A
response to the shameful explanation by the Former Canadian Ambassador to
Yugoslavia James Bissett on Canadian Television as to why the Srebrenica
Genocide and the War in Bosnia occurred.
James
Bissett explains why there was so little action in the west in the face of
atrocities during the war in Bosnia. Although mandate after mandate was set,
yet ignored by the international community. The illegal UN arms embargo created
a clear advantage to the Bosnian Serb VRS and Bosnian Croat HVO who could rely
on an endless supply of weapons and ammunition.
In addition,
Many power brokers both out in the open and behind the scenes, like Yushi
Akashi, Boutros Boutros Gali and General McKenzie openly and clearly sided with
the Bosnian Serbs following in the treacherous footsteps of Margaret Thatcher
and Lawrence Eagleburger who clearly favored the strongest (militarily) and
largest population group in the Balkans, which happened to be the Serbs.
Bissett’s
explanation that America was responsible for the war in Bosnia is reprehensible
and is just a repeat of what Serb apologists claim. While nearly the entire
international community openly recognizes that almost sole responsibility for
the wars that consumed Yugoslavia belongs to the Serbs. A CIA report covered in
the book “Balkan Battlegrounds” show that through an extensive review of the
war the Serbs were responsible for over 90% of crimes committed in Bosnia
during the war.
Bissett
claims that for Bosnian Serbs what happened in Srebrenica is controversial,
claiming that Bosniaks during the breakout “fought their way across” to free
Bosnian territory is an outright lie not backed by any facts and is completely inaccurate.
Yes, the Bosnian Army’s 28th division led one of three main groups
out of Srebrenica, but to claim they fought their way out is way off base.
Ambushes, choke points and artillery and tanks were laid out all the way along
the path and there was no fighting except at the eventual breakout point across
to Bosnian territory. Almost all men were unarmed and carried no extra
ammunition for their small arms. The idea that he purports that this was soldiers
fighting is just another ridiculous account of blaming the victims and a repeat
of Karadzic’s lies made up after the fact that those killed in Srebrenica were
soldiers who died in fighting. When in fact it has been proven that they were
bussed, herded into collection points,
executed, buried then reburied in order to hide their crimes. There is no
controversy over what happened in Srebrenica happened in cold blood, the facts
have been established over and over again for 17 years except in the minds of
racist nationalists and their apologists, like Bissett, around the globe.
Bissett’s
claim that Tuzla was a “Muslim stronghold” is another use of words to obscure
the truth. Tuzla was the one and only truly multi-ethnic city still left in
Bosnia during the war. He purposefully uses
the terms “Muslim stronghold” in order to raise fear among westerners and makes
an attempt to tie Bosnian Muslims to Muslim extremists which helps to back up
racist Serbian stereotypes of why they started the war in the first place.
His
claim that “roughly the same percentages” of Bosnians and Serbians died during
the war are widely inaccurate. Most Bosnian Muslims killed were civilians, most
Bosnian Serbs killed were soldiers and relatively few Bosnian Croats died
during the war.
Bissett’s
further claims that Srebrenica was used as a base to raid Serbian villages has also
been found to be untrue by the international courts. The Bosnians were starving
and the Serbian villages nearby were chocked full of food and guarded by civilian
defense forces who were heavily armed. The claim that 3,000 Serbian civilians were
killed around Srebrenica is also an outright lie. While it is true that some Serbians died in
that region, almost all were from combat both around Srebrenica, but also with
the Serbian VRS across Bosnia. It has been established that fewer than 400 Serbian
civilians died around Srebrenica during the war.
His
claim that the US started the war mixes two stories; the referendum on independence
being defeated is incorrect. There was a referendum and almost all voted for independence
(most Serbs did boycott this referendum). Also there was an agreement to work
on a loose confederation of States in the early 1990’s but once Slovenia and
Croatia pulled out of these negotiations, it was dead, as Bosnians knew that
meant Serbian domination of Bosnia and rump Yugoslavia.
The
claim of Serbs not wanting to live under “Sharia law” is another example of
Bissett trying to place fear in the
minds of westerners and conjure up images of Iraq, Afghanistan and Osama Bin
Laden.
In the
end he spends less than a minute of the interview talking about what happened
in Srebrenica the next five minutes making excuses for what the Serbs did.
Please
contact this network and point out what he said was wrong, factually
inaccurate, racist and has no place in a discussion on the Genocide that was
committed in Srebrenica by the Serbs against Bosnian Muslims.
A link to the original story is located here...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=719120&playlistId=1.874808&binId=1.810401&fb_source=message
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