"The Fall of Yugoslavia" by Misha Glenny [17]

Chapter 5 [conclusion]

The final nine pages of this chapter do not add much--in terms of analysis--to what has come before, although it must be noted that Glenny always writes well and demonstrates a genuine concern for ordinary Bosnians of all nationalities. One point he does make--nationalist violence in Bosnia has historically been stirred up by outside powers (competing empires and nations; in this case Croatia and Serbia); he also states that once nationalist violence has been stirred up it takes outside intervention to separate the warring parties and enforce peace. Considering that the only example he gives is World War II (in which the "outside intervention" was provided by the Communist Yugoslav government for which many Bosnians of all nationalities fought), it's problematic to make such a blanket statement. But we can forgive Glenny for this generalization, since his larger point is to emphasize that international involvement will be necessary to help enforce a stable lasting peace after the fighting is over.

But that raises another issue--Glenny's opposition to international involvement to end the fighting, which he does not address here but which is a matter of record. This chapter ends with a glum, fatalistic portrait of a completely broken country in which the state and civil society have simply ceased to function, and a modern capital city now resembles a morbid set from a post-apocalyptic movie. He believes that nothing can stop the fighting, and so therefore nobody should try. It's a tragic story he tells, but it is unclear what the reader is to learn from it. 

****************

This (finally!) concludes my summation/review of Chapter 5; there is one chapter and two Epilogues to go.

"The Fall of Yugoslavia" by Misha Glenny [16]

Chapter 5 [continued]

(Picking up where I left off...)

It is true that Izetbegovic was careless when he led Bosnia towards independence without making preparations for war. Yet Glenny throws far too much of the blame at the feet of the Bosniak President. Furthermore, Glenny simultaneously acknowledges that Bosnia's tripartite Presidency was an "absurd fiction", yet criticizes Izetbegovic and the international community for ignoring the Serb demands to continue it, describing them as "both just and reasonable."

It is not clear why he regards those demands as "just and reasonable." It is hard to ignore the feeling that Glenny has either not thought deeply about the ramifications of the ethnic-identity basis of the constitutional system, or he accepts it as the best system for Bosnia.

There is a disconnect in Glenny's account between "the Serbs" and the actual actions of the Bosnian Serb leadership; in his account, there is a clear line between the "just and reasonable" demands of an ethnic group versus the morally reprehensible actions of the political and military actors acting on behalf of that group.

And when the war finally breaks out, he continues to focus on the mistakes and strategic missteps of Izetbegovic, as if the forces arrayed against him are anonymous forces of nature rather than military and paramilitary units operating under political, ideological, and military direction. Glenny does not dignify the demands and concerns of the Bosnian Serbs, but he does seem to regard them as the "baseline" upon which the political calculations of others must be based. This might have been strategically wise given the political and military realities, but Glenny presents this point of view as a moral imperative, not a strategic necessity.

Glenny certainly is not blind to the war crimes committed by Serb forces; nor is he wrong to point out that there were a multitude of factors leading up to the war. But he has an unfortunate tendency to segregate a discussion of the legitimacy of Serb concerns and fears from the political and social dynamics which fueled and harnessed those societal factors. This is tricky terrain, because I truly appreciate Glenny's concern for the ordinary Serbs who were caught up in the maelstrom which was not of their own making. The grotesque media narrative about primitive, bloodthirsty Serbs was not a delusion of his--far too much reportage turned the war into a simple morality tale, with all Serbs cast as villains.

But it's hard to know what to make of a passage like this:

The case of the Serbs has often been misrepresented and their genuine fears and concerns dismissed when they should not have been. But the behaviour of Karadzic, the Arkanovci and other paramilitary groups, and the JNA in Bosnia-Hercegovina destroyed their reputation abroad. No injustice had been perpetrated against the Serbs of Bosnia or of Serbia to justify this rape of Bosnia-Hercegovina.


