KRSTIC: GENOCIDE CONVICT TRANSFERED FROM BRITISH PRISON TO HAGUE

PHOTO: Gen. Radislav Krstic with the
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in 1992.

We learn from sources close to the Hague Tribunal that General Radislav Krstic -- convicted for his involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide -- has been transferred from the British prison to the ICTY detention unit in Scheveningen, Netherlands.

He was complaining that food, accommodation and security at the British prison were bad. In May of 2010, he was attacked and, allegedly, his throat was slashed (some sources reported it was only a minor cut). The Hague Tribunal will try to find another prison for him.

General Radislav Krstic is a monster. Instead of being hanged like Nazi war criminals, the Hague Tribunal is doing everything they can to accommodate the needs and comfort of this monster.

In July 1995, the Army of Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina's intelligence units intercepted Krstic ordering the killings of Srebrenica men and boys. In the intercept, Krstic stated that "Single one must not be left alive!". Krstic's instructions to his troops echoed the order that Radovan Karadzic gave to Miroslav Deronjic, "Miroslav, they must all be killed... All and every one you find there."

Here is the excerpt from the Krstic intercept:

General Krstic: Are you working down there? [executing men and boys]

Major Obrenovic: Of course we're working.

General Krstic: Good.

Major Obrenovic: We've managed to catch a few more, either by gunpoint or in mines.

General Krstic: Kill them all, God damn it!

Major Obrenovic: Everything is going according to a plan.

General Krstic: Single one must not be left alive.

Major Obrenovic: Everything is going according to a plan. Everything.

General Krstic: Way to go, chief. The Turks are probably listening to us. Let them listen, the mother-f-----s. (Turks is a derrogative name for Bosnian Muslims)

MLADIC PRESENT DURING THE ORAHOVAC MASSACRE

In his evidence at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a witness testifying under the pseudonym KDZ 039 described the three days he spent in detention in Potocari and Bratunac and an execution in Orahovac on 14 July 1995. The indictment against Radovan Karadzic alleges that about 1,000 Bosniaks captured after the fall of Srebrenica were killed in the incident. When the sun set, the execution continued under the headlights of backhoes, the witness recounted.



SENSE TRIBUNAL — With the evidence of a witness testifying under the pseudonym KDZ 039, the prosecution case entered its final stage at the trial of Radovan Karadzic. The prosecution will now try to prove that the former Republika Srpska president is responsible for the genocide in Srebrenica. The witness, a survivor of an execution in Orahovac in the summer of 1995, has already testified at all Srebrenica trials before the Tribunal.

The summary of the evidence the witness gave in November 2007 at the trial of the Bosnian Serb military and police officers was admitted into evidence today. According to the summary, after the fall of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995 the witness headed towards Potocari with the female members of his family. The next day the witness was separated from his family. He was detained with a large group of elderly men in an unfinished house in Potocari. There, the witness saw General Ratko Mladic for the first time. He was bareheaded and wearing a camouflage uniform. He greeted the prisoners saying ‘hello, neighbors’. Mladic told the prisoners they would be exchanged for the captured Serbs.

That same night, the witness and the remaining prisoners were taken to Bratunac by bus where they were detained in an abandoned warehouse near the Vuk Karadzic school. About 400 persons were brought there by midnight. During the night, Serb soldiers took out about 40 prisoners. Once they were taken out, the men inside could hear the blows, wails and screams, the witness said. Some prisoners returned to the warehouse badly beaten and bloody; others didn’t return.

The next day, on 13 July 1995, the prisoners were given water and they were allowed to remove from the warehouse the five men who had died during the night as a consequence of the beatings. As the witness recounted, behind the warehouse they saw a pile of dead bodies. More prisoners were taken out and about 40 prisoners were killed by the end of the day. A prisoner was beaten with an iron bar in front of the witness and was then finished off with an axe blow to his back.

The surviving prisoners were taken to Orahovac in six buses in the night of 13 July 1995. The witness saw Mladic again. Mladic told the bus driver to follow a ‘red car’. In Orahovac, the prisoners were detained in the primary school gym. By 10 am the following day, there were about 2,500 men in the gym, the witness estimated.

General Mladic visited the prisoners there too, this time brining new promises. Instead of taking them ‘to Fikret [Abdic’s territory]’ as they were promised, the prisoners were made to board the buses. They were blindfolded and were taken to a nearby execution site in groups. There, they were shot to death. At one point, the witness took off his blindfold and saw many dead bodies around him. When a burst was fired in his direction, the witness fell and remained on the ground, buried under dead bodies. The witness saw Serb soldiers bringing in new groups of people in trucks. The newcomers were taken out and executed. General Mladic stood there and watched it all, the witness claims.

When the night fell, the execution continued. The area was lit by the headlights of two backhoes. When it was done, the witness and two other survivors ran away from the execution site. On 19 July 1995, the witness crossed into the BH Army-controlled territory.

At the beginning of the cross-examination, Karadzic wanted to hear from the witness how Mladic was dressed and how big the warehouse in Bratunac was. Karadzic also asked him how and why the prisoners were taken out of the warehouse in the night of 12 July when about 40 persons were killed. Karadzic’s case is that the prisoners were taken out mainly because individuals wanted to take their revenge on them for crimes against Serbs in the villages around Srebrenica.

Karadzic will continue his cross-examination of the witness on Monday, 28 November 2011.

AUSTRALIA REMEMBERS SREBRENICA, HON. MP TONY SMITH

Honorable MP, Tony Smith

Commonwealth of Australia
Parliamentary Debates
21 November 2011
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
PROOF MOTIONS
Srebrenica Remembrance
Speech by MP Tony Smith

[Note by the Bosnian Genocide Blog team: We thank MP Tony Smith for his Srebrenica advocacy in the Parliament of Australia. A minor correction: Forensic evidence compiled by the International Commission on Missing Persons indicates 8,100 killed in Srebrenica, not 7,000 (7,500 quoted by the ICTY represents minimum number of victims, not the total.). Overall, Mr. Smith's speech was excellent. Thank you.]

Speaker Mr TONY SMITH

Mr TONY SMITH (Casey) (20:1 0): I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this motion moved by the member for Melbourne Ports to commemorate the terrible massacre of Srebrenica. The 18th century Anglo-Irish conservative philosopher Edmund Burke famously wrote: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ And evil was indeed ascendant on those sunny July days 16 years ago when 7,000 unarmed prisoners were slaughtered at Srebrenica during the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

The direct perpetrators of this war crime were military units of the Republika Srpska, the breakaway Bosnian Serb state within the former nation of Yugoslavia. In fact, the commander of those units, General Ratko Mladic, and the former president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, are currently on trial in the Hague for this and other abominations. 

But, beyond the writing of yet another chapter in the long bloody saga of man’s inhumanity to man, the Srebrenica massacre demonstrates two great verities: one ageless and the other current to our present age. The eternal truth arises from the fact that, in international affairs, as in physics, a power vacuum will always be filled. The only question is by whom: the benign or the malign? It is an ugly world—a world where wickedness regards weakness with contempt; a world where foulness will exploit feebleness to do a devil’s dance on the graves of the innocent.

If the crime of Srebrenica teaches us anything it is that, if the benign lack the will to exert power that is constructive, the malign will surely step into the breach to deploy power that is destructive. We learn that, without strength, the forces of decency will be swamped by indecency. And it was indecency incarnate that broke with all its fury over the 7,000 innocent men and boys who were shot down without mercy.

