Medak Pocket Massacre: Ustasha Savagery Replay

10.9.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

Medak Pocket Massacre

 

Canadian soldiers testify about the Medak Pocket Massacre (YouTube):

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 1

 

The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 1

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 2

he Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 2

 

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 3

 

 

 

 

Regular Croat Army left the Serb-populated Medak Pocket, which was under the UN protection, completely devastated (image from the publication about the Medak Pocket assault by the Veritas Center; for more images of Medak Pocket region stormed by the Croats and horribly tortured and disfigured Serb victims visit the Veritas publication web pages)

Medak Pocket Massacre: Ustasha Savagery Replay

Today is 15 years since the savage Croat Army attacked Serb populated towns in the lower Velebit region called Medak Pocket (Medacki dzep), which was under the UN protection. In the villages Divoselo, Pocitelj and Citluk, Croat Army butchered 88 Serbs, including 6 policemen and 36 civilians, among which were also 18 women. 26 of the killed Serb civilians were over 60 years of age.

After the massacre, Croats have handed 52 bodies to Serbs. UNPROFOR members, Canadian and French peacekeepers stationed in Croatia at the time, have found another 18 tortured and butchered corpses. In May 2000 another 11 bodies of the Medak Pocket Serbs were found shoved in a sewage pit in the formerly Serbian part of the town of Gospic.

Until now the bodies of 84 Serbs have been found, 8 of which are still unidentified. The remains of another four Croatia Serbs killed at Medak Pocket are still searched for.

According to the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti, President of the documentation-informative Center Veritas Savo Strbac said that the Medak Pocket assault of the Croat Army, which lasted from 9-17 September 1993, was an introduction to the later tragedies Serbs from Slavonia and Republic of Srpska Krajina in Croatia were exposed to.

God Save us from the Plague, Hunger and the Croats (German Saying)

“Monstrosity in the ways crimes against the Serbs were committed at that time, murders which had a ritualistic character, were aimed at degrading a man to the level of an animal, but also to send a message to the compatriots of the killed, showing what awaits them if they stay put in front of the Croat forces”, Strbac said at the press conference.

Strbac reminded that Serbs in Medak Pocket were killed in an exceptionally cruel way, citing an example of a woman whose two sons were in the Croat Army, who was impaled alive. Most of the Serb women, victims of the Croat assault on Medak Pocket, were burned alive. One young man who was mentally ill was hung upside-down by the Croat Army and killed as a knife-throwing target.

In a statement published by Kurir, Veritas Center chairman reminded that there were no wounded in Medak Pocket — no one and nothing was allowed to live:

“This very fact and the results of the autopsy of the Serb victims points to the conclusion this was a systematic murder of the imprisoned and wounded. Their heads were cut off and their skulls were crushed, while the women were being thrown into their own burning houses. The most poignant testimony to the Croat savagery are the words by Cedric Thornberry, Assistant UN Secretary General (and Deputy Chief of the UN Protection Force - UNPROFOR - at the time), who said that after searching the region the whole day all he was able to find alive was one chicken”, Strbac said.

Memorial services for the Serb victims of Medak Pocket assault will be served in Banja Luka and Belgrade, in memory of the victims of the horrific crimes of the regular Croat Army which labeled this action as a “Scorched Earth” project.

French General Jean Cot, United Nations commander in Croatia, wrote with regret that the French and Canadian UN battalions “could not prevent the slaughter of the Serbs by the Croatians, including elderly people and children”, and that the Croat Army “didn’t leave a cat alive” in these villages.

“I have found no sign of human or animal life in the several villages we passed today. The destruction is total, systematic and deliberate,” General Cot informed through the UNPROFOR Press Release, published on September 19, 1993.

A report fully confirmed by the Canadians, who testified that “all livestock had been killed and houses torched”.

Canadian peacekeeper Tony Spiess was one of many Canada’s soldiers who suffered nightmares after witnessing the devastation left by the savage Croat troops.

“The Croatian militia had been trying to keep the Canadian troops from uncovering their ethnic cleansing of a Serbian village, Spiess says, confirming accounts recreated in the 2004 book by Carol Off, titled The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada’s Secret War.

“When the shooting, bombing and mayhem were finally over at Medak Pocket — with no Canadian deaths — one of the things Spiess remembers most was the odour of death, everything from horses to humans.

“The smell will never go away,” he said.

“As Spiess and his Canadian comrades walked into the destroyed Serbian village that the Croatians had tried to stop them from seeing, burning corpses were everywhere.

“Spiess perhaps most vividly remembers the bodies of two teenage Serbian girls hanging limp on chairs, their arms tied to the chairs behind their backs.

