Milosevic, Srebrenica

[John Mellor <durrutti2003@xxxxxxxxx>]

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I'm new to the list, so I hope this topic hasn't already been
exhausted; but I thought that this article raised some questions:
primarily, what should be the attitude of socialists to the Milosevic
regime and the current Hague trial (which is clearly a politically
motivated trial, stage-managed by the imperialists and so on; yet it's
becoming more and more clear that Milosevic was indeed guilty of many
horrible crimes). It seems to me that we should oppose the trial (at
least until Kissinger, Sharon, Rumsfeld, and a few hundred other
criminals are brought to justice), while making clear that Milosevic,
a creation of Stalinism, was a super-nationalist and a criminal, under
anyone's criteria, and that he shared considerable responsibility
(along with the Croatian nationalists and others) for the break-up of
Yugoslavia.
 
October 12, 2003 Officers Say Bosnian Massacre Was Deliberate 
 
By MARLISE SIMONS HE HAGUE, Oct. 8 ? Eight years after the massacre of
more than 7,000 Bosnians, doubts have lingered about the degree to
which the killings were coldly planned, or were improvised in
chaos. Most of those killed were unarmed prisoners, boys and men, shot
in groups, or sometimes one by one. Among the executioners, only a few
foot soldiers have talked about the events that turned Srebrenica ?
its name means the "place of silver" ? into a symbol of a modern
European nightmare. No architect of the crime has ever explained in
public what was in the killers' minds, or what made them believe that
the murderous frenzy was acceptable to their own society and to their
leaders. But now, two senior Bosnian Serb officers, both crucial
figures involved in organizing the bloodshed at Srebrenica, have
spoken out at the war crimes tribunal here, describing the countdown
to the massacre and depicting a well-planned and deliberate killing
operation. They say it was largely coord inated by the military
security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and
militarized police, forces that were on Serbia's payroll.
 
The two, an intelligence chief and a brigade commander, recently
pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and have now given evidence
against two fellow officers. They provided so many names, firsthand
accounts, documents and even a military log of the crucial days, that
one court official blurted, "They've practically written the
judgment." One of the insiders referred to a directive he received,
which said that "the life of the enemy has to be made unbearable." He
also said it was his role to coordinate "the separation, detention and
killings of the men." This officer, Momir Nikolic, a former
intelligence chief, described with cool precision the steps he took in
coordinating the logistics, moving between army and police units,
avoiding phones and radios, as preparations for the mass executions
were under way. The second officer, a brigade commander, Dragan
Obrenovic, recounted how in the final hours, prisoners were moved to
different detention and killing sites, in a delib erate move to avoid
detection by the Red Cross and the United Nations mission, which were
active in the area. The officers' behind-the-scenes accounts from the
Bosnian war represent sharp departures from persistent denials on the
part of the Bosnian Serbs, including a recent government report
maintaining that most of the men found in mass graves ? many with
their hands tied behind their backs ? were killed in combat....
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/international/europe/12HAGU.html?hp 




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