Date: Sun Aug 12, 2001 4:51 pm
Subject: TorSun: Truth lies buried in Balkan hell holes
THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, August 12, 2001 Print Only
Truth lies buried in Balkan hell holes
By GARTH PRITCHARD
Special To The Sun
It was the classic case of the 100-foot stare in a 10-foot room.
The dialogue was flat, almost disembodied. But the young soldiers were
trying to speak to the camera. They had been asked what happened in
the Medac pocket in 1993 when Croat forces attacked the Krajina, then
held by Serbs.
The horrors they witnessed were close to unspeakable. The young
soldier looked at the camera lens, and beyond. He remembered what he
had seen:
"They
(the Croats) were using people from the villages to carry the
belongings they had stolen. We trailed them towards the mountains, and
as we got
close,
they started to kill people - a warning for us to stop the chase.
'We tried our best'
"We radioed what was happening and were told not to go any further.
I'm sorry, sir. We really didn't know whether or not we got the right
body
parts
in the right body bags. We tried our best, sir."
The horrors of the Medac pocket were obvious the day I arrived in the
battle
zone. Maybe it was the child's bicycle lying in the mud at the
crossroads -
run over by tanks. Or the gutted buildings. But for sure there'd been
horror
there. Everything was destroyed. Everything gone. All animals, even
chickens, had been slaughtered. And, of course, the smell.
A Balkan hell hole. Unreported. It would be two years before the
Canadian media picked up the story and explained that this was the
biggest battle Canadians had been involved in since the Korean War.
Canadians, under the United Nations, had put a stop to the slaughter
of Serbs by the Croats reputedly under the command of Croat Maj. Gen.
Rahim Ademi who on July 26, 2001, gave himself up to the Hague War
Crimes
Tribunal
to face charges of murder, plunder, wanton destruction and crimes
against humanity.
The general is quoted as saying that his conscience is clear. As a
film-maker following the Canadian involvement, I have covered the
Balkans extensively for years and have always tried to remain
impartial. But what happened in the Medac pocket is beyond most
atrocities that I've tried to record, including the killing fields in
Kosovo.
My conscience is not clear. I covered the Medac pocket and allowed the
National Film Board and other so-called Canadian national news
agencies to turn a blind eye to what happened there.
The common thread in the Medac pocket and Krajina, is what happened to
Serb
civilians. For a reason I can't comprehend, the same yardstick is not
being
used by the Canadian media and now The Hague to judge Croats as is
used in judging Serbs and Muslims in other parts of the Balkans.
It appears that evidence of war crimes against Croats in the Krajina
has been lost. So now, Croatian general staff officers are giving
themselves
up
to the tribunal. Something very strange is under way here.
There is one absolute in all this: Canadians were involved, and
Canadians know what happened. In 1995, Gen. Alain Forand was in charge
of the UN contingent in the Krajina when the Croats swept through in a
five-day blitzkrieg that displaced 185,000 Serbs. Canadians under his
command know the truth and have tried to speak out. But their voices
haven't been
heard.
The same holds true for the Canadian soldiers at Medac, 1993.
Shelling of Knin
Canadian Capt. Phil Berkhoff, now retired, explained to my camera what
happened in the 1995 shelling of Knin. An old lady, holding her dead
husband
in her arms, her eye blown out, refused to leave her husband's side as
the captain pleaded with her to go before another mortar attack.
"We did the best we could," said Capt. Berkhoff. "It was horrible.
These were civilians. We lifted one man to put him in a body bag, and
his brain spilled on my foot.
"We moved body bags across some grass near a fence, and when we came
back Croat tanks had crossed the grass deliberately and run over the
body bags. We didn't know if these dead were Serb, Croat or Muslim.
Neither did the people in the Croat tanks."
Gen. Forand and his small contingent of Canadians in Knin saved and
protected 780 refugees for two months while the UN called them
"displaced persons" and wanted them released to the street and the
Croats. Forland refused. Not on his watch. Not Rwanda all over again.
Not this time.
Knin was smashed. Civilians were slaughtered. Animals were castrated
and shot. Farms were burned. The Krajina was ethnically cleansed of
more than 185,000 human beings whose roots were there for the ages.
What occurred on the highway that led to Serbia has not been told: An
old woman told me that when her farm was shelled, her son was hit and
died in her arms. She turned to tell her husband that their son was
dead, but he
was
also dead. Thousands of vehicles littered the landscape, overturned,
burned,
shot full of holes.
Bullet-riddled body
Tens of thousands of little piles of personal belongings lay in the
open, some neatly stacked, others scattered - an old woman sprawled in
an
ancient
car, her body riddled by a machine-gun; the bodies of a family of
farmers, thrown down the farm's well, probably while they were still
alive.
I documented much of this. The National Film Board and CBC refused any
part
of it.
The Canadian media? To them, the main story at the time was two
trailers that caught fire at a barbecue Canadian military personnel
had. Where were the stories of Canadian soldiers in flak jackets lying
on top of people
who
had none, to protect them from bombardments going on?
What happened at Knin's main hospital? I was told the sick were thrown
out of windows, the basement piled high with bodies. Were the Croats
given permission by the UN and United States to attack the Krajina?
Where the
hell
did all their tanks come from? Who trained the crews?
There are many Canadians who know the truth. One Canadian, who worked
for the UN, tells of staggering amounts of money paid by him to Croats
- in cash. If a UN contingent needed the Polish tanks for mine
clearance, the
UN
received an invoice for damage to Croatian roads - again to be paid in
cash.
Unbelievable amounts of money, always in cash, were paid out to billet
UN soldiers in blown-out buildings. There were monthly meetings,
parties,
cash
paid out. When UN helicopters landed at Croat airports, cash was
handed
over
for landing rights.
Were the Croats told to clean up the evidence of war as soon as
possible? For sure, they were painting the lines back on Krajina's
roads within days of the five-day blitzkrieg. For sure, the UN was
saying the Krajina hadn't been seriously damaged.
In fact, the main street was destroyed and most of the buildings in
town
had
been hit by mortar artillery fire. As for the hospital that had bodies
lying
around it, thrown from windows - quickly cleaned up. A few days later
it
was
actually functioning.
In Knin, as in the Medac pocket, there were unspeakable atrocities.
The Canadian media chose to ignore both events, although thousands of
Canadian soldiers were there. Canadian peacekeepers did not pick sides
and saved thousands of lives. It now appears that all evidence of war
crimes has disappeared - except in the minds of young Canadians who
served there.
The National Film Board of Canada, which sent me there, did not do a
documentary on the Krajina, although I was there with my camera.
Instead, they chose to do a one-hour documentary on ballroom dancing
in Germany.
Jeopardize lives
The NFB ordered me to give my footage to the War Crimes Tribunal
people
who
I met in Toronto. I was against this, believing that film-makers
should never give unedited footage to any court without being legally
obligated
to
do so. Otherwise, I believe we jeopardize the lives of directors and
cameramen who go to the world's war zones.
To give unedited footage to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague
without legal paperwork demanding it is wrong, especially if there's
been a
decision
not to make it into a documentary for the public consumption.
Today, evidence of war crimes in the Krajina appears to be missing.
Canadians know the truth, even if there's no documentary showing the
results
of the Medac pocket and Krajina. And for this I am truly angry.
Maj. Gen. Rahim Ademi, the reputed commander of the Croat troops at
Medac, may claim to have a clear conscience.
I do not.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