One has to ask--in Glenny's opinion, what level of violence and depravity was justified? I recognize that is not what he means to say--the man is far too decent and humane to contemplate any sort of blood libel against anyone. But the implicit logic of this chapter seems to be heading towards such an ugly question. You can only blame the victim for stumbling into war for so long before your outrage at the excessive violence he then suffers seems to be beside the point.

Protest Letter Regarding Genocide Denier Michael Parenti

[Thanks to the Congress of North American Bosniaks for this Press Release, Following is the text of an open letter; the original is here.]

Dr. Sharat G. Lin
President San Jose Peace and Justice Center
48 South 7th Street, Suite 101
San Jose, CA 95112

Protest letter on behalf of Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), representing the interests of Bosnian American and Bosnian Canadian citizens, the Institute for Research Genocide, Canada (IGC), the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH), Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI) as well as the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosniak Cultural Association, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dear Dr. Lin,

On behalf of survivors of the Genocide that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), we are deeply concerned with your decision to host Dr. Michael Parenti as a guest speaker for the May 31st fundraiser.[i] Dr. Parenti, a self-proclaimed “Balkan Revisionist” and author of To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia explicitly denies that genocide, systematic rape of women and girls and ethnic cleansing ever took place in BiH.

Dr. Parenti places the blame on Bosniaks for the Genocide in Srebrenica and other massacres that took place throughout the war of aggression on BiH. As a result of his denial, Dr. Parenti has publicly disregarded that approximately 50,000 Bosniak women were raped during the three year war of aggression on BiH.

The rapes were in fact used as an official Serb policy for ethnic cleansing. To this day, his outrageous claims have not been supported by internationally accepted evidence but only by other genocide deniers. His conspiracy theories are in direct conflict with the official rulings by the International Court of Justice, the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, as well as various declarations from the United States Congress and the European Parliament. We acknowledge the importance of freedom of speech, however, falsifying facts and denying genocide is unacceptable and deeply traumatic for the survivors and their families who continue to suffer due to the physical and emotional trauma they underwent. Hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks who survived the genocide in BiH have made the United States and Canada their second home; most of them having lost someone as a result of genocide and aggression. Dr. Parenti uses his writing to purposely hurt those who have survived genocide, and having him attend this event will send the wrong message to all genocide survivors. In addition, it will send a message that San Jose Peace and Justice Center supports Parenti’s genocide denial. We hope that you will agree that having Dr. Parenti speak would be highly inappropriate and contrary to the mission of your organization which strives to promote peace and justice.

All genocide deniers directly undermine peace and justice because the only way to peace and reconciliation is to acknowledge the truth and punish those responsible. Dr. Parenti’s work and constant expression of denial is damaging to the healing process of the survivors of the genocide in BiH and we urge you to stand up for justice and truth and reject all affiliation with Dr. Parenti and his work.

Sincerely,

Haris Alibasic,
MPA President, Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB)

Professor Emir Ramic
Director, Institute for Research Genocide, Canada

Ajla Delkic, M.A. Executive Director, Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH)

Dr. Smail Cekic Director,
Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Dr. Senadin Lavic President, Bosniak Cultural Association “Renaissance”, Sarajevo

Sanja Seferovic-Drnovsek, J.D., MEd
Director, Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center

Christiane Amanpour on the Lessons of Bosnia

From CNN by Christiane Amanpour

Opinion: Bosnia's lesson for Syrian slaughter

CNAB condemns Serbian attempt to rehabilitate Nazi collaborator Draza Mihailovic

[My apologies for not blogging last week; I realize that my review of Glenny is getting dragged out.
Please see this press release from the Congress of North American Bosniaks regarding recent moves in Serbia to rehabilitate Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic. I do hope to return to regular blogging/reviewing soon.]

