Posted on 06/01/2006 3:20:50 AM PDT by Doctor13
So let's talk about Yugoslavia!
Finally, after more than a decade of one-way journalistic language that in no way made sense, an opening seems to have been created in France in the press (1), and perhaps not only in France, to speak about things differently? or simply to start speaking about Yugoslavia.
A debate, a discussion, a discourse, a fruitful discussion seems to have become possible, a general questioning, of reports that speak for themselves... Previously: nothing, and still more nothing? defamations instead of a debate, expressed by exclusively prefabricated words, repeated ad infinitum, used like an automatic weapon.
So let's enlarge this breach or opening, the springtime of words. Let us at last hear one another instead of screaming and snarling launched from two enemy camps. But also, let's no longer tolerate beings (?), evil (!) spirits (?), who, with respect to the tragic Yugoslav problem, continue firing word-bullets like "revisionism," "apartheid," "Hitler," "bloody dictatorship," etc. Let's stop all the comparisons and all the parallels made about the wars in Yugoslavia. Let's stick to the facts which, like the facts of a civil war, unleashed or at least co-produced by European bad faith or, at least, ignorance, already punctured, are terrible enough from all sides. Let's stop comparing Slobodan Milosevic to Hitler. Let's stop comparing him and his wife Mira Markovic to Macbeth and his Lady and let's stop drawing parallels between the couple and the dictator Ceaucescu and his wife Elena. And let's never again use the expression "concentration camps" for the camps established during the war of succession in Yugoslavia.
True: intolerable camps existed between 1992 and 1995 on the territory of the Yugoslav Republics, chiefly in Bosnia. Let's stop the exclusive and mechanical association of these camps with the Bosnian Serbs: there were also Croat and Muslim camps, and the crimes committed in these camps are and will be judged by The Hague Tribunal. And finally, let's stop associating massacres (of which there were many in Srebrenica in July 1995, and are in fact by far the most abominable) to Serbian forces or paramilitaries. Let's also listen finally to the survivors of the massacres committed by Muslims in the numerous Serbian villages that surround Srebrenica, the Muslim town, massacres committed over and over again during the three years before the fall of Srebrenica, massacres led by the commander of Srebrenica, leading in July 1995 to infernal vengeance, to eternal shame for those Bosnian Serbs responsible for it for the great butchery, and for once the oft-repeated word is in its proper place in the phrase "the greatest in Europe since World War II," while adding, nevertheless, this piece of information: that all the soldiers or Muslim men from Srebrenica who fled from Bosnia into Serbia by crossing the Drina River, the border between the two States, fled to Serbia, the country that was at the time under Milosevic's rule, and that all these soldiers who arrived in Serbia, a so-called enemy, were saved. No butchery or massacre there.
Yes, let's listen, after having listened to the "Mothers of Srebrenica," let's also listen to the mothers or one single mother from the village of Kravica, Serbian, close by, recount the Orthodox Christmas massacre in 1992-1993, committed by Muslim forces from Srebrenica, a massacre also conducted against the women and children of Kravica (the only crime for which the word genocide is appropriate).
And let's stop blindly associating the "snipers" of Sarajevo with "the Serbs": most of the French members of the UN peacekeeping force who were killed in Sarajevo were victims of Muslim gunmen. And let's stop associating the siege (horrible, stupid, incomprehensible) of Sarajevo exclusively with the Bosnian Serbs: in Sarajevo during 1992-1995, tens of thousands of the Serbian population remained blockaded in central neighborhoods like Grbavica, which were in turn put under siege - and how! - by Muslim forces. And let's stop attributing rapes exclusively to Serbs. And let's stop connecting words unilaterally, like one of Pavlov's dogs. Let's enlarge the opening. May the breach never again be choked by rotten and poisoned words. Evil spirits out. Leave language once and for all. Let's learn the art of the question, let's make a trip to the sonorous land, in the name of Yugoslavia, in the name of another Europe. Long live the other Europe! Long live Yugoslavia! Zivela Jugoslavia.
