Posted on 05/14/2015 10:10:19 AM PDT by Ravnagora
BELGRADE -- The commander of the WW2-era Chetnik movement Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic has been rehabilitated by the decision of the Higher Court in Belgrade.
The process was seen by many as "historic."
This ruling reverses the judgment passed in 1946, sentencing Mihailovic to death for collaboration with the occupying Nazi forces and stripping him of all his rights as a citizen.
Mihailovic was a high ranking officer in the pre-war Yugoslav Kingdom Army, and after 1941, he headed the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (Chetniks). During the Second World War and the occupation, a civil war was waged by Chetnik (royalist) and Partisan (communist) movements, from which the latter emerged victorious.
The court's decision to approve the request for the annulment of the judgment and rehabilitate Mihailovic is final and cannot be appealed. This decision restores all civil rights to Mihailovic.
Judge Aleksandar Tresnjev said today the court approved the request for rehabilitation and overturned the verdict of July 15, 1946 that sentenced Mihailovic to death. He was executed two days later.
The announcing of the verdict attracted a lot of attention, with a large number of citizens gathering in front of the courthouse. Among them were members of anti-fascist associations, the Ravnogorski Movement, and also activists of Women in Black, and the convicted member of Obraz Mladen Obradovic.
The process of rehabilitation began on September 16, 2010, but stalled on two occasions - once when the court awaited information about the exact date of Mihailovic's execution, and again when the Alliance of Anti-Fascists of Serbia filed criminal complaints alleging perjury against two witnesses.
The request to rehabilitate Mihailovic was first filed in 2006 by his grandson Vojislav Mihailovic, and professors from the University of Belgrade Smilja Avramov and Kosta Cavoski, the Serbian Liberal Council and the Association of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland. Later, the request was joined by some political parties and associations.
The trial was marked by public debates, and the hearings, as well as the passing of the verdict, by frequent confrontations of "Chetniks" and "Partisans" in front of the court.
During the process the court heard dozens of witnesses, mostly historians, played audio recordings from the trial and collected numerous documents.
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It is about time. He was screwed and stabbed in the back by the communists in the American and British governments at the time.
Shameful, shameful, shameful.
Ping!
There’s a lot of people angry about this. People are accusing Mihailovic of being a collaborator because of Chetnik units committing atrocities, and his lack of doing anything about it.
I think people are too idealistic about the realities of World War II, the Chetniks weren’t full blown collaborators like the Ustasha or Nedic’s puppet government.
I've read that the same thing happened in France: The Communists took the occasion of the Allied victory to finger as "collaborators" their rivals for power. In the case of France, those included mostly Catholic leaders and organizers, who of course had good reason to be both anti-Nazi and anti-Communist. (As opposed to the Communists, who sided with the Nazis until the Soviets were invaded by the Nazis in 1940.)
At the same time, the Communists in the US government made sure the Nationalists in China got no weapons and the Maoists got whatever they needed.
And before that, in the Spanish Civil War, much of the killing was actually Communist forces killing Anarchists troops—their rivals for power. When you have a Communist for an ally, you get a two-fer. A friend now, an enemy soon enough.
On that last, I strongly recommend Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, about his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He almost lost his life to his “allies” the Communists. It’s a short, quick read.
You got links and clarifications on that assertion about US and Mao and the Chiang Kai-sheks
That’s not how I remember it exactly
Hmmm. I don't think it's controversial among anti-Communist sources today. I read an article online somewhere conservative and credible, like American Thinker or TownHall. In print, I think Eddie Rickenbacker mentions it in his autobiography from 1967. Does it come up in the Venona transcripts? I haven't read those. I'll see what I find in my files; I probably saved it.
The bad actors in the U.S. were in the State Department.
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Hristos vaskrse! Vaistinu vaskrse!
I’ve never read where we favored Mao over The General and Madam financially in any way
I’d like to see that
I’m gonna ping two folks smarter than me
If I’m wrong I’ll admit it
It happens a few times a year and I am humble about it
I can’t quarrel much with the rest of your original post but that second paragraph about China caught my eye
Wasn’t a case of the US ‘favoring’ Mao. US required Chiang to spend our resources fighting the Japanese, as the Communists were weak and didn’t seem like much of a threat. Or at least that’s a conventional understanding.
I remember him being a bit depressed one day and he answered one of our questions concerning our current struggle against the Communists, "I have already lost one country. I do not want to lose another!" I have never forgotten the sad look in his eyes or the tone in his voice when he said that.
Anybody looked into the SERBIAN HUSSAR DIVISION fighting in Crimea? Uh.....some SCARRY dudes!!
“Does it come up in the Venona transcripts? “
I see Haynes & Klehr’s ‘Venona’ cited in footnote 55 at the Chiang Kai-shek wikipedia page.
They may have run across something indicating that American sympathizers with the Chinese Communist Party affected the flow of aid to Chiang’s Nationalists.
this is the assertion I replied to
“At the same time, the Communists in the US government made sure the Nationalists in China got no weapons and the Maoists got whatever they needed.”
I doubt the veracity of that assertion by OP And I stand by my opinion that the assertion ver batem is false
It’s sure nothing I was ever taught And is on its face not a serious claim
No, it isn't. Sounds like John Birch Society-type stuff.
That, my FRiend, is a money quote! Is that your own?
Yeah...what went on with the Nationalist Chinese and the American government between 1945 and 1949 was shameful.
John Service (Communist mole), Chi Chao-ting (Soviet agent) and Sol Adler (part of the Silvermaster Soviet spy group) all lived together in a house in China, and with the cooperation and approval of General Stillwell, coordinated their missives to their respective bosses back home to make sure the same anti-Chiang and pro-Yenan message was being pounded home from various angles in complete harmony with each other. All this aided at home by the likes of John Paton Davies, Harry Dexter White, Laughlin Currie and Alger Hiss.
All these Soviet agents and sympathizers hammered the upper level decision makers in the US government with the message that the Nationalists were corrupt collaborators with the Japanese, and that we should jettison them and have close ties with the Communists.
They did such a good job, all of them, that the victory of the Communists in 1949 was guaranteed. The massive gold loan approved by Henry Morgenthau was obstructed to the point it would have never helped, the arms and other war fighting materials were thrown over the sides of ships, planes, guns, ammo, etc, all this was the work of these scumbags.
That, my FRiend, is a money quote! Is that your own?
I'm afraid so. Kinda hit me as I started listing all the Communist back-stabbing situations and noticed there was no end in sight.
Fascinating specifics on the loyal Soviet agents at State. I'd also forgotten why I had a funny association with the name "Stillwell." Wow. Remember the expression "Who lost China?" that the Soviet agents of influence in the U.S. press derided so condescendingly?
"Lost," my ear. Who murdered China and sold its children into slavery?
Read “The Forgotten 500” by Gregory Freeman. It tells how Mihailovic and his people helped 500 US and British flyers get out from behind enemy lines after they had to bail out from damaged aircraft after bombing runs on the Nazis. And then we let Tito execute Mihailovic, supposedly for being a Nazi sympathizer.
Yeah. How many millions murdered in “The Great Leap Forward”?
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