Yugoslavia?

geekychick

Morlar wrote: »

On the subject of de-nazification in croatia I'd welcome people to compare the links you posted with those I posted ;

Absolutely. I posted the links I did, to make a point about what "de-nazification" means when compared between different countries across the board, and that in this way, your (and documentary's) allegation of no de-nazification process having taken place in the communist Croatia doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Having a minority extremist right wing party have a few seats in the parliament, and some cuckoo Ustasha descendants (I'm just guessing that's what they are) dress up in Ustasha regalia in April, does not a "no de-nazification" make, otherwise I can think of a few Western democratic countries who "haven't been de-nazified" or are "racist" and their ethnic minorities should be "legitimately concerned about their safety and that of their children".

So, compare the links, by all means.

Morlar

geekychick wrote: »

So, compare the links, by all means.

Agreed.

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

link 1- This link has nothing to back up your opinion.

link 2- This link is extreme views and delves ..........................
link 3- This link has nothing to back up your opinion.

We are going to have to agree to disagree with your assertion that those links do not back up my point that there are serious issues with de-nazification in croatia (which are entirely relevant to this discussion).

jonniebgood1

Morlar wrote: »

Agreed.

We are going to have to agree to disagree with your assertion that those links do not back up my point that there are serious issues with de-nazification in croatia (which are entirely relevant to this discussion).

The links you provide prove that in WWII there was Nazi collaberation in Croatia. They also show that there is an element of extremism in modern day Croatia. No proof of this being linked to Separatist elements is given other than your own opinion.

NOTE -QUOTE FROM YOUR LINK -At the end of World War II, the Communist authorities pursued a strict set of policies which could be deemed as a form of denazification, only more similar to the Soviet style than to the American style. People who collaborated with the Ustaše were often court-martialled at the end of the war, and the Bleiburg massacre was committed. After the war was over, there were trials against suspected collaborators, and secret service control over citizens with links to the Ustaše.

This quote is from one of the links that you gave.

Your own source/ link is catching you out if I am reading correctly.

You are correct though with one thing- We're not going to agree on this!

Morlar

NOTE -QUOTE FROM YOUR LINK -At the end of World War II, the Communist authorities pursued a strict set of policies which could be deemed as a form of denazification,

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Your own source/ link is catching you out if I am reading correctly.

You are correct though with one thing- We're not going to agree on this!

That is of course a single line and I will leave it to readers to decide if that's representative of the bulk of the content of any of those 3 links ;

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/neonazism1.html#Neo-Nazism_in_Croatia
http://vukovar.50webs.com/ustashe.html
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism_in_Croatia

Morlar

On the subject of online Yugoslavia war-related documentary links here are a couple more. This is a documentary from the Netherlands from around the middle of the milosevic trial - the contributors include the likes of George Kenney, a German journalist whose name I forget, a belgrade journalist and Thomas Deichmann :

The Milosevic Trial Pt1

The Milosevic Trial Pt2

losthorizon

Morlar wrote: »

The USA/Israel/Nato sided with the bosnians/muslims against the serbs. As does hollywood (generally speaking). Some people have argued that this worked as a 'pressure valve' for islamic aspirations, routing them into europe and away from the middle east.

The bosnian/muslims during the war had well funded, slick & sophisticated washington based PR and Lobby firms on their side.

The serbs did not. The Russians generally speaking sided with the Serbs.

From a serbian perspective the underlying causes for the continuing conflict related to radical expansionist islam. Serbs are orthodox christians, there has been systematic persecution of serbs and even systematic destruction of serb churches in the interim. It would be my view that view radical islam is a factor in all of this, same as it is in chechnya, parts of asia and in a lot of other conflict zones around the world.

I'm sorry but the "Muslims" of Bosnia were muslim really just in name. Go to Bosnia and the Muslim women wear exactly the same sort of clothes as non muslims. Of all armies the muslims were the least armed and the least backed. And in places like Mostar not only had they to fight off the Serbs but eventually the double crossing Croats. Dont equate the Muslims of the Balkans and especially Bosnia with places like Afghanistan - madness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XYWtCx6zQ&feature=&p=680B00366DD6F81F&index=0&playnext=1

geekychick

losthorizon wrote: »

I'm sorry but the "Muslims" of Bosnia were muslim really just in name. Go to Bosnia and the Muslim women wear exactly the same sort of clothes as non muslims. Of all armies the muslims were the least armed and the least backed. And in places like Mostar not only had they to fight off the Serbs but eventually the double crossing Croats. Dont equate the Muslims of the Balkans and especially Bosnia with places like Afghanistan - madness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XYWtCx6zQ&feature=&p=680B00366DD6F81F&index=0&playnext=1