(1) See, among other things, the articles by Brigitte Salino and d'Anne Weber in Le Monde, May 4, 2006; the commentary by Piere Macrabru in Le Figaro, which was published on the same day; and the appeal made by Christian Salmon in Liberation on May 5, 2006.
Translated by Milo Yelesiyevich
Peter Hanke is one of the most prominent and popular German writers of the post war generation. He stirred a senation with a long essay defending Serbia against what he describes as a conspiracy of lazy and mendacious journalists who surf "from cliche to cliche."
He developed a growing mistrust of news accounts of the conflict, and decided to visit Serbia, "the land of the so-called aggressor. His report is part travelogue and part political tract.
well tom...obviously michael/hoplite err..michelle? has had a girlfriend or wife to ever need to tell the truth?
well tom...obviously michael/hoplite err..michelle? has never had a girlfriend or wife to ever need to tell the truth?
Hoplite,
I see that you agree, this is good. You agree that this period was a black mark in our history that may not be told. The interesting part is that most Americans have no clue about what is going on in the Balkans. It's like the blind men trying to describe the elephant. It actually started in 1948 for us and has continued to present day. A lot of little turns and strategy renovations but, a signficant SNAFU since then.
Anyway, you don't do comparisons very well. David Irving is a person that can't make his mind up and keeps changing sides. You will find that I have been consistent in my posts and effort......
Second, I don't look for dividends for me. It has absolutely nothing to do with what I can receive or benefit from. Absolutely Zero benefits.....this is where you and I part ways. You post for benefits or agendas that you have for some group, political party, persons, even though you know what is right and wrong. There is a basic truth that you have to turn your back on and justify or lie to yourself about in order to post the BS.
No one is keeping me down, as the efforts being made are by others having a lot more influence than I can dream of. However, I also realize that the forces behind Kosovo's bid for independence has very deep pockets. Anyone supporting "forces" that can get a war criminals pardoned and turned into political leaders and even a president of a people, plus....a pardon for being a war criminal has a LOT of juice. This is quite the understatement.....
Anyway, from my little seat, I will ALWAYS fight the power and more if I had the opportunity to write, speak, or become an activist. My support for the current administration's fight against terrorism is complete and supportive as I know the evil that lurks in the Koran and it's followers. However, the Balkans is part of that, and that is where my support ends. It's a confusing policy we have in the Balkans and it is being handled poorly. Innocent Albanians and Serbs have been murdered due to this misplaced support.
No, no likeness here of David Irving. You must have had one too many when you wrote this one.
If you stick to your guns by adhering to the policy of truth, it makes your arguement that much easier as you don't work as hard covering up your lies. Life is easier, but very frustrating at times due to the hoplites of this world.
If sticking to your guns/truth means being ostricized, so be it. Truth has unlimited rounds. As we've been saying, 'when in doubt, unload your mag'.
Well, I know you can understand this.....as others might not...Not only would I stick to my guns for the truth and the right to tell it...but being ostricized is not even a flicker of concern, when one is willing to die or kill, if need be; for the right to tell the truth.....I take it very very serious and I'm not shy about it. Being critized or any other "ized"....is not even a trace of concern. However, its the responsibility one has to make sure that the truth is researched, known and told correctly without bias or favoritism......Semper Fi.
And I see that you don't recognize sarcasm when you see it.
Which, all things considered, isn't much of a surprise.
I guess he was hoping that the toothless one find recognized truth but he should have expected less from the fluffing Dhimmi.
San Francisco Hoplite Michael, bro. Confirmed.
San Francisco... a queen per chance??
Ewe.....er, I mean you; Sarc/...naw, not ewe. Of course it's not too surprising that you don't catch on to Sarcasm when I give it to you...or ewe. This is the pot calling the kettle black. :)) Let me explain in simple terms, I was using advanced sarcasm.........and pulling yor stings.........:))
Then we'll have something to agree upon.
