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The invasion of Serbian Krajina
by Greg Elich
Emperors-clothes - www.tenc.net
In early August 1995, the Croatian invasion of Serbian Krajina precipitated the worst refugee crisis of the Yugoslav civil war. Within days, more than two hundred thousand Serbs, virtually the entire population of Krajina, fled their homes, and 14,000 Serbian civilians lost them lives. According to a UN official "Almost the only people remaining were the dead and the dying." The Clinton administration's support for the invasion was an important factor in creating this nightmare.
The previous month, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel met with Croatian diplomat Miomir Zuzul in London. During this meeting, Christopher gave his approval for Croatian military action against Serbs in Bosnia and Krajina. Two days later, the U.S. ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, also approved Croatia's invasion plan. Stipe Mesic, a prominent Croatian politician, stated that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman "received the go-ahead from the United States. Tudjman can do only what the Americans allow him to do. Krajina is the reward for having accepted, under Washington's pressure, the federation between Croats and Muslims in Bosnia." Croatian assembly deputy Mate Mestrovic also claimed that the "United States gave us the green light to do whatever had to be done." (1)
As Croatian troops launched their assault on August 4, U.S. NATO aircraft destroyed Serbian radar and anti-aircraft defenses. American EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft patrolled the air in support of the invasion. Krajina foreign affairs advisor Slobodan Jarcevic stated that NATO "completely led and coordinated the entire Croat offensive by first destroying radar and anti-aircraft batteries. What NATO did most for the Croatian Army was to jam communications between [Serb] military commands...." (2)
Following the elimination of Serbian anti-aircraft defenses, Croatian planes carried out extensive attacks on Serbian towns and positions. The roads were clogged with refugees, and Croatian aircraft bombed and strafed refugee columns. Serbian refugees passing through the town of Sisak were met by a mob of Croatian extremists, who hurled rocks and concrete at them. A UN spokesman said, "The windows of almost every vehicle were smashed and almost every person was bleeding from being hit by some object." Serbian refugees were pulled from their vehicles and beaten. As fleeing Serbian civilians poured into Bosnia, a Red Cross representative in Banja Luka said, "I've never seen anything like it. People are arriving at a terrifying rate." Bosnian Muslim troops crossed the border and cut off Serbian escape routes. Trapped refugees were massacred as they were pounded by Croatian and Muslim artillery. Nearly 1,700 refugees simply vanished. While Croatian and Muslim troops burned Serbian villages, President Clinton expressed his understanding for the invasion, and Christopher said events "could work to our advantage." (3)
The Croatian rampage through the region left a trail of devastation. Croatian special police units, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, systematically looted abandoned Serbian villages. Everything of value - cars, stereos, televisions, furniture, farm animals - was plundered, and homes set afire. (4) A confidential European Union report stated that 73 percent of Serbian homes were destroyed. (5) Troops of the Croatian army also took part, and pro-Nazi graffiti could be seen on the walls of several burnt-out Serb buildings.(6)
Massacres continued for several weeks after the fall of Krajina, and UN patrols discovered numerous fresh unmarked graves and bodies of murdered civilians. (7) The European Union report states, "Evidence of atrocities, an average of six corpses per day, continues to emerge. The corpses, some fresh, some decomposed, are mainly of old men. Many have been shot in the back of the head or had throats slit, others have been mutilated... Serb lands continue to be torched and looted." (8)
Following a visit in the region a member of the Zagreb Helsinki Committee reported, "Virtually all Serb villages had been destroyed.... In a village near Knin, eleven bodies were found, some of them were massacred in such a way that it was not easy to see whether the body was male or female." (9)