The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) strongly condemns all efforts by the government of the Republic of Serbia to rehabilitate Chetnik general and convicted war criminal Dragoljub “Draza” Mihailovic.
In the Second World War, General Mihailovic was the leader of the Chetnik Detachment of the Yugoslav Army – commonly referred to as the Ravna Gora Chetniks. The Chetniks were a Serbian fascist and ultra-nationalist military organization that collaborated with the Nazis and targeted Yugoslav Partisans and non-Serbs living in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina for extermination. Under Mihailovic’s command, the Chetniks collaborated with the Axis powers and committed horrendous war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosniak and Croat civilians living in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Chetniks murdered an estimated 60,000 civilians and burned several hundred small Bosnian towns and villages to the ground in an attempt to terrorize the civilian population and ethnically cleanse Bosniaks and Croats from their homes in order to form an ethnically pure greater Serbian state. After the war, the Yugoslav authorities apprehended General Mihailovic; following a trial he was convicted of treason and war crimes and was executed.
The fascist Chetnik ideology resurfaced in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war and genocide as Serb forces committed ethnic cleansing and genocide against Bosniak civilians in a renewed effort to form an ethnically cleansed greater Serbian state. This virulent and destructive fascist ideology is still alive and enjoys considerable support among far-right Serbian organizations operating in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It presents a clear danger to Bosniak and Croat civilians living in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to peace and stability in the Balkans.
Rehabilitating Mihailovic would signal that the Serbian government condones the fascist Chetnik ideology that has resulted in the deaths and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians and that it approves of the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed by troops under Mihailovic’s command. It would be a grave insult to victims of fascism as well as to survivors and all those who fought fascism, including Serbians, in Yugoslavia during the Second Word War. It would further tarnish Serbia’s international standing as a country that celebrates war criminals and creates instability and tensions in South-Eastern Europe. It could also signal a resurgence in far-right movements in Serbia that could in turn embolden similar movements in other European countries, leading to future rehabilitation attempts of NAZI and fascist war criminals in other European countries.
We ask that non-governmental human rights organizations in the US, Europe, and particularly in Serbia join us in condemning attempts by Serbian authorities to rehabilitate fascist war criminals and revise history in favor of fascism in the Balkans and the rest of Europe.

Texas Legislature Commemorates Siege of Sarajevo as a Genocide Against Serbs

[This press release from the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina brings attention to a resolution in the Texas Legislature recognizing April as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. This otherwise worthy resolution includes the statement that the deaths of 2000 Serbs in Sarajevo was an act of genocide--a statement that ignores the actual genocide against Bosnian Muslims, and which grossly misrepresents the context of the Siege of Sarajevo.]

ACTION ALERT
Call on Texas Legislature to Recognize Bosnian Genocide

March 16, 2012 - Washington, D.C. - The Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) along with the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, Institute for Research Genocide, Canada, Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center and Bosniak Cultural Association sent a joint letter to Texas Governor, Rick Perry expressing our grave concern regarding the alarming language used in Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 39 which was signed on June 17, 2011.

Lines 19 and 20 of page 1 of the Resolution state that "in April of 1992, the siege of Sarajevo began, leading to the deaths of more than 2,000 Bosnian Serbs." The aforementioned quote is a complete disregard of historical facts and an insult to the victims of genocide committed by Serbian forces in BiH. It is important to note that no one was ever indicted for an alleged genocide of Serbs in Sarajevo and we urge Governor Perry to act swiftly to amend this resolution and disallow a rewrite of history.

While ACBH strongly believes in the importance of declaring the month of April as the Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month in tribute to all those whose lives were touched by genocide, we were alarmed by the utter historical inaccuracy of lines 19 and 20 and the Resolution's failure to mention the Srebrenica genocide or other atrocities that occurred in BiH during the war of aggression.

The aggression and genocide that was waged on BiH lasted from April 6, 1992 until September 14, 1995 and resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people and the displacement of over 2 million. The genocide that occurred in BiH was characterized by the policy of systematic rape of Bosniak women and girls, horrific and prolonged siege and shelling of Bosniak cities, including Sarajevo, and the starvation and terrorization of the Bosniak population in the besieged enclaves. The city of Sarajevo was besieged by the Serb forces of Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army which was comprised of Serbs. The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 5, 1992 until February 29, 1996 and is considered to be the longest siege in modern day history. According to the United Nations Commission of Experts published in 1994, during the siege, Serb forces killed more than 10,000 people, 1,500 of those being innocent children. An additional 56,000 persons were wounded, including nearly 15,000 children.