The atrocity that took place at Srebrenica in July 1995 was horrible enough in its own right, but the horror was made more acute and more profound by the fact that those killings took place almost literally under the noses of an international force posted to keep the peace where there was no peace to be found. A battalion of Dutch peacekeepers, understrength and underarmed, was unable to halt the mass murderers as they went about their grisly business.

There is little question as to how these war criminals committed this horrendous massacre. The record in that regard has been copiously documented, including by the member for Melbourne Ports. Witnesses have been deposed and forensic evidence has been gathered. Nor is there really any doubt about the why of the Srebrenica slaughter: it was just another dark page in the same bloody saga of bigotry induced bloodbath that has marred the annals of human history.

The real question isn’t why the Serbians murdered unarmed Muslim prisoners; it is why the army of an advanced Western nation was unable to stop it. To understand that we must transport ourselves back a decade and a half in time. This was the era of Francis Fukuyama’s so-called ‘end of history’. The Berlin Wall had fallen six years previously. The Cold War was won and the triumph of the West was supposedly assured. It was a time for optimism. It is true that the social democracies of continental Europe felt there was no longer anything to fear and thus no need to keep up military spending, and the Netherlands were no exception to this trend. The so-called peace dividend was used in the early 1990s to reduce the budget of the Dutch armed forces. In the euphoria of Cold War victory, the Netherlands and other European nations allowed themselves to forget a cardinal Latin adage that has rung true since the legions of Julius Caesar marched into Gaul: ‘If you desire peace, prepare for war.’ As we enter a new period of global instability and international power rivalry, this eternal lesson, retaught so cruelly by the slaughter at Srebrenica, is one we in this place should well and truly heed.

Complementing these ageless truths is another verity that is a product of our current age. It demonstrates, as we have heard, how the United Nations was unable to act decisively in the face of genocide. You see, the Dutch troops whom I previously mentioned were wearing blue helmets during their posting to Srebrenica. They were in the Balkans as part of a UN peacekeeping operation and, as such, they answered to a chain of command that extended all the way to the UN secretariat in New York. So, when out-gunned and out-numbered, the Dutch seeing the killings unfolding before them, tried to call for close air support. These Netherlands troops begged and pleaded for air strikes to target the Serb positions and bring the slaughter to a halt. But air strikes were postponed for hours as the Serbian mass murder operation progressed. When the aircraft finally arrived, it was too little too late. A grand total of two bombs were dropped with a zero deterrent effect. The Dutch battalion were then withdrawn, leaving the local Bosnian Muslim population to the none-too-tender mercies of the advancing Serb forces.

Even more outrageous was the fact that the Srebrenica massacre took place just a year after one of the worst acts of genocide to occur since the Holocaust —and the member for Melbourne Ports referred to this. Between April and July 1994, roughly 800,000 people in Rwanda were hacked, burned and stabbed to death, while another UN force was left hapless and hopeless. And as in Srebrenica, the UN commander in Rwanda, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, begged for reinforcements and support from UN headquarters in faraway Manhattan. And, as in Srebrenica, he received nothing of the kind. You would think the bloody lessons of Rwanda might have been absorbed by the high mandarins at UN secretariat. But, tragically, the past of Rwanda turned out to be the prologue for Srebrenica

The United Nations bureaucracy, unfortunately, was channelling spirit of Tallyrand’s famous quip about the post-Waterloo Bourbon monarchy: ‘They forgot nothing and they learned nothing.’ From early 1992 to mid-1995 the UN tried and failed to bring an end to the Balkans war, a war which killed hundreds of thousands of people in a conflict that knew no rules, a conflict where the laws of war were honoured more in the breech than the observance.

The failure of the UN in Rwanda and the Srebrenica is not contested. As the member for Melbourne Ports outlined, in fact, it is accepted by the United Nations itself. Indeed, on the 10th anniversary—the member for Melbourne Ports mentioned the fifth—of the Srebrenica massacre, then Secretary General Kofi Anan issued a statement, where he said:

… we made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality and non-violence which, however admirable, was unsuited to the conflict in Bosnia. That is why … the tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever.

But such mea culpas do not account for much if they are unaccompanied by real reform.

An end to the Balkan slaughter of the 1990s was not brought about by international diplomacy or UN facilitation. The war was finally ended by brute military force. Brute military force brought to bear by a US-led campaign of air attacks under the auspices not of the UN but of NATO. Starting in late August 1995, US and NATO aircraft flew over 3,500 combat sorties against over 330 Serbian targets. The Serbs were bombed into submission, pure and simple. If the UN did not learn from the Rwandan genocide, US President Clinton certainly did. In a speech on the Balkans crisis delivered in November 1995, Clinton said:

We cannot stop all war for all time but we can stop some wars. We cannot save all women and all children but we can save many of them. We can’t do everything but we must do what we can.

America’s 42nd President learned that, at times, the only way to stop the triumph of evil is for good men to vanquish it through the moral and focused application of armed force. That is the real lesson of Edmund Burke applied to Srebrenica—a lesson we should all seriously ponder.

STRIJELJANJE: POREDALI SMO IH, PA PUCALI U LEĐA

Sud Bosne i Hercegovine

Franc Kos o strijeljanju Srebreničana: Ljudi su mirno stajali, a mi smo pucali u leđa

FENA — Svjedočeći u svoju korist na suđenju za genocid u Srebrenici, optuženi Franc Kos je kazao da su zarobljenici na Vojnoj ekonomiji Branjevo prvo ubijani iz mitraljeza, a onda kratkim rafalima iz pištolja, te da su u strijeljanju učestvovali svi optuženi.

Franc Kos je rekao da su pripadnici Desetog diverzantskog odreda Glavnog štaba Vojske Republike Srpske (VRS), pucajući iz mitraljeza, strijeljali zarobljenike koji su prethodno u grupama izvođeni iz autobusa.

-Ja sam postavio mitraljez, a Goronja je stajao pored. On je ispalio deset metaka i onda je pao. Znam da mu je Z1 rekao: ‘Mali, šta čekaš, hajde opleti’. U drugu grupu zarobljenih rafalno je pucao Z1, i tu je bilo puno ranjenih. Tada je drugooptuženi rekao: ‘Nemojte tako pucati’, pa je dogovoreno da se u grupe od po deset ljudi ispaljuju kratki rafali, kazao je Kos.

Tužilaštvo BiH tereti Kosa, skupa s Stankom Kojićem, Vlastimirom Golijanom i Zoranom Goronjom za genocid u Srebrenici, odnosno za učešće u ubistvima više od 800 muškaraca i dječaka u julu 1995. godine na Vojnoj ekonomiji Branjevo.

Prema optužnici, Kos je bio komandir Prvog voda Desetog diverzantskog odreda Glavnog štaba VRS-a, a Kojić, Golijan i Goronja pripadnici istog odreda, te su svi zajedno strijeljali zarobljenike, od kojih su neki imali poveze na rukama i očima.

Kos je ispričao kako su pripadnici Desetog diverzantskog odreda učestvovali u ubistvima oko 300 zarobljenika, nakon čega su došli pripadnici neke druge jedinice koji su nastavili sa strijeljanjem ostalih zarobljenika.

