Byzantine Blog

We Have Moved!

After a lot of work (lots!), molding, chiseling, buffing and polishing to make a bigger, brand new cyberspace home the most functional and practical we could, the kind of site which would enable all the Byzantine Blog segments and parts fit in seamlessly, we can finally announce that we have moved.

Please make sure to visit us at a new address, at De-Construct.net and, if you are running a web site with a link to Byzantine Blog, please remember to update your links, bookmarks, RSS feeds and the rest (BBlog will keep the links both here and at the new site, i.e. the same sites we linked to here have been given links on the new web site, with only few exceptions).

We hope all of our friends and visitors will join us over at the new virtual home and help us make it cozier and better. Take part in the polls, let us know what you think about the new site, share your ideas... we also ask for your patience, since there's still quite a bit of work to be done with the articles transferred from Byzantine Blog AND -- the most annoying thing! -- we seem to have some serious issues with receiving and moderating comments over at the new place.

Thank you for all your support and patience, it is sincerely appreciated.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

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.

"One can clearly see the double standards here when comparing this conviction with the one [the same] Gospic court had issued to five Serbs tried in absence, charged for allegedly holding one Croat policeman imprisoned: three of them were convicted to 8 years, and the other two to 6 years imprisonment," Strbac said.

According to Veritas Center, this process shows that Croat state is still unable to confront the dark side of its recent past. On the other hand, such leniency towards Croat atrocities and monsters is most certainly not going to encourage Serbs expelled from Croatia to start returning in the still entirely deserted villages of Divoselo, Citluk and Pocitelj, 15 years after the slaughter.

"With these shameful verdicts official Zagreb is letting the expelled Serbs know there is no place for them in Croatia", Savo Strbac said.

Recommended: Canadian Testimony about the Medak Pocket Massacre - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (YouTube)

Posted by BBlog Staff at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Truth: Documentary Presenting Evidence of Crimes Committed Against Serbs

Titled simply and straightforwardly -- The Truth ("Istina") -- this documentary is a compilation of the original video footage and photographs gathered during the civil wars in former Yugoslavia and in the years after, mostly from the Serbian survivors of the wars, ethnically cleansed and expelled Serbs, and refugees from all parts of former Yugoslavia.

Not for the faint of heart, this documentary presents bloodcurdling evidence of the Serbian suffering during the civil wars on the territory of former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia's own Kosovo and Metohija province.

Massacred bodies of the Serb civilians and soldiers, with severed heads, eyes gouged out, raped women and killed children, cry of the mothers holding skulls of their butchered sons... these are only some of the horrific scenes documented here, causing utter shock and disbelief any man would be capable of committing such crimes.

Among else, The Truth shows captured Croat soldier who testified about slitting the throats of two tied-up fifteen-year-olds. He also speaks about one of his co-fighters who wore a necklace made out of Serbian child's fingers.

The video offered here includes the introduction from the documentary premier in the Belgrade Sava Center, where the organizers -- functionaries of the Serbian Radical Party -- explain why this documentary had to be made available to the widest audience.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 09:56 PM | Permalink

Dutch Documentary: The Hague Couldn't Convict Milosevic of Illegal Parking, Let Alone War Crimes

Dutch two-part documentary about the kangaroo court trial against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was made before late President Milosevic started calling his witnesses. It shows the Prosecution was scrambling to unearth any piece of evidence that would match the accusations leveled against Slobodan Milosevic by the Western propaganda before former Yugoslav president was even indicted. In the absence of any evidence that would back the allegations and false charges against President Milosevic, the Prosecution piled up "witnesses", hundreds of them, hoping the mere repetition of the accusations, even in the form of plain gossip and hearsay, would serve as a proof that the charges must be true.

Documentary "The Milosevic Case -- Glosses at a Trial" also demonstrates the Hague Prosecution witnesses were given written guarantees and unique protections from any future criminal proceedings, that they were often bought and/or threatened and pressured to lie and commit perjury to help NATO convict Serbian political and military leadership, President Milosevic foremost, in order to take all the blame off the Western powers involved in destruction of Yugoslavia and Serbia.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Families of the Missing Kosovo Serbs: UNMIK and KFOR are Doing Nothing to Help

On the International Day of the Missing, August 30, representatives of the Association of the Families of the kidnapped, killed and missing Kosovo-Metohija Serbs told UNMIK head Lamberto Zannier they are unhappy with the fact civilian and military mission (UN Mission in Kosovo and NATO troops named 'Kosovo Force', KFOR, in Serbian province) have done nothing to help throw some light at the fate of those people.

Association member Gordana Djikanovic said they told Zannier Serbs are disappointed with the fact civilian and military mission have done nothing in the past ten years to help the truth come out about the missing Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija province.

