Reports on War Crimes in the FormerYugoslavia Special: Indicted Mass-Rapist, Mass-Murderers Sheltered in Putin's Russia: Vujadin Popovic, Milan Lukic, Dragan Zelenovic. Others Hiding Velibor Ostojic, V Maksimovic, Mladic, Gotovina, Karadzic. * Key: Amir Pasic Lecture. Also: Bosniaca: University of Michigan Holdings New: Corpse Mining as International Commerce. Putin Turns KGB into Wanted War-Criminals Protection Force for accused Mass Rapist of Foca and Two Accused Principals in Srebrenica Genocice: 15 March 2005 Press Accounts. Also: IWPR 11 March 05, Novoseoce Murderers at large in Sokolac? Karadzic aide and accused war criminal Rajko Kusic said to be fighting for Russia in Chechnya. New: Jeff Spurr, Bosnia Library Project Final Report Project Tolerance and Tradition: Rebuilding the Mosques of Stolac and: Peto Pismo biskupu Ratku Pericu Other New Postings: Consecrating Genocide: Bishops and War Criminals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Stanislav Galic Convicted and Sentenced for Strategy to "kill, maim, wound and terrorise the civilian inhabitants of Sarajevo." RS army guilt in Market Massacre Established. Click here for articles on Galic conviction Pavle Strugar Convicted for Attack on Dubrovnik. See IWPR Tribunal Watch 392, 5 February 02 for Strugar Conviction. Savo Todovic, the Disappearer of Foca, to the Hague. Andras Riedlmayer, Crimes in Brisevo, Prijedor Municipality. 8 Nov 04[ Interview with Mustafa ef. Ceric, "Happy to be Muslims in Europe," New Europe Review; Also: Extremist Orthodox Bishop in Ceremony in Honor of Radovan Karadzic; 30 April 2004, Macedonia Charges Four with Murder of Innocent Men in al-Qaeda Arrest Fabrication. Atrocity Denial on Bosnia (with new article by Alan Kocevic). "Packet Man": Ljubisa Beara, Srebrenica's Academician of Death. Savo Todovic, the Disappearer of Foca, to the Hague. Ratko Mladc, Radovan Karadzic, and Serb Bishops on the eve of Srebrenica.  Human Rights Archives on the Genocide in Bosnia (and attempted genocide in Kosovo) Supplementary Documentation for Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996) New Ed. with Preface on Kosovo (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1998) 1996. ISBN 0-520-20690-8 (Cloth) $19.95; ISBN 0-520-21662-8 (Paper, 1998 Edition) $14.95. Order Info: 609-883-1759 Bosnian Lanugage Edition: Iznevjerni Most, translated by Zoran Mutic (Sarajevo: Sedam Press, 2002) 1997 American Academy Religion Award, Excellence in Historical Studies Table of Contents and Books Reviews for The Bridge Betrayed, Correction New, February 04: Brdjanin genocide trial sees witness recant Deichmann-Trnopolje hoax, along with a call to indict clerics who incite genocide. Also, Diego Enrique Arria on the UN, Milosevic, and slow motion genocide; and: Krajisnik's SDS hired murderers. Oct 03: Deronjic confesses to massacre of Muslim civilians in Glogova, near Bratunac, for which he received applause of Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Velibor Ostojic:Karadzic clapped as Muslim village burned. 23 Oct 03: Former Yugoslav PM testifies that Tudjman and Milosevic agreed to partition BiH at Karadjodjevo meeting in 1991.  Nov 2004: On the spring 2004 criminal destruction of Orthodox Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo. See Damage to Churches and Other Cultural/Religious Properties on March 17-18 2002, Cultural Heritage Without Borders. Alternate Site of the College Art Association. See also the article by Paul Hockenos in the Bosnia Report April-July 2004 of the Bosnian Institute; the summary the ICG Report #55, Collapse in Kosovo (click the pdf option at the top for the full report), and the full IDF report (63 pages in pdf). Left thumb: fire damage to the 14th century Church of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviska.  Dec 2003. Dragan Nikolic, commander of the Susica concentration camp near Vlasenica in southeast Bosnia was sentenced to 23 years by the ICTY on 18 December 2003. Nikolic murdered and tortured unarmed prisoners and beat them to death with ax handles and metal pipes, sometimes beating them over a period of several days before they died. Nikolic also organized the rape and gang rape of women and girls. ("Female detainees were sexually assaulted at various locations, such as the guardhouse, the houses surrounding the camp, at the Panorama Hotel, a military headquarters, and at locations where such women were taken to perform forced labour." From count 21). The sentence for this convicted mass murderer, torturer, and rape organizer was more than the prosecutor had recommended. ICTY Amended Indictment (for those with strong stomachs). Sentencing Judgment. IWPR report on D Nikolic.  Original Text, English Translation; International Criminal Tribunal Indicts Slobodan Praljak, Jadranko Prljic and Five Others for Criminal Conspiracy in the destruction of Stari Most and much of Herzegovina, for organizating the "ethnic cleansing" campaign of the HDZ and HVO in the Mostar region. Former President Tudjman, Gojko Susak, and Mate Boban (all deceased) were cited as co-conspirators.  October 2003: My draft of an Open Letter to Pope John Paul II appealing for reform of Catholic Church position in the Mostar diocese of Bishop Ratko Peric. (The thumbnail on the left shows a large cross constructed in triumph underneath Pocitelj after the historic town's Islamic monuments were dynamited and burned in 1993). This letter details the situation in the Mostar area, Bishop Peric's rejection of pleas for interreligious cooperation and harsh attacks on returning refugees. Previous appeals had been directed by refugee returnees to the papal nuncio Giuseppe Leanzo but were rejected, leaving Bishop's Peric's policies intact as the apparent Vatican policy in the area.  Special (May 2003): Zitomislici Revival. Photodocumentation of the renewal and reconstruction of the ancient monastery complex at Zitomislici that was destroyed in 1992 as part of the HVO campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against non-Catholic peoples and their heritage. For a photo-essay on the destruction, carried out by HVO units from the pilgrimage center of Medjugorje, see Zitomislici (1566-1992): Meaning, History, and Tragic End. Revise to Zitomislici (1566-1992-): Meaning, History, Tragic End, and Rebirth.  