UN spokesman Chris Gunness noted that UN personnel continued to discover bodies, many of whom had been decapitated. (10) British journalist Robert Fisk reported the murder of elderly Serbs, many of whom were burned alive in their homes. He adds, "At Golubic, UN officers have found the decomposing remains of five people... the head of one of the victims was found 150 feet from his body. Another UN team, meanwhile is investigating the killing of a man and a woman in the same area after villagers described how the man's ears and nose had been mutilated." (11)
After the fall of Krajina, Croatian chief of staff General Zvonimir Cervenko characterized Serbs as "medieval shepherds, troglodytes, destroyers of anything the culture of man has created." During a triumphalist train journey through Croatia and Krajina, Tudjman spoke at each railway station. To great applause, he announced, "There can be no return to the past, to the times when [Serbs] were spreading cancer in the heart of Croatia, a cancer that was destroying the Croatian national being." He then went on to speak of the "ignominious disappearance" of the Serbs from Krajina "so it is as if they have never lived here... They didn't even have time to take with them their filthy money or their filthy underwear!" American ambassador Peter Galbraith dismissed claims that Croatia had engaged in "ethnic cleansing," since he defined this term as something Serbs do. (12)
U.S. representatives blocked Russian attempts to pass a UN Security Council resolution condemning the invasion. According to Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic, American officials gave advice on the conduct of the operation, and European and military experts and humanitarian aid workers reported shipments of U.S weapons to Croatia over the two months preceding the invasion. A French mercenary also witnessed the arrival of American and German weapons at a Croatian port, adding, "The best of the Croats' armaments were German- and American-made." The U.S. "directly or indirectly," says French intelligence analyst Pierre Hassner, "rearmed the Croats." Analysts at Jane's Information Group say that Croatian troops were seen wearing American uniforms and carrying U S. communications equipment. (13)
The invasion of Krajina was preceded by a thorough CIA and DIA analysis of the region. (14) According to Balkan specialist Ivo Banac, this "tactical and intelligence support" was furnished to the Croatian Army at the beginning of its offensive. (15)
In November 1994, the United States and Croatia signed a military agreement. Immediately afterward, U.S. intelligence agents set up an operations center on the Adriatic island of Brac, from which reconnaissance aircraft were launched. Two months earlier, the Pentagon contracted Military Professional Resources, Inc (MPRI) to train the Croatian military.(16) According to a Croatian officer, MPRI advisors "lecture us on tactics and big war operations on the level of brigades, which is why we needed them for Operation Storm when we took the Krajina." Croatian sources claim that U.S. satellite intelligence was furnished to the Croatian military. (17) Following the invasion of Krajina, the U.S. rewarded Croatia with an agreement "broadening existing cooperation" between MPRI and the Croatian military. (18) U.S. advisors assisted in the reorganization of the Croatian Army. Referring to this reorganization in an interview with the newspaper Vecernji List, Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic said, "We are building the foundations of our organization on the traditions of the Croatian home guard" - pro-Nazi troops in World War II. (19)
It is worth examining the nature of what one UN official terms "America's newest ally." During World War II, Croatia was a Nazi puppet state in which the Croatian fascist Ustashe murdered as many as one million Serbs, Jews, and Roman (Gypsies). Disturbing signs emerged with the election of Franjo Tudjman to the Croatian presidency in 1990 Tudjman said, "I am glad my wife is neither Serb nor Jew," and wrote that accounts of the Holocaust were "exaggerated" and "one-sided." (20)
Much of Tudjman's financial backing was provided by Ustashe émigrés and several Ustashe war criminals were invited to attend the first convention of Tudjman's political party, the Croatian Democratic Union. (21)
Tudjman presented a medal to a former Ustashe commander living in Argentina, Ivo Rojnica. After Rojnica was quoted as saying, "Everything I did in 1941 I would do again," international pressure prevented Tudjman from appointing him to the post of ambassador to Argentina. When former Ustashe official Vinko Nikolic returned to Croatia, Tudjman appointed him to a seat in parliament. Upon former Ustashe officer Mate Sarlija's return to Croatia, he was personally welcomed at the airport by Defense Minister Gojko Susak, and subsequently given the post of general in the Croatian Army. (22) On November 4, 1996, thirteen former Ustashe officers were presented with medals and ranks in the Croatian Army. (23)