Muslims in Bosnia are proud to call themselves Muslims, as well as Bosniaks, and as well they should be. It is their religion (so a little more than a name!), and from there there follows their ethnicity. As for the rest of it, of course they are not the same as Afghani Muslims etc. Islam is a geographically wide-spread religion with many variations across the board, even in places such as Afghanistan itself. Wearing of burka and similar is a cultural thing, as is extremism and fundamentalism of any kind - it is very dependent on the locality and its circumstances, so you are right there. This is not to say that Muslims had no help from Mujahedeen, because they did, just as Croats had help from abroad as well. They were fighting against the 4th best-equipped army in Europe (as well as each other later in the day).

EDIT: On reflection, as someone who has lived through the nineties' war, I think that on balance I have not done myself any favours by allowing myself to enter this debate - I have absolutely no stomach for Serbian propaganda, I find it too upsetting, and as such would not be the most appropriate person to debate it, at all. Beyond my first reaction I really should have left the discussion to the regular posters on here, and for them also to decide how biased or not I have been with the points that I have made.

I have removed two of my posts where I let myself down by using emotive terms and emoticons. The relevant points made in one of them are repeated and covered in subsequent posts.

jonniebgood1

geekychick wrote: »

Muslims in Bosnia are proud to call themselves Muslims, as well as Bosniaks, and as well they should be. It is their religion (so a little more than a name!), and from there there follows their ethnicity. As for the rest of it, of course they are not the same as Afghani Muslims etc.

EDIT: On reflection, as someone who has lived through the nineties' war, I think that on balance I have not done myself any favours by allowing myself to enter this debate - I have absolutely no stomach for Serbian propaganda, and as such would not be the most appropriate person to debate it, at all. Beyond my first reaction I really should have left the discussion to the regular posters on here.

Your input is welcome as are your opinions. I think debating these issues helps people learn from them whatever someones opinion is at the start or the end of the debate.

Morlar

It would be my view that view radical islam is a factor in all of this, same as it is in chechnya, parts of asia and in a lot of other conflict zones around the world.

losthorizon wrote: »

Dont equate the Muslims of the Balkans and especially Bosnia with places like Afghanistan - madness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XYWtCx6zQ&feature=&p=680B00366DD6F81F&index=0&playnext=1

Not sure I did. Anyway - you are going to love this ;

The Hidden Army Of Radical Islam in Bosnia

It's a sky news video report about the 'Hidden army of radical islam in bosnia'. It points out how thousands of radical islamists/foreign fighters/jihadists/mujahadeen (whatever you want to call them) arrived in the region to fight on the muslim side. It also makes the point that many were absorbed but some fought in dedicated islamist units committing atrocities against serbs (the worst of the footage is not shown here). At one point the reporter shows a list of names and their countries of origin, saudi, yemen, palestine, britain, Libya, etc

It also contains footage of muslims desecrating an orthodox church, a bosnian serb being interrogated & partially beheaded. Khalid sheikh mohammed (who it is said planned 911) & fellow travellers of Osama bin laden. It does cover the subject of bosnian muslim women who have enjoyed a high levels of western freedom, however it also covers attempts to spread saudi wahhabi islam post-war which is less tolerant. Not bad for an 8 minute clip.

Ps that siege of Mostar clip was quite good - I had seen it before. There is an interesting point about 2 minutes in when the reporter voiceover says 'There are no safe places in Mostar' cue a bullet zinging by the camera microphone.
I liked the way much of the documentary focused on one person/one family rather than just throw detached facts and figures at the viewer. I always find you take more from a documentary that credits it's audience with having an attention span.

geekychick

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Your input is welcome as are your opinions. I think debating these issues helps people learn from them whatever someones opinion is at the start or the end of the debate.

Thank you, jonniebegood1. Also sorry about amending my post after you thanked it, I thought of something else to say!

It's all good however I will steer clear of historical/political fora in the future (as I have been till now), I really don't think I'm cut out for them.

Thanks again.

Morlar

geekychick wrote: »

I have removed two of my posts where I let myself down by using emotive terms and emoticons. The relevant points made in one of them are repeated and covered in subsequent posts.

I think this subject is understandably an emotional one for a lot of people on all sides.

Which may explain why it is rarely discussed on here. The last time I recall was a couple of years ago where a woman poster (presumably drunkenly) started calling me a 'serbian dog' for not agreeing with her take on things.