Updated (Nov 2004) The Stolac Page Updated: History, Culture, Art, War-Crimes, Reconstruction, with human rights reports, documentation on Bishop Ratko Peric and Don Rajko Markovic's opposition to reconstruction, the superimposition of triumphalist "blood shrines" on the ruins of destroyed non-Catholic sites of worship, and the rebuilding of the Careva dzamija (Emperor's Mosque), also known as the Carsijska dzamija, built in 1519 and dynamited by the HVO in 1993. New sets of images trace the rebuilding of the Careva dzamija and a new report is up on the Podgradska damija, also known as the Dzamija hadze Saliha Bure (Ali-pasina), built in 1732, destroyed in 1993. Newly added to Stolac Page: Rebuilding the Mosques of Stolac and Peto Pismo biskupu Ratku Pericu   Mladen Naletilic (Tuta) and Vinko Martinovic (Stela) convicted at The Hague of crimes against humanity, sentenced to 20 and 18 years respectively for organized murders, tortures, and expulsions of Orthodox Christians and Muslims in the Mostar area and for inhumanity at Mostar area concentration camps under the control of the Catholic nationlist HDZ party. With the deaths of Gojko Susak and Mate Boban and the sentencing of Dario Kordic and Tihomic Blaskic, these two mid-level mass-murderers were among the highest officials held to account for the organized atrocities in Herzegovina.  Milomir Stakic, former mayor chairman of the Crisis Group in Prijedor was convicted of crimes against humanity, crimes against the laws and customs of war, and extermination. Stakic was sentenced to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence handed down in the ICTY trials. Stakic was a lead organizer of the killing and the concentration camps system, along with Milan (Mico) Kovacevic and Simo Drljaca. Kovacevic died awaiting trial in The Hague and Drljaca was killed resisting arrest by British SFOR forces. See prosecutor Nicholas Koumijan's meditation on cruelty and courage in Prijedor.  Ivica Rajic, long-time fugitive from the central Bosnian area near Busovaca was arrested in Croatia and sent to The Hague, 24 June 03. Rajic--considered a favorite of Markica Rebic, an advisor to former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman--was protected by officials in the Croatian government and by police in Split where he lived for impunity for years after his indictment. Rajic was indicted by the International Tribunal for particularly depraved crimes against humanity, but received protection from SFOR troops who were obliged by the Dayton accords to arrest him. (French SFOR had also protected those indicted for organized rape in Foca). New: Andras Riedlmayer's Testimony against Slobodan Milosevic at the ICTY genocide trial in The Hague. ______________________________________________________________________ Andras Riedlmayer, Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992-1996: A Post-war Survey of Selected Municipalities. (Expert report prepared for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, submitted February 2003). ______________________________________________________________________ "Expert Testifies to Systematic Destruction of Cultural Monuments" International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Milosevic Trial - The Hague - Court Room One - Day 213, 8 July 2003 (report by Judith Armatta) Online video of Andras Riedlmayer's 8 July 2003 testimony at the Milosevic trial, Transcript For video of all Milosevic trial testimony, see the Bard Archive ______________________________________________________________________ The release of the above expert report by the ICTY resulted in what may be the first article in the Serbian press with a straightforward report on the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage in Bosnia in 1992-1996, including the August 1992 burning of Bosnia's National Library: Davor Pasalic, "U Sarajevu najvecce namerno spaljivanje knjiga u modernoj istoriji: Unissteno 1,5 miliona knjiga" (In Sarajevo the largest deliberate book-burning in modern history: 1.5 million books annihilated), Glas javnosti (Belgrade), 26 March 2003 Nested levels of Milosevic's atrocity machine collapse. Suspected war-criminals Jovica Stanisic, chief of Serbia's state security secret police force and Franko Simatovic (Frenki), commander of the Red Berets, were arrested following the assassination of Serb President Zoran Djindjic on March 12, 2003. They are now subject to hearings in Serbia on their deportation to the Hague. Autumn2002 Feature 1: Images of Revival: The Ghazi Husrev-beg Mosque(Begova Dzamija)The Begova in I985, 1998, 2002, with a 5 pagephoto essay on reconstruction-in-progress in July 2002.Autumn2002 Feature 2: Commemoration of the National Library, Destroyed 25August 1992 The Vijecnica destroyed in the largest bookburning in modern history:memorials, photos, documentation.Other Sections of this Page: 1) UN on the UN Betrayal of Srebrenica / Implications for NATO in Kosovo 2) A. Herscher and A. Riedlmayer, Destruction of Kosovo's Cultural Heritage 3) 7 Misconceptions about Atrocities in Kosovo and NATO's Response 4) Short Summary of the Bridge Betrayed 5) Selected Reports on Organized Atrocities in Kosovo 6) 8 Detailed Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia 7) Information on Andras Riedlmayer, Killing Memory 8) Boltzmann Institute Report on War-Crimes in Zvornik 9) Final Report and Annexes of the Commission of Experts 10) Reports of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Special Rapporteur 11) Helsinki Watch Reports on Bosnia-Herzegovina 12) Centers of "Ethnic Cleansing" and Organized Cultural Annihilation in BiH 13) Indictments/International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 14) IFOR-Protect War-Criminals and Location of War-Criminals 15) Genocide and Complicity at Srebrenica and Zepa/Documentation 16) Letter of Jeff Spurr to the Economist, on misrepresentations of Bosnia 17) History, Culture, and Destruction of Foca 18) Culture and Literature of Bosnia under the Ottomans 19) The Rabbi of Stolac by Stephen Schwart and Complete War-Crimes Report 20) Links to Sites of Bosnia, Kosovo, and Human Rights 21) How to Help/Humanitarian and Reconstruction Projects in the Balkans 22) Articles by Michael Sells on U.S. Right Wing and pro-Milosevic Policies 23) The Serbian Orthodox Church's Attack on the The Hague 24) Michael Sells on Serbian Orthodox Church Claims that NATO Targeted Serbian