"We have also expressed our dissatisfaction because nothing is being done to identify some 560 bodies lying in the Pristina morgue", Djikanovic said.

She stressed that UNMIK representatives, even though they received the list with the names of 300 kidnappers and with locations where the kidnapped Kosovo-Metohija Serbs were buried, have taken no steps to process those responsible for the crimes.

Djikanovic pointed to the fact that not one of the terrorist KLA leaders has faced the consequences of the committed crimes -- to the contrary, they are now the high functionaries of the fake "government" of Kosovo-Metohija province.

"Zannier appeared interested to hear us out, but we got no promise to take to our families. He said that his associates will search and work on resolving the issues we pointed to", representative of the Association of the Families of the kidnapped, killed and missing Kosovo Serbs told RTS.

More than 1,300 Kosovo-Metohija Serbs went missing after the 1999 counter-insurgency war against the Albanian terrorist KLA (UCK). While the remains of some 800 Kosovo Serbs were found and identified, the fate of another 550 registered missing Kosovo Serbs remains unknown, according to the data of the Families Association.

Posted by BBlog Staff at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Kostunica: Duplicitous West Needs to Claim Responsibility for the Consequences of its Actions

President of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica, in a statement given to Belgrade media yesterday, assessed the latest events have proven southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija is indeed far from being "a special case", and the dangerous virus of the illegal, unilaterally declared independence by the Pristina separatists is bound to hurt a number of states in future.

Former Serbian prime minister stressed that "French President Sarkozy's claim that Kosovo is 'a special case', meaning that out of all the states in the world only Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity may be freely violated, represents a continuation of a deeply flawed policy run by the European Union."

"Since the EU simultaneously ran duplicitous policy of destroying Serbia's territorial integrity on the one hand, while protecting Georgia's territorial integrity on the other, it was inevitable for such policy to backfire, seriously damaging the international order, jeopardizing peace and stability in the world", Kostunica said.

He added that it was "now evident Kosovo is not a unique case and a dangerous virus of the illegal Kosovo independence will hurt many countries throughout the world."

"What right to invoke the preservation of the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity have the states which have brutally trampled this same principle when they recognized the unilateral independence of Kosovo and Metohija province?", Kostunica asked.

"The Western states which have conducted the policy of might over right and have violated the territorial integrity of Serbia bear the full responsibility for all the consequences which will be felt by a number of states confronted with problems similar to those Serbia has with its southern Province," Kostunica said.

Two Newborn States in the Caucasus Gain More International Recognition

According to Serbian news agency Tanjug, Nicaragua had issued official recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said late Tuesday before the leadership of the Nicaraguan Army that he supports Russian Federation in breaking out of the encirclement created by the Western military alliance.

"The government of Nicaragua recognizes the independence of the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and we fully agree with the Russian government's position that the conflict may end through dialogue with the European countries," said Ortega.

According to the DPA, Ortega expressed support for Russia in the face of a "plan to encircle the Russian Republic."

"World peace is being threatened by hegemonist, rash policies, because the Soviet Union disappeared and they went about promoting the break-up of nations that had a great unity that had been established with great effort," Ortega added.

Recognition of the two newborn states in the Caucasus is also expected from Belarus and some ten other states.

Cartoon "U.S./EU Abominable Offspring: Independent Kosovo" by Goran Divac (Serbia)

Posted by BBlog Staff at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

You are All Invited to Help Prepare and Attend 10-Year Commemoration of NATO Aggression Against Serbia (Starting on March 23, 2009, in Belgrade): Lest We Forget!

Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, an independent, non-party, and non-profit association of citizens, has initiated a program of activities to mark the 10th anniversary of the NATO aggression against Serbia (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ) in 1999.

The primary objectives are to pay due respect to human victims, to shed more light on the real goals and consequences of that aggression, and to spread messages of peace, mutual respect and equal rights of all nations and all human beings on the Planet. The framework is: NOT TO FORGET. Remembrance of victims and consequences of the aggression will contribute to upgrading the overall responsibility for the observance of the universal principles of International Law and the role of the international institutions, headed by the United Nations.

The activities will continue throughout 2009, culminating in March (the beginning) and June, 2009 (the end) of the aggression.

The Belgrade Forum invites all the state, scientific, cultural and religious institutions of Serbia, the Serbian Academy of Science and Art (SANU), the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), associations of citizens, mass-media, and the Serbian Diaspora (with its associations and mass-media) to take part in various activities aiming not to forget victims and consequences of the 1999 NATO aggression. Consequences are not felt in Serbia and the Balkans only but also in Europe, Caucasus, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America.