Croatia adopted a new currency in 1994, the kuna, the same name as that used by the Ustashe state, and the new Croatian flag is a near-duplicate of the Ustashe flag. Streets and buildings have been renamed for Ustashe official Mile Budak, who signed the regime's anti-Semitic laws, and more than three thousand anti-fascist monuments have been demolished. In an open letter, the Croatian Jewish community protested the rehabilitation of the Ustashe state. In April 1994, the Croatian government demanded the removal of all "non-white" UN troops from its territory, claiming that "only first-world troops" understood Croatia's "problems." (24)
On Croatian television in April 1996, Tudjman called for the return of the remains of Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Croatian pro-Nazi puppet state "After all, both reconciliation and recognition should be granted to those who deserve it," Tudjman said, adding, "We should recognize that Pavelic's ideas about the Croatian state were positive," but that Pavelic's only mistake was the murder of a few of his colleagues and nationalist allies. (25) Three months later, Tudjman said of the Serbs driven from Croatia "The fact that 90 percent of them left is their own problem... Naturally we are not going to allow them all to return." During the same speech, Tudjman referred to the pro-Nazi state as "a positive thing." (26)
During its violent secession from Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia expelled more than three hundred thousand Serbs, and Serbs were eliminated from ten towns and 183 villages. (27) In 1993, Helsinki Watch reported: "Since 1991 the Croatian authorities have blown up or razed ten thousand houses mostly of Serbs, but also houses of Croats. In some cases, they dynamited homes with the families inside." Thousands of Serbs have been evicted from their homes. Croatian human-rights activist Ivan Zvonimir Cicak says beatings, plundering, and arrests were the usual eviction methods. (28)
Tomislav Mercep, until recently the advisor to the Interior minister and a member of Parliament, is a death-squad leader. Mercep's death squad murdered 2,500 Serbs in western Slavonia in 1991 and 1992, actions Mercep defends as "heroic deeds." (29) Death squad officer Miro Bajramovic's spectacular confession revealed details: "Nights were worst for [our prisoners]... burning prisoners with a flame, pouring vinegar over their wounds mostly on genitalia and on the eyes. Then there is that little induction field phone, you plug a Serb onto that... The most painful is to stick little pins under the nails and to connect to the three phase current; nothing remains of a man but ashes... After all, we knew they would all be killed, so it did not matter if we hurt him more today or tomorrow."
"Mercep knew everything," Bajramovic claimed. "He told us several times: 'Tonight you have to clean all these shits.' By this he meant all the prisoners should be executed." (30)
Sadly, the Clinton administration's embrace of Croatia follows a history of support for fascists when it suits American geopolitical interests: Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Indonesia's Suharto, Paraguay's Aifredo Stroessner, and a host of others. The consequences of this policy for the people affected have been devastating.
1) "Weekly: U.S. Gave Zagreb 'Green Light,' " Tanjug (Belgrade), 26 July 1995. "In Croatia, U.S. Took Calculated Risk," Stephen Engelberg, New York Times News Service, 12 August 1995. "Cleansing the West's Dirty War," Joan Phillips, Living Marxism (London), September 1995. "Who Has Given the Go-Ahead?," interview with Stipe Mesic, Panorama (Milan), 8 August 1995. "The United States Gave Us the Green Light," interview with Mate Mestrovic, by Chantal de Rudder, Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris), 10 August 1995.
(2) "International Inaction in Croatia Will Complicate Bosnian War," George Jahn, Associated Press, 7 August 1995. "NATO Destroyed Krajina Missile Systems," Bosnian Serb News Agency (SRNA) (Belgrade), 6 August 1995. "Abandoned People Must Flee," interview with Slobodan Jarcevic by Cvijeta Arsenic, Oslobodjenje (Sarajevo—Bosnian Serb), 23 August 1995."Cleansing the West's Dirty War," Joan Phillips, op. cit.
