Zeleo bih da ovom Poslaniku odgovorim nekim sveobuhvatnim clankom ali da bude na engleskom (imam ih na srpskom i previse!) kao sto je recimo bio jedan u Glasu Javnosti "Licna karta Srebrenice" od Milivoja Ivanisevica (objavljen 21.3.2007). Moze li neko da pomogne?
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 17 June 2010 23:58 To: [email protected] Subject: A Message from the Office of Robert Oliphant M.P. Dear Slobodan: Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding Bill C-533, the Private Member's Bill I introduced on June 10th calling for the establishment of a national day of remembrance in Canada called Srebrenica Remembrance Day. I take your comments very seriously. I recognize that there are a variety of opinions about this issue, and even more feelings, from all sides of the conflict that dominated the last decade of the 20th century. In war, all sides are victims. Of that, I have no doubt. However, the genocidal nature of the particular incident at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 has been internationally recognized and, I believe, it is time for Canada to recognize it as well. My hope is that such recognition will go a long way to healing the wounds that still exist as a result of that war. As you are no doubt aware, both the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice have ruled that what occurred in July 1995, when 8000 Bosniak men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb Forces in the region of Srebrenica, was genocide. These judgments were the thoughtful results of fair and independent investigation and testimony. Internationally, nations have stepped forward with resolutions regarding the massacre and calls for a day of remembrance. This includes both the European Parliament and the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States of America. Most recently, on March 31st of this year, the Government of Serbia, led by President Boris Tadic, issued a full state apology for the Srebrenica massacre, providing tacit recognition of the genocidal nature of the crime, and endorsing the prior ruling of the International Court of Justice. On June 10, the day I introduced this Bill, it was announced that two Bosnian Serbs, convicted for committing genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, were sentenced to life in prison. These are the first individuals to be definitively convicted for genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Both men were found guilty of genocide, extermination, murder and persecution. The court jailed five other defendants, army and police officers, for between five and 35 years for their involvement in the genocide. The judgement said that "a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population" that culminated with the Srebrenica massacre had begun on orders from former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, who is currently on trial at the tribunal in The Hague. My bill, if passed, will establish a national day of remembrance called Srebrenica Remembrance Day to be held on the 11th of July in each and every year. The bill recognizes the devastating affects this genocide has had on the Bosnian Muslim community. It provides an opportunity for all Canadians to stand with those in the Bosniak Canadian community, to share in their pain, and honour the memory of those men and boys massacred in 1995. As we approach the 15th anniversary of this massacre, I hope that this bill serves as a step in the right direction and will ultimately provide a small degree of comfort to the survivors of this genocide and to the Bosnian Muslim community here in Canada. It is also my hope that it will serve as a bridge to other affected communities and will allow all Canadians to move on from the tragic events of the last century and into this new century with greater understanding. Again, thank you for your comments. Yours sincerely, Robert Oliphant, M.P. Don Valley West From: Slobodan [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: June 13, 2010 12:18 AM To: Prime Minister's Office; Harper, Stephen - P.M.; Oliphant, Robert - M.P.; [email protected]; Nicholson, Robert Douglas - M.P.; Kenney, Jason - M.P.; Ignatieff, Michael - M.P.; Layton, Jack - M.P.; Rae, Bob - M.P. Subject: NO TO THE SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY BILL. Dear Prime Minister and honourable Members of Parliament, As concerned British citizen, I call on you to seriously reconsider the plan to adopt a Bill Calling for a July 11th Srebrenica Remembrance Day. The execution of Moslem prisoners in July of 1995, after Bosnian Serb forces took over Srebrenica, was a war crime, but it is by no means a paradigmatic event. Throughout the war period, 1992?1995, Serbian villages around Srebrenica were subjected to widespread and systematic attacks by Moslem military forces concentrated within the Srebrenica enclave. The fate of Srebrenica Serbs is but a microcosm of their wartime fate in Bosnia/Herzegovina as a whole. Serb inhabitants in the villages surrounding Srebrenica were murdered in the hundreds, abused, expelled, and