“They were still smouldering,” Spiess said. “It was total f—in’ devastation.”

“A chill sets in as he speaks.

“The girls had been raped. Then shot. Then set on fire.”

No Punishment for the Slaughter by the Croat Army

According to Jane Defence Weekly (10 June 1999), Brigadier General Agim Ceku (afterward in charge of the KLA, and then promoted to a politician and a Kosovo-Metohija province “prime minister”) also “masterminded the successful HV [Croatian Army] offensive at Medak” in September 1993.

Instead of trying the Croat Army generals who have ordered and led their troops to this massacre, The Hague tribunal transferred the monstrous case to the Croat judiciary, where Agim Ceku wasn’t even indicted, while general Mirko Norac was convicted to the seven years imprisonment, and (another Albanian) Rahim Ademi was freed of all charges and released.

“Ademi, who at the time was a deputy commander for the Gospic region, was acquitted even though he issued more than 80 orders for the preparation and execution of this assault, while Norac was convicted based on the war crimes committed against the civilian population and the prisoners of war”, Strbac said.

He stressed that the minimization of the victims was obvious during these court proceedings, explaining the two Croat Army generals were tried for the murder of only 23 civilians and 5 soldiers, taking into consideration exclusively the facts for which there was direct evidence, and not the entire behavioral modus……………………….

http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2008/09/medak_pocket_massacre.html

RELATED LINKS

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TURNING POINTS OF HISTORY IX | THE BATTLE OF MEDAK POCKET

The Battle of Medak Pocket tells the compelling story of a stand off in September 1993 between the heavily armed Croat troops and the men of the Second Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

Their bravery and determination saved the mission, forcing the Serbs to lay down their arms, pushing the Croats out of the area, and earning the men of the Princess Patricia’s 2nd Battalion a rare UN unit citation.

The events at Medak Pocket helped crystallize an ongoing debate in the world community over the effectiveness of the original UN tradition of “peace keeping” and the need to replace it with a more effective but dangerous doctrine of “peace making.”

16 Years Since the Medak Pocket Massacre

 

September 9 marks 16 years since the massacre Croat forces committed in the villages and hamlets south and southeast from the town Gospić in Serbian Krajina, called Medak Pocket (Medački Džep) — a UN safe haven — mutilating, raping, setting on fire and killing 88 Serbs. Memorial services to the victims were held throughout Serbian lands, and in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. Marking the event, Documentation Center Veritas reminded Croats left no wounded behind in the Serb-populated villages.
The only survivor, Ivanka Rajčević, gave a following testimony:
“My son and I were asleep in the house. It was around 6 a.m. when the first grenade hit one of the houses which immediately burst into flames. I called my son. He said: ‘Mam, we won’t leave the house because they are bombarding’.
“I heard one Ustasha circling around the house. He came to the window and saw me inside. He activated a hand grenade and threw it inside. When it exploded he stood back up to see if it killed me. I was only wounded, but I pretended to be dead. He went behind the house and fired an automatic rifle (…) The other ones came in front of the house afterwords, in a transporter and on the tank. They didn’t stay long, but four Ustasha stayed in front of the doors. They did not speak our language, I believe they spoke German [they probably spoke Dutch, another Germanic language, as it was established that 13 Dutchmen also took part in the massacre]. When two Ustasha joined them, they asked the interpreter to translate. He said: ‘This is a Serb village, slit all throats, even the cats! Kill everything, nothing must stay behind, including children.’
More…

 

 

Geschrieben in Geschichte - History, Balkan (Englisch) | 1 Kommentar »

Russischer Milliardär fordert 300 Millionen Euro von Montenegro

10.9.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

10. September 2008, 12:45 Uhr

KLAGE IN FRANKFURT

Russischer Milliardär fordert 300 Millionen Euro von Montenegro

Montenegro vor Gericht: Der russische Milliardär Oleg Deripaska verlangt von der Balkanrepublik eine Entschädigung in Höhe von 300 Millionen Euro - Hintergrund sind Investitionen in ein marodes Aluminiumwerk. Die Summe entspricht der Hälfte des gesamten Staatshaushalts.

Podgorica - Oleg Deripaska fühlt sich hinters Licht geführt: Montenegros Regierung habe bei der Privatisierung des Aluminiumwerks KAP Ende 2005 falsche Angaben über den tatsächlichen Zustand der Anlage und deren Wert gemacht, findet der russische Milliardär. Das berichtet die in der Hauptstadt Podgorica erscheinende Zeitung “Vijesti”. Nun hat Deripaskas Firma CEAC die Balkanrepublik beim internationalen Schiedsgericht in Frankfurt verklagt - auf satte 300 Millionen Euro.