(3) "Huge Refugee Exodus Runs Into Shelling, Shooting, Air Attacks," George Jahn, Associated Press, 8 August 1995. "Croat Planes Shell Refugees," Tanjug, 8 August 1995. "SRNA Review of Daily News," SRNA, 8 August 1995. "Cleansing the West's Dirty War," Joan Phillips, op. cit. "Refugees Trapped by Croat Shelling," Robert Fox and Tim Judah, Electronic Telegraph (London) (Online), 8 August 1995. "Croat Mob Attacks Nuns in Fleeing Convoy," Patrick Bishop, Electronic Telegraph, 11 August 1995. "Over 1,000 Serbs Missing in Krajina," Tanjug, 28 January 1997. "Croat Grip Is Tightened as 100,000 Flee," Tim Butcher, Electronic Telegraph, 7 August 1995.
(4) "UN Says Croatians Loot, Use Peacekeepers as Shields," Associated Press, 6 August 1995. "Helsinki Committee Reports on Krajina Operations," Hartmut Fiedler, Oesterreich Eins Radio Network, 21 August 1995. "EU Observers Accuse Croatia of Breaches of Law," Tanjug, 27 October 1995. "UN: Croatians Systematically Burned Serb Homes," Tanjug, 14 August 1995. "Croats Slaughter Elderly by the Dozen," Robert Fisk, The Independent (London), 10 September 1995. "Croats Plunder Their Way through Krajina," Mon Vanderostyne, De Standard (Groot Bijgaarden, The Netherlands), 9 August 1995. "UN Says Croats Loot Serb Villages in Krajina," Agence France-Presse, 17 August 1995. "EU Report Accuses Croatia of Atrocities Against Rebel Serbs," Julian Borger, The Guardian (Manchester), 30 September 1995. "Krajina 'Torched State,' " SRNA, 21 August 1995. "What Was Once Home to 300 Families Is Now a Graveyard," Sarah Helm, The Independent, 24 August 1995. "Helsinki Committee Chronicles Human Rights Abuses," Tanjug, 28 August 1995. "Memorandum on the Ethnic Cleansing of and Genocide Against the Serb People of Croatia and Krajina," Yugoslav Survey, third quarter, 1995.
(5) "Krajina Bears Signs of Croat Ethnic Cleansing," Randolph Ryan, Boston Globe, 8 October 1995. "UN Official Confirms Croatian Crimes in Krajina," Tanjug, 13 October 1995.
(6)"Krajina Bears Signs of Croat Ethnic Cleansing," Randolph Ryan, op.cit
(7) "Croats Burn and Kill with a Vengeance," Robert Fisk, The Independent, 4 September 1995. "Croats Leave Bloody Trail of Serbian Dead," Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 9n October 1995. "Reports Say Croatia Uses Killing, Arson," John Pomfret, Washington Post, 30 September 1995. "UN Asks for Inquiry into Krajina Killings," Reuters, 18 August 1995. "EU Observers Accuse Croatia of Breaches of Law," op. cit. "UN Finds Evidence of Mass Killings in Croatia," Reuters, 2 October 1995. "Croats Slaughter Elderly by the Dozen," Robert Fisk, op. cit. "EU Report Accuses Croatia of Atrocities Against Rebel Serbs," Julian Borger, op.cit. "UN: Executions, Possible Mass Graves in Krajina," Agence France-Presse, 18 August 1995. "Helsinki Committee Chronicles Human Rights Abuses," op cit. "Evidence Emerging of Crimes Against Krajina Serbs," Tanjug, 30 August 1995. "Croats Accused of Atrocities," Associated Press, 29 September 1995.
