Posted on 08/06/2002 4:45:18 PM PDT by Hoplite
There's growing evidence that Greece helped to lubricate Milosevic's war machine
By Takis Michas in Athens
As Greece prepares to take on the mantle of the European Union presidency in January 2003, the time has come for Athens to examine the role it played in aiding the regimes of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and his Bosnian Serb associates Radovan Karadic and Ratko Mladic.
Besides a general failure to confront the scale of war crimes perpetrated by Bosnian Serb and Serbian forces during the Nineties, there's mounting evidence of Greek complicity in Yugoslav sanction-busting during the conflicts.
A recent report published by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, covering the period 1994-2000, presents damning evidence of Greek and Cypriot involvement in the Balkan wars.
According to the report, both provided the pillars on which the Belgrade regime constructed an international financial structure to sidestep UN sanctions in operation between 1991 and 2000. The Hague investigation has revealed that transactions in excess of 1.5 billion German marks passed through this network.
Greek banking and government officials frustrated ICTY efforts to investigate the matter throughout the Nineties. For example, although the authorities originally agreed to Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte's probe, they excluded the central bank from follow-up enquiries in autumn 2001. The report also claimed that its investigators did not receive all the information they had asked of Athens.
In a well-publicised incident, a Greek court of appeals prosecutor refused to cooperate with the ICTY, saying he had "no intention of becoming a detective for The Hague".
The tribunal investigation concluded that eight Yugoslav "front" companies had been operating through the Popular Bank of Cyprus, the Hellenic Bank, the European Popular Bank of Cyprus and a Greek subsidiary of the Popular Bank. Some money passing through these accounts, it said, was spent on arms deals with suppliers from the United States, Russia and Israel.
When asked why money had been taken to Cyprus, former Milosevic customs chief Mikhail Kertes said, "Probably because there was a way out to the world from there."
The funds passing through the accounts are said to have come from the Yugoslav Federal Customs Administration, FCAY. They were found to have transferred large sums to a branch of Beogradska Bank in Cyprus and other Greek and Cypriot banks. The report revealed that representatives from the Beogradska Bank managed the accounts of the front companies and arranged for the transfer of funds to third parties, including arms dealers. In several cases the persons named as directors of the trading companies are said to have had no knowledge of these transactions.
"A financial structure was designed, implemented and maintained to provide funding, equipment and supplies for the army of the former Yugoslavia and the special forces of the interior ministry," the ICTY report said.
Evidence of more direct involvement in the Bosnian conflict is also mounting. Arms shipments to Bosnian Serb forces, the leaking of NATO military intelligence to General Ratko Mladic's Bosnian Serb forces and the presence of Greek paramilitaries among the latter during the Srebrenica campaign are all issues of concern.
The 7,000-page report by the Dutch authorities into the 1995 Srebrenica massacres - publication of which led to the resignation of the government - revealed that large shipments of weapons were transferred from Greece to Mladic's army in 1994 and 1995. Alleged arms consignments in the years immediately before and after could not be verified. Professor Cees Wiebes of Amsterdam University compiled the section of the report dealing with the involvement of foreign secret agencies and governments in the Bosnian conflict. It took five years to write, during which time the professor enjoyed unrestricted access to the Dutch intelligence community and various foreign and UN archives, interviewing more than 90 intelligence officials.
"Lots of weapons were transferred from Greece to the Montenegrin port of Bar, from where they would find their way to the Bosnian Serb army," Wiebes said. The weapons consisted mostly of light arms and ammunition.
At the same time, there are strong indications that Greece was leaking NATO intelligence to Mladic, especially during the period of alliance air strikes on Bosnian Serb forces in August-September 1995. "NATO officials became very reluctant to share intelligence with the Greeks due to fears over leaks to the Bosnian Serbs, and at some point they simply stopped doing so," Wiebes wrote.
In early 1994, Greece incurred the wrath of its European allies by voting against air strikes on Bosnian Serb positions. The country refused to allow NATO to use its air bases in Preveza on the Ionian Sea and declined to provide troops for the UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
Meanwhile, a contingent of Greek paramilitaries was formed in March 1995 at Mladic's request. The Greek Volunteer Guard, GVG, as it was known, rapidly became a regular fighting unit with its own insignia - a white double-headed eagle on a black background. In September 1995, four of its members received the White Eagle medal of honour from Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
The GVG had around 100 soldiers and was based in Vlasenica near Tuzla. Guard spokesman George Mouratidis said the unit was fully integrated into the army of Republika Srpska and was led by Serb officers.