Monasteries 25) The SANU Memorandum 1) Michael Sells, "The UN Self-Indictment for the Betrayal of Srebrenica to Genocide and Implications for Kosovo  Captives from Srebrenica being held by Serb soldiers in the view of UN protection force soldiers. Almost all of them were murdered a few hours later. The vast majority of male captives between 15 and 60 years of age, shown in photos or video, have either never been seen again or have been indicated only by forensic identification of remains from mass graves. Critics of the NATO Kosovo campaign have stated that the UN shouldhave been in charge of the situation in Kosovo. These claims ignorethe tragic UN role in the Balkans. The UN's own self-condemnation ofNovember 1999, the key elements of which have been carved into theconscience of the world, refutes such a contention. Click on the linkbelow for a discussion of the UN report and for a link to the fullSrebrenica report. Posted December 15, 1999. For furtherdocumentation, photos, and essays on Srebrenica see the Srebrenicalink toward the bottom of this reports page. The confessions andstatements of Momir Nikolic and Dragan Obrenovic (see above) haveoffered yet further detailed corroboration of the exterminationprogram and the effort to rebury and/or destroy the corpses. How longwill the deniers continue to deny what the perpetrators are nowadmitting and describing in detail? 2)Riedlmayer and Herscher: Destruction ofKosovo's Cultural Heritage  Left : Close-up of the Hadum Mosque in Gjakova (Djakovica), built in 1594. The surrounding old bazzar historic district was burned and the mosque suffered extensive damage after being set on fire by Serbian police and paramilitaries at the end of March 1999. The photo shows the fire-scarred base of the minaret, the destroyed wooden portico, and (on the right) the burned-out manuscript library of Hadum Suleiman Efendi. (The top of the minaret wa shot off by Serb soldiers using a shoulder-launched missle on May 8, 1999). Photo taken October 1999 by Andras Riedlmayer for the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Survey (Harvard University). These images are among those featured in Burned Books and Blasted Shrines: Cultural Heritage Under Fire in Kosovo Exhibition, April 15, 2000 through August 15, 2000, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. The exhibit featured photographs and other materials documenting the systematic destruction of cultural heritage during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. The photographs, by Andras Riedlmayer, Aga Khan Program bibliographer at Harvard's Fine Arts Library, and Andrew Herscher, a practicing architect and Ph.D. candidate at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, were taken as part of a post-war survey of the state of cultural heritage in Kosovo in October 1999. The survey was supported by a grant from the Packard Humanities Institute. See the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Survey, sample images Kosovo: The Destruction of Cultural and Religious Heritage, introduction by Andras Riedlmayer, 20 September 2000.In October 1999, the architect Andrew Herscher and I traveled tothe Balkans to conduct a post-war survey of damage to Kosovo'scultural and religious heritage---historical architecture, houses ofworship, museums, libraries and archives. Our survey was funded bythe Packard Humanities Institute and sponsored by Harvard's Centerfor Middle Eastern Studies.Below is our latest report, summing up ourfindings on architecture. An edited version of the report appears inthe July-August 2000 issue of US/ICOMOS Newsletterand in theOctober-December 2000 issue of Bosnia Report (London), whichalso published our two previous survey reports:"Librariesand Archives in Kosovo: A Postwar Report""Museumsin Kosovo: A First Postwar Assessment"We found that architecture, manuscript collections, and archivesof the period of Ottoman rule in Kosovo (mid-1400s to 1912) had beensingled out for destruction during the 'ethnic cleansing' campaignsof 1998-99. Among the most serious losses of manuscript materials wasthe burning of the Central Archive of the Islamic Community of Kosovo(KBI), which included the records of the religious endowments(evkaf), of the Islamic law courts, and of other Islamic religiousand educational institutions in Kosovo going back to the 17thcentury. The archive was set ablaze by Serbian policemen on June 13,1999, and was completely destroyed. Several regional archives of theKBI, and manuscript libraries in Peja (ipek, Pec), Gjakova (Yakova,Djakovica) and other towns in Kosovo, were also burned. An estimatedhalf of the holdings of Kosovo's public and academiclibraries---nearly a million books---were also destroyed.Major architectural losses include 219 mosques (1/3 of all mosquesin Kosovo), three of Kosovo's four well-preserved historic urbancenters, as well as hundreds of other monuments. There was widespreadand systematic destruction during the war of traditional residentialarchitecture in Kosovo's towns and villages, especially the mansions(konak, kulla) of the old Albanian families.Although Kosovo's famous medieval Orthodox churches andmonasteries remain intact and are well-guarded by UN peacekeepingforces (KFOR), following the end of the war in June 1999 scores ofless well-known Serb churches in rural areas were damaged ordestroyed in revenge attacks by returning Albanian villagers.Subsequent to our survey, the International Federation of LibraryAssociations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Council onArchives (ICA) sent their own expert missions to Kosovo whichconfirmed and expanded on our findings. Their reports are availableon the web:"Librariesin Kosova/Kosovo" by Carsten Frederiksen and Frode Bakken"GeneralAssessment of the Situation of Archives in Kosovo" by Bruce Jacksonand Wladyslav StepniakSample images from our survey of damage to architectural heritagein Kosovo can be retrieved here.A satellite photo taken at the end of March 1999, showing thehistoric urban center of Gjakova being set ablaze by Serb police, canbe seen here.Andras J. Riedlmayer, Fine Arts Library, Harvard UniversityAlso posted by Andras Riedlmayer on JUSTWATCH: Rexhep Boja Condemns Reprisal Attacks against Serbs in KosovoUpdates: Fr Sava Janjic and Qemal Morina, Constructive Religious Leaders Discuss the Causes of Violence in Kosovo, RFE/RL 7 Oct 04; Natasa Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, Acknowledged and Unacknowledged Albanian Graves, 11 November 2004;=======================================================================An earlier version of this article appeared in US/ICOMOSNewsletter 4 (July-August 2000)Architectural Heritagein Kosovo: A Post-War ReportBy Andrew Herscher and Andras Riedlmayer THE AUTHORS:Andrew Herscher is an architect, PhD candidate inarchitectural history and theory at Harvard University, andco-director of the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Project. Andras J.Riedlmayer directs the Aga Khan Program's Documentation Centerfor Islamic Art and Architecture at Harvard's Fine Arts Library andis co-director of the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Project. 