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this “satellite photo” business is often repeated. Noone has ever shown any satellite photos of the kind you describe. Madelein Albright stood at a screen after “Srebrenica” saying that satellites showed this and that. Satellites showed nothing. And if your relatives saw and interpreted them that’s one thing but the camera did not show any such thing as a massacre or atrocities. If so, show the satellite photos that are so clear that Albright could see who did what. Unfortunately, there is nobody in this discussion who has the supporting material to challenge this.

Trepca - the name will live alongside those of Belsen, Auschwitz and Treblinka”

The above is from an old article. It was completely a fake. Do you think anybody remembers it now? Did anybody retract it in headlines equal to the original accusation?

The Serbs are the designated guilty party. You have pointed out some of the press failings. There are literally hundreds like this and it continues today with the kangaroo court in the Hague and reporters looking up the ‘history’ of the whole Yugoslav mess in their own archives — written by sensationalists who already had their minds made up — Serbs in black hats, Muslims in white. The Serbs were not the Nazis in all this but we love to use the term. It’s never ending. Today the only ethnically mixed country from ALL the former Yugoslav republics as of today is Serbia. Genocide? Serbs did not want an ethnically pure country — they simply did not dare risk being a MINORITY in a Muslim or a Croatian country (Nazi allies in WW2 — look it up)where they had been murdered in the hundreds of thousands along with Jews and Gypsies. Am I carrying on too long? I hope this stirs somebody to think more deeply on the topic.

"Trepca - the name will live alongside those of Belsen, Auschwitz and Treblinka,"

Can you give me the source for this quote? Thanks

A friend of mine read with amazement the following quote from the article:

"The Serbs might not have been innocent victims in the confrontation. In a February interview, Monica Thams, a Swedish aid worker who was in Bocinja that day, said the Serbs probably meant to provoke the Mujahedeen by roasting the pig in front of their mosque during Friday prayers."

He responds: How do the Serbs dare to forget that this land belongs now to Mujahadeen. The facts that the Serbs are in their ancestral land has no importance anymore. Serbs should be grateful to the international community that permits them to remain alive.

"... but I thank God we are over there or else Kosovo and Bosnia may very well have become one large Al-Qaeda base in the heart of Europe."

I came across this humorous post just today -- is it a joke? Kosovo and Bosnia are being infiltrated by Al-Qaeda BECAUSE we went over there.

"Said it better than I did."

In principle, I am not for or against who judges whom as long as the principles of justice are respected, meaning, evidence first. The judges at Nuremburg had a relatively easy job because the evidence was blatant (all those ashes, those dentures, wigs and hair, wagons of them...). The Hague prosecution has mostly secret and compromised witnesses and that is the travesty of justice.

Whatever you think of the Nuremburg Trials, there were not dozens of secret "witnesses" in closed sessions as is the style in the Milosevic "trial." The Nazis provided the evidence for their own crimes in writing and photographs, they were that thorough.

I DO have a great deal against Milosevic and his thugs...

The word "thug" in connection with Milosevic:
a) favored by those who get their information about Milosevic from the superficial daily press.
b) used by journalists who want to say that Milosevic is OK but have to justify anything positive that they write about him by adding that yes, they know he is a "thug."

The US was on the wrong side of the Serb war. Kosovo should have lost.

I don't know if you are serious -- but just in case I'll fill you in. Kosovo is part of Serbia. If you think that it was a battle BETWEEN Kosovo and Serbia then I don't blame you for that misperception.

Nothing but despair. They want to put roofs on the "old" churches. It will take a century to restore these treasures and the authorities are suggesting that this should be done by the Kosovo Albanians using their own budget. Their budget consists of millions in aid money and whatever crime proceeds they have socked away. What a great future these churches and monasteries have -- not to mention the clergy and the people, Serbian, Roma and other nonAlbanians.

My friend visited some villages in Serbia, he talked about the genocide, how many villages were devastated by the genocide. I'm surprised a jewish person like yourself wouldnt be more sensitive to this, but I guess when you're from the balkans old ethnic hatreds don't ever die down...

I don't understand your point. Jews and Serbs died together in the genocide of WWII. What is insensitive about the comment?

unbearable

bump

"World War I started when Austria-Hungary attempted (justly by most accounts) to punish Serbia for an assassination."

At this moment, this point may be minor but I think we should correct these misconceptions when they come up. The position of Austria-Hungary in 1914 was similar to that of U.S./Nato in 1999. Both were looking for an excuse to disable a proud and spirited so they could have a free hand in the area.
Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with conditions it could not sign on to because A-H wanted a war with Serbia.
in 1999, U.S./Nato wrote out conditions at Rambouillet that Serbia could not possibly have signed on to because U.S/Nato wanted a war there also.

"I didn't like them when Dubrovnik was bombed in 1991 for no military aim or gain."

You're behind in your reading. Dubrovnik wasn't destroyed. The Croats were burning tires to make it look like destruction. They set themselves up to DRAW Serb fire for the cameras. Professor Peter Maher was in Dubrovnik shortly after the so called 'destruction of Dubrovnik' and found it pretty much intact. I think the only building destroyed was the Serbian Library. Just notice how soon they were advertising for tourists -- chipped roof tiles was the main problem I hear.

"I never saw any of the ethnic Albanian refugees: children, adults, older people, who arrived in Macedonia, Albania, etc. with any bruising or scratches. "

Joan -- this is an interesting point. There probably were men who arrived wounded. (although I wouldn't discount the Albanian's own battles among themselves as a cause). But it's true that we didn't see horrifying pictures of brutality among those refugees. Does anybody have anything in print from 1999, photo or report, that portrays Albanians who look like those beaten Serbs?

Post 11 -- which church is this?

I am so sorry to read your conclusion. When I saw your post I was overwhelmed with work and I thought, how can I explain this lesituation to somebody who seems to have just chanced on the picture, where to start? I came back a few days later to see you calling Joan, who tried to give you a clear and unemotional explanation, än "apologist." That's so easy to say. Shall we call those who have charged Serbs with every unnameable crime äpologists also? Is everybody an apologist no matter what they say? Why not? Since you so readily jumped at this adjective good luck to you and goodbye. Why should you care anyway? The fable is going into some history books. But there are still plenty of respectable honest writers around and the truth will come out.

Very cleverly excerpted. If anybody is reading this forum, don't skip the link given here.

The tribunal's (in)credibility is proved by how reluctant it was to indict people like Oric. Innocence or guilt can't be proved in a court that has no public to answer to. In the meantime Milosevic does a good job exposing the whole structure despite their innumerable unidentified witnesses.

Allowing Milosevic to perform genocide unchecked whould have destabilized Europe and then you would author threads about how Clinton's failure to act in the former Yugoslavia was a traitorous act of cowardice etc.......

Milosevic did not perform genocide and had no plans for genocide. That's a fact. Destabilizing Europe is a catchword used after the fact since it's hard to explain to those who didn't give a damn about the area, the real reasons for the whole mess.