Operation Storm - “Oluja” 1995 : Canadian Officers: Croat Atrocities Covered Up

13.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

August 06, 2007

 

In Memory of the Operation Storm Victims 2

 

 

No American has been indicted for Croat pogrom of Serbs, and they should be: Croat general Ante Gotovina (indicted for war crimes, 2nd from the left) with his US military adviser on the eve of Operation Storm.

Canadian Officers: Croat Atrocities Covered Up

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recently reported about Canadian officers being frustrated by inaction over a “1995 ethnic cleansing operation by Croatians against Serbs” — the Operation Storm. The reason why Croat atrocities are being covered up, the Canadian soldiers say, is that the Americans have helped Croats plan and execute the biggest ethnic cleansing operation of the entire Yugoslav conflict.

Four years ago, CBC Radio ran a special trying to bring the issue of Croat war crimes to the public attention:

“Canadian soldiers had been protecting Serbs in Krajina for three years when Operation Storm rolled in. Croatian troops ethnically cleansed the area of Serbs. After the 4 day ‘Operation Storm’, the army went through and systematically burned houses, shot civilians, and killed their farm animals. The Canadian troops tried to stop them, but their rifles were no match to aerial bombardment. Since then the Canadians have been trying to testify about war crimes […]”

Massacre in the Medak Pocket Region

It was Canada’s own war reporter and author, a former professional soldier Scott Taylor who first wrote about Canada’s peacekeepers in general and the men of the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in particular, who were engaged in a battle with Croats and faced with their and the savagery of their wartime commander, currently Kosovo Albanian provisional “prime minister” Agim Ceku, never indicted for any of the war crimes he committed.

On March 27, 2006, Taylor wrote again about the Medak Pocket slaughter in Croatia:

“[…] Over 200 Serbian inhabitants of the Medak Pocket were slaughtered in a grotesque manner (the bodies of female rape victims were found after being burned alive). Our traumatized troops who buried the grisly remains were encouraged to collect evidence and were assured that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

“Nevertheless in 1995, Ceku, by then trained by U.S. instructors as a general of artillery, was still at large. In fact, he was the officer responsible for shelling the Serbian refugee columns and for targeting the UN-declared “safe” city of Knin during the Croatian offensive known as Operation Storm. Some 500 innocent civilians perished in those merciless barrages, and senior Canadian officers who witnessed the slaughter demanded that Ceku be indicted. Once again, their pleas fell of deaf ears.”

Operation Storm: Croats Slaughtered Even the Animals That Belonged to Serbs

According to the CBC, Canadian officers documented numerous Croat atrocities during Operation Storm and find it entirely baffling that not one person of those who committed vicious war crimes has been arrested and brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

“Just amazing. You can see the holes in the back of the head,” said Capt. Gerry Carron, showing pictures he took to document the killings.

“We found people in wells,” he said. “There was an old lady we found head-first in a well. Why did they do that?”

Professor Chossudovsky wrote about the Canadian peacekeepers of the Second Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment who witnessed the atrocities committed by Croatian troops in the Krajina offensive during Operation Storm, citing a Canadian officer who testified:

“Any Serbs who had failed to evacuate their property were systematically cleansed by roving death squads. Every abandoned animal was slaughtered and any Serb household was ransacked and torched.”

General Jean Cot offered a similar, bloodcurdling account: “I have found no sign of human or animal life in the several villages we passed today. The destruction is total, systematic and deliberate.”

Protecting the Big Boss

But the word and testimony of the honorable Canadian officers is obviously considered a trifle in certain quarters, especially when compared to what needs to be kept hidden and protected — the Western and, particularly, American involvement in the Croat ethnic cleansing and repeated pogrom of Krajina Serbs.

Posted by Svetlana at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 05, 2007

In Memory of the Operation Storm Victims

A nation in exile: columns of Serbs forced to flee Croatia during Operation Storm, August 5, 1995.

Biggest Ethnic Cleansing of the Entire Yugoslav Conflict

“On Aug. 5, 1995 the army of the newly independent European state of Croatia attacked its own citizens, expelling its undefended Orthodox Christian population in what it called ‘Operation Storm’.