3) Seven Fallacies Concerning the 1999 NATO Invervention in Kosovo  4) Short Summary of The Bridge Betrayed Followed by Full War-Crimes Documentation: Michael Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, new printing with a preface on Kosovo, 1998). The Bridge Betrayed portrays from a human perspective assault on Bosnia and the resistance by Bosnians. It shows how the genocide was motivated and justified through the manipulation of the mythology of Kosovo which culminated at the 600th anniversary passion play of Kosovo, the remembrance of the death of Prince Lazar--portrayed as a Christ-figure, fighting the Turks at the battle of Kosovo in 1389, the "Serbian Golgotha." Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian religious nationalists, including the leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church, worked to militarize the Kosovo story. Through exploiting the powerful symbols of Kosovo, Milosevic came to power, overthrew the governments of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Vojvodina, broke apart Yugoslavia, and carried out genocide in Bosnia, and then Kosovo.The Bridge Betrayed also demonstrates the activities ofCroat religious nationalists in destroying non-Catholic culture andcommunities throughout Herzegovina and especially in the MostarRegion, culminating in the deliberate destruction of the ancientbridge that symbolized the bridge of cultures, religions, and peoplesin Bosnia throughout the centuries.At the Kosovo commemoration of 1989, Serbian religiousnationalists combined four symbols into a lethal mythology: (1) amilitarized portrayal of the sacred time of 1389, (2) the sacredspace of Kosovo or the "Serb Jerusalem," (3) the historical memory ofWW2 atrocities against Serbs, and (4) false accusations thatAlbanians were carrying out WW2 style genocide against Serbs. Throughmedia control they generated a mass psychology of fear and hate. Themilitarized mythology of Kosovo was instrumentalized bythe militias, religious leaders, and secret police of Serbiathroughout the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Kosovo story hadbecome ideology of Christoslavism, the view that Slavsare Christian by essence and that conversion from Christianityentails a race transformation and a race betrayal. Most ominously,the militarized mythology maintains that those who converted to Islambecame "Turks" and are responsible, along with their descendants, forthe killing of Prince Lazar, the Christ-prince of the "SerbianGolgotha" of 1389.To understand the genocidal intentions of militant Serbnationalists we must understand Kosovo. But the cliché thatthe conflict is "age old and inevitable" is false; and indeed, itreflects the distorted history of the "ethnic cleansers" rather thanhistorical reality. The abuse of the Kosovo legend to motivategenocide has been carried out by Serbian religious, intellectual andpolitical leaders, and there was nothing inevitableabout such manipulation. Serbia will retrieve its greatness whenit finds a vision of Serbian heritage, including the Kosovo story,focused upon building community rather than destruction. Newleaders such as Father Sava Janjic, quoted at the beginning of thenew edition of The Bridge Betrayed, offer a more inclusive andhumane vision of Serbian religious heritage.5) Selected War Crimesand Human Rights Reportson Organized, Mass Atrocities in Kosovo    Peja (Serbian: Pec). Mosque of Sultan Muhammed the Conqueror (Xhamia e Carshise, Bajrakli Xhamia). Built 1471, it is one of the oldest mosques in Kosovo. On June 11, 1999, just two days before the arrival of the first NATO peacekeeping troops, eyewitnesses saw Serbian policemen set the interior ablaze using canisters of gasoline. The mosque's prayer carpets, the women's balcony and other interior woodwork, and scores of Qur'an manuscripts were consumed by the flames. The carved surface of the 15th-century marble minbar (pulpit) was partly calcinated (turned into powdery burned lime) by the heat. Since the end of the war, the Italian humanitarian aid organization Intersos (http://www.intersos.org ) has undertaken to restore this historic mosque. For details, see the home page of the Dept. of Culture of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo.Selected Reports, from March-April, 1999 Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 14 / Mass Killings Around Velika Krusa, Kosovo Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 15 / Mass Deportations viewed from Kukes, Albania Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 16 / Organized, Mass Atrocities by Serbian Police at Dakovica Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 17 / The Emptying of Prishtina and Organized Atrocities Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 27 / Massacre of More Than 60 Villagers in Bela Crvka Human Rights Watch Kosovo Report 28 / Killings and Atrocities in Southern Kosovo Open Society Institute Report 59 / Mass-Killings and Organized and Atrocities Open Society Institute Report 60 / Mass-Killings and Organized Crimes Against Humanity in Bosnia International Crisis Group Reports on Bosnia and Kosovo 6) Reports on War Crimes in the Former YugoslaviaPursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 771  Left: Milan "Mico" Kovacevic and Simo Drljaca Indicted for genocide in the Prijedor area of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Reports Numbered and Indexed by Michael Sells and Aida Premilovac Index 1st report 2nd report 3rd report, part I 3rd report II 4th report I 4th report II 5th report 6th report I 6th