-Ti vojnici su galamili na nas, rekli su: ‘Sada ćemo vam pokazati kako se to radi’, i počeli su tući zarobljenike. Otišao sam i sjeo u kombi. Neko je rekao da i vozači, i ostali ljudi koji su na Branjevu, trebaju ubiti po jednog ili dva zarobljenika, kako ne bi bilo svjedoka. Vozači su morali strijeljati kad im je puška bila uperena u leđa, rekao je Kos.

Na upit Sudskog vijeća kako su zarobljenici izgledali prilikom odvođenja na likvidaciju, optuženi Kos je kazao da su uglavnom šutjeli.

-Neki su šutjeli, neki su nešto pričali u sebi, neki su i psovali. Mirno su išli do mjesta likvidacije. Ljudi su stajali u redu i mi smo ih strijeljali pucajući im u leđa, ispričao je Kos, dodavši kako su svi optuženi učestvovali u strijeljanju na Branjevu.

Četiri dana nakon strijeljanja na Branjevu, Kos je, kako je kazao, vidio komandanta Milorada Pelemiša i pitao ga šta se desilo, na šta mu je Pelemiš kazao da je to “viša sila”.

Prema kazivanju optuženog Kosa, Pelemiš mu nikada nije rekao od koga je dobio naredbu da pripadnike Desetog diverzantskog odreda pošalje na Branjevo.

- Nakon Branjeva, nama je rečeno da idemo u Pilicu. Došli smo do jedne kafane koja se nalazila kod Doma kulture u Pilici, a kada sam izašao, vidio sam da u Domu ima leševa, a čula se i pucnjava, rekao je Kos, prenosi BIRN Justice Report.

Naredno suđenje zakazano je za 29. novembar.

PROSECUTORS TO CUT MLADIC'S INDICTMENT BY 46% TO SPEED UP HIS TRIAL

By Mike Corder

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Yugoslav war crimes tribunal prosecutors proposed Friday drastically cutting back the amount of evidence they present to support charges in Ratko Mladic’s indictment, in an attempt to speed up his trial.

In a proposal sent to judges at the U.N. court, prosecutors said they will keep all 11 charges, including two counts of genocide, in Mladic’s indictment, but can cut back the number of crimes they seek to prove by more than 45 percent.

The allegations prosecutors will present “reasonably and appropriately reflect the criminal conduct of the accused and establish a basis for conviction on all 11 counts of the indictment,” the proposal says.

The 69-year-old former commander of the Bosnian Serb army is accused of masterminding atrocities by his forces throughout the Bosnian War.

He has refused to enter pleas to the charges so judges entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. No date has been set for his trial to start.

The proposal aimed at streamlining Mladic’s trial comes amid concerns about his health. Judges asked prosecutors to trim down the indictment in October.

Judges this week ordered a full medical checkup of Mladic, who has been experiencing pain from a kidney stone, had surgery for a hernia and been hospitalized with pneumonia since he was arrested in May and transferred to a cell in The Hague. His lawyers and family also say he had two strokes during his years as a fugitive.

Prosecutors at the tribunal typically present evidence of several crimes to prove a single count in an indictment, leading to trials that can last years.

Under Friday’s proposal, they would not call evidence in just under 46 percent of crimes currently listed in Mladic’s indictment.

The biggest cut would come in evidence about Serb-run concentration camps where non-Serbs were held, a reduction of just over 70 percent.

The smallest proposed cut is in evidence concerning the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where Serb forces killed 8,000 Bosniak men and boys. Prosecutors had planned to present evidence of 22 separate crimes making up the massacre and proposed reducing that to 20 crimes, a cut of just 9 percent.

DUTCHBAT III RAISED THREE FINGERS IN SREBRENICA (TRADITIONAL SERBIAN NATIONALIST SALUTE)

In this photo belonging to Dennis Keizers, obtained by Sarajevo-based Dnevni Avaz, his Dutchbat III colleagues raise three-finger salute -- a salute expressing Serbian ethnic nationalism. This is another example of a shameful involvement of the pro-Serbian Dutch UN peacekeepers (Dutchbat) in the besieged Srebrenica. They were raising three-fingers, saluting Serb ultranationalist soldiers, just days before Gen. Ratko Mladic's hordes of evil systematically executed 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, brutally raped many women, and -- with the help of Dutchbat -- expelled 25,000 enclaves residents, effectively making Srebrenica "ethnically pure Serb land."

We also invite you to see Dutch Graffiti in Srebrenica, yet another shameful exhibition of the "neutralist" United Nations in the besieged Srebrenica.

HOLANDSKI UNPROFOR DIZAO TRI PRSTA U SREBRENICI

Holandski UNPROFOR u Srebrenici dizao tri prsta u slavu četnicima i to nekoliko dana prije pada Srebrenice.



Autor: A. Keserovic

Dnevni Avaz

Fotografija pripadnika holandskog bataljona UNPROFOR-a Denisa Kejzersa (Dennis Keizers) na kojoj njegove kolege, pripadnici holandskog bataljona, u julu 1995. godine u Potočarima poziraju s podignuta tri prsta, još je jedan dokaz sramne uloge ove jedinice u genocidu nad nesrpskim stanovništvom u Srebrenici.

Svakodnevne scene

Ovo je samo jedna od fotografija, koju ekskluzivno objavljuje “Dnevni avaz”, iz perioda pada Srebrenice, a koju je Kejzers postavio na svom Facebook profilu “u znak sjećanja na vojnu službu u Bosni”.

Sramnija je još jedino činjenica da su Holanđani razdragano dizali tri prsta tek nekoliko dana prije četničkog genocida nad muslimanima, kakav Evropa nije upamtila od Hitlera i Drugog svjetskog rata.

Nedžad Handžić, član Udruženja preživjelih žrtava genocida “Drinski talasi”, kaže za naš list da su ovakve scene u Srebrenici bile skoro pa svakodnevne.

- Mnogi od njih su i urinirali pred ženama, starcima i djecom. Bez ikakvog ustručavanja. Bilo je i onih koji su otvoreno govorili da ne vole muslimane, da im smrde.

Ali, najporaznije od svega je što su još u maju 1995. doslovno otpisali jugozapadni dio Srebrenice. Predali su ga četnicima – sjeća se Handžić.

Mašine i rovovi

Ne samo da su Holanđani, nastavlja Hanžić, te godine mašinama zatrpali rovove u Srebrenici koji su služili Armiji RBiH za odbranu grada i golorukog stanovništva, te bez ikakve borbe četnicima predavali osmatračnice, lično je, kaže, slušao i zastrašujuću komandu, šefa holandskih snaga u Srebrenici Toma Karemansa (Thom Karremans).

- Nakon što smo im mi, lokalno stanovništvo, kazali da im četnici ulaze s desne strane i da su već među izbjeglicama, tada su vojnici kontaktirali bazu u Potočarima i razgovarali s Karemansom, koji im je doslovno rekao: “Ostanite gdje jeste i ne poduzimajte ništa!” Ovime je sve jasno ko je bio na čijoj strani – govori Handžić.

Da holandski vojnici nisu štitili civilno stanovništvo u zaštićenoj enklavi Srebrenica, svjedoči i stravična sudbina 14-godišnje djevojčice koju su zajedno s dvije godine mlađom rođakom silovali četnici.

Djevojčica je pronađena obješena 14. jula 1995. u Srebrenici.

- Ona nije vojnik, pa zašto nisu nju Holanđani zaštitili? Brojna silovanja i mučenja u Srebrenici su počinjena i u odijelima holandskih vojnika. Otvoreno sumnjamo da uniforme nisu samo davali četnicima nego da su neki od njih i sami učestvovali u silovanjima srebreničkih žena – govori Handžić.