“These Orthodox Christian Serbs had earlier survived the slaughter of three quarters of a million Serbs, Jews and Roma (Gypsies) in the Holocaust conducted by Nazi-allied fascist Croatia in World War II. Only some Serbs, who were forcibly converted to Catholicism at gunpoint, were spared.

“Modern-day Croatia completed the crime it started in World War II. On Aug. 5, 1995, in front of CNN cameras and an inexplicably silent international community, Croatia completed the biggest ethnic cleansing of the entire Yugoslav conflict, expelling over half a million Orthodox in four years,” reads the announcement of the STOP Coalition’s protest against the “Operation Storm” on the anniversary of Croat mass ethnic cleansing of Serbs twelve years ago, held today in front of the Croatian embassy in Washington.

Memorial Services for Victims of Croat “Operation Storm”

Memorial services were held yesterday in Serbia and Republic of Srpska (Bosnia-Herzegovina) for victims of the Operation Storm in which over 2,500 Serbs were killed and more than 250,000 people of Serbian nationality banished.

The service in Belgrade’s Church of St. Mark was held by Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije and bishops Atanasije and Nikanor. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Minister of Religion Radomir Naumov, Minister of Infrastructure Velimir Ilic and Commissioner for Refuges Dragisa Dabetic were among those who attended the service………..

Byzantin Report

Croat Army and Government Ordered Carnage

Celebrating 10 year anniversary of their mass war crime “Storm” (“Oluja”), Croat Premier Sanader said: “Storm is the symbol of Croat decisiveness. Storm is the key event which secured Croatia’s future.” President Stipe Mesic, behind the speaker, also praised the crime.

Galbraith: Croat Army and Leadership Responsible for Atrocities

Nobody can deny atrocities were committed after the “Operation Storm” (“Oluja”) — ethnic cleansing of more than 300,000 Serbs in Croatia in 1995 — which included the crime of taking steps to prevent the return of Serbian refugees, said former American ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, stressing that not some paramilitary troops, but regular Croat army was responsible for the atrocities and that Croat leadership was behind the crimes.

As a guest of the Croatian TV show “Sunday at 2,” Galbraith said that during and after “Storm” Croat forces were pillaging, torching and killing, that it was clear Croat army had full control of the carnage and that everyone who wished to join the massacre could do so with the approval of Croat army and police.

American Embassy Staff Saw Croat Soldiers Torching Serbian Houses

Pointing out that staff members of the American embassy have seen with their own eyes Croat soldiers torching Serbian houses, Galbraith asserted the involvement of the Croat government was undeniable, although the level of the Croat leadership which ordered, encouraged and supported the carnage remains to be determined.

Former American ambassador did not wish to say if the entire “Operation Storm,” celebrated in Croatia as the liberation, represents a war crime of forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbian population from Krajina region, assessing that an answer to that question should be left to The Hague, which will adjudicate based on the existing evidence. This reluctance to pronounce judgments is a novelty on behalf of Mr. Galbraith, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the Croat military offensive on Krajina and Slavonija Serbs during his diplomatic appointment.

He confirmed that Clinton Administration was fully aware of the transfer of weapons from Iran through Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina mujahedeens during the civil war, violating the international embargo on weapon imports, but did not object.

Galbraith admitted that, when Croat president Franjo Tudjman asked him about the American stance on illegal weapon shipments, Galbraith told him the U.S. have “no instructions” on that issue.

Disturbing images of Croat atrocities are available on Serbianna.com Krajina section.

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9/11 MYSTERIES - DIE ZERSTÖRUNG DES WORLD TRADE CENTERS

13.9.2007 by admin.