 

AP

Russischer Milliardär Deripaska: Er steckte fast 150 Millionen Euro in das Aluminiumwerk

Die Summe entspricht fast der Hälfte des aktuellen Staatshaushaltes. Wirtschaftsminister Branimir Gvozdenovic bezeichnete die Forderung als unbegründet. Eine Frankfurter Anwaltsfirma soll Montenegros Regierung im bevorstehenden Prozess vertreten, hieß es.CEAC hat für 65,4 Prozent der KAP-Anteile sowie für die Rechte für den Bauxit-Abbau 58,5 Millionen Euro bezahlt und sich zugleich verpflichtet, KAP-Schulden in Höhe von 90 Millionen Euro zu begleichen. Außerdem fordert die Firma Schadenersatz wegen zu hoher Strompreise in den vergangenen Jahren.

Deripaska ist mit knapp 40 einer der jüngsten russischen Oligarchen. Er hält weltweit Beteiligungen an Unternehmen - auch am deutschen Baukonzern Hochtief. Sein Vermögen wird auf 40 Milliarden Dollar geschätzt.

ase/dpa

Kommentar: Wenn er sogar am Bestechungs Firmen wie Hochtief beteiligt ist, dann sollte er halt vorab sein Investment überprüfen. Immerhin sind Immobilien Schätzungen auch sehr schwierig. Das Aluminium Werk hat mit Sicherheit gute Profit Aussichten, wobei die Energie Preise entscheidend sind.

Geschrieben in Economy - Wirtschaft | Keine Kommentare »

‘Fearsome Muslim warlord eludes Bosnian Serb forces’ by Bill Schiller

10.9.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

Crime and Punishment

by Nebojsa Malic

The Absurd Case of Naser Oric “Convicted but released” came the news Friday morning, striking the Balkans tinderbox like stray lightning. Naser Oric, the Muslim warlord of Srebrenica, was convicted of war crimes by the Hague Inquisition – and sentenced to less than time spent in prison. Upon hearing the verdict, he smiled and brandished a Cuban cigar. Three days later, he returned to Bosnia to a hero’s welcome. “Now it’s official: we defended ourselves, they committed genocide,” said Safet Omerovic, who served under Oric during the war, as he greeted his former commander at the Sarajevo airport. Thousands escorted Oric’s motorcade to his postwar home in Tuzla. The verdict came as a shock to Serbs, both in Bosnia and in Serbia. Just about every politician and official in Belgrade and Banja Luka slammed the decision, calling it a travesty of justice and questioning the credibility and purpose of the ICTY. Even Natasa Kandic, a professional agitator for the Empire used to crating false rumors of atrocities, had to admit the ICTY wasn’t trying very hard to convict the “defender of Srebrenica.” Serbian President Boris Tadic, usually supportive of the Hague Inquisition and pledging his country’s complete submission to its demands, commented that Western courts handed down harsher sentences for shoplifting. Another Trial, Another Farce Oric was arrested in April 2003, by undercover agents of the Inquisition, and sent to The Hague shortly thereafter. He was charged on grounds of command responsibility, for the murder of civilians, wanton destruction of civilian property, and abuse of prisoners committed by forces under his control. The Inquisition’s verdict eventually claimed that Muslim forces in Srebrenica were not under Oric’s control, but that he had “reasons to know” prisoners were being abused by his “police.” The first part of this contention is patently false, while the second is a severe understatement. Nothing happened in Srebrenica without the knowledge of Naser Oric, who was far more than a “young, inexperienced” militia commander. He was quite literally the warlord of that enclave, operating independently of the Corps command in Tuzla; his chain of command went straight to the top – to Izetbegovic himself. The man who “grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork” while watching a video of “burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads, and people fleeing” was “as bloodthirsty a warrior as ever crossed a battlefield.” (Bill Schiller, Toronto Star, July 1995) The only way the Inquisitors could have failed to prove Oric’s role in Srebrenica was by actively trying to sabotage their own case. Srebrenica was a major part of the proceedings against Slobodan Milosevic, and there were plenty of testimonies and evidence to draw from. For example, in February 2004 French General Philippe Morillon testified that Oric was indeed a warlord, and under direct orders from Sarajevo: “Naser Oric was a warlord who reigned by terror in this area and over the population itself. … He could not allow himself to take prisoners. According to my recollection, he didn’t even look for an excuse” (quoted here). Both Morillon and Lt. Gen. Karremans, commander of the Dutch troops charged with patrolling the Srebrenica “safe area,” testified that Oric’s forces had razed 192 Serb villages. Morillon even said that he was “convinced” the events of 1995 were, in the words of Judge Robinson, a “direct reaction to what Naser Oric did to the Serbs two years before.” As the Milosevic trial has shown rather graphically, the ICTY is willing to run roughshod over its own rules, evidence, and procedure in order to achieve its preordained verdicts. Every indictment, every trial, every sentence has a clear political purpose. So what was the point in going after Oric? It appears to have been the same, lame attempt at staging a perception of evenhandedness that motivated the charges against KLA terrorist Ramush Haradinaj last year, only to see him released and back in politics within months. An afterthought in the BBC’s report on Oric’s sentencing summed it up best: “Correspondents say many Bosnian Muslims regard him as a hero, and believe the decision to prosecute him was made to counter complaints by Serbs that the tribunal was biased against them.” Epiphanies