ED VULLIAMY SPEAKS THE TRUTH

 Photo of Ed Vulliamy testifying at the Bosnian Genocide trial.
Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadzic.

Ed Vulliamy testified at the trial of Radovan Karadzic. In early August 1992 Vulliamy was in a group of British journalist who visited the Omarska and Trnopolje concentration camps at the invitation of the Republika Srpska president, now defending themselves on double genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.. When Karadzic claimed Vuillamy was ‘anti-Serb’, the witness replied ‘I don’t want to be neutral’ in cases involving racist violence.

Ed Vulliamy was in a group of foreign journalists who were the first to enter the Omarska and Trnopolje concentration camps in the Prijedor region in early August 1992. It was Radovan Karadzic who personally invited the foreign journalist to come and see that it was all, as Karadzic put it, ‘fabrication of the Muslim propaganda’.

Bosniak civilians in Serb-run Trnopolje concentration camp in August 1992.
Credits: RON HAVIV, Blood & Honey.

At the Karadzic trial, Vulliamy recounted that the British journalists were only allowed to enter the camp mess, and not the rooms where prisoners were held. Later he learned that about 80 prisoners ‘who were in better shape’ were selected by Serbian gurds to be paraded before the media. The prisoners were starved and scared to death. ‘I don’t want to lie to you, but I can’t tell you the truth’, a prisoner told the British journalists.

After Omarska, journalists were taken to the Trnopolje concentration camp. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire on three sides and prisoners were held inside. A prisoner told Vulliamy that he had been brought in from Keraterm where about 200 persons had been killed in a single night. The prisoner said that even more people were killed in Omarska. 

***

Concentration Camps


By Ed Vulliamy

The laws governing warfare and conflict make no reference to concentration camps. But for more than a century, concentration camps have been a venue for wholesale war crimes and the symbol of the worst abuses against civilians in wartime.

It was a Spanish general, Valeriano Weyler, who established the first reconcentrados or “concentration centers” in Cuba in his drive to suppress the 1895 rebellion. Britain introduced concentration camps on a massive scale during the Boer War from 1899 to 1902. To deny the Boer guerrillas food and intelligence, Gen. Lord Kitchener ordered the British Army to sweep the Transvaal and Orange River territories of South Africa “clean.” Civilians—women, children, the elderly, and some men of fighting age—were herded from their homes and concentrated in camps along railway lines, with a view to their eventual removal from the territory. The Boers, to whom these camps became a symbol of genocide, called them laagers.

The Nazis developed a vast network of Konzentrationslager, using them at first to hold political prisoners, later slave labor, and finally to annihilate European Jewry and to kill large numbers of Poles, Russians, and Gypsies. Of the nearly 6 million Jews killed under Hitler’s “Final Solution,” 2 million died in Auschwitz, the main extermination center.

No one in the post–World War II generation could have anticipated the reappearance of such camps in Europe. On that August 1992 day when my colleagues and I from the British television network ITN alighted from our vans, it was hard to gauge who was more amazed to see whom. Before us, there was a landscape of human misery that seemed to recall another time: men, some of them skeletal, lined up behind a barbed wire fence, with lantern jaws and xylophone ribcages visible beneath their putrefied skin. They, in turn, saw a camera crew and a clutch of reporters advancing across the withered summer grass.

This was Logor Trnopolje, a teeming mass of wretched humanity—scared, sunburned, and driven out of house and home. Among them was the figure of Fikret Alic, whose emaciated torso behind sharp knots of wire would become the enduring symbol of Bosnia’s war, of its cruelty and its echo of the worst calamities of our century. Alic had come from yet another camp, Kereterm, where he had broken down in tears, having been ordered to help clear up some 150 corpses, the result of the previous night’s massacre.

I ventured into Trnopolje, past families crammed against one another on the floor of what had been a school, past stinking holes dug into the ground for what were intended to be cesspits. “I can’t tell you everything that goes on,” said one young inmate, Ibrahim Demirovic, “but they do whatever they want.” A gracious doctor, Idriz, had been put in charge of a “medical center” where he gave us an undeveloped film—it showed his patients, beaten literally black and blue.

The day after the discovery of Trnopolje and Omarska, I shied from calling them concentration camps because of the inevitable association with the bestial policies of the Third Reich. I reasoned that we must take extreme care in relating genocides of our lifetime and the Holocaust, which was singular and inimitable. While thousands were purposefully killed in the gulag of Serbian camps, did that equate with the Nazis’ industrial mass murder of Jews and others?

On reflection, concentration camp is exactly the right term for what we uncovered that day. For here civilian populations were literally concentrated —frog-marched in columns or bused to locations for illegal purposes of maltreatment, torture, abuse, killing, and, crucially, enforced transfer, or ethnic cleansing. Indeed, The UN’s independent Commission of Experts determined after a year long study that Trnopolje was a concentration camp, and Omarska and Keraterm “de facto death camps.”

In general, the laws which would apply to concentration camps address the topic piecemeal, and the principal element is unlawful confinement, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Confinement of civilians is not necessarily unlawful. “Foreign” civilians who pose a threat to a party to a conflict may be put in “places of internment” or given an “assigned residence.” However, the threat they pose must be genuine, evidenced by some clear action, not merely by their nationality. It is also lawful to remove civilians for their own security in an emergency, such as an impending battle, and set up temporary shelters for them. Even so, they must be returned home as soon as it is safe to do so and be well cared for in the meantime. Also, some civilians may be held or imprisoned as suspects or criminals, so long as they are given due process. In an internal conflict, noncombatants may be interned but are entitled to humane treatment and the judicial protections guaranteed by a regularly constituted court. None of these safeguards exist in concentration camps. Confinement under such conditions is thus unlawful. The arbitrary imprisonment of large numbers of civilians during conflicts—internal or international—can be a crime against humanity.

 The themes of the “concentration” and “clearance” of civilians came to dominate the last phase of the Boer War, just as they dominated the entire Bosnian War, most notably in its early stages. As we know, the removal of Bosniaks and Croats from Serbian terrain was not a by-product of a war between armies, it was the raw material, the declared aim, of the Serbs.

The Boer War concentration camps aroused outrage and fury back in Britain, led by temperance crusader Emily Hobhouse. She described “deportations… a burned-out population brought in by hundreds of convoys… semi-starvation in the camps… fever-stricken children lying on the bare earth… appalling mortality.”

The camps provoked Lloyd George to thunder, “When is a war not a war? When it is carried on by methods of barbarism.” Even the all-woman Fawcett Committee, which supported the British war but made intrepid inspections of the concentration camps, was struck by the conditions at Mafeking, where women were washing clothes in water fouled by excreta, or at Brandfort, where an epidemic killed 337 people in three weeks. These places were by no means Auschwitz or Belsen, but they were concentration camps.

The term concentration camp implies not so much a prison or assigned residence for POWs or even civilians, but a role in an overall process of “clearance.” The fact that the Serbs sought to defend Trnopolje by describing it as a “transit camp” confirms the point: there is an entwinement between concentration camps and the forced movement or clearance of population.

In their description of Trnopolje in the trial verdict against Dusko Tadic, judges in The Hague noted that “there was no regular regime of interrogations or beating, as in other camps, but beatings and killings did occur.” They referred to testimony about “dead people wrapped in paper and wired together, their tongues pulled out… and the slaughtered bodies of young girls and old men.” The judges acknowledged that some inmates were allowed to forage for food in the village beyond the camp. But this “in effect amounted to imprisonment,” since many were killed during these excursions, and survivors feared repeating them.