9/11 MYSTERIES - DIE ZERSTÖRUNG DES WORLD TRADE CENTERS FESSELNDE DOKU ÜBER DIE HINTERGRÜNDE VON 9/11
	Der Film wirft einen kritischen Blick auf die offizielle Darstellung der Ereignisse vom 11. September 2001. Regisseurin Sophia Smallstorm belegt ihre Untersuchungen über die tatsächliche Ursache für den Einsturz der beiden Türme des World Trade Centers mit brisanten Fakten und Zeugenaussagen…

Hier geht’s zum Trailer

Fakt: Am Morgen des 11. September 2001 sind zwei Passagierflugzeuge in die Türme des World Trade Centers gerast und explodiert. Fassungslos hat die Welt die schockierenden Fernsehbilder von den in sich zusammenfallenden Türmen live miterlebt. Doch sind die 110-Stockwerke hohen Wolkenkratzer wirklich eingestürzt, weil die Flugzeuge einschlugen? War dies physikalisch und technisch überhaupt möglich?

“Nein! Die Twin Towers müssen gesprengt worden sein”, sagt Sophia Smallstorm, Autorin des Films “9/11 Mysteries - Die Zerstörung des World Trade Centers”. Minutiös untersucht die 48-jährige Schriftstellerin in ihrem 86 Minuten langen Film die TV-Bilder und Berichte von den Einschlägen und dem Zusammenbruch der Türme. Sie führte Interviews mit Überlebenden und ging Hinweisen auf eine kontrollierte Sprengung der Gebäude nach.

		Der kontroversielle Film der 48-jährigen Amerikanerin Smallstorm wurde in seiner US-Version bislang mehr als zweieinhalb Millionen Mal aus dem Internet downgeloadet oder als DVD bestellt. Die Schriftstellerin wurde mit ihrem Werk zu einer Art Celebrity der 9/11 Community und von ihren Gegnern aufgefordert, das Land zu verlassen. Aller Proteste zum Trotz lebt sie noch immer in Kalifornien.

REGIE

Sophia Smallstorm

	Hier finden Sie nähere Informationen und Hintergründe zu diesem Dokumentarfilm

	Kritische Stimmen zu “9/11 Mysteries”

(Sandra-Sabine Holzer)

http://tv.orf.at/program/orf1/20070906/420245001/239414/

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Belgrade mounts diplomatic offensive

13.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Belgrade mounts diplomatic offensive

13/09/2007

Serbia’s top leaders were in key European capitals this week to press their stance on the Kosovo issue.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade - 13/09/07

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (right) and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica hold a joint press conference Wednesday (September 12th) in Brussels. [Getty Images]

Serbia’s president and prime minister were on the road this week, pressing Serbia’s stance on Kosovo and other issues. While Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica travelled to Brussels to meet with EU officials, President Boris Tadic was in Portugal, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Kostunica, who held talks with European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, said he wants the EU to help prevent Kosovo from being separated from Serbia without a decision by the UN Security Council. The status issue must be resolved within the international legal framework, he said.

………………….

Setimes

U.S. State Department Destroying the Chances for Peace in the Balkans

Botsan-Kharchenko: U.S. State Department is Destroying Negotiating Process

Russian Representative to the Contact Group’s negotiating troika for Kosovo-Metohija province Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko has criticized the messages from the U.S. State Department that the United States of America will unilaterally recognize independence of Serbian province, characterizing them as devastating to the negotiating process.

“I absolutely do not support such a stand and such messages from the United States. I did not expect that from the United States of America at the moment when the talks are resuming,” Botsan-Kharchenko said in an interview published by Vecernje Novosti on Wednesday.

When asked whether he has an impression that USA is undermining the negotiating process, Botsan-Kharchenko said that independence of Kosovo and Metohija certainly is not a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina but only Pristina separatists’ wish, which Belgrade is clearly opposed to.

“That is why the U.S. announcement that it will recognize independence unilaterally is not the message that will support the negotiating process, but do exactly the opposite,” said Botsan-Kharchenko.

December 10 Not a Deadline for Negotiations

He also said that December 10 is not a deadline for the completion of the talks but only a deadline by which the “troika” has to prepare a report and submit it to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

When asked whether the negotiating process will continue after December 10, Botsan-Kharchenko said that there will be no need for new talks if Belgrade and Pristina reach a compromise by then, “but Russia is strongly opposed to any deadlines so, the talks have to continue after that date until a compromise solution is found,” he said.