From talking to veterans of the unit, it appears these soldiers were not simply mercenaries. Most cited religion as their main reason for enlisting.
"I am Orthodox and must help my Serb brethren against the Muslims," said Vagelis Koutakos in an interview at the time. His colleague Spiro Tzanopoulos claimed, "The Vatican, the Zionists, the Germans and the Americans conspire against the Orthodox nations. Their next target after Serbia will be Greece."
The GVG's part in the assault on Srebrenica was reported in the media at home and abroad, and the Dutch government's report describes how the unit hoisted the Greek flag in the town after the takeover. It also cited video footage of the event and excerpts taken from intercepted Bosnian Serb army telephone conversations provided by Bosnian intelligence services.
"One of the intercepted messages was from General Mladic, who asked for the Greek flag to be hoisted in the city," said Wiebes.
The presence of the Greek paramilitaries in Srebrenica appeared to be welcomed by many back home, where their antics were widely reported. The public seemed mesmerised by tales of hardship and danger, their young men fighting the "insidious" Muslims and the bravery of their Serb "brethren". When the Ethnos newspaper ran a two-page spread in August 1995 on the "heroic" exploits of the GVG in Srebrenica, the response was overwhelming. The paper's phone lines were jammed by youths desperate for information on the force.
Despite the widespread media reports, the authorities consistently ignored the open and public recruitment of paramilitaries in Greece and denied that Greek nationals were fighting in Bosnia.
The efforts to lend economic and military aid stemmed from Athens' official policy. Identification of Greece with Milosevic's policies in Belgrade and those of Karadzic in Pale was total and unconditional.
Before, during and after its 1994 presidency of the EU, Greece was the only country to support claims that Serb forces had entered Bosnian territory in response to provocation. In December 1994, after talks with Milosevic in Athens, Papandreou reiterated there was little difference between the Serbian and Greek positions on the Bosnian situation. Athens' criticism of the violence unfolding in Bosnia was almost exclusively directed against NATO air strikes. Even as late as April 1994, when human rights violations by Bosnian Serb forces had been established beyond any reasonable doubt, the then Greek premier Andreas Papandreou blamed only NATO.
"Greece showed indifference to Serb crimes and failed to condemn the merciless bombing of civilian populations [in Vukovar and Sarajevo] or the practice of ethnic cleansing, simply because those acts happened to be committed by Bosnian Serbs," said Alexis Heraclides, now a senior lecturer at Panteion University in Athens, but at the time an official in the Greek foreign ministry.
That indifference also resonated through the Greek media. The assault on Srebrenica was reported by some in Greece as an example of the "heroic advance of Serb forces". The involvement of Bosnian Serb forces in the massacres that followed the seizure of the town was underplayed. To this day, not one of Greece's ten or more television stations has broadcast a documentary on these events.
A few days after the ICTY announced its indictments against Mladic and Karadzic, the Greek-Serb Friendship Society claimed to have collected over two million signatures on a petition calling on the tribunal to drop the charges.
"We collected signatures everywhere," said society treasurer Lykourgos Chazakos. "In factories, offices and on the streets, the reaction was overwhelming. We met representatives from all political parties, who showed tremendous understanding. The people at the ministry of foreign affairs were especially encouraging."
The Greek Orthodox Church was one of the staunchest supporters of Milosevic's policy. It invited Karadzic to a rally in his honour at Piraeus in 1993, which was attended by leading politicians from all political parties and prominent trade unions.
In a 1994 comment, Papandreou said the Balkan wars had "brought to the surface the resonance of Orthodox ties" between Athens, Sofia and Belgrade.
Renowned literary critic Zoran Mutic, famed for his translations of Ancient Greek classics into Serbo-Croat, is bewildered by the extent of support for the Bosnian Serbs.
"When I hear so many journalists, academics, intellectuals and politicians expressing admiration for Karadzic, what can I say? How can they consider him a hero when he bombed hospitals and sent snipers to kill children on the streets?" he asked.
Another effect of this backing for the Bosnian Serb cause was the failure to acknowledge - let alone lend support to - the hard-pressed Serbian opposition parties and non-government media.
Sasa Mircovic of B-92 said the Greek government refused to recognise the role of independent media in Serbia. "They did not know and they did not want to know what was happening in our country," he told IWPR.
Efforts were even made to undermine the Serbian opposition. In the early Nineties, a Greek weekly, closely linked to the foreign ministry, published EC documents listing Serbian opposition organisations in receipt of funds from Brussels.
