PRO-SERBIAN IAN BANCROFT DISSEMINATES HATRED
NOTE: This post was "backdated" from its original publishing date (July 29, 2012). Reason: "reports from Srebrenica anniversary deserve top attention on our blog's frontpage."
Quick Profile of Ian Bancroft of the so called 'TransConflict.'
Editorial Team OP/ED: The Srebrenica Genocide Blog -- the longest running resource representing the views of many victims and survivors of Srebrenica and Bosnia in general -- continues to offer facts and opinions that matter to all of us. From time to time, we profile extremists of all types -- some are aggressive in their views, others are extremely shy and very polite in how they approach their agenda, but they all have a common goal.
Name: Ian Bancroft.
Occupation: Founder of a dodgy outfit known as 'TransConflict'.
Goal: To politely whitewash the systematic nature of Serb war crimes by portraying the Serb side in the conflict as no different than the targeted victims.
Ian Bancroft is a discredited pro-Serbian lobbyist with a lot of hidden agenda for non-Serbs. He is the only person listed as "Staff" on his private 'TransConflict' web site, which he uses to advance interests of moral relativism by politely whitewashing the systematic nature of Serb war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bancroft's hidden agenda is to present the Serb side in a more favorable light with their victims.
He follows simple, yet appealing rhetoric of panting all sides as equally 'bad' (or rather equally 'good') and in equal need of understanding, therefore making the Serb side (various Karadzic's Mladic's, and Milosevic's) appear 'less guilty' and unjustly 'villified.' Comparing Nazis and Jews did not work in World War II and comparing Serb aggressors with their targeted Bosniak victims certainly won't work today. The Serb side was responsible for a widespread campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in pursuit of a "racial purity" within the Greater Serbia project), mass rape and the first genocide in Europe since the end of Second World War.
But according to Bancroft's relativist dogma: "The commonly employed dichotomies of war – of 'defenders' versus 'aggressors', of forces of 'good' versus those of 'evil' – are, however, always far too simplistic to capture and comprehend the inherent complexities, particularly of a civil war such as that fought in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
No, they are not 'far too simplistic', but fairly accurate. The Bosniak side did not engage in a widespread campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Serbs (the International Criminal Tribunal is clear on this) and with 70% of Bosnia-Herzegovina conquered by Serb forces, Bosniaks (the targeted victims) were indeed largely defending themselves. To add insult to the injury, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina effectively rendering the Bosniak people defenseless in the wake of heavily armed Serb attacks. According to the International Criminal Tribunal the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was not a civil war, but an international armed conflict. The Serb side -- responsible for some 90 percent of all war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina as evident from the judgements of the Hague Tribunal -- cannot be placed in the same basket as the targeted victims that absorbed the brunt of horrible war crimes.
"Less than Nothing"
In all of his writings on the internet Bancroft politely avoided using the term Genocide in connection with Srebrenica (we couldn't find any articles in which he 'explicitly' stated that Srebrenica was Genocide). Today, he finally acknowledged Genocide on his Twitter page, but only after being confronted by Daniel Toljaga, a long time advocate for Srebrenica victims.
Bancroft lashed insults for which Toljaga responded calling Bancroft "less than nothing":
He follows simple, yet appealing rhetoric of panting all sides as equally 'bad' (or rather equally 'good') and in equal need of understanding, therefore making the Serb side (various Karadzic's Mladic's, and Milosevic's) appear 'less guilty' and unjustly 'villified.' Comparing Nazis and Jews did not work in World War II and comparing Serb aggressors with their targeted Bosniak victims certainly won't work today. The Serb side was responsible for a widespread campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in pursuit of a "racial purity" within the Greater Serbia project), mass rape and the first genocide in Europe since the end of Second World War.
But according to Bancroft's relativist dogma: "The commonly employed dichotomies of war – of 'defenders' versus 'aggressors', of forces of 'good' versus those of 'evil' – are, however, always far too simplistic to capture and comprehend the inherent complexities, particularly of a civil war such as that fought in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
No, they are not 'far too simplistic', but fairly accurate. The Bosniak side did not engage in a widespread campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Serbs (the International Criminal Tribunal is clear on this) and with 70% of Bosnia-Herzegovina conquered by Serb forces, Bosniaks (the targeted victims) were indeed largely defending themselves. To add insult to the injury, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina effectively rendering the Bosniak people defenseless in the wake of heavily armed Serb attacks. According to the International Criminal Tribunal the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was not a civil war, but an international armed conflict. The Serb side -- responsible for some 90 percent of all war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina as evident from the judgements of the Hague Tribunal -- cannot be placed in the same basket as the targeted victims that absorbed the brunt of horrible war crimes.
"Less than Nothing"
In all of his writings on the internet Bancroft politely avoided using the term Genocide in connection with Srebrenica (we couldn't find any articles in which he 'explicitly' stated that Srebrenica was Genocide). Today, he finally acknowledged Genocide on his Twitter page, but only after being confronted by Daniel Toljaga, a long time advocate for Srebrenica victims.
Bancroft lashed insults for which Toljaga responded calling Bancroft "less than nothing":
Srebrenica survivor Fadil Begić also criticized Ian Bancroft:"Wow. Now you've shown your real face by resorting to insults by calling me 'disgusting' when you're less than nothing."
Bancroft's articles are readily re-published by extremist sources like the Serb-led Toronto-based "Centre for Peace in the Balkans" and he has regularly given interviews to local ultranationalist Serbian newspapers, known to actively deny genocide at Srebrenica. By actively sympathizing with the Serb side and minimizing the scope of Serb war crimes, including the refusal to brand notorious forces of various Ratko Mladic's and Milosevic's, as "aggressors", Ian Bancroft passively supports the idea of Greater Serbia -- the failed project of"racial purity"in ethnically cleansed unified 'Greater Serbia' state within the borders of new imaginary 'Serb' territories of the Balkans."by insulting individuals who advocate for Srebrenica, you are worse than any genocide denier."
posted by Srebrenica Genocide at 2:34 PM
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