report II 7th report I 7th report II 7th report III 8th report I 8th report II 8th report III 7) Summary of AndrasRiedlmayer's Killing Memory  Bosnia's National Library in Sarajevo, shelled and burned by Serb military forces on August 25-26, 1992 in the largest book burning in history. Andras Riedlmayer: Killing Memory: Bosnia's Cultural Heritage and Its Destruction (Philadelphia: Community of Bosnia, 1994), vhs, 55 minutes. "Ethnic Cleansing" genocide involves the systematic annihilation of sacral monuments, libraries, museums, and all other traces that the targeted people ever existed. In this gripping and lucid presentation of Bosnia's history, heritage, and the systematic attack on it by religious nationalist militias, Andras Riedlmayer presents traces the deliberate burning of the Sarajevo National Library on August 22, 1992 by the Serb army (the largest book burning in modern history), the burning of the Oriental Institute on May 17, 1992 in which the largest collection of Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Aljamiado manuscripts in Southeast Europe went up in flames; the attack on the National Museum of Sarajevo; the dynamiting of the great mosques and churches of Bosnia, including the sixteenth century Ferhad Pasha mosque in Banja Luka and the Aladza (Colored) Mosque in Foca, masterworks of Balkan architecture; the destruction of entire ancient towns such as Pocitelj, Stolac, and Zitomoslici, the annihilation of the Mostar bridge and attempt to destroy all of Serbian and Islamic heritage in Mostar by Croat religious nationalists, and the campaign to rewrite history by claiming that there "never were any mosques" in Zvornik and Foca, after Serb religious nationalists destroyed dozens of mosques. Presented with a clear narrative and a brilliant summary of Bosnian history, with slides of the monuments before and after their destruction, this work is a key resource in the understanding of cultural genocide. It is also a compelling introduction to Bosnia for those who do not know its history and wish to understand the current situation, valuable for small groups, large groups, public education, and classroom use. For information on ordering this internationally praised video click above. 8) TRETTER/ MUELLER/ SCHWANKE/ ANGELI/ RICHTER, "Ethnic Cleansing Operations" in the northeast-Bosnian City of Zvornik from April through June 1992 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights Attached is a case-study on "Ethnic Cleansing" operations in the northeast-Bosnian city of Zvornik in 1992 established by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) within the framework of a project on War Crimes and Human Rights Violations in BiH. In 1994 Cherif Bassiouni, head of the the Commission of experts established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992), had encouraged BIM to prepare a report on the systematic of the "Ethnic Cleansing" operations in Zvornik. In the Final Report of the Commission (UN Doc. S/1994/674) the report of BIM was cited as an exemplary study on "Ethnic Cleansing" and published as an annex (UN Doc. S/1994/674/add.2 (vol.I) December 1994). In July 1994 BIM published an extended and revised version of the report for the Commission of Experts in German language The attached report (Tretter/ Müller/ Schwanke/ Angeli/ Richter, "Ethnic Cleansing Operations" in the north-east Bosnian City of Zvornik form April through June 1992, 1994) is the English edition of the revised version. Boltzmann Institute Report, Part 1 Boltzmann Institute Report, Part 2: Detailed Report Boltzmann Institute Report, ANNEX New 2003: Hundreds of Bodies Found in Mass Grave at Glumina, near Zvornik, the 294th mass grave discovered in BiH 9) Final Report and Annexes of the Commission of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 780 (1992) The Report and Annexes can be found at this University of the West of England (UWE) site The Report and Annexes can also be found at this Bosnet site (Note, the CIJ version of the Reports once posted by J.L. Maillot is not longer on line) 10) Reports of Tadeusz Mazowiecki Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, pursuant to paragraph 32 of Commission resolution 1993/7 of 23 February 1993, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Commision in September 1992.  General Ratko Mladic, Indicted for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, Still At Large 11) Summaries of Helsinki Watch Reports on Bosnia-Herzegovnia and Information on How to Obtain These Reports.  Zeljko Radznatovic (Arkan), indicted by the ICTY for crimes against humanity in Croatia and BiH, assassinated in Belgrade 19 January 2000 12) Systematic Cultural Annihilation, Resistance, and Renewal in the Centers of Bosnian Civilization: an Illustrated History Pocitelj Gabela (Capljina) Mostar Srebrenica Maglaj Zitomislici Gacko and Ljubinje Trebinje Zvornik Banja Luka Stolac Foca and Vlasenica Visegrad Prijedor Doboj 13) SELECTED INDICTEMENTSof the International Criminal Tribunal on the FormerYugoslavia (ICTY),established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 827, 25 May,1993 Complete Indictments, Press Releases, and Decisions can be foundat the ICTY Web site, along with some transcripts of the trials andother critical information. Go to the ICTYwebsite and click on the box that says "Tribunal Cases". Thiswill take you to a listing of of all ICTY proceedings. I havedownloaded some major documents below: Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic Srebrenica genocide Radislav Krstic indictment and conviction Genocide and crimes against humanity near Srebrenica M. Naletitic (Tuta), V. Martinovic (Stela) Mostar Municipality Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic Genocide throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina Dusan (Dule) Tadic Kozarac, Prijedor-Area Concentration Camps Goran Jelisic and Ranko Cesic The Brcko-Luka Concentration Camp Kupresic, Kordic and Others Vitez and the Lasva Valley Miljkovic, Simic, Todorovic, et. al. Bosanski Samac Dragan Nikolic Susica Concentration Camp, Vlasenica, 1994 Indictment D Nikolic Amended (strong stomach needed) Torture, Organization of Rapes, Regular Murders by Beatings to Death, June 2003 Indict D Nikolic Sentencing Judgment 23 Years for Supervising an RS Factory of Brutality, Rape, and Murder, December 2003 Dusan