"This act constituted one of the most serious and dangerous attempts at undermining the efforts of the Serb opposition by presenting its members as being in the payroll of foreign powers," said Mircovic.
A few years before the death in 1997 of prominent left-wing thinker Corenliums Castoriadis, he told how Serb war crimes were being "covered up" in Greece through a campaign of misinformation and lies.
"In my eyes," he said, "Greek politicians, journalists, people who work in the media and the others responsible for this campaign of disinformation are moral accomplices in the cover-up of Serb crimes in Croatia and Bosnia."
Greek foreign office officials have repeatedly denounced the ICTY as partial and anti-Serb. In 1996, then foreign minister Theodor Pangalos asked the tribunal to "stop demonising the Serbs". Again in 1998, during a visit by then Bosnian Serb prime minister, Milorad Dodik, to Athens, Pangalos said the tribunal had "fallen under political influence".
The country's judicial system has been equally unwilling to investigate allegations of serious breaches of international law by Greek nationals and government officials. "In any European country with respect for the rule of law such serious allegations would immediately cause the intervention of the public prosecutor's office," said former trade and industry minister Andreas Andrianopoulos.
Greek premier Costas Simitis and his government have so far failed to condemn the policies of previous administrations. Nor have the authorities shown the slightest willingness to set up a parliamentary investigation into the allegations of complicity in war crimes in Bosnia. Instead, they persist with staunch denials of any wrongdoing.
Last summer, Greek EU commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou told an Athens conference a bright future awaited Greece in Europe. When asked if this future would include those politicians and institutions implicated in the Bosnian, Croatian and Kosovar atrocities, Diamantopoulou said only, "History has proven that Greek policies were correct".
Takis Michas writes for the Greek daily Eleftherotypia. His book "Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic's Serbia" was published in May by Texas A&M University Press.
VRN
Don't need no 'splainin. Most Greeks I know can't stand the Serbs and Russians. The Greek public opinion has much more to do with the perception that the US conducted an immoral and illegal attack on one of its neighbors.
Do you honestly believe that the US has its hands clean in the Balkans?
How's about every honest person admitting that the Bosnian Serbs committed 90% of the war crimes in Bosnia and subsequently showing absolutely no inclination to hold the perpetrators accountable for those actions, resulting in the UN's seeing a need to have the ICTY do the job for them?
How's that Serb investigation of the murder of prisoners from Vukovar Hospital coming along?
Yeah, over 10 years later and absolutely nothing.
Ergo, the ICTY.
We appear to differ on the opinion of an "honest person", so I suppose I'll add the adjective "informed" to my definition and we can clear the matter up.
As to specifics, notably Galic's indictment, he is charged with 6 specific instances of forces under his command shelling civilians and 32 specific instances of his forces sniping civilians, so it is up to the defense to attempt to first prove and then work in any instances of self-inflicted sniping or shelling into their strategy, though I don't see how they will mitigate any of the specific counts.
Now, on to the 5 February Markale shelling - your appeals to authority which attribute this shelling to the BiH forces are relying on the preliminary report issued by an UNPROFOR Member, Cpt Verdy, which by the way is not "Secret" and has been brought into evidence in Galic's trial, and has been thouroughly discounted by John Hamill, the author of the subsequent UNPROFOR Team of Experts Report.
To wit, starting on pg. 6097 of the trial transcripts (Yeah, I can see why you hate the ICTY so much):
1 Q. Have a look at the second paragraph of that page. Did you find
2 that the figures used by Captain Verdy were unsound and, therefore, his
3 results were flawed?
4 A. I found his results were totally flawed, totally flawed, totally
5 inaccurate, completely wrong.
6 Q. Did you find that the methodology he used was flawed or not?
7 A. His initial methodology appeared to be relatively good; however,
8 his use of the methodology and his simple arithmetic turned out to be very
9 flawed. In a word, wrong.
10 Q. And you also found that he used tables in respect to the wrong
11 weapon?
12 A. I couldn't believe what I read in his report and what he
13 explained. He used Howitzer tables. Howitzers are a completely different
14 weapon from mortars, for a start, as I explained earlier. But further
15 than that, each individual weapon, of whatever type, has its own specific
16 tables and cannot be used for any other weapon, because they are the
17 result of an arduous scientific process which determines exactly what
18 range is arrived at on any elevation on any specific charge. So using any
19 other weapon, even if it was a mortar - and it wasn't in this case - is
20 completely and totally wrong.