………………………

http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=9244 

A Reporter’s Account of an Evening Spent with Nasir Oric, the Muslim Commander in Srebrenica

Original title, ‘Fearsome Muslim warlord eludes Bosnian Serb forces’
Toronto Star, July 16, 1995
By Bill Schiller

…………………….

Re: “A Rare Glimpse at the Reality of the Bosnian War ”
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/gorazde.htm

The Toronto Star
July 16, 1995, Sunday, Sunday Second Edition
Section: NEWS; Pg. A1
Length: 816 Words
Headline: Fearsome Muslim warlord eludes Bosnian Serb forces
Byline: Bill Schiller Toronto Star
Dateline: Belgrade, Yugoslavia

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - When Bosnian Serb commander Gen. Ratko Mladic swept triumphantly into Srebrenica last week, he not only wanted to sweep Srebrenica clean of Muslims - he wanted Nasir Oric.

In Mladic’s view, the powerfully built Muslim commander had made life too difficult and too deadly for Serb communities nearby.

Even though the Serbs had Srebrenica surrounded, Oric was still mounting commando raids by night against Serb targets.

Oric, as blood-thirsty a warrior as ever crossed a battlefield, escaped Srebrenica before it fell. Some believe he may be leading the Bosnian Muslim forces in the nearby enclaves of Zepa and Gorazde. Last night these forces seized armored personnel carriers and other weapons from U.N. peacekeepers in order to better protect themselves.

Oric is a fearsome man, and proud of it.

I met him in January, 1994, in his own home in Serb-surrounded Srebrenica.

On a cold and snowy night, I sat in his living room watching a shocking video version of what might have been called Nasir Oric’s Greatest Hits.

There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads, and people fleeing.

Oric grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork.

“We ambushed them,” he said when a number of dead Serbs appeared on the screen.

The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by explosives: “We launched those guys to the moon,” he boasted.

When footage of a bullet-marked ghost town appeared without any visible bodies, Oric hastened to announce: “We killed 114 Serbs there.”

Later there were celebrations, with singers with wobbly voices chanting his praises.

These video reminiscences, apparently, were from what Muslims regard as Oric’s glory days. That was before most of eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica became a “safe zone” with U.N. peacekeepers inside - and Serbs on the outside.

Lately, however, Oric increased his hit-and-run attacks at night. And in Mladic’s view, it was far too successful for a community that was supposed to be suppressed.

The Serbs regard Oric, once Serb President Slobodan Milosevic’s personal bodyguard, as a war criminal.

But they don’t want to send him to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. They want to track him down and kill him.

The only songs they want sung of Nasir Oric are funeral dirges.

But that hasn’t happened.

Srebrenica, surrounded by 3,000 armed Serbs as it was then, was a strange town. It held a desperate kind of life - a life in suspended animation.

People talked about what they used to do, or used to be. Or about what they would do or would become once they were free again.

Sleeping beneath the sheltering sky near Tuzla as Srebrenica’s surviving residents did last week - after having been driven from their homes - was not in their catalogue of expectations.

I remember steep streets lined with snow and, everywhere, firewood.

Srebrenica, an old silver mining town, was built to hold 4,500 residents, but was then crammed with 22,500. And the overall pocket, some 14 kilometres wide by 16 kilometres long, had swelled to 46,000 in all.

It had the look and feel of an overcrowded, somewhat dilapidated, ski resort town.

But it was anything but.

Still, people were friendly. The face of an outsider, an unexplained newcomer, came as a pleasant surprise to them and I was welcomed into their homes, served tea brewed on makeshift firewood stoves, and treated with kindness.

There was, even then, some tension in the air about our Canadian peacekeepers there. But they were still doing a good job - even an excellent one - despite extraordinarily high expectations.