Sikirica, Dosen, Fustar, et. al. Keraterm Concentration Camp, Prijedor Zeljko Meakic, Kvocka, Prcac,.et. al. Omarska Concentration Camp, Prijedor M 'Mico' Kovacevic, S Drljaca, M Stakic Prijedor Municipality, Omarska, and Keraterm Ivica Rajic Stupni Do Zoran Marinic of the HVO Busovaca ICTY Press Release: Marinic, Kupreskic Busovac, Vitez and the Lasva Valley Milorad Krnoljac: Sentence Doubled Foca, Kazneno-Popravni Dom - nicknamed KP Dom Dragan Gagovic and Others Foca From the Coalition for International Justice (CIJ), Eye Witness Survivor Testifies About Executions in Bosnia International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), Milosevic Trial - The Hague - Court Room One, Day 193, 29 May 2003. This article offers a vivid sense of one person's experience in the genocide machine in Bosnia-Herzegovina. One person who survived the exterminations at Dom Kultura, known simply as Witness B-55 at the Milosevic genocide trial. Here is how the article begins: "THE HAGUE - Witness B-1455 was one of the 91 men and 150 women and children taken by Serb forces from his village to the Dom Kultura in Drinjaca, Bosnia-Herzegovina on May 30, 1992. He was one of three men to survive. His father and three brothers were murdered after a day of beatings, during a night of executions. Though shot twice, he managed to escape. As a result of his wounds, B-1455 is permanently disabled, unable to find more than menial work for low pay. With psychological treatment, the nightmares he experienced for many years have subsided. He told the Court he was lucky to be alive, to have his mother, wife and children with him." Click hypertext for full article.  Zoran Vukovic, Convicted in the Foca Organized Rape Trial. First International Indictment for Organized Rape as a War-Crime and Crime against Humanity.  Indicted War Criminal Radovan Karadzic, architect of "Ethnic Cleansing." At Large in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Zeljko Meakic, former commander of the Omarksa camp, the site of daily, organized killings, torture, and rape. From May to early August 1992. An estimate 5,000 people were killed at Omarska. 15) IFOR REFUSAL TO ARREST, FRENCH IFOR COMPLICITY WITH RAPE-CAMP ORGANZIERS See also the articles documenting NATO's early refusal to arrest the indicted organizers of the Foca rape camps, including two particularly blatant examples in which NATO troops were caught with the rape-camp organizers, despite persistent denials by NATO commanders that NATO troops have encountered criminals indicted at The Hague. According to the Dayton Peace agreement, NATO troops are required to arrest and extradict to The Hague any indicted criminals they encounter. These articles appear under the title "NATO fraternization with indicted rape-camp organizers: Radovan Stankovic and Gojko Jankovic." Since that time, French NATO forces had repeatedly been exposed refusing to arrest the Foca indictees for organized rape. The suspects have run businesses, control the town, and promenade in public. While these indictees for organized rape were free to walk the streets of Foca, Gordana Igric, a courageous Serb journalist who interviewed one of the indictees and exposed the French military nearby doing nothing, was forced into hiding because of death threats. This link includes Jordan Paust's brief legal definitions regarding complicity, dereliction of duty, and violation of legal obligations, as well as reports describing the NATO's lack of action in regards to arresting and extraditing the indicted war criminals. 15) GENOCIDE ATSREBRENICA In mid-July, 1995, the UN proclaimed "safe havens" Srebrenica and Zepa were handed over by UN commanders to the Serb nationalist army, after being besieged, shelled and starved for almost three years. After the fall of Srebenica and Zepa, approximately eight thousand men and boys disappeared, and are feared dead. The surviving Muslim population was expelled to Bosnian goverment-held territories, with atrocities and maltreatment throughout the expulsion process. For an archive of reports on Srebrenica, see the Community of Bosnia Foundation Srebrenica page. Another Secondary Mass Grave from Srebrenica Discovered PHOTO: Bosnian Muslim Sabaheta Fejzic looks on while a Bosnian forensic expert Murat Hurtic inspects clothes in an attempt to identify remains of her husband Saban and son Rijad, missing since July 1995, at a mass grave site in the village of Bljeceva, near the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac, 50 kms north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. Forensics experts believe this mass grave contains over 200 body remains and it is considered to be a secondary mass grave. Most of the remains are believed to be those of Muslims from Srebrenica killed in July 1995 during the fall of Srebrenica. A so-called secondary grave is where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) PHOTO: Bosnian Muslim Kada Hotic looks at body remains in an attempt to identify her brother missing since July 1995 at a mass grave site in the village of Bljeceva, near the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac, 50 kms north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. Forensics experts believe this mass grave contains over 200 body remains and it is considered to be a secondary mass grave. Most of the remains are believed to be those of Muslims from Srebrenica killed in July 1995 during the fall of Srebrenica. A so-called secondary grave is where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)  Marko Boskic: Alleged Srebrenica mass killer found in Boston. Identified in part because of the reporting of the late Elizabeth Neuffner who was killed later in Iraq. See the Boskic articles.  Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic, Senior Bosnian Serb commander after General Ratko Mladic, convicted of genocide at Srebrenica and sentenced to 46 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.  Among the unarmed captives from Srebrenica, most of whom were never seen alive again.. Radislav Krstic indictment Radislav Krstic conviction New as of September 2003. Srebrenica: apparatus of denial collapsing. 1) Momir Nikolic, pleads guilty. 