In recognition of these atrocities, in 2005 the United States Congress unanimously approved the Srebrenica Resolution (S. Res. 134 and H. Res. 199) on genocide, which states that:

"the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide"

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Bosnia (Bosnian Caucus) and an advocate of human rights introduced the aforementioned H. Res. 199. Together with Bosnian Caucus co-chair Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and the 27other members of the Bosnian Caucus, Congressman Smith has worked relentlessly on the dissemination of truth about the war in BiH and we ask Governor Perry to do the same.

The language in Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 39 of 2011 is not in line with established historical facts and we owe it to the victims of genocide everywhere, not just in Bosnia, to honor them by remembering what they suffered in a correct and accurate way. After the Holocaust, the civilized world made a promise to never let such atrocities happen again, yet because of unchecked rhetoric and appeasement, the unthinkable happened again in the heart of Europe. It is therefore of utmost importance that we increase the awareness of the dangers of genocide denial in order to prevent a genocide from happening again elsewhere in the world.

We ask all Bosnian Americans and friends of BiH to TAKE ACTION and not allow history to be rewritten.

Please find a sample letter HERE and express your concerns to:

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

The Honorable David Dewhurst
Lieutenant Governor of the State of Texas
Capitol Station
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711

The Honorable Joe Straus
Speaker of the House
Texas House of Representatives
Room CAP 2W.13, Capitol
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768

[Below is an open letter from the Congress of North American Bosniaks on the same issue.]

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

The Honorable David Dewhurst
Lieutenant Governor of the State of Texas
Capitol Station
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711

The Honorable Joe Straus
Speaker of the House
Texas House of Representatives
Room CAP 2W.13, Capitol
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768



Dear Governor Perry, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, and Speaker Straus:
On behalf of the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) and the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) which represent the interests of over 350,000 Bosnian American citizens in the United States as well as the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law and the Institute for Research Genocide, Canada, we are writing to express grave concern and dismay at language used in the Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 39 of 2011, signed on June 17, 2011. Lines 19 and 20 of page 1 state that “in April of 1992, the siege of Sarajevo began, leading to the deaths of more than 2,000 Bosnian Serbs.” The aforementioned quote is a flagrant disregard for historical facts and an insult to the victims of genocide committed by Serbian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). We urge you and your appropriate state agencies to act swiftly to amend this resolution and disallow Serbian revisionists to rewrite history in the most brutal and insulting way. While there were Bosnian Serbs who died as a result of the Serbian siege of Sarajevo, they were victims of a larger scale attempt by the Serbian forces to eliminate the majority Bosniak population of BiH.

Genocide in BiH was the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in which one million Bosniaks were displaced and half a million were permanently removed from their ancestral land.

Over 100,000 Bosniak civilians were killed during the 1992-95 war of aggression on BiH. The Bosnian Genocide was characterized by a policy of systematic rape of Bosniak women and girls, horrific and prolonged siege and shelling of Bosniak cities, including Sarajevo, and the starvation and terrorizing of the Bosniak population in the besieged enclaves. The brutal siege on the city of Sarajevo resulted in 10,000 killed, 1,500 of those being innocent children, 56,000 wounded civilians and the destruction of Bosniak culture and history.

We are fully in support of the idea and intent of the 82nd State of Texas Senate and House Legislature to declare the month of April as the “Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month” in tribute to all of those whose lives were touched by genocide, and as a reminder of the need for the protection of human rights and for vigilance against the forces of intolerance. However, it is imperative that such intent takes historical facts into consideration.

We respectfully request that you fully acknowledge the historical facts and rescind the SCR 39 of 2011 in the interest of promoting the full truth and correct a grave insult to the victims of genocide in BiH.