I got into Srebrenica by convincing Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that the time was right for a journalist to visit. None had been allowed for more than 100 days. People were wondering what was going on behind the curtain.

In the end, another journalist asked to come along. He had a vehicle, and I didn’t. It was a good trade-off.

But what we smelled there, besides the smoke of a thousand and one cooking fires, was the slow death of hope.

No one wanted to admit it was a hopeless situation. They wanted to believe that someone, something, perhaps some extraordinary act of fate, was going to save them and their town.

They just didn’t know what it was. And that not knowing ate away at them, just as their thinning food supplies, having been choked off by the Serbs, did.

At the very end of the only real street that led all the way down into the town and became, in effect, main street, I’ll always remember dozens of kids taking turns whizzing across a pool of sheer ice, their bottoms protected by worn pieces of thin cardboard.

We don’t use the word “glee” anymore. But that’s what it was then. Glee on Main Street, Downtown Srebrenica.

A bit of laughter against the cold. A bit of glee in the face of inevitable doom.

(c) The Toronto Star 1992 - Posted for educational and fair use only

Geschrieben in Geschichte - History | Keine Kommentare »

Der Wortbruch der USA im Kaukasus um erneut einen Krieg zu inzenieren

10.9.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

		Politik - International
		Lawrow entlarvt die Doppelzüngigkeit der USA
		15:05 | 10/ 09/ 2008

MOSKAU, 10. September (RIA Novosti). Die USA haben Georgien vor dessen Einfall in Südossetien deutlich gemacht, dass eine Aggression im Kaukasus das Ende aller georgischen Nato-Beitritts-Träume bedeuten würde.

Dies gab der russische Außenminister, Sergej Lawrow, am heutigen Mittwoch bekannt.

„Wir warnten unsere US-amerikanischen Partner zwei Jahre lang vor der Aufrüstung des georgischen Regimes und forderten sie auf, dies sein zu lassen. Doch sowohl Doktor Rice (US-Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice) als auch ihre Kaukasus-Experten Matthew Bryza und Daniel Fried * sagten, dass die USA nie eine Gewaltanwendung seitens Georgiens zulassen würden“, sagte Lawrow vor Journalisten.

BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Fried
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Term of Appointment: 05/05/2005 to present
Ihm zufolge teilten die USA zuvor mit, dass im Falle einer georgischen Aggression „er (Saakaschwili) seine Aussichten zum Nato-Beitritt begraben könne“.

„Nun können Sie selbst urteilen, wer was macht und wer sich womit beschäftigt“, sagte der russische Außenminister.

* Daniel Fried gehört zu den übelsten Verbrechern, welche im Auftrage der USA Weltweit unterwegs sind. Legendär wurde er mit der Erpressung von Slowenien zur Kosovo Anerkennung und mit seinen Aussagen u.a. bei der NATO Konferenz in 2000, warum die Amerikaner im Balkan die Zerschlagung von Jugoslawien organisierten.

Aus genannten Gründen, weil jeder in der Welt weiss, wer die grossen US Verbrecher sind, wurde auch John Dimitri Negroponte ,

vor kurzem nicht im Kreml empfangen, denn mit diesen Verbrechern im Gewande der US Diplomatie, will niemand mehr was zu tun haben.  Der andere Extrem Verbrecher und CIA Agent ist Zalmay Khalilzad, dessen Blutspur als Mitglied der NeoCons,  sich ebenso quer durch die Welt zieht.

REUTERS

Zalmay Khalilzad (M.): Mann für schwierige Aufgaben

Geschrieben in Welt News Spezial, Balkan | Keine Kommentare »

Aktion der Tirana Stadt Polizei gegen den illegalen Strassen Handel

10.9.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

• 

  Tiranë- Policia Bashkiake në aksion për largimin e shitësve të celularëve

  Policia Bashkiake në kryeqytet ka rinisur…

Tiranë- Policia Bashkiake në aksion për largimin e shitësve të celularëve (0)

Policia Bashkiake në kryeqytet ka rinisur aksionin e saj për largimin e shitësve ambulant të celularëve dhe aksesorëve të tjerë elektronikë nga rruga dhe trotuaret përballë Albtelekomit. Siç shihet nga pamjet gjatë këtij aksioni policët bashkiak kanë hasur në kundërshtimin e vet shitësve, ku nuk kanë munguar as përlasjet fizike.

 http://video.shekulli.com.al/

Video nga Fejzi Braushi

Geschrieben in Kosovo-Albanien (Albanian), Economy - Wirtschaft | Keine Kommentare »