Botsan-Kharchenko declined to say what would happen if the Albanian separatist minority proclaims independence of Serbia’s southern province after December 10, which the U.S. State Department said United States would then recognize.

“We should wait until December 10. Let us not influence the course of the negotiating process, as the United States of America is doing,” said Botsan-Kharchenko. “I believe in a compromise solution,” he added.

He specified that not a single letter from Ahtisaari plan will be included in the negotiating troika’s report to the UN Secretary-General, but it will include only details and results of the talks from Vienna to December 10.

He stressed that Russian Federation will not give up its stand that the last decision on the Kosovo process has to be made by the UN Security Council, observing Resolution 1244, and that everything else would be violation of international law, which Russia will not accept.

Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic (Austria)

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Die Griechischen Faschisten in Zypern sind eine Schande in der EU

13.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Zu den historischen Fakten! Die Invasion 1974 fand mit Zustimmung der Amerikaner statt, weil die Griechischen Faschisten mit Duldung und Unterstützung von Markarios dem Erz Bischof dort, Türkische Kinder in Schulen u.a. brutal ermordeten.

Man nahm die Kinder an den Füßen und wirbelte sie dann herum und dann mit dem Kopf gegen die Wand. Niemand stoppte damals den Anführer der Griechen, welcher die Untestützung der Junta in Athen hatte, welche kurz darauf nach der Invasion ebenso am Ende war. Und was die Griechen jetzt von sich geben, ist eine reine Geschichts Fälschung und bevor nicht alle beteiligten griechischen Verbrecher vor Gericht standen, ist die Sache auch nicht beendet.

Papadopoulos: Turkish military the “enemy” in Cyprus

13/09/2007

NICOSIA, Cyprus — President Tassos Papadopoulos said in a televised interview Tuesday night (September 11th) that efforts to find a just solution to the Cyprus issue within the UN framework would continue. He called for unity among the people of Cyprus and said it was the Turkish military, which invaded in 1974, that is to blame for the long-standing crisis. “There are no enemies among us,” Papadopoulos said. “The enemy is one: the Turkish occupation army. The opponents in the political arena and in elections are only political opponents with different positions and are not enemies.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Cypriot leader does not understand relations between the two countries. Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman said the presence of Turkish forces on the island is based on international agreements, under which Great Britain, Greece and Turkey are to guarantee the stability of Cyprus. “Describing the Turkish armed forces as an enemy does not contribute to peace,” Bilman said. (Turkish Weekly - 13/09/07; Sabah, CNA, Eleftherotypia, Financial Mirror - 12/09/07)

Geschrieben in Balkan (Englisch), Balkan | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Evidence of prehistoric animals unearthed in Macedonia

13.9.2007 by admin.

13/09/2007

Fossil remains of an ancient giraffe, antelopes, rhinoceroses, a saber-toothed tiger, mastodons and other large animals have been located near a village in eastern Macedonia.

By Zoran Nikolovski for Southeast European Times in Skopje — 13/09/07

The remains date back five to ten million years. [Tomislav Georgiev]

A prehistoric giraffe discovered in eastern Macedonia earlier this summer is the first to be found in Europe, according to paleontologists. The ancient animal was among several sets of fossil remains dating five to ten million years ago.

Located outside the village of Stamer, near Delcovo, the fossils bear witness that antelopes, prehistoric rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers, and mastodons once lived on Europe’s soil, as well as the giraffe. Such evidence could also be helpful in tracing the evolution of homo sapien, which is believed to have originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and migrated later to Europe and Asia.

“We found fossil remains in a few locations near Stamer, and more finds are expected,” said paleontologist Denis Geraads of the Man Evolution Laboratory, with the National Scientific Research Centre in Paris.

“In the first location, we found remains of a prehistoric giraffe, the first such finding in Europe. This is an important finding and we hope to find many more specimens in this location,” said Geraads……….

Setimes

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