Flipping pancakes in San Francisco, eh Hoppy?
Okay, the link is an old one and that means? Let's get back to the discussion and not be so personal, getting a little testy aren't we? :0
However, my efforts are still focused on Kosovo. The organization at "www.savekosovo.org" offers an interesting counter to the travesity going on in Kosovo.
I still haven't figured out the purpose of your link. I thought it would be of some documentary, article, statement of fact that counters something that I've said, instead it's an earlier post with the same rhetoric that is displayed here..... Otay, dis is interesting.....ole fellow. running out of retorts?
Older thread, I know, but appropriate.
I just finished reading Handke's book -- the one that appeared in a German newspaper as a two part serial in 1996 that got him into so much trouble with the Euros -- "Journey to the Rivers, Justice for Serbia".
First of all, the book is not intended as a pure political treatice. It is a kind of travelogue of his trip to Serbia in 1996 & his impressions before and during the trip, told in a poetic style. When he does talk about the politics, he questions himself as poets often do. What it is NOT, is some pro-Serb political diatribe -- to the contrary, it is humanistic and down-to-earth and face-to-face.
Handke, as a wordsmith himself, had recognized the contortions and manipulations of the Western press in their portrayal of the Serbs and of the Yugoslav wars. He had questions -- questions that no one seems to answer for him. It is precisely this which made him want to go to Serbia and see for himself. Before this trip, he had only been to Belgrade once -- thirty years before when one of his plays was presented in Belgrade and the play was not well recieved. But, he had spent a lot of time hiking in Slovenia where his mother was born.
So what got Handke in trouble with the Euros re this piece?
1. Handke portrays Serbs as "humans" -- ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation beyond their control -- and this is probably his greatest "sin". As human beings, he puts himself in their place and asks himself what he would do if, for example he were a Serb in the Krajina -- where one day you were a fully equal Yugoslav citizen and the next day you were designated "a minority" in the new "Croatia" -- a Croatia who looked remarkably like the WWII Croatia where Serbs were murdered by the thousands (Would I fight or would I run? And whose the real "aggressors" here? Those who wanted the change or those who wanted to stay the same?). In short, Handke humanizes Serbs --a people who the news-media and Western governments had so successfully dehumanized to the world in order to sanction and bomb. Handke shows Serb suffering as a people, who are now designated as "the children of Cain" on whom the world heaps its scorn.
2. Handke takes the European news media to task and he names names. For example --this writer for this paper, who was a lousy sports writer immediately promoted to "Balkans expert" for his prowess in contorting surreality in to a supposed "political reality". In fact, this writer is just a racist pig with a pen, etc.
3. Handke reveals Euro racism -- how the Austrians & Germans still see people as "volk" ("peoples", "races") The Slovenes were now on a mission to prove that they were "a proud Alpine people, hand-working and industrious" -- a true Germanic "volk". He also resurrects Austria's old slogan from WWI which translates to "Serbia must Die", and notes its parallels to its attitudes today. He holds up a mirror to his German and Austrian readers --Euros who no longer wish to see themselves as "racists" are actually behaving as badly or worse than their ancestors were re the Serbs.
4. Handke believed in Yugoslavia, mourns its passing and asks uncomfortable questions of the reader. He is left with more questions than statements and does not believe the party-line on this. He sees too much wrong with the context presented and its contradictory facts. And, he no longer loves the Slovenia of his past -- he longs for it old self, gentle, serene and pastoral, instead cold, industrious and Germanic.
In short, Handke is NOT a racist, just following orders. Handke is a human with questions about fellow humans. It is for this humanity he is being punished. Sad, sick and frankly even more scary in some ways than what has been done to Serbs. This is not just political, it is ideological.
Bump
You're not supposed to notice things like that.
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