have been quickly forgotten.
Of course, Bush Sr. couldn't be bothered to even understand what was going on, while Colin Powell was his mendacious self in dodging any obligation or order to intervene to stop genocide.
Any word on the Ejup Ganic situation? Serbia has tried, multiple times, to extradite Agim Ceku for supposed atrocities in Kosovo, but he's been released as a result of "UNMIK" pressure (more likely American and EU pressure). Is this like Ceku, going to be a dog and pony show for the Serbian right, or are they seriously pushing to try him?
Couple of stories - Sanela Jenkins Catic is apparently providing the two hundred thousand pounds bail, Margaret Thatcher (friend of Ganic) is providing team of lawyers. The High Court will be hearing an appeal from the Westminster Magistrates Court bail refusal today, release on bail expected (but same was supposed to happen yesterday).
If the UK is to send him anywhere I would have thought it should be to the jurisdiction of the alleged crime, ie BiH.
Very difficult to work out what is going on. My suspicion is that at the heart of it is a UK govt ploy to show "toughness" on "war crimes" in order to divert criticism concerning the attempt to change the law and stop UK campaigning groups obtaining magistrates' court warrants for arrest of visitors like Tzipi Livni on war crimes charges (incidentally Westminster MC issued the warrant that caused TL to cancel her last visit).
There may also be an element of giving Tadic a helping hand in rounding up support for the parliamentary resolution. But no clear indication of action based on principle.
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