kidnapped for ransom by Bosnian Muslims. There is nothing to set one crime apart from the other, except that its commission was more condensed in time. In a vicious civil war, in which all sides commit crimes, all innocent victims are entitled to compassion but the victims of one ethnic group should have no special moral claim to unique recognition. Putting the suffering of one group on a pedestal necessarily derogates from the right of the other group in this case Serbian non-combatants in the devastated villages surrounding the enclave of Srebrenica ? to an equal measure of sympathy. More importantly, what really happened in Srebrenica in July of 1995 is an issue that is still not settled, or why it occurred, and who was behind it. The accepted version of events, shaped mainly by war propaganda and hyperbolic media reports, is becoming increasingly obsolete because it is being vigorously questioned and reassessed by critical thinkers in the Western world. Much reliable information on these events is still unavailable and needs to be researched, but without it responsible conclusions on the nature and scope of the Srebrenica massacre cannot be drawn. Both the events alleged scope and its legal description as "genocide" are intensely in dispute. It would therefore be very unwise for Canada and its parliament to formally commit themselves to a version of events that is thin on evidence but long on moral and political implications that are extremely detrimental to Serbian people. I am also troubled by the prospect of Canada and its parliament might accept the thesis that the massacre in Srebrenica, regrettable as it may be, amounts to "genocide. That would unpardonably diminish genuine genocide as a phenomenon of the 20th century, of which the Holocaust of the Jewish people and the mass extermination campaigns against Armenians, Pontus Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, Serbs and the Roma are some outstanding examples. I am concerned that the politicisation of human suffering and the frivolous usage of the grave legal category of genocide greatly cheapens these important concepts and constitutes an undeserved insult to innocent victims of political violence everywhere in the world. For these reasons, I appeal to you to refrain from passing the Bill Calling for a July 11th Srebrenica Remembrance Day. Slobodan Petrovic Also read: <http://www.srebrenica-project.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=categor y&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=4> www.srebrenica-project.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout =blog&id=3&Itemid=4 --- <http://www.srebrenica-project.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=categor y&layout=blog&id=16&Itemid=14> www.srebrenica-project.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout =blog&id=16&Itemid=14 ======================================================= Serbian victims A chronicle of inhumanity and horror Throughout the war period, 1992?1995, Serbian villages around Srebrenica were subjected to widespread and systematic attacks by Moslem military forces concentrated within the Srebrenica enclave. The fate of Srebrenica Serbs is but a microcosm of their wartime fate in Bosnia/Herzegovina as a whole. Serb inhabitants in the villages surrounding Srebrenica were murdered in the hundreds, abused, expelled, and kidnapped for ransom and exchange. Most of the villages were torched after the personal property of their Serbian inhabitants had been pillaged. The attacks were indiscriminate and they targeted Serbs as such, without any attempt being made to determine the victims personal position vis-a-vis the ongoing conflict in Bosnia/Herzegovina or the level of threat to Muslim armed forces they might have represented. It is important to note that the Muslim civilian and military authorities conducting these operations out of Srebrenica did not operate independently, but were linked in the political and military chain of command to the Alija Izetbegovic regime in Sarajevo. That government publicly claimed to be multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, and many in the West were misled by intense propaganda to accept its claims at face value. But all the while that regimes Srebrenica representatives were conducting a ruthless three-year pogrom in complete disregard of the fact that their targeted victims were peaceful peasants, indistinguishable from their Moslem neighbours except by the fact that they were Serb and Christian. This is probably a unique case where an internationally recognized government used its military instruments to conduct a carnage of inhabitants that, when addressing the international community, it duplicitously claimed as its own citizens. These witness statements, and others that we will soon add, will make it abundantly clear why Serbs in Bosnia/Herzegovina uncompromisingly insist on being masters of their own fate and why they are entitled to the Republic of Srpska as their safe heaven just as the Jewish people are entitled to Israel. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