Moreover, “because this camp housed the largest number of women and girls, there were more rapes at this camp than any other. Girls between the ages of 16 and 19 were at the greatest risk… the youngest girl being 12 years of age.” One girl serially raped by seven Serbian soldiers suffered “terrible pains… and hemorrhaging.”

 But what hallmarked Trnopolje was the fact that the camp was, as the judges said, “the culmination of the campaign of ethnic cleansing, since those Bosniaks and Croats who were not killed at the Omarska and Keraterm camps were, from Trnopolje, deported.” This is one of the defining essences of concentration camps—that the detaining power wishes to be rid of their inmates, either by killing them, or else by enforced transit elsewhere.

 In the case of Trnopolje, these transits—the concentration camp’s purpose—were utterly terrifying. I went on one of them, in this instance of Bosniaks from the town of Sanski Most. Because they were internal displacements, from Serb-controlled northern Bosnia into government-held regions, they attracted little attention aside from the news media.

 A year later, in September 1993, I found myself uncovering another concentration camp: Dretelj. This time the inmates were Bosniaks, their guards Bosnian-Croat. Most of the prisoners were locked away in the dank darkness of two underground hangars, dug into facing hillsides. The metal doors had been slid open for our visit, but many men preferred to stay inside, staring as though blind into the ether. “We’re not really allowed out,” said one. These men had been locked in here for up to seventy-two hours at a time, without food or water, drinking their own urine to survive. They all remembered the night in July 1993 when the Croat guards got drunk and began firing through the doors—between ten and twelve men died that night; the back wall of the hangar was pockmarked with bullets.

 The plan was simple; the Bosnian Croat authorities explained them to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at a meeting in the coastal resort of Makarska during the week before our discovery of the camp. The proposal was to ship fifty thousand Bosniak men to a transit camp at nearby Ljubuski, and thence to third countries. The Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said his country would do all it could to help. Would the UNHCR? The aid workers were flabbergasted, caught in a heinous dilemma: to cooperate with the aim of Dretelij and three other concentration camps, or else to leave the men festering in conditions which had been hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross for two months.

Any such fulfillment of the concentrations camps’ goal is illegal deportation anyway. But in addition to its laws on confinement, the Geneva Convention of 1949 does regulate the transfer of internees—to take the Serbs’ and Croats’ own sanitized description of their concentration camps. This shall, says Article 127, “always be effected humanely,” and as a general rule by rail or other means of transport. “If, as an exceptional measure, such removals have to be effected on foot, they may not take place unless the internees are in a fit state of health.”

The convention continues: “When making decisions regarding the transfer of internees, the detaining power shall take their interests into account, and in particular shall not do anything to increase the difficulties of repatriating them or returning them to their own homes.” At the time of writing, that provision, with regard to those “concentrated” at Trnopolje and Dretelj, remains infamously and horribly unfulfilled.

KINGORI: BOSNIAKS HAD NO ADEQUATE ARMS TO RESIST SERBIAN WAR CRIMES IN AND AROUND SREBRENICA

BIRN — At the trial of defendants charged with genocide in Srebrenica, a witness for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that Muslims in Srebrenica did not have weapons which they could use to put up resistance to Bosnian Serbs in July 1995.

Joseph Kingori, former UN military observer in Srebrenica, said that Bosniaks in Srebrenica only had light firearms and because of that they were not able to put up meaningful resistance to the army of Bosnian Serbs.

“The weapons Muslims had could not have been used for resistance, because Bosnian Serbs during the attack used rockets and tanks. Bosnian Serbs attacked targets first with rockets and tanks and then ground troops came in to those territories. I think we cannot call that real resistance,” said the witness.

Kingori gave his statement at the trial of Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja, charged by the State Prosecution with genocide in Srebrenica, or, in other words, participation in the murder of over 800 men and boys in July 1995 at the Branjevo military academy.

According to the indictment, Kos was the commander of the First Platoon of the Tenth Commando Unit with the main headquarters of the Army of Republija Srpska, while Kojic, Golijan and Goronja were members of the same unit, and all together they executed prisoners, some of whose hands were tied and eyes blindfolded.

Witness Kingori said that members of UNPROFOR did not direct the population from the territory of Srebrenica to go towards Potocari, but that the civilians headed there because of the shelling.

”UNPROFOR never instructed civilians to go to Potocari. They had to leave the villages in which they lived because of the bombing and come to Srebrenica. When they realised it is not safe there either, they headed towards Potocari,” said the witness.

Kingori said that Srebrenica was shelled before July 11, 1995, and that during those several days in that territory there have been between 20 and 30 wounded persons, and five dead.

”In that period we could not reach some of the areas in the enclave because of the shelling. That is why in those areas we could not check whether there were dead or wounded,” said the witness.

Asked by Slobodan Peric, lawyer of the second defendant Kojic, whether upon arrival to Srebrenica he learned anything about the suffering of the Serb population [note: this is a common tactic of vicious Serbian propaganda], the witness said that he did not receive any reports on the suffering of Serbs in that area.

The next trial is scheduled for November 4 this year, when the examination of two witnesses for the defence of first defendant Kos is planned.

FRANC KOS: VUJADIN POPOVIC ORDERED THE MASSACRE

BIRN — At the trial for genocide in Srebrenica, indictee Franc Kos says that an officer, whose name, as he found out later on, was Vujadin Popovic, said that the prisoners, who were brought to Branjevo military farm, should be shot, because they were war criminals.

Testifying in his defence before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kos said that he had never hidden the fact that he participated in the shooting of Bosniaks on Branjevo military farm in July 1995. However, he said that he did not participate in the extermination of the Bosniak population, but he just acted on orders.

“When a bus brought prisoners to Branjevo, an officer, whose name, as I found out later on, was Vujadin Popovic, said that those men should be shot, because they were war criminals,” Kos said.

Indictee Kos said that he was told that he should participate in the shooting of prisoners, who were held in the Cultural Centre in Pilica, as well, but, after that he said that he could not do it any more.

Popovic, former Chief for Security with the Drina Corps of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, was sentenced, under a first instance verdict pronounced by The Hague Tribunal in June 2010, to life imprisonment for genocide committed in Srebrenica.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja with genocide in Srebrenica and participating in the murder of more than 800 men and boys on Branjevo military farm in July 1995.

The indictment alleges that Kos was Commander of the First Unit with the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of the VRS Main Headquarters, while Kojic, Golijan and Goronja were members of that Squad. It further alleges that they jointly shot prisoners, some of whom were tied and blindfolded.

When asked by Defence attorney Dusko Tomic what would have happened had the soldiers refused to carry out the order and shoot people on Branjevo, indictee Kos said that nothing would probably have happened to them at that location, but something could have happened later on.

Kos told the Court that members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of VRS participated in an attack on Srebrenica too. “When we came to a mount near Srebrenica, we found out where we would be going,” Kos said, adding that indictee Kojic and protected witness Z1 participated in that operation.

At this hearing the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented parts of witnesses’ statements given before The Hague Tribunal.