(8) "Croats Burn and Kill With a Vengeance," Robert Fisk, op.cit."EU Report Accuses Croatia of Atrocities Against Rebel Serbs, " Julian Borger, op. cit. report broadcast, RTBF-1 Television Network (Brussels), 20 August 1995. "Memorandum on the Ethnic Cleansing of and Genocide Against the Serb People of Croatia and Krajina," Yugoslav Survey, third quarter, 1995.
(9) "Krajina Operation: Helsinki Committee Member Describes Atrocities in Krajina," BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 25 August 1995.
10) "UN Asks for Inquiry into Krajina Killings," op.cit. "UN Finds Evidence of Mass Killings in Croatia," op. cit. "UN: Executions, Possible Mass Graves in Krajina," op. cit.
(11) "Croats Slaughter Elderly by the Dozen," Robert Fisk, op. cit.(12) "Croats Ready for a Fresh Offense Against Serbs," Patrick Bishop, Electronic Telegraph, 16 August 1995. addresses by Franjo Tudjman, Radio Croatia Network, 26 August 1995. "U.S. Says Croatia is Not Guilty of Ethnic Cleansing," Patrick Moore, Open Media Research Institute, 10 August 1995.
(13) "Croatian Minister Says U.S. Gave Advice on Offensive," Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Associated Press, 5 August 1995. "Croatia Takes Effective Control of What's Left of Bosnia," San Francisco Chronicle, 11 August 1995.
(14) "NATO in Dubrovnik," Vladimir Jovanovic, Monitor (Podgorica, Yugoslavia), 23 June 1995.
(15) "AP Report on U.S. Peace Strategy," Associated Press, 13 November 1995.
(16) "AP Report on U.S. Peace Strategy," Associated Press, op cit." U.S. Troops Operate in Croatia," Associated Press, 3 February 1995.
(17) "Invisible U.S. Army Defeats Serbs," Charlotte Eagar, The Observer (London), 5November 1995.
(18) "Military Cooperation Agreement Signed with U.S." HTV Television (Zagreb) 13 October 1995.
(19) "We Can Prevent Any Serbian Maneuver," interview with Tihomir Blaskic, by Jozo Pavkovic, Vecernji List (Zagreb), 11 March 1995.
20) "Croatian Leader's Invitation to Holocaust Museum Sparks Anger and Shock," Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times News Service, 21 April 1993.
(21) "Croatia, at a Key Strategic Crossroad, Builds Militarily and Geographically," Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy (London), 31 January 1993. "Who is Franjo Tudjman?" Narodna Armija (Belgrade), 1 March 1990.
(22) "Criticism of Tudjman Award to Ustashe," Foreign Broadcast Information Service Media Note (Media Summary), 27 January 1995. "Nationalism Turns Sour in Croatia," New York Times News Service, 13 November 1993. "Plan to Honour Ustashe Killers Outrages Minorities in Croatia," Ian Traynor, The Guardian, 18 October 1993. "Trpimir for an Executioner and a Victim," Mirko Mirkovic, Feral Tribune (Split, Croatia), 20 February 1995. "Croatian General Former Ustashe," Tanjug, 26 February 1995.
(23) "Croatia Grants Awards to Nazi-Era War Veterans," Reuters, 7 November 1996.
(24) "New Croatian Money Anathema to Serbs," John Pomfret, Washington Post, 31 May 1994. "Plan to Honour Ustashe Killers Outrages Minorities in Croatia," Ian Traynor, op.cit. "Pro-Nazi Legacy Lingers for Croatia," Stephen Kinzer, New York Times News Service, 30 October 1993. "Monument to Anti-Fascism Desecrated in Croatia," Tanjug, February 1995. "Another Anti-Fascist Monument Blown Up in Croatia," Tanjug, 11 April 1995. "Croatia, Symbols of Crimes," Miodrag Dundjerovic, Tanjug, 1 June 1994. "Croatia Adopts New Currency Recalling Fascist Era," Reuters, 9 May 1994. "Hiding Genocide," Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, 31 December 1992. "Croatia is Rehabilitating Ustashism and the Independent State of Croatia," Politika (Belgrade), 12 February 1993. "Tudjman Calls for All-White Peace Force in Croatia," Eve Ann Prentice, The Times (London), 11 April 1995. "Croatia to Seek Expulsion of Non-White U.N. Troops," Tanjug, 10 April 1995.
