143) At Last, A Massacre is Acknowledged

The following appeared in The New York Times, June 1, 2003
(Another article follows at bottom, "UN COURT RECOGNIZED THE GENOCIDE.")

Truth at The Hague By Emir Suijagic

THE HAGUE
I am a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica, where more than 7,000 Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serbs in July 1995. 1 survived because at the time of the massacre I was in Potocarl, some 15 miles away from most of the execution sites, working as an interpreter for the United Nations. My uncle, my 70-year-old grandfather, my best friend and almost all of my schoolmates were killed.

Two officers in the Bosnian Serb army, Momir Nikolic and Dragan Obrenovic, last month pleaded guilty before the war crimes tribunal at The Hague for crimes against humanity, admitting they helped plan the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity committed in Europe since World War 11. Both Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Obrenovic have agreed to testify against the other officers indicted for the massacre, which took place in a designated “safe area” under the protection of Dutch United Nations peacekeepers.

The International Commission for Missing Persons for the Former
Yugoslavia has collected many of the remains of those killed in Srebrenica. Some 7,500 bags of body parts — many of which may contain pieces of my friends and relatives — are sitting in a warehouse waiting for identification. Yet until the moment Mr. Nikolic confessed, I had never heard a Bosnian Serb admit that the massacre even happened.

In the Serb half of Bosnia, most people claim that the killings in 1995 never took place. When pressed, they sometimes say that the Muslims killed one another in a fight over whether or not to surrender to the Serbs, or that all of those killed were soldiers. Last year, the Bosnian Serb government issued a report claiming that only 2,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in Srebrenica. And of those, the report said, 1,800 were soldiers.

Mr. Nikolic’s confession — in which he described in chilling detail how he helped organize the mass execution and burial and an extensive cover-up, all of which he says army superiors ordered him to carry out — punches a big hole in the Bosnian Serb wall of denial. Serbs should have no reason to doubt his admission. Mr. Nikolic has nothing to gain by exaggerating.

I don’t expect the confessions by Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Obrenovic to transform Bosnian Serb views. Many of the men he named as co-conspirators are still at large. Some of them still hold senior positions in the Bosnian Serb army; one of them is a member of the Parliament.

But the confessions have brought me a sense of relief I have not known since the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. They have given me the acknowledgment I have been looking for these past eight years. While far from an apology, these admissions are a start. We Bosnian Muslims no longer have to prove we were victims. Our friends and cousins, fathers and brothers were killed — and we no longer have to prove they were innocent.

Emir Suljagic is a reporter for Dani, a magazine based in Sara jevo, and the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.

Parallels to the Orthodox M.O. for Systematic Extermination.

I had never heard a Bosnian Serb admit that the massacre even happened.

Has anyone heard of an Armenian admit they massacred a single Turk... out of the nearly 600,000 they massacred?

... punches a big hole in the Bosnian Serb wall of denial.

After nearly ninety years, there's hardly a pinprick in the Armenian wall of denial. The difference is, the West had too much evidence of Serbian crimes. By contrast, the West is still largely in the corner of the Armenians, not only because the Armenians have succeeded in presenting themselves as the West's innocent Christian darlings, but the accepted villains of the equation — the Turks — are too deeply ingrained in the minds of bigoted or ignorant Westerners as villains.

In the Serb half of Bosnia, most people claim that the killings in 1995 never took place. When pressed, they sometimes say that the Muslims killed one another in a fight over whether or not to surrender to the Serbs, or that all of those killed were soldiers. Last year, the Bosnian Serb government issued a report claiming that only 2,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in Srebrenica. And of those, the report said, 1,800 were soldiers.

Exactly the way the Armenians present their arguments; from the brainwashed rank and file (that is, the Armeni-Lemmings) who don't want to know the real facts, to their so-called "scholars," who know the real facts but deliberately cover them up to perpetuate the Armenians' cause for existence, their beloved "genocide.com." Result: Lie, lie, and then lie again. Who cares about the truth? All that matters is the sweet melody of the "Armenian AND? Anthem."

I don’t expect the confessions by Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Obrenovic to transform Bosnian Serb views.

Just like the confessions on record by Armenians who perpetuated their genocidal crimes fail to move a single Armenian.

"An appropriate analogy with the Jewish Holocaust might be the systematic extermination of the entire Muslim population of the independent republic of Armenia which consisted of at least 30-40 percent of the population of that republic. The memoirs of an Armenian army officer who participated in and eye-witnessed these atrocities was published in the U.S. in 1926 with the title 'Men Are Like That.' Other references abound."

The Jewish Times, June 21, 1990

The confessions have brought me a sense of relief I have not known since the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. They have given me the acknowledgment I have been looking for these past eight years.

