RICHARD L. KENT, MAN OF HONOR AND INTEGRITY

Every once in a while, our blog features extraordinary individuals who do not shy away when it comes to standing against the genocide denial. One of those extraordinary people is Richard L. Kent, Esq., an attorney in general practice in Eastpointe, Michigan. He is intimately connected to Bosnia, and more so to Srebrenica.

Richard spent most of the year 2000 as a peacekeeper on deployment in Bosnia with the Maryland Guard, followed by a tour of a year and a half (2000-2002) as a civilian assistant to the U.S. command in Tuzla. He was a Deputy Political Advisor to the Commanding General, Multinational Division (North), Peace Stabilization Force (SFOR), Tuzla, Bosnia.

Here is what Richard L. Kent, Esq., wrote as a response to genocide deniers:

"I am here to speak the truth: and that truth is that the Srebrenica massacre is an actual event: a crime of world historical importance for it showed that WW2 style atrocities are still possible even in Europe today. It was, as the UN, the World Court, and the ICTY found, a war crime, a mass slaughter in contravention to the laws and customs of war–a crime against all humanity. It was so serious a matter to the government of the Netherlands (whose troops failed to prevent the slaughter) that, when their report on the subject was published in April 2002, the entire Dutch government resigned. Furthermore, on November 10, 2004, RS President Dragan Čavić publicly admitted what had happened at Srebrenica and apologized.

The Srebrenica massacre as history is firmly established. Furthermore the ICTY, affirmed by the World Court, has found the events there to constitute an act of 'genocide' under the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by which the parties were bound. The Convention, art 2., defines genocide, as '...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [or] (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.'

That the victims were almost entirely Bosniac has been irrefutably established by DNA identification of most of the dead and there is no doubt they were shot because they were Bosniac. There is also no question that shooting them constitutes 'serious bodily harm.' The shootings were 'deliberately inflict[ed].' And the children (and their mothers) there were forcibly transferred out of the region to make the Srebrenica region Bosniac-free. Therefore, as a legal matter genocide has been established by judicial finding. While one must not call it 'the same as the Holocaust' (a claim I don't make for many reasons) the fact that genocide happened at Srebrenica as a legal matter is not a matter of mere opinion.

To suppose that the massacre never occurred would require that we also suppose that thousands of US peacekeepers, hundreds of ICTY and ICMP investigators, the UN, World Court, the EU, the US government under three Presidents of both parties, even Secretary of State Clinton, all cooperated in grand conspiracy. This is political fantasy, 'grassy knollism' or '9/11 trutherism' for a new decade.

I acknowledge that the Srebrenica Bosniacs often raided their besiegers in the years prior to the fall of Srebrenica. Those were acts of war. Investigation shows that the number of Serbian dead in the region 1992-1995 from those were approximately 580, including some 120 civilians–not the '3000' often claimed. Furthermore, these raids are irrelevant as regards the criminal nature of the massacre. The VRS had a positive duty not to murder these men once the city fell. History shows they chose to do differently.

There are indeed those who wish you to believe that Srebrenica 'never happened,' and even if it did, 'they had it coming.' They do not wish the truth to be known and understood. I believe that if you take the time to examine the historical record you will not number yourself among them."

To read this article in full, please visit Richard's blog 
The Michigan Silverback.