(25) Interview with Franjo Tudjman, HTV Television (Zagreb), 22 April 1996.
(26) Address by Franjo Tudjman to the Croatian World Congress in Brioni, Radio Croatia Network (Zagreb), 6 July 1996.
(27) "Croatian Towns, Villages Cleansed of Serbs," Tanjug, 26 January 1993. "Savovic: Croatia Expelled 300,000 Serb," Tanjug, 5 November1993 "Serb Party Official: 350,000 Serbs Driven Out." Tanjug, 26 August 1994.
(28) "Croatian Police Tactics Cited," Associated Press, 3 October 1994. "Helsinki Committee Chair: Collective Vendetta Against Croatia's Serbs," Tanjug, 7 may 1994. "Protests Prevent Latest Wave of Croatian Apartment Evictions," Radio Free Europe, 12 July 1994. "Croatian Human Rights Activist: Zagreb Backs Human Rights Violations," Tanjug, 28 September 1994. "Rights Groups Report Abuses by Croatia," David Binder, New York Times News Service, 7 December 1993.
29) "Interior Minister Aide Accused of War Crimes," ZDF Television Network (Mainz), 17 May 1994. "Slovene Daily Says Croatian Leaders Keep Quiet About Massacre of Serbs," Tanjug, 14 January 1994. "Croatian Paper Calls Mass Killings of Serbs a National Disgrace," Tanjug, 12 July 1994. "Zagreb Knows About Mass Killings of Serbs," Tanjug, 23 July 1994. "Dossier: Pakracka Poljana," Feral Tribune (Split, Croatia), 1 September 1997. "Death Camps and Mass Graves in Western Slavonia: Marino Selo and Pakracka Poljana," dossier prepared by Serbian Council, Belgrade, 1993.
(30) "Miro Bajramovic's Confession," Feral Tribune (Split, Croatia), 1 September 1997. "Croatian's Confession Describes Torture and Killing on Vast Scale," Chris Hedges, New York Times, 5 September 1997.
Further reading...
* Were the U.S. and German governments behind the breakup of Yugoslavia in general and the secession of Croatia in particular? Click on E.H. Carr's German and U.S. Involvement in the Balkans or go to http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/carr/carr.html
* How did Western institutions come to target Serbia as the inhumanitarian bad boy of the 90's? Click on Yugoslavia: Through a Dark Glass by Diana Johnstone or go to http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/Yugo1.html
* Indications of the resurgence of Nazi thinking in Croatia under the rule of Pres. Tudjman are discussed in Nazi Nostalgia in Croatia, by Diana Johnstone. Go to
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/nostalgi.html
* Alice Mahon, British MP, reports on harsh discrimination today in Croatia in Report on Serbs who have Returned to Croatia at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/mahon/croatia.htm
* Sean Gervasi discusses the strategy behind what he argues has been a NATO campaign to shatter Yugoslavia in Why Is NATO in Yugoslavia? at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/gervasi/why.htm
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More blood on Clinton's hands. A few more "adventures" like this and The WWIII is only a matter of time. I have always said: It doesn't pay to make more enemies than one already has.
I recall seeing this on CNN. The Washington Post and NYTimes bombardier Thos Friedman called for NATO action against Croatia ("you want 1943, we'll give you 1943"). Antonia Blair wept, probably because he wasn't PM yet, and Clinton bit his lower lip several times, or maybe he bit Blair's lower lip, I can't remember. A massive aid effort was mounted on the refugees' behalf. There was shame and outrage across the United States that active and retired American military personnel were involved in the belated fulfillment of Pavelic's Independent State of Croatia. The Republican opposition objected to the USAF's use as a latter-day Condor Legion. So why dredge up old news? Can't they just put some ice on it and move on?