State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara read parts of statements given by former members of the Dutch Battalion based in Srebrenica related to the happenings in Srebrenica from July 9 to 13, 1995.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented a part of statements given by Momir Nikolic, former Assistant Commander for Security with the VRS Bratunac Brigade, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting guilt for participating in the crime in Srebrenica, and Dragan Obrenovic, former Deputy Commander of the First Zvornik Brigade of VRS, who was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment.

The next hearing is due to be held on November 11 this year, when the examination of indictee Kos will continue.

SNIMAK SRPSKOG PLJAČKAŠKOG POHODA NA SREBRENICU

Snimak Srpskog Pljačkaškog Pohoda u Srebrenici koji je napravio Carlos Steiner (VIDEO)

Holandski vojnici zabilježili kako civili i četnici kradu imovinu dok su srebrenički muškarci ubijani

A. Keserović

Dnevni Avaz

Karlos Robert Stajner (Carlos Steiner), veteran kanadske vojske, prošle je sedmice Međunarodnoj komisiji za ljudska prava pri UN-u u Ženevi uputio pismo u kojem vojnike UNPROFOR-a optužuje za sramnu diskriminaciju koju su od 1993. godine provodili nad Bošnjacima u Srebrenici, saznaje “Dnevni avaz”.

Istražiti genocid

Stajner, koji je bio stacioniran na položajima oko Srebrenice, u pismu, čije dijelove ekskluzivno objavljujemo, naglašava da želi izvršiti veći pritisak na međunarodnu zajednicu i UN da se istraži genocid počinjen u Srebrenici, kako bi građani BiH konačno došli do pravde.

- Imam dokaze o kanadskoj odgovornosti u demilitarizaciji Srebrenice 1993. godine, ali i o zločinima protiv čovječnosti koje sam u okolici Srebrenici gledao vlastitim očima – navodi, između ostalog, veteran kanadske vojske.

On je, kako saznajemo, prilikom nedavne posjete BiH dostavio srebreničkim udruženjima i dokazni materijal, videosnimke iz enklave dok su srpske snage provodile genocid. Na obimnom videomaterijalu, koji je u posjedu našeg lista, a koji su, najvjerovatnije, snimali vojnici holandskog bataljona stacionirani u Srebrenici, između ostalog snimljena je i brutalna pljačka domova Srebreničana dok su bošnjačke žene i djeca protjerivani, a muškarci ubijani.

Na jednom od snimaka jasno se vidi kako civili i vojnici pljačkaju muslimanske kuće i imovinu nedugo nakon što su autobusima odvezeni, protjerani i izmučeni Srebreničani.

Žene i starci mahom su krali tepihe, slike i odjeću, dok su naoružani četnici grabili stoku!

Upletenost Kanade

Kanadski vojnik nije otkrio kako je došao do snimaka, ali u pismu upućenom Komisiji za ljudska prava objašnjava da želi podnijeti službenu tužbu radi istrage o upletenosti Kanade, odnosno njenih jedinica pri UNPROFOR-u, u zločine počinjene od 1991. do 1995., posebno od maja do septembra 1993. godine.

- U narednih nekoliko dana sve dokaze koje imam dostavit ću u elektronskoj formi. U tužbi koju podnosim tražit ću finansijsku naknadu za daljnje finansiranje istraživanja o tome šta se desilo u Srebrenici i sjeveroistočnoj Bosni. U ovom postupku sam srcem i više nikada neću napustiti bosanski narod – poručuje Stajner u izjavi za naš list.

Ponižavajući odnos vojnika

Sabra Kolenović, članica Udruženja “Majke enklava Srebrenica i Žepa”, kaže za “Dnevni avaz” da se dobro sjeća diskriminacije koju su kanadski i holandski vojnici provodili nad Srebreničanima te da zbog toga pozdravlja Stajnerove napore u borbi za istinu i pravdu.

- Za razliku od Holanđana, Kanađani su morali sami praviti WC. Veliku nuždu iznosili su u vrećama na smetljište. Misleći da je riječ o bačenoj hrani, gladni narod rovio je po vrećama. Vojnici su im se za to vrijeme smijali, čak ih i slikali. Znali su uzeti i dvije školjke jaja i bacati ih preko rijeke prema ženi koja je u tom trenutku radila poslove oko kuće. Ona je širila dimije da ih uhvati, ali jaja su padala oko nje i razbijala se – priča Kolenović.

Kliknite OVDJE da pogledate snimak!

CARLOS ROBERT STEINER: KRAJNJE NEETIČKI ODNOS KANADSKOG UNPROFOR-a U SREBRENICI PREMA BOŠNJACIMA U OPKOLJENOJ SREBRENICI 1993 GODINE

Carlos Steiner na polozaju oko Srebrenice 1993. Srpski zlocinci su drzali Srebrenicu u brutalnom okruzenju, paleci bosnjacka sela i ubijajuci bosnjacke zene i djecu 1993 godine.

Faksimil jednog od dokumenata

Bivši pripadnik UN-a iz Srebrenice tuži Kanadu: Stajner: Vojnici UNPROFOR-a muslimane su zvali "džigabu"!

Imali naredbu da ne pomažu "muslimanu starijem od 15 i mlađem od 60 godina"

AVAZ -- Karlos Robert Stajner (Carlos Steiner), veteran kanadske vojske, Vijeću za ljudska prava u Ženevi ovog mjeseca će podnijeti tužbu protiv kanadske vlade zbog diskriminacije koju su nad muslimanima Srebrenice 1993. godine u sklopu misije Ujedinjenih naroda (UN) provodili pripadnici kanadskog bataljona, saznaje "Dnevni avaz".

Ekskluzivno za naš list Stajner, koji je bio stacioniran na položajima oko Srebrenice, gdje je počinjen genocid, ispričao je ovu skandaloznu priču nakon što je prvi put nakon agresije došao u Sarajevo i BiH. Stajner je odao i počast žrtvama Srebrenice u Potočarima.

Striktne naredbe

Tokom razgovora Stajner je priložio i mnoštvo dokumenata koji, osim na četnička zlodjela, nedvojbeno ukazuju i na šokantan odnos njegovih kolega vojnika prema srebreničkom stanovništvu koje je bilo zatvoreno u "zaštićenoj zoni UN-a".

- Od komande UNPROFOR-a 22. maja 1993. godini dobili smo striktnu naredbu da u Srebrenici ne možemo spasiti niti pružiti bilo kakav medicinski tretman "ranjenom muslimanu starijem od 15 i mlađem od 60 godina". Budući da sam u to vrijeme bio drugi u lancu komandne odgovornosti jedne od UN-ovih osmatračnica, otvoreno sam protestirao zbog ovakve odluke - kaže Stajner.

Demilitarizaciju cijele enklave Stajner je 1993. nazvao neetičkom, kao što se pobunio i protiv pogrdnih imena kojima su kanadski vojnici nazivali lokalno muslimansko stanovništvo.

- Muslimane su zvali "džigabu" (jigaboo), što je riječ s veoma ružnim značenjem. Nešto poput termina "crnjo" ili čak "smeće" - govori Stajner.

Srpske linije

On objašnjava da je među kanadskim kolegama bilo i onih koji su činili sve ne bi li olakšali život civilima, ali da je među njima, ipak, bilo više onih koji su okretali glavu i nisu željeli pomoći.

- Samo zato što nisam bio kao oni i što sam se družio i razgovarao s muslimanima željeli su me strpati u zatvor. Protiv mene su pisali i prijave. U jednoj navode da sam jednog "džigabua" pustio u osmatračnicu da posmatra srpske linije. Najgore od svega je što je kanadska vojska sve njihove prijave uzela kao službeni dokument - govori veteran kanadske vojske.