It is important to note that during the war of aggression on BiH, not one city was under siege by Bosniak forces; in fact, the majority of Bosnian Serb civilian casualties were killed by the Serbian army commanded by Gen. Ratko Mladic, a convicted war criminal, in the process of sniping and shelling multiethnic Bosnian cities like Sarajevo and Tuzla. The Serb people and the Serb culture were not deliberately targeted for ethnic cleansing, rape, siege, shelling, and destruction in Bosnia. The war of aggression on BiH was the Serb project of a “Greater Serbia”, modeled on a Nazi policy of ethnic purification that inflicted tremendous suffering on the Bosniak people between 1992 and 1995.

The four international judgments acknowledging that genocide indeed did take place in BiH other than in Srebrenica include: Prosecutor v Nikola Jorgic in the Doboj region, Prosecutor v Novislav Djajic [Dzajic] in the Foča region, Prosecutor v Djuradj Kuslic [Kusljic] in the city of Kotor Varos and Prosecutor v Maksim Sokolovic in the city of Kalesija and the Zvornik region. All three cases were tried in Germany at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to ease caseload of the ongoing trials at The Hague.
We need not remind you of the horrific outcome of Serbian ultra-nationalistic plan to annihilate and ethnically cleanse the Bosniak people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the Holocaust, the civilized world made a promise to never let such atrocities happen again, yet because of unchecked rhetoric and appeasement, the unthinkable happened again in the heart of Europe. It is therefore of utmost importance that we increase the awareness of the dangers of genocide denial in order to prevent a genocide from happening again elsewhere in the world.

We owe it to the victims of genocide everywhere, not just in Bosnia, to honor them by remembering them. We stand ready to provide you with adequate language.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent request.

Sincerely,
Haris Alibasic, MPA
President, Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB)

Ajla Delkic, M.A.
Executive Director, Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH)
Dr. Smail Cekic
Director, Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Dr. Senadin Lavic
President, Bosniak Cultural Association, Sarajevo

Dr. Emir Ramic
Director, Institute for Research Genocide, Canada

Sanja Seferovic-Drnovsek J.D, MEd
Director, Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center

[I urge everybody to contact the signers of this resolution protesting this language.

EDIT: Perhaps a mere coincidence, but both sponsors of this bill--Democratic Representative Scott Hechberg, and Republican Senator Florence Shapiro--have announced that they are retiring after their current terms. Also worth noting--Shapiro has a long and somewhat rocky history with former Pilot Scott O'Grady; he famously was shot down over Bosnia and survived for six days before being rescued. He later considered running for political office in Texas and publicly broke with Shapiro, who had been his political mentor up to that point. He has mulled running to replace her.]

"The Fall of Yugoslavia" by Misha Glenny [15]

[Apologies for the delay; I did not blog last week, contrary to my expectations. This will be a short post, but I wanted to get back to regular blogging.]

Chapter 5 [continued]

The next six pages of the chapter continue his tour of two very different areas in Bosnia which remain cheerfully optimistic that the impending war will somehow pass them by--Bihac-Cazin, and Sarajevo. Bihac, of course, was the location of Agrokomerc and the stronghold of Fikret Abdic. Glenny mentions that the only peasant uprising in Eastern Europe during the Communist period was carried out here by Serbs, Croats and Muslims. He doesn't dwell on the area much; I must say that the Bihac region, and the Abdic insurgency against Izetbegovic and the SDA, is one aspect of the war I wish I knew more about.

Then he moves on to Sarajevo, where the urbane, mixed population of Sarajlije are hoping against hope that the violence and hatred simply won't be able to find root. Most Serbs are embarrassed by the SDS.

Glenny revisits the issue of Izetbegovic and Islam; he clarifies that while he considers Izetbegovic to have been a fundamentalist of sorts at the time of his original arrest, he is nothing of the sort by this time. He gives the SDA leader credit for being a decent and humane leaders who sincerely wanted to avoid war. Yet he also blames him for organizing politically along ethnic lines (again without consideration of the fate of non-ethnic parties).