I'm flagging in two senses of the word, and I'm out of here for the day. Fine post, looks like a good document to me. Curious at Gael's comment, like the Condor Legion reference, but considering that we repeated it with Kosovo, and that there may still be more Guernikas when the new Washington-Berlin-Tirane axis attacks Montenegro or Macedonia or both, this is not old news, rather earlier news on one huge and current crime.
Cholerajoe, sharktrager, John Little...sorry for this flag, but I did start on FR because of Kosovo and the Nato blitzkrieg for lebensraum for the European Economic Union. Have a good weekend!
"Dick: We 'hired' these guys to be our junkyard dogs because we were desperate. We need to try to 'control' them. But this is no time to get squeamish about things. This is the first time the Serb wave has been reversed. This is essential for us to get stability, so we can get out."
These words were written during a luncheon with President Tudjman in Zagreb on August 17. The American diplomat, Bob Frasure, wrote it on a place card he gave to Richard "Dick" Holbrooke. It was in reference to the Croatian offensive into the Krajina that had just occurred.
Holbrooke, himself says,
For me, however, the success of the Croatian (and later the Bosnian-Croat Federation) offensive was a classic illustration of a fundamental fact: the shape of the diplomatic landscape will usually reflect the actual balance of forces on the ground."
From "To End a War" by Richard Holbrooke - pages 72-73
It was long, but worth the reading, so we were the culprits in Crotia and Bosnia as well, and to think way back then, I actually believed what I heard on the news, had it not been for the coming of the net......... I would still believe the powers that be..yuk.
Hmmm....where to begin; a few random observations:
First of all, today in Croatia there has been an "ignominious disappearance" of Franjo Tudjman - it took a few years for people to spit on Tito's name after he died - but members of his own party like Canjuga did it to Tudjman while he still lay in a coma(!)
Secondly, let us not forget that the Milosevic-supported Krajina Serb government mostly FAILED TO FIGHT the Croatian invasion - they had withdrawn their troops before it hit and the civilians followed suit.....so note here that the Krajina Serbs were BETRAYED by Milosevic, and that therefore Operation "Storm" was a "fait accomplis", where each side (or at least those high up) knew what the outcome was going to be!!
In all fairness to Ambassador Galbreath, he stood up for the Krajina Serb refugees, even sitting down on one of their tractors - for which he was villified in the pro-regime press as the "tractor ambassador".
As far as the murder of about 1000 elderly Serbs who were left behind, and the mass looting and burning, I pray that Mesic is elected and that he and the new parliament make good their promise to prosecute all criminals (they have already started with Herak and Kutle, so the early signs are encouraging).
Finally, somebody tell this Greg Elich fellow THAT AUGUSTO PINOCHET IS A HERO of all freedom-loving men and women, a man who defeated COMMUNISM in Chile, and did so AT A TOTALLY REASONABLE COST IN TERMS OF LIVES LOST. Furthermore, the blood-thirsty communists that he "dealt with appropriately" were enemies of humanity AND DESERVED THEIR FATE!! (Ah, to hear just one of the 'talking heads' on TV mouth this FACT!!!!!!!!!) So Greg, please stop reading the fashionable leftist propaganda so prevalent in the Western media.
Cordially,
In all fairness to Ambassador Galbreath, he stood up for the Krajina Serb refugees, even sitting down on one of their tractors - for which he was villified in the pro-regime press as the "tractor ambassador".
This was after he rode in on a Croatian tank, pumping his fist in a victory salute!
Al, You provide very good comments, as always, and I say this even though I often disagree with you. Croatia's recent and I hope permanent repudiation of Tudjman(ism) is one of the few bright spots in the Balkans these days. I'd like to think that in the recent election the Croats repudiated the Tudjman gov't's treatment of the Serbs. What's your take?