Imagine the agony this Bosnian writer must have been going through, along with all the many others who suffered these horrors in recent memory. The Turks don't need such psychological "closure," because the Turks made the decision to move on... and the events are too far removed to affect the current generation to the intense and poignant degree the Armenians allow themselves to be affected. However, imagine the outrage Turks feel, when not only are the immense crimes committed against their forefathers not given any recognition by hypocritical Westerners, but also when their forefathers are blindly regarded as the criminals by these same lazy-thinking Westerners... continuing to smear the honor and good name of the Turks.

We Bosnian Muslims no longer have to prove we were victims.

Not that the Turks are obsessed to prove victimhood, but acknowledging the Turkish victims of the Armenian "Genocide" would at least be the right thing to do... if the real historical facts and the truth hold importance.

In Conclusion...

Since Armenians weep loudly about being perpetual victims, as "Mr. Double Killing," Peter Balakian, rarely fails to remind us, because Turks not only tried to "annihilate" them... but now have the audacity to not admit their crime that cannot be proven... what has prevented the Armenians from taking their case to the World Court, or to the court in the Hague? What are they waiting for? Surely, a decision by an internationally recognized legitimate court would have much more impact than resolutions passed by governmental bodies in the United States and France, where everyone knows the deep-pocketed Armenians exert incredible influence.

Could it be the Armenians know their ridiculous case can't hold up in a legitimate court... exactly as proven already with the Malta Tribunals, administered by a prejudiced enemy (under Lloyd George) anxious to wipe the nation of Turkey off the face of the earth? Could it be that if such a court were to deliver the verdict that the Armenian "Genocide" is a sham, that would be much too shattering for the Armenians to stomach, and this is why the Armenians lack the courage to take their case to court?


UN COURT RECOGNIZED THE GENOCIDE

“The War Crimes Court of Yugoslavia” which was established in subordination to the United Nations in the Hague in order to try “the war criminals of the Former Yugoslavia recognized formally the massacres committed against the Bosnian Muslims as “genocide”.

The case was handled by the higher court again due to the objection of Serbian General Radislav Kristic to the judgment that was convicted to 46 years in 2001 due to the trials held before.

In the trial which was held on 19 April 2004 Head of the Higher Court American judge Theodor Meron stated that “the Judges are unanimous in that a genocide was committed against (Bosnian Muslims) in Srebrenitsa” and announced that Kristic would be convicted to 35 years imprisonment.

In the judgement it was also mentioned that Radislav Kristic was not the main person responsible for the genocide committed in Srebrenitsa, yet he was sentenced because he contributed to the commitment of this crime of genocide with the equipment and the troops under his control.

With this judgment of the court the events in which more than 8 thousand Muslims were massacred were accepted as “genocide” for the first time.

The objection made by Radislav Kristic to the judgment that “what happened can not be accepted as genocide” was not accepted by the Court.

The judgment of the court constitutes an example of the decision made in accordance with the provisions of “the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” of 09 December 1948 of the UN. Although the number of the Muslims massacred is considered low, the
aims and methods of acts of the perpetrators do not leave any doubt in the minds on the use of the term of genocide for defining the acts.

The fact that genocide has been acknowledged with the court decision and the conviction of the perpetrators will constitute a base for the requests of compensation that will be raised by the victimized Muslims.

As matter of fact, on behalf of the Bosnian – Herzegovina Muslim Community “Main Clergy” Ismet Efendi have already started making preparations for suing the Serbian Government in the Bosnian-Herzegovina Court on the grounds that they destroyed 1.200 mosques in time of war.

As is seen the rendering of justice is realized sooner or later.

The Armenian fanaticism that maintains its baseless claims today tries to gain support from the parliaments of the country and turn toward the false search of “law” far from the historical facts and search for a point of outlet for it.

The first legal evidence regarding that the Armenian claims are unreal has occurred just on the dates of the events. In line with the Armenian so-called genocide claims the British took the 118 Turkish suspects whom they evaluated as having responsibility in the events to Malta and tried them. The British judges requested information and documents which might be evidence for the case from the American diplomatic representations which were open until 1916 as it entered the war late. A British expert, despite having done research on the archives of the American Embassies stated in the telegram he sent to London on 13 July 1921 that “no evidence has been found which might be used to used to charge the suspects in Malta. Following that the British judge in his report of 29 July 1921 stated that “… As it was not possible to obtain information which indicate Ae crimes directed at the suspects in a certain manner through the written testimonies obtained up to now, I declare that I can not make any statements concerning the success of the cases offered to me.”

Even in n a case filed in the same period with the appearance of the claims, it has been determined that there were no evidence which might prove the claims of the Armenians in the court in Malta. Besides this, no finding has been determined which might constitute evidence since 1921.

It has also been clarified that no documents supporting the claims exist in the Turkish or other countries archives that were categorized since those dates up to now and made accessible to the researchers of the entire world.

Who knows maybe the information and documents that even the Armenians who became a tool for the lies of “genocide” are expecting are maintained in the Armenian State Archive in Armenia that were not opened to the service of the researchers!!!

Ülkü ERYAMAN
Editor
Organization for Commemorating the Victims of Genocide
www.geocities.com/soykirkur

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