2) 20 May 2003: Dragan Obrenovic pleads guilty, details exterminations. Excerpt: "He {Ostoja Stanisic} was angry as the last group of prisoners were not taken to the dam to be executed, but were executed right there at the school and that his men (the 6th Battalion Rear Services) had to clean up the mess at the school, including the removal of the bodies to the dam." See also the IWPR report on the Obrenovic plea. New: 29 September 2003, M. Nikolic admits false testimony on his responsibility for Kravica massacre (IWPR Tribunal Update). 16) Letter of Jeff Spurr to The Economist refuting the anti-Islamic stereotypes and distortions of Brooke Ungar's article on Bosnia, "A Ghost of a Chance" 1/24/98, stereotypes disturbingly similar to those used by the government of John Major to justify its abandonment of Bosnia-Herzegovina to "ethnic cleansing" and aggression. 17) Foca For an illustrated history of Foca's culture and its destruction, follow this link. Left: Exterior Aladza mosque, constructed in 1551, Dynamited in 1993.  Early in the spring and summer of 1992, Serb religious nationalists captured the predominantely Muslim town of Foca on the banks of the Drina river in the eastern Bosnia. Only few days after entering the town, the religious nationalists started a systematic campaign of annihilating every trace of Bosnian Muslim civilization. The famous Aladza (Colored) mosque, built in 1551, was dynamited, and on its place, today, there is a bus parking lot. The state-run prison and the Partizan Sports Hall, and other sites were transformed into rape centers where Muslim women and girls were held and rape for days, sometimes weeks. In a historic trial, three Serb militia leaders were prosecuted for particularly depraved and systematic rape and sexual abuse crimes and were convicted at The Hague for rape as a war-crime, establishing a precedent for the prosecution of organized rape in international courts. 18) On the Literary Culture of Bosnia-Herzegovina One aspect of the ideology of "ethnic cleansing" is the claim that groups such as Bosnjaks had no culture, a claim made insistently by nationalists such as Ivo Andric, who asserted the point in his doctoral dissertation (see the discussion of Andric in The Bridge Betrayed). For an antidote for such stereotypes, see the the fine work by by Edin Hajdarpasic: Herceg-Bosnia and Eastern Scholarship, Translated by Edin Hajdarpasic from the appendix of Kratka Uputa u Proslost Bosne I Hercegovine (A Short Instruction in the Past of Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1463-1850); Sarajevo: Vlastita Naklada, 1900, Safvet beg Basagic Redzepasic. 19) Community and Its Destruction in Stolac For a moving and illuminating essay on the history, significance, and deliberature destruction of the culture of Stolac, Herzegovina by the Croat Defense Council, see Stephen Schwartz, The Rabbi of Stolac. Updated (May 2003) The Stolac Page Updated: History, Culture, Art, War-Crimes, Reconstruction, with human rights reports, documentation on Bishop Ratko Peric and Don Rajko Markovic's opposition to reconstruction, the superimposition of triumphalist "blood shrines" on the ruins of destroyed non-Catholic sites of worship, and the rebuilding of the Careva dzamija (Emperor's Mosque), also known as the Carsijska dzamija, built in 1519 and dynamited by the HVO in 1993. New sets of images trace the rebuilding of the Careva dzamija and a new report is up on the Podgradska damija, also known as the Dzamija hadze Saliha Bure (Ali-pasina), built in 1732, destroyed in 1993. 20) Links to: The Ghostbuster--Razbijaci Duhova--Briseurs de Spectres Project on the Construction of Public Memory in Bosnia-Herzegovina " Despite the important changes in government in Croatia and Yugoslavia, the views of history dominant in various parts of BiH continue to differ radically, originating, as they usually do, in Zagreb, Belgrade, or Sarajevo. Rather than attempt to achieve a shared history, the Ghostbusters attempt to apply, in the most professional and critical way, relatively new methods and new questions to evidence about how these separate histories have been told, narrated, symbolically communicated, represented, and shaped in the years since 1992." Balkan Witness, with documentation and excellent links to other Balkan human rights and war-crimes documentation sites. Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) The above page features the past issues of Tribunal Update, written by Mirko Klarin, the authoritative and ongoing account of all the trials of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, along with issues of War Report, one of the finest journals on human rights issues in the Balkans and other regions. Office of the High Representative (OHR) Human Rights Reports on Bosnia These OHCC reports include details of efforts at refugee resettlement and abuses of returning refugees in each area of Bosnia, along with any OSCE measures to counteract the terror. Human Rights Review An important new journal for the exploration of major issues such as genocide and civil war, with links to human rights sites around the world and examples of the latest scholarship. BiH Commission to Preserve National Monuments Zeljko Peratovic, Investigate Reporting, War and Organized Crimes in Southeastern Europe International Crisis Group (ICG) The Coalition for International Justice (CIJ) European Stability Initiative on Bosnia International Criminal Tribunal on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) International Crisis Group "Crisisweb" Page This Week in Bosnia-Herzegovina The BosNet "Milosevic War Crimes" Page The TRP Indict Milosevic Appeal Mario Profaca War Crimes Reports Page Women For Women in Bosnia (formed in response to systematic rape as a tool of "ethnic cleansing"). Greek Helsinki Watch/Bosnia-Herzegovina (with links to 8 major sites for human-rights reports on BiH). International Court Page International Court page: Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia Genocide Case The Tile Project, Destination: The World (with three Bosnian artists among those exhibiting, Alma Suljevic, Marko Pasalic and Cazim Hadzimejlic) Stephen Schwartz on the Sefardim of Sarajevo and What Sefardic Studies Could Offer 21) How to Help How To Help Kosovar and Bosnian Refugees and Sources of Information on the Kosovo Situation FOB director Glenn Ruga's Visit to Refugee Camps in Macedonia and Albania ZaMir Peace Network in the War Zone / People Search / Data Base for Kosovar Albanians Women For Women Sponsorship Program for Refugees From Kosovo 22) Articles by Michael Sells on U.S. Right Wing Support for Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans Michael Sells, The GOP Right, The Belgrade Lobby, and NeoConfederacy Groups: Multiple Connections. Michael Sells, 'Mutt America', The Religio-Racist Right and the Balkan Genocide. 