Stajner, koji uz kanadsko posjeduje i švicarsko državljanstvo, naglašava da je 14 godina neuspješno pokušavao potisnuti i zaboraviti užas kojem je u Srebrenici svjedočio i da su ovo samo neki od razloga zbog kojih će ličnu, ali i pravdu za BiH tražiti u Ženevi.

Pravili su mi probleme kada sam krenuo u Bosnu

Stajner kaže da će Vijeću za ljudska prava u Ženevi podnijeti tužbu i zbog diskriminacije koju je u Kanadi doživio uoči nedavnog polaska u našu zemlju.

- Kada sam u vladi Kanade objasnio da, nakon rata, ove godine idem prvi put u BiH kako bih izrazio poštovanje prema bosanskom narodu, jedan od službenika pitao me jesam li ja musliman!? Protiv ovakvog postupka već sam se žalio u Kanadi, a pravnu borbu nastavit ću u Ženevi. Nije uredu da jedan vladin službenik razgovara na ovakav način - govori Stajner.

BEFORE KRAVICA, BOSNIAKS WERE MASSACRED

CREDIT: The 1992 Suha Massacre. / Region: Srebrenica-Bratunac./ Let us not forget./ Edited by: Daniel Toljaga (originally published via YouTube). 

"On 10 May 1992 -- more than three years before the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide, eight months before Naser Oric's counter-attack on the Serb village of Kravica and in the first days of the Bosnian war -- Serbs from the village of Kravice, with the help of the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) and other Serb forces in the region, participated in the massacre of Bosniak civilians in the Bosnian Muslim village of Suha in the municipality of Bratunac, adjacent to Srebrenica. They sexually tortured young women and girls and then killed 38 unarmed Bosniak residents. They dumped their bodies in a local mass grave. Among the 38 exhumed remains were those of nine children ranging in age from 3 months to 11 years, several women and mostly elderly men. One of the victims was the 9-months pregnant Zekira Begić-Hrustanbašić.." - Daniel Toljaga

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PRIJE KRAVICE, POKOLJ NAD BOŠNJACIMA

CREDIT: Masakr u Suhoj 1992. godine / Regija: Srebrenica-Bratunac / Da se ne zaboravi / Priredio: Daniel Toljaga (Preneseno sa YouTube kanala)

"Dana 10. maja 1992 -- više od tri godine prije julskog genocida u Srebrenici, osam mjeseci prije Naser Orićevog kontra-napada na srpsko selo Kravica i u prvim danima rata na ovim prostorima -- Srbi iz sela Kravice su uz pomoć Jugoslovenske narodne armije (JNA ) i lokalnih srpskih snaga učestvovali u masakru nad bošnjačkim civilima (ženama, djeci i starcima) u bošnjačkom selu Suha u obližnjoj opštini Bratunac, odmah do Srebrenice. Mlade žene i djevojke su seksualno zlostavljali, a potom su ubili 38 nenaoružanih bošnjačkih stanovnika. Njihova tijela su bacili u lokalnu masovnu grobnicu. Među 38 ekshumirana leša, bilo je devetoro djece u dobi od 3 mjeseca do 11 godina starosti, nekoliko žena, te stariji muškarci. Jedna od žrtava, Zekira Begić-Hrustanbašić, je bila u devetom mjesecu trudnoće.." - Daniel Toljaga

$1.3 MILLIONA ZA PROPALU SRPSKU PROPAGANDU U AMERICI I GENOCIDNOG 'PESNIKA NJEGOŠA'

Prelijepa Bošnjakinja Ajla Karajko o propalom Dodikovom govoru na Columbia University u New York-u. Ovaj članak prenosimo sa Bosnjaci.net i drago nam je da se Bošnjaci u Americi napokon bude i staju u odbranu svoje države i svog naroda.

New York: Dodik donirao oko 1,300,000 KM za zadužbinu srpsko-crnogorskog genocidnog pjesnika Njegoša

VILA IZ DODIKOĐIJE

Ajla Karajko

Autor: Ajla Karajko

Svijet je pun ljudi koje možete slušati bez prestanka, ljudi koji prostoriju u koju uđu ispune vedrinom i koji najsivije zidove okreče u nevjerovatne boje svojim riječima. Milorad Dodik nije jedan od takvih.

Predsjednik Republike nam Srpske je na svoj sopstveni govor zakasnio ni manje ni više nego 10 minuta. Ko zna, možda je to njegov način da pošalje poruku podrške onim 10 000 majki Srebrenice. Sumnjam. Ušao je u prostoriju bez pozdrava i sjeo na rezervisano mjesto u prvom redu. Tik ispred mene. U trenutku sam se zapitala kakva sredstva je morao koristiti da bi se dočepao mjesta govornika na jednom od najboljih univerziteta svijeta. Smiješno je, znate. Jedna od glavnih odgovornih osoba zbog koje su i Dejton i integracija u EU ugroženi je pozvan da govori o pomenutima.

Misao mi je prekinuo njegov pogled. Zvirljajući po prostoriji, Dodikove su se oči zaustavile na meni. Pogledi su nam se sreli. Nasmiješio se baš onako kako se nasmiješi nepoznatom gostu na stubištu. Znate ono, nije vam komšija i pozdrav bi bio previše, a opet ne želite biti toliki debil i samo proći pored žive osobe. Baš tako. Moram priznati da mi se u tom trenutku učinio kao čovjek. Čovjek sa tijelom i glavom pričvršćenom na to tijelo, doduše ne baš proporcionalno ali plastična hirurgija je van moje domene. Nešto kasnije sam potvrdila da moja pretpostavka i nije bila pogrešna. Dodik jeste neko ljudsko biće. Ali definitivno nije čovjek. I nema karakternih osobina da bi bio!

Nakon što je dr. Timothy Frye, direktor Harriman Instituta na Kolumbiji završio predstavljanje predsjednika rečenicom čija je jasna poruka bila genocid nije pod znakom upitnika, Dodik je uzeo mikrofon sa podignutim dlakama na glavi. Dodik ne priznaje genocid. On čak i nema pojma šta je to genocid. Ili bar tako priča dok se vozika okolo po razrušenoj Bosni i Hercegovini u svojoj limuzini. Napokon je progovorio. I vjerujte mi, drago vam je što to niste čuli. Nisam lingvista, ali znam razliku između govora koji priliči jednom predsjedniku i govora koji koriste zidari kada se dovikuju sa krovova.

Kako bih izbjegla nepotrebnu frustraciju odlučila sam slušati njegovog prevodioca. Ni on nije puno bolji imajući u vidu da je par puta zatražio pomoć publike, ali eto, razumijem da je teško govoriti strani jezik. Međutim, ne razumijem i ne želim razumjeti da predsjednik jednog dijela naše drage ne govori ne samo bosanski, već ni srpski jezik. Toliko o edukaciji ovoga čovjeka i o njegovom srpstvu.

Neću se previše fokusirati na njegov unaprijed smišljeni govor, isproban bar tri puta u tri države. Podvući ću samo da Milorad Dodik želi jedinstvenu Bosnu i Hercegovinu, koja je trenutno IMAGINARNA zemlja poput svih onih koje su nekada činile veliku Jugoslaviju. Podvući ću, također, da je Republika Srpska jedina REALNA zemlja, čije su institucije i ekonomija SAVRŠENE. Jedini problemi, prema mišljenju Dodika, su sadašnji visoki predstavnik koji krši ustave Dejtona, i bivši visoki predstavnik koji je, eto, napisao memoare. Ne da je to zanimalo ikoga u publici.