The Belgrade Forum believes that marking this anniversary will promote international solidarity with Serbia and Serbian people as victims of the aggression which transformed NATO from a defensive into an offensive alliance. The day of the beginning of NATO aggression, March 24th, 1999 set a most dangerous precedent of using military force of an regional organization against a sovereign state without authorization of UN Security Council. It was a clear violation of the universal principles of International Law, the UN Charter, the OSCE Final Helsinki Act and the Paris Charter. It represents also violation of the NATO 1949 founding act as well as the constitutions of the member countries. Uniqueness is reflected also insofar that the aggression was conducted in an alliance of NATO and the terrorist UCK organization.

The aggression left over 3.500 dead and about 10.000 wounded, out of which more than two thirds are civilians, including children and disabled. In addition, many people died later as a consequence of deceases caused by use of depleted uranium and other armament banned by the International Law. The material losses – destroyed bridges, railways, highways, factories, transformers and electricity transmission lines, apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, even 30 TV stations and transmitters – amounted about 100 billion US dollars.

The goals of the 1999 military NATO aggression have been incessantly pursued during the past ten years. Their continuity was reflected through sustained support to the Albanian terrorism and secessionism - that resulted in thousands of killed and abducted, ethnic cleansing of 270.000 Serbs and other non-Albanians, destruction of 150 Serbian medieval monasteries and churches, massive pogrom of Serbs in March 2004 - all the way to open support to the recently proclaimed illegal independence of Kosovo (17th of February 2008). Notably, the US/NATO/UCK aggression against Serbia and their open support to the Albanian terrorism and separatism in Kosovo and Metohija (Serbia) led to the overall rise of terrorism, separatism and organized international crime in Europe and the world, to the occupation of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), to the threats of military interventions in many other countries all over the world.

Following the 1999 aggression USA and NATO have established a network of new military bases in Eastern Europe and the Balkan countries ( Bulgaria , Albania , Rumania , Hungary , Bosnia ). This actually started by establishment of Camp Bondstill , an American military base in Kosovo and Metohija ( Serbia ) in 1999 as the biggest American base outside the USA and the largest built since the Vietnam War.

To conclude, NATO aggression against Serbia (FRY) was not a local war, the least “humanitarian intervention” but the testing of a USA strategy with global objectives threatening the whole humanity.

Belgrade Forum is addressing an

A p e a l

to peace movements, intellectuals, youth organizations, leaders of friendly countries and organizations, to co-fighters for peace, equal sovereign rights, and cooperation, to friends – in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa:

to mark the 10th anniversary of the USA/NATO/UCK aggression against Serbia (FRY), demand abolishment of NATO and foreign military basis, condemn illegal secession and recognition of Kosovo and Metohija (by NATO and some EU countries), to support sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, denounce USA double standards on separatism and terrorism.

The Belgrade Forum is engaged in preparation of the following

Activities:

• International Round table on 23 of March, 2009, in Belgrade
• Publication of the interventions
• Photo, books, audio/video exhibition on the aggression
• Evenings of documentary films of domestic and foreign production in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia
• Reconstruction of the monuments to the victims
• Laying wreaths in honor to the victims in Belgrade and other places
• Opening of the Library for Study, Investigation and Documentation on the aggression
• Peace meetings and marches
• Preparation of the book “Friends of Serbia in the World”
• Cooperation with associations of Serbian Diaspora
• Placing a plaque of gratitude to Greek People in Thessaloniki

How you can help?

• Spreading information on the coming anniversary
• Initiating activities in your country, town, and/or association condemning aggression and expressing solidarity with Serbia’s rights to be free, sovereign, integrated and compensated for the losses caused by criminal aggression
• Denouncing NATO as an aggressive alliance aiming to be above the UN and asking its abolishment
• Writing and publishing your own analyses, experiences, and views on the NATO aggression and its consequences
• Asking the government institutions in your countries to publicly mark this anniversary and condemn arms race, disregard of the International Law and interventionism initiated by the 1999 aggression
• Asking civic and youth association, political parties, parliamentarians, independent intellectuals, scientists, mass-medias to mark this anniversary, condemn policy manipulations, double standards on separatism, terrorism and selective justice
• Taking part in public discussions, meetings, or marches against the aggression
• Collecting books, photos, CDs, DVDs, films, or any other documents for the future Library on the aggression
• Nominating personalities for the “Book of Friends of Serbia in the World” with the basic biographic data
• Donating Belgrade Forum, thus helping the implementation of the proposed activities

P R E S I D E N T
Zivadin Jovanovic

BELGRADE FORUM
FOR A WORLD OF EQUALS
11.000 Belgrade, Murska 14, Serbia
Tel. +381 11 24 52 071, 381 11 24 55 822
e-mail: beoforum@gmail.com

Posted by BBlog Staff at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)