23) The Serbian Orthodox Church Attack on the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. At a time when the tribunal on war-crimes in the former Yugoslavia was engaged in major prosecutions against Croats, Muslims, and Serbs--a time when most of the activity was in prosecuting Croat war-crimes--the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle issues a statement accusing the tribunal of foscusing almost exclusively on crimes by Serbs (a blatant falsehood). He then also authorized the relocation of a Serb monastery to the city of Foca, where Serb units haddestroyed the Muslim community, set up rape-camps (see Foca above) and destroyed all mosques and Islamic monuments. To celebrate the extermination of Muslim presence in Foca, the Serb extremists renamed the town Srebinja (Serb-place). Patriarch Pavle in this document refers to the city not as Foca, but as Srbinje. Full Document at Serbian Orthodox Church Web Site. 24) Michael Sells "How Serbian Orthodox Church Leaders Used Monasteries to Entice Ethnic Hatred" From 1998 to the present, the Serbian Orthodox Church has claimed that NATO deliberately bombed Serbian Orthodox Monasteries and other sacred monuments. These accusations can still be found Serbian Orthodox Church WEB sites and in other forums. After thorough investigation, it turned out that these accusations were complete fabrications. For an op-ed piece refuting the accusations of the Serbian Orthodox Church, see the Kosovo Current Crisis Web page, Michael Sells, How Serbian Orthodox Church Leaders Used Monasteries to Entice Ethnic Hatred. The same article also appears on the web-page of the Kosova Crisis Center. In claiming that NATO was engaged in systematic annihilation of Serbian religious heritage in Kosovo, the Serbian Orthodox Church used the same fabrications it used in 1986 when it claimed that Kosovar Albanians were annihilating Serbian Monasteries, engaged in organized rape against Serbian women, and carrying out genocide against Serb. These accusations were shown Serbian journalists to be fabrications, but they were nevertheless taken up by Serbian intellectuals in the famous SANU Memorandum that is considered to have been the death knell of the former Yugoslavia. See also, Michael Sells, Protecting Kosovo's Treasures, reprinted in the Journal of Aerospace and Defense Industry News, July 19, 1999. 25 SANU The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU), instrumental in the breakup of Yugoslavia and in inciting ethnoreligious hatreds. Zarqawi Terrorism Documents Settler Violence Susya Southern Mount Hebron Site Monitoring Israeli Colonization, Poica.Org U.S. Activist Defends Internship of Japanese in World War II as a Positive Policy Model for Treatment of Muslims? International Terrorist Entities Juan Cole's Page Project for Research on Islamist Movements Hamas Charter Palestine-Info on Hamas, Arabic Charles Taylor, Al-Qaeda, and Blood Diamonds Al-Azhar Apostasy Fatwa against Bahais now being used against Abu Mazen Minbar at-Tawhid wa l-Jihad, with library of Ibn `abd al-Wahhab Sawt al-Jihad Saudi Salafi site Al-Qaeda Library Site Radical Saudi Education Report Genocide Research Links U.S. Business Group to Fete Narendra Modi, Overseer of the Gujarat Genocide More on U.S. Group's Celebration of alleged genocidaire Narendra Modi 26 Svetlana Broz's Good People in an Evil Time Dr. Broz, who lived in the former Yugoslavia during the time of the Bosnia war, has identified and preserved many acts of kindness and courage in which individuals risked their lives to help members of another group. Serbs helped Croatians who helped Muslims - help given across lines in many wonderful combinations. In these inspiring stories, we can find hope, and the resultant strength to build a better world." Dr. James E. Muller Co-Founder, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, The organization awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Other Press, LLC; (January 2004) ISBN: 1590510615 Ivan Lovrenovic on Bishop Ratko Peric's refusal to attend the ceremonial re-opening of the Stari Most: "Thinking in his granite head how he is making God knows what kind of astute demonstration, the Catholic Bishop of Mostar has with this deed sown once again - but in what masterly fashion, with what baneful consistency - the full ferocity of his own religious and ethnic backwardness, his social and ethical obtuseness, his political narrow-mindedness, and a hardness of heart quite incompatible with love, first and last letter of the Christian alphabet...The destructive effect of Peric's elephantine tread in the political china shop of the Mostar festivities was reinforced by the absence of another B-H Catholic leader - Cardinal Puljic, who was likewise invited. He gave no explanation and - judging by his customary behaviour in such matters - nor will he. Although this scarcely serves to remedy the bad effect, the presence at the Mostar ceremony of the Papal nuncio, and of the Provincials of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Franciscans, Fra Slavko Soldo and Fra Mijo Dzolan, nevertheless deserves to be recorded." (From Bosnia Report 41, linked above). Buturovic Polje: Sixteenth Century Wooden Mosque A, B, CDisclaimer: the claims and opinions on this page and allother pages linked to Sells represent the opinions of Michael A.Sells only, and do not reflect the position of Haverford College.Back toMichael A. Sells Main PageBack toMichael Sells Community of Bosnia Page (note: this is theCommunity of Bosnia page that is and will continue to be maintainedby Michael Sells. The official page is under construction and will befound at the Official Community ofBosnia Home Page. Iraq-Iran Religion and Violence in Pakistan: Zia al-Haqq's Legacy of Rape Religion and Violence in in India' al-qaeda Balkan Religious Nationalism Sudan Genocide Page: Destroying the Zaghawa, Fur and Masalit Peoples of Darfur On the WebCounter you are visitor number  Last Page Update: 09 June 2005  |
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