Here's Oliver Kamm writing today on the late Susan Sontag:
‘I shall always respect for her uncompromising statements about apologetics for Soviet Communism, her commitment to the defence of Bosnia against Milosevic's aggression, and her evangelism for European writers to English-speaking readers‘.
What 'defence of Bosnia against Milosevic's aggression' is he talking about?
Bosnia was plunged into civil war after US Ambassador Warren Zimmerman persuaded Alija Izetbegovic to renege on his sigining of the Lisbon agreement- which would have provided for the peaceful reshaping of the republic- in 1992. Yugoslav national army forces did not 'attack' Bosnia. What on earth is Kamm talking about then when he talks of 'Milosevic's aggression'?
For too long now, the war lobby have been allowed to get away with the most outrageous statements about the Yugoslav conflict without being challenged. It's time they either shut up, or produced evidence to back up their claims. I have written to Kamm asking him to produce evidence for his claim- I will be very interested to see if I get a reply.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
The link leads to an empty page.
If this is anything to do with Louis Sell don't bother resending it, his testimony has yet to be corroborated and he is in any case a far from neutral observer. For those who don't know Sell is the US diplomat quoted in Adam Lebor's hatchet bigoraphy of Milosevic who remembers being shown a 'covertly obtained document that revealed contigency plans by the military' that may have been the 'RAM plan or something similar'. (The RAM plan was the alleged plan 'for the geographical oultine for the future 'Greater Serbia'. No one has ever produced a copy of this dastardly document- all there is is Sell's testimony to go on.
Sell has also claimed that throughout the Srebrencia crisis, Milosevic was 'in direct personal contact with (Ratko)Mladic'- yet the exhaustive Dutch government report in to the massacre found 'no evidence of political or military liason' with Belgrade concerning the killings.
I have read the report and my original question stands. I did not ask for evidence of violence committed by Serbian paramilitaries or members of 'former units of the JNA', I asked for evidence of 'Milosevic's aggression' against Bosnia.
And I am still waiting to see it.
I'm copy and pasting a key part of the report for you to read again:
'It is difficult to say which groups actually exerted military control over Zvornik at the various stages following the occupation of the town. Supreme command is frequently ascribed to the JNA and - as mentioned above - is associated with the names of Pejic and Pavlovic. The fact that both were former JNA officers may have led many expellees to assume that the supreme command was in the hand of the JNA. But while these two officers did have the supreme control over the town, they may not really have been officers of the JNA anymore, but rather leading officers of a new "territorial defense" which had been established by local leaders and which may later - as mentioned above - have constituted the core of the "Serbian army in Bosnia-Herzegowina" in Zvornik, which was officially declared in May 1992.
It may be assumed, though, that there was a concerted effort to divide responsibilities and, thus, control over the town. At least until the fall of Kulagrad, there appears to have been a sharing of power by the officers of the former JNA (Pejic and Pavlovic) and SDS (Grujic) with the militia.'
You are trying to spin this as an operation organised from Belgrade to 'attack' Bosnia. What went on in Zvornik, is of course tragic- no one disputes that- but it is not the evidence of 'Milosevic attacking Bosnia', I asked for.
ICTY: Milosevic Trial Exposed Belgrade’s Role in Wars Case Shows Lessons for War Crimes Trials
(New York, December 14, 2006) – The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, which ended with his death before a verdict could be rendered, has provided important evidence about the role of Belgrade in pursuing the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
“Although Milosevic was never convicted, evidence exposed at his trial showed how Belgrade orchestrated the vicious wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo,” said Sara Darehshori, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/14/yugosl14800.htm
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/milosevic1206/
Post a Comment