I don't think removing posts from a thread like this is a good idea because when someone reads it back later there is always the chance that a post - say Post A - gets made in response to post C & D. Then post D is gone so Post A and the replies that follow and general flow of it can be disrupted. So it can become hard to make out where some aspects get introduced and so on. I haven't gone back through this one but that's my general take on it.

Anyway I hope you didn't take offence at anything I said & we're not going to agree anytime soon. Aside from emoticons (rolleyeyes and smiley faces - which are a pet peeve of mine) I didn't have take any issue with anything you posted.

Exile 1798

Morlar wrote: »

He also comprehensively shafted the Serbs who fought against the German army :

http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/after-ww2/Chetnik-betrayal.html

With respect, this is a Serbian ultra-Nationalist website.

The particular page on it you've linked to is a preposterous anti-Tito, pro-Chetnik screed.

jonniebgood1

Exile 1798 wrote: »

With respect, this is a Serbian ultra-Nationalist website.

The particular page on it you've linked to is a preposterous anti-Tito, pro-Chetnik screed.

+1 agree

also it is irrelevent to the discussion. As pointed out by 'geekychick' this type of link has the same relevance as a link to BNP would have....>none.

Manic Moran

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

If the super powers and the UN were to refuse to recognise or support any break away state then war could have been avoided. But alas it wasn't to happen.

I would caveat that a small bit. They recognised, but refused to support, which basically came out to be the worst possible combination. Had they not only recongised the breakaways, but actually actively supported them ("Oi! Serbs, if you try beating up on these Croatian dudes with your Army, we'll pummel you" and actually carrying through with that threat) the fighting would likely have been stamped out before it really caught hold. Instead, you had the encouragement of the independence, combined with a relatively pathetic and gradual increase in attention on the area, the teeth of which (or lack thereof) were adequately demonstrated by Srebrenica. A relative peace only came about after the NATO gloves came off, which should have happened a half-decade earlier.

NTM

jonniebgood1

Manic Moran wrote: »

I would caveat that a small bit. They recognised, but refused to support, which basically came out to be the worst possible combination. Had they not only recongised the breakaways, but actually actively supported them ("Oi! Serbs, if you try beating up on these Croatian dudes with your Army, we'll pummel you" and actually carrying through with that threat) the fighting would likely have been stamped out before it really caught hold. Instead, you had the encouragement of the independence, combined with a relatively pathetic and gradual increase in attention on the area, the teeth of which (or lack thereof) were adequately demonstrated by Srebrenica. A relative peace only came about after the NATO gloves came off, which should have happened a half-decade earlier.

NTM

I do not think that the war in the Balkans could have been avoided unless the UN supported the early Serbian efforts to quell the nationalism. They could not have done this as it would have been seen as undemocratic in the republics. It would also have seen them interfere with a situation where Serbian politicians had been trying to gain power over other teritories in Yugoslavia (as detailed in the BBC documentary previously linked in this discussion).

Manic Moran

I agree with you that it could not have been avoided entirely.

However, the extent of it could, I think, have been dramatically reduced by a robust response to any incidents. A brushfire may start no matter what precautions you take, but if you don't stamp it out in short order, you end up with a large wildfire which destroys all sorts of land and takes massive resources to control.

NTM

losthorizon

Sorry to bring the subject up again but here are my thoughts on the subject in a nutshell. Ive travelled in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro and of course my views are only those of an outsider with a superficial view and someone who watched the news unfold on TV.

First of all, I think the vast majority of Serbs are decent and some of the most friendliest people you could ever meet. They just happened to have the worst leaders when Yugoslavia broke up (as Croatia did -lets not forget Tudjmans role in all this). I sincerely believe Serbia was not interested in expansion for expansionist sake. For instance Macedonia was given independence with no problems. Slovenia was let go after a very briefy struggle which after all might be expected when regions of a country declare independence ( I think about 70 people were killed). Its when things get to Bosnia that it gets very messy indeed. Yes the Serbs do indeed have a lot to answer for but equally the international community did nothing and I mean nothing to stop what went on. The Croats were just as much to blame in Bosnia yet seemed to escape the wests ire to a large degree. Go to Mostar now and you will see that the biggest place of worship is a huge spire from a Catholic church built after the war. Much bigger than before the war - its like a big FO to the muslim population. TBH I dont know how the Catholic church can behave like that. Go a few miles down the road and you are still in Bosnia and Croatian flags are flying all around medjugorje. I warmed to the Serbs, Montenegrans (KIND OF) and especially the Bosnian muslims. A few last points Serbia recognised Montenegros independence without a bother ( a lot of Montenegrans think of themselves as Serbs) and it was probably Montenegros ethnic minorities who helped swing the vote for independence.