21 Q. So you said using another weapon; you mean using the range tables
22 for any other weapon.
23 A. Yes. Simply cannot be done.
24 Q. Was this your finding or was this a consistent finding of all of
25 the team of experts who went there on the 11th?
Page 6098
1 A. Nobody on the team could believe what had been done. So yes, it
2 was consistent across the team which came from Zagreb.
So General Rose, Mitterand, and anybody else referring to the "Secret Report" which implicates the BiH forces in targeting their own people in regards to the Feb. '94 Markale incident is merely propagating false information, and yes, never mind Demurenko.
Don't read too much into my post. I thought this thread was an attempt to indict Greek policy and public opinion to be complicit with (mostly ) fabricated Serb crimes in the Balkans.
I say you and most other biased observers of the Balkans read too much into Greek Balkan policies. There is no Orthodox alliance against Muslim populations in the Balkans. That is a fallacy created by interventionist third wayers to destabilize the region. The fact is Greece is a major strategic pressence in the Balkans, and has natural economic and security concerns and interests with its neighbors. Casual observers, or those with an axe to grind often misread Greek intentions.
I restate: most Greek do not like Serbs and Russians, but they sympathise with them because the Third Way is out to get them all.
"How's about every honest person admitting that the Bosnian Serbs committed 90% of the war crimes in Bosnia ..."
... "So General Rose, Mitterand, and anybody else referring to the "Secret Report" which implicates the BiH forces in targeting their own people in regards to the Feb. '94 Markale incident is merely propagating false information, ... "
SIDE 1: ASSORTED INTERESTS PROMOTING "SERB CRIMES" THEORY
Who are the honest persons you are talking about? Clinton? Albright? Holbrooke? Biden? Lantos? Gilman? Dole (the "Senator from Tirana")? The Muslim lobbyists with deep pockets in Washington? Amanpour? The NY Times editorialists? The Ruder Finn professional propagandists who spread the "rape camp" and other related nonsense to naive self-proclaimed humanitarianists? ITN, who fooled the world with Fikret Alic and the fence? Soros and the various outlets he and his friends control, including Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Coalition for International Justice and IWPR? ICTY prosecutors who are given jobs by the aforementioned corrupt politicians as a reward for their "services"? Or ICTY prosecution witnesses of dubious credentials who are carefully picked by the well-funded and well-organized "court" in order to give biased and distorted accounts thus providing a judicial stamp of approval to the official propaganda? Any honest person who does a little search will find out that almost all anti-Serb propaganda originates in one or more of the above quite restricted in number but extremely influential sources, centered largely in Washington, particularly but not exclusively in "liberal" circles.
SIDE 2: THE WARTIME UN LEADERSHIP WITH BOSNIA HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
On the other side, almost any senior UN figure with authority and experience in Bosnia disagree with Hoplite's statement of 90% Serb guilt and attribute equal or, in some cases, more blame to the Muslim side. Many of them, not only Rose, have explicitly talked and written about the consistent tactic of the Muslims to commit crimes and blame them on the Serbs, as well as to provoke the Serbs by firing from "safe havens" and civilian areas. The ones coming to mind include Boutros Ghali, Owen, Rose, MacKenzie, Morillon, Brinquemont, Nambiar, Akashi, Woodward, Corwin. Do you, Hoplite, really suggest that all these people, who never had a known connection with Serb interests, are propagating false information? Were they fooled by some organized Serb propaganda (if such a thing ever existed outside Serbia)? Do you, Hoplite, really suggest that the likes of Clinton, Soros, their pseudohumanitarian cheerleaders and their ICTY appointees are more reliable than the high ranking UN figures involved in Bosnia? Why should any honest and informed person agree with you and take ICTY seriously?
To the example I quoted above from Mitterrand, I here add 2 more from General Rose's "Fighting for Peace". Note that the reports do not represent Rose's subjective impressions, neither the conclusions of some untrustworthy post-facto investigator probably appointed with political motivation (like John Hamill for the Sarajevo explosion), but objective military information by peacekeepers who happened to witness the crimes and had not any obvious motivation or opportunity to lie.
page 197, " ... More serious were reports we started to receive from the French in the city that the Bosnian forces were sometimes firing on their own citizens. ..."