I've seen differing opinions about Operation Storm, re whether the RSK forces were ordered to withdraw, simply folded, or stood and fought. It seems to have been a mixture of all three. Certainly, the RSK army didn't put up much of a fight against a fairly incompetent Croatian force. From what I can tell, Elich is correct about USAF's role. He doesn't mention the attacks on radar for the ground to ground missiles that Martic threatened to use as a deterrent to Croatia's attack; removal of that threat helped clear the way for the HV attack. BTW, there's an excellent discussion of the campaign in Tim Ripley's "Operation Deliberate Force".
Milosevic's role in allowing Storm to succeed is unclear. At the least, he didn't send in the JA, which may have been a paper tiger at that point anyway.
No comment here re Pinochet. Regards.
"note here that the Krajina Serbs were BETRAYED by Milosevic"
Very convenient, if Milsosevic supports the Krajina Serbs he is a war monger, if he doesn't he's a betrayer!
bump
F117: Galbraith was very naive about the Tudjman government, and about the issue of nationalism in Croatia in general. He did not expect the kind of bloodthirsty criminal reprisals that occured in the aftermath of "Operation Storm". To his credit, he then changed course publicly, thus becoming persona non grata to Tudjman's ruling clique.
Gael: The recent elections in Croatia represent primarily a repudiation of the rampant graft and theft of the ruling party, that has bankrupted the country. Return of the Krajina Serbs and prosecuting the murderers of same are lower on the totem pole - certainly they appeal to the intellectuals who detested Tudjman and admire Western values of tolerance; less so for the "common man" who is trying to figure out how he will buy his bread or pay for his hospital stay. None-the-less, it is an issue that both of the current candidates have supported. How it plays out will largely depend on whether displaced Croats are able to move back into Muslim and Serb areas of neighboring Bosnia - and I am not holding my breath for that to happen. Short of that, AND large infusions of Western cash, the returning Serbs will find their homes either burned down or occupied by displaced Croats, and no work. The key to EVERYTHING in Croatia is to get the economy back on a sound footing and create jobs. Given the last ten years, that will not be an easy task. But at least they are going to move in that direction (I hope).
Regarding the Serb-Croat agreement on the Krajina; Milosevic, on behalf of the Serbs (and to their dying regret) agreed to give up the Krajina and a part of Bosnia to the Croats in exchange for the "Republika Srpska" in the rest of Bosnia. Thus, no support of the Krajina Serbs once "Storm" kicked off. Almost immediately, the Croat/Muslim army in Bosnia made HUGE gains almost overnight (once again because the Serbs withdrew without a fight). BUT, once the combined Croat/Muslim armies crossed the secret "agreement line", Gojko Susak (Croatia's all powerful Defense Minister) came down to Bosnia personally to read the commanding Croat general "the riot act". Then, the Serbs started fighting, and the miraculous advance of the Croat/Muslim armies slowed overnight. (The Muslims wanted to push on towards the city of Banja Luka; the Croats did not). At that point the USA called "time out" and invited everyone to Dayton (where the Serbs and Croats hoped to work out a final deal...but those pesky Muslims kept interfering....)
Hope that makes it all clear for you ;-)
Cordially, Al
Regarding the Serb-Croat agreement on the Krajina; Milosevic, on behalf of the Serbs (and to their dying regret) agreed to give up the Krajina and a part of Bosnia to the Croats in exchange for the "Republika Srpska" in the rest of Bosnia. Thus, no support of the Krajina Serbs once "Storm" kicked off.
I don't know what sort of deals Milosevic may or not have made regarding the Krajina and Bosnia, but you can be sure Serbia itself would have been heavily pounded by NATO had they "crossed international borders". This border crossing standard, was of course, never applied to our "junkyard dogs", the darling Croats!
p.s. Galbraith either should not have been ambassador to Croatia if he did not understand the nature of the beast or if he did, the crocodile tears after the deed is done is little consolation to the victims.
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