I think it was wrong to recognise Kosovos indepence. I means it wasn't a full republic just a province in Serbia. I mean Macedonia has a huge Albanian population as well. Montenegro only became a full republic because of its bravery during WW2 before then it was part of Serbia.

Bosnia and Montenegro are great place to visit btw

http://www.euronews.net/2010/11/19/dayton-is-still-the-root-of-what-is-wrong-with-bosnia/

bosnian

Since I'm from Bosnia, I think I could have a few thoughts on this

The main reason, according to my economics professor (who was part of yugoslavian delegations after Tito dies), and in what I strongly believe, is the creation of the state in the begining, because it was artificial brotherhood between our nations. Yugoslavia had a debt with the IMF, and it was tolerated untill Tito died. After that, IMF wanted their money back, but as the yugoslavian economy was really bad, it couldnt be done. Then, Slovenians started telling they could have achieved more if they were alone (which they would), Croats said they would exploit tourism more if they were independent state (which they would), and it began collapsing. It was expected that country would disintegrate(?) peacefully and began with prosperity as independent states, as it had most similiar economic system with the West, but Serbs had something to say.

Then it all began. First, Gazimestan rally, then Kosovo tensions, Vojvodina, and after that it started in Slovenia, which was ethnically pure, and Serbs didnt have any chance. After that it began in Croatia, in Knin, which was populated by Serbs, and in border area in north (Vukovar genocide).

And at last, Bosnia with highly mixed nationalities was real mess. First Corats and Bosniaks fought together agains the Yugoslav Army (at that time it was Serbian army), and army of republika srpska, and paramilitary formations from serbia, greece, russia etc (Russian sniperists are well known in Sarajevo, as they were paid for kill of every civilian in Sarajevo. They basically killed everything they saw from their positions in the hills surrounding the city. There is one movie called "Skip, hop, jump" I think, by Srdjan Vuletic, talks about snipers in Sarajevo). In 1993, Croats decided to change side, and join with Serbs (they destroyed the Old Bridge in Mostar in 1993). The war ended as it endend, with genocides and massacres (Srebrenica, Prijedor, Visegrad, Zvornik, Bijeljina, Trebinje, Kapija in Tuzla, Markale in Sarajevo and many more) as burden of Serbs, and they still celbrate war criminals (Karadzic, Mladic, Milosevic) as the greatest heroes of Serbian nation. Bosnian army did not destroy sacred objects, and today in Sarajevo, you have orthodox church, catholic church, sinagogue, and mosque in a circle of 100 meters, and we are proud of it, but my personal opinion, is we can be neighbours with serbs, but never friends.

Morlar

Here is another link which is relevant to the issue of Yugoslavia, Serbia, Kosovo. This story about the UCK/KLA goes back years and was always downplayed and dismissed as 'serb propaganda' and essentially ignored in the west.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-15/kosovo-premier-thaci-accused-of-organ-trafficking-afp-reports.html

Kosovo Premier Thaci Accused of Organ Trafficking, AFP Reports
By Boris Cerni - Dec 15, 2010 9:37 AM GMT

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci was heavily involved in trafficking organs of Serb prisoners in the 1990s, according to a report by the Council of Europe, Agence France-Presse said.

The report by Dick Marty, a Swiss member of the 47-member European body that deals with human rights, said Thaci and other commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group, set up the organ-trafficking ring after taking control of organized crime in the region, the newswire said.

Thaci’s government in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, dismissed the report as a fabrication designed to smear the country’s leaders, AFP said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Cerni in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at bcerni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1215/kosovo.html

Kosovo PM implicated in organ trafficking

The future of Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is looking uncertain following a draft European report linking him to a criminal ring in the late 1990s.

Mr Thaci was allegedly one of the key players in the trafficking of organs of Serb prisoners after the 1998-99 conflict there, according to a draft Council of Europe report.

The report, by Swiss Council of Europe deputy Dick Marty, accuses Thaci and other senior commanders of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla group the Kosovo Liberation Army of having set up the traffic.

The draft report was published on the Council of Europe website yesterday and will be considered by its legal affairs committee on Thursday.

In Pristina, the government of Hashim Thaci dismissed the report as fabrications designed to smear the country's leaders.

Mr Marty wrote of substantial evidence that Serbians - and some Albanian Kosovars - had been secretly imprisoned by the KLA in northern Albania 'and were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, before ultimately disappearing'.

In the wake of the armed conflict, before international forces had time to re-establish law and order there, 'organs were removed from some prisoners at a clinic in Albanian territory, near Fushe-Kruje...' he added.

Those organs were then 'shipped out of Albania and sold to private overseas clinics as part of the international 'black market' of organ-trafficking for transplantation.'