Page 162:.."The French battalion guarding the airport had managed to pin down one of the firing points that was in the Bosnian held town of Butmir, close to confrontation line. On one occasion, a Fernch soldier had actually seen a mortar fired from Butmir, across the airfield, at aircraft waiting to unload on the dispersal apron. The Bosnian forces were evidently doing this to sustain the image of a city under siege. Ganic (Bosnian Muslim Vice-President) agreed he would stop these attacks, but he never did."
There is plenty of solid evidence of this kind to indict the whole Bosnian Muslim leadership on very serious war crimes and absolve Serbs from many, although certainly not all, of the ones they are accused of and convicted for in this kangaroo court. I do not argue that Galic and other Serbs are guilty of no crime, but the aforementioned Ganic and other Muslims are apparently also guilty, but not prosecuted by the overtly biased ICTY. It is the vicious anti-Serb partiality and propaganda that enrage any non-Serb who is impartial, honest, informed and wise enough to trust Rose and Boutros Ghali more than ICTY, Albright and Izetbegovic.
Are we done reviewing the '94 Markale incident, or do you have more BS to send my way? You seem to fall on your face when we get down to specifics.
The 1994 explosion specifics are analysed in the literature I linked to in one of my comments above. See particularly the original writings by David Binder and the conclusions reached by UN officials and Boutros Ghali. I don't see much point in copying the arguments from these sources, since I don't have anything to add. After all my goal here is not to argue with you but to write short analyses that may give ammunition to other freepers in their efforts to debunk the anti-Serbian propaganda whenever they are active outside FreeRepublic. I have to admit that your antagonistic comments sometimes help me in that respect and I appreciate them, like other freepers do.
Appreciate this: learn to learn - it will help you avoid recursive errors of this type.
Now that's an interesting statement. I'm a Serb and it's been my experience that most Greeks love Serbs more than most Serbs love Serbs :-)
As a matter of fact, I've never met a Greek that didn't express some sort of sincere and immediate affection for me the minute they found out that I was of Serbian ancestory.
Unlike Hoplite, the US military has enough sense to recognize when it has made a mistake and change course. So far, they have arrested virtually the entire KLA officer corps for killing their fellow Albanians.
Hoplite may recall it was Clinton who ordered the USAF to serve the KLA's needs. Well, GWB is trying his best to undo Clinton's errors. When will Hoplite join the rest of the world and admit that Clinton was wrong ?
Aims and Activities
The Problem--
Local media in transitional societies are key agents of change, the essential rallying point in emerging democracies. But journalists often face serious obstacles which prevent them from playing their full role in the process of democratisation and conflict resolution.
They may suffer direct repression and grave personal risk, or may lack basic skills, experience or structures through which they can work effectively.
Our Aims--
IWPR supports recovery and development in crisis zones by providing professional training, financial assistance and an international platform to independent media, human rights activists and other local democratic voices.
Who We Are--
Founded in 1991, IWPR is an independent educational charity based in the United Kingdom. The Board of Trustees includes prominent journalists, peace researchers and regional specialists. Staff are mostly journalists with international or regional backgrounds, many having worked for the BBC, Reuters and other established media.
IWPR's primary beneficiaries are local journalists who participate in its reporting, research and training programmes. We work in partnership with a wide range of media organisations and human rights groups throughout the regions it covers.
Where We Work--
IWPR manages major programmes in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia, with a special project on the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and a new project on Afghanistan.
It maintains offices in Almaty, Belgrade, Bishkek, Pristina, Skopje, Tashkent and The Hague and has representatives in Baku, Sarajevo, Tbilisi, Tirana, Yerevan and Zagreb. Its headquarters is in London.
How We Work--
IWPR is a pioneer in harnessing the power of the internet to support regional voices and alternative information. The heart of our work is professional collaboration between international and regional journalists - the aim being to enhance the latter's reporting skills. This requires intensive communication (from on-line learning to formal training seminars) and extreme sensitivity to the abilities, background and risks facing participating journalists.
What We Do--
IWPR engages local reporters in crisis areas for training, research and reporting projects. Field offices build local networks, edit reports and host workshops and discussion sessions. IWPR is best known for its award-winning website and electronic publications in five languages. Its material is widely republished in local and international media. In the pre-internet era, IWPR published the highly regarded magazine WarReport.
ACTIVITIES AND COUNTRY PROJECTS.--
IWPR's core work is based on the ten-point Reporting/Training Dynamic. This programme involves intensive collaboration between local journalists and international editors through the entire editorial process, from story development and writing, through editing and publication, to local debate and evaluation and training. The overall programme toolbox is adapted for each country project based on local needs, problems and available resources.....
Get a clue.
Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.