U govoru Dodika sam primijetila dosta konflikta, međutim skidam mu kapu za kriticizam međunarodne zajednice i njihovih intervenecija. Predsjednik Republike Srpske je svoj govor završio izjavom da Bosnu i Hercegovinu niko ne voli. Bošnjaci je ne vole jer ne znaju kako napraviti samo muslimansku državu. Hrvati je ne vole jer su već godinama potčinjeni. Srbi je ne vole jer škodi ekonomiji Republike Srpske, inače svjetske velesile. Međutim, nekako Srbi su jedini koje žele jedinstvenu Bosnu i Hercegovinu. Izvinite na izrazu, ali jebo Hollywood i španske serije, kad ovaj čovjek režisira čitavu jednu državu u kojoj on kao glavni lik igra pravi monopol sa živim ljudima.

Tako sam ja sjedila tu i šutjela onako kako majke obično šute kad ih njihova petogodišnjakinja pita šta je sex. Zaprepašteno, nespremno na bilo kakav odgovor, postiđeno također. Šutjela sam jer su se riječi ovoga čovjeka zabile u moje snove o budućnosti Bosne i Hercegovine i ostavile me sa zaprepaštenim izrazom lica. Šutjela sam jer nisam bila spremna da čujem od predsjednika jednog dijela svoje zemlje da je čitav motiv rata iz devedesetih bilo etničko čišćenje onih 30% Srba iz Sarajeva. Šutjela sam jer me je bilo stid onih nekoliko studenata i profesora koji su tu došli da nauče nešto više, da čuju istinu.

Taj moj momenat ni-na-nebu-ni-na-zemlji je prekinut blicem aparata Dodikovog novinara, inače jedinog prisutnog novinara. Zašto mi se čini da je neko i ovdje uvukao svoje krvave prste?

Ubrzo su počela stizati pitanja iz publike. Kažu da ne postoji glupo pitanje, ali ostavljam svakom na lični izbor da prosudi prvih par. “Gospodine predsjedniče, možete li reći odakle vam cifra da je 10 000 Srba izgubilo život tog i tog dana?” – pitao je izborani, ćelavi čovo sa ciničim osmjehom na licu, misleći kako će petocifrenim ciframa zamagliti oči publici. Ne moram napominjati kako je Dodik iskoristio priliku da obavijesti publiku kako su brojke o žrtvama Srebrenice netačne, godinama manipulirane i nepotrebne. Situacija se malo zagrijala kada je mladić pitao zašto predsjednik odbija koristiti riječ genocid. Dodik je okrivio politiku i međunarodnu zajednicu za pogrešno korišten termin, jer Srebrenica je ništa više od samo strašnog zločina. U meni je već vrilo. Podigla sam ruku bez imalo oklijevanja. I znala sam. Znala sam da će od svih podignutih ruku gospodin – moderator izabrati baš ruku mlade plavuše u pink košulji predpostavljajući da neću biti u mogućnosti da se suočim sa gospon. Strašnim i prolongiram već postojeću napetost u prostoriji. Izgleda da mu treba par lekcija o “izgled-vara”. Tako sam ja, iako sa predpostavkom da sam mlada razmazana babina djevojčica, dobila tu čast da postavim posljednje pitanje. Najveći problem mi je bio kako da ga oslovim. “Predsjedniče” sadrži previše poštovanja. “Hej, ti” je ispod mog nivoa. Nisam ga ni oslovila. Bolje je tako. Riječi su samo krenule iz mene: “Prije par minuta ste spomenuli da ne želite biti povezani sa ratnim zločincima Karadžićem, Mladićem, Miloševićem i njihovom politikom. To poštujem. Međutim, ako je tako, zanima me kako to da ste poslali privatni avion po Biljanu Plavšić, te je lično dočekali na aerodromu u Beogradu? Ipak, Plavšićka je osuđeni ratni zločinac. To je činjenica. Međunarodno priznata činjenica.”

Nakon par minuta privatnog razgovora sa prevodiocem, svjestan da nema izbora jer je publika jasno čula i jako dobro razumjela moje pitanje postavljeno na engleskom jeziku, bez intervencije prevodioca koji je konstantno nastojao ublažiti sva pitanja postavljenja na jednom od jezika bivše Jugoslavije, Dodik mi je odgovorio: “Poslao sam avion zato što posjedujem avion. Plavšić je moja prijateljica koja je odslužila svoju kaznu. Opet bih uradio isto.”

Ja imam dvadeset godina. Još uvijek sam student. Dodik je pedesetdvogodišnji predsjednik. Je li suludo što sam očekivala inteligentniji ili ako ništa opširniji odgovor?

U tom svemu, posebno me je začudilo Dodikovo iznenadno razumijevanje ljudskih prava. Također me je začudilo što šerif nije znao koliko je tačno vremena njegova najbolja prijateljica Plavšić provela u zatvoru. Učinila sam posljednje napore i dala mu tačnu cifru. Za dobro vaše jetre, poštedit ću vas detalja o suvišnim komentarima iz publike.

Uslijedio je aplauz onih nekoliko saradnika koji su iskoristili priliku da na račun države obave shopping u njujorškoj petoj aveniji, i Dodik se bez pozdrava zagubio iza zatvorenih vrata. Ja sam otišla po svoju zastavu Bosne i Hercegovine koju mi nije bilo dopušteno unijeti u prostoriju. Pozdravila sam se sa par dragih prijatelja i izašla na glavna vrata. Dočekali su me ljuti, smrznuti ljudi sa plakatima. Protestvovali su. Ne zato što je Dodik održao govor, već zato što im nije bilo dopušteno da čuju taj govor iako su se zvanično registrovali. Neki od tih ljudi su bili predstavnici bosanskohercegovačke misije pri UN-u. Zapitajte se zašto oficijalnim predstavnicima naše drage BiH u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama nije bio dozvoljen ulaz.

Dodik se nije više pojavio. Otišao je na zvančini prijem na kojem je donirao $1,000,000 za zadužbinu Njegoša, programa koji promoviše studij srpske politike.

Znači da ponovim, Dodik je donirao oko 1,300,000 KM. Pogodite od kud mu te pare. Nije da riječ “korupcija” odzvanja. A sada pogodite koga će to najviše pogoditi? Pomislite samo na gladne, nezaposlene Bosance. Pomislite na pare ukradene iz VAŠEG novčanika.

Eto, tako je u ovom performansu trećerazrednog cirkusa, vila iz Dodikođije doletjela privatnim avionom i iza sebe ostavila 1,300,000KM kao nagradu Amerikancima. Za šta, to je tek da vidimo. Sumnjam da će nas šerif Dodik razočarati. Lično, očekujem sustavnu i legalnu pljačku hiljada građana Bosne i Hercegovine, koja će nas odvesti ni manje ni više nego u totalni finansijski, socijalni i ljudski kolaps.

A svima vama nezadovoljnim građanima poručujem da se obavezno nastavite žaliti na nacionalizam, ali da i dalje birate iste nacionalističke stranke predvođene sebičnim autokratima i kroničnim destabilizatorima bolje budućnosti koji, evo sada i javno, uzimaju iz VAŠIH džepova i daju nekom tamo Njegošu.