This was carried out by KLA leaders linked to organised crime, and 'has continued, albeit in other forms, until today...' he wrote.

In this respect Mr Marty cited an investigation by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) into the Medicus clinic in Pristina.

EULEX said in October it had charged five people, including doctors and a former senior health ministry official, for trafficking in human organs, organised crime, unlawful medical activities and abusing official authority.

Dick Marty specifically named Mr Thaci, one of the KLA leaders during the conflict with Serb security forces in 1998-1999, in his report.

Thaci, he said, was 'the boss' of the Drenica Group, a 'small but inestimably powerful group of KLA personalities' who took control of organised crime in the region from at least 1998.

The diplomatic and political support the US and other western powers gave him during the talks following the Kosovo conflict 'bestowed upon Thaci, not least in his own mind, a sense of being 'untouchable',' he added.

'The signs of collusion between the criminal class and high political and institutional office bearers are too numerous and too serious to be ignored,' wrote Marty.

The report's sources also implicated Thaci and his lieutenants in 'assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations' in Kosovo and Albania between 1998 and 2000, he wrote.

Thaci's ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which won the most votes in Sunday's general elections, denounced Marty's allegations as 'fabrications' in a statement Tuesday.

The report's 'goal was to disgrace KLA and its leaders,' it added.

'It is based on groundless facts which are invented with a goal to harm Kosovo's image,' it added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7990984.stm

Horrors of KLA prison camps revealed

Michael Montgomery
BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents

Click to play

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Newsnight film: Kosovo: Did atrocities continue?

The man spoke plainly as he explained the horrors he lived through in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago. He told me about how he watched people beaten with steel pipes, cut with knives, left for days without food, and shot and killed.

"What can you feel when you see those things?" he said. "It's something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals."

As the man talked, his mother paced nervously in the nearby kitchen. She was panicked and tears were streaming down her face.

"They'll kill him, they'll kill him," she moaned, clutching one of her grandchildren.

But her son persisted. We spent hours in the family's sitting room as our source detailed allegations of possible war crimes by KLA officers in a military camp in the Albanian border town of Kukes.

It was a crucial interview for a delicate story I have been investigating for years.

Mystery of the missing

Soon after the war ended in Kosovo, I started looking into the thousands of civilians who disappeared during and after the conflict. Many Albanian victims were dumped in wells or transported to mass graves as far away as Belgrade.


LISTEN TO THE FULL REPORT
Kukes map

But others - mainly Serbs - simply vanished without a trace. There were no demands for ransom, no news of any kind.

I had met sources who spoke vaguely about secret camps in Albania where Kosovo Serbs, Albanians and Roma were interrogated, tortured and in most cases killed.

I met another source who agreed to share important details about KLA prison camps. This man cut a very different profile.

He had returned from a successful career abroad to join the KLA in its fight for Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

The man was still proud of the goals he fought for, but he had become haunted by the treatment of civilians he had seen at a KLA prison camp. More than that, he said he felt angry and betrayed by KLA commanders who tolerated and even ordered the abuses.

"It didn't seem strange at the time," he told me as he described seeing desperate civilians locked in a filthy agricultural shed.


Now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong
Former KLA Fighter

He said the civilians were Serbs and Roma seized by KLA soldiers and were being hidden away from Nato troops. The source believes the captives were sent across the border to Albania and killed.

"Now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong. But the people who did these things act as if nothing happened, and continue to hurt their own people, Albanians."

This man was one of eight former KLA fighters who revealed some of their darkest secrets from the war.

A soldier's story

Yet another source spoke of driving trucks packed with shackled prisoners - mainly Serbian civilians from Kosovo - to secret locations in Albania where they were eventually killed.

He recalled hearing two of the captives begging to be shot rather than tortured and "cut into pieces".

"I was sick. I was just waiting for it to end," the source told me. "It was hard. I thought we were fighting a war [of liberation] but this was something completely different."

It has taken these men 10 years to speak to an outsider about the dark side of the war. They were breaking a code of silence that has held strong in Kosovo.

Very few Kosovo Albanians have publicly revealed crimes committed by their own side. And for good reason. Witnesses who have agreed to provide testimony for prosecutions of KLA commanders have faced intimidation and death threats.

Some have been killed, according to United Nations officials in Kosovo.

There is another reason. All the men we spoke with insisted they were Kosovan patriots and would take up arms again to defend the country's independence.

But that is precisely the point: independence - of a sort - arrived for Kosovo last year. Their wartime goal has been attained.

As one of the former KLA fighters told me: "Now is the time to be honest to ourselves and build a real state."