Thanks for this little antidote to the
view of the Jugoslavian wars peddled so assiduously by
the mainstream media! One minor suggestion: if possible,
it would be nice to have access to the entire Toronto
Star article in which Nasir Oric boasts about his "Greatest
Hits." That way, Emperor's Clothes would not open
itself to an accusation of selective citation....
H. Day
Norway
***
Dear Mr. Day,
The article can be accessed only on search engines
that archive past news, e.g., Lexis-Nexis. So I can't publish a link,
but I've posted the full text, below.
Jared Israel
Emperor's Clothes
***
The Toronto
Star
July 16, 1995, Sunday, Sunday Second Edition Section: NEWS; Pg. A1 Length: 816 Words Headline: Fearsome Muslim warlord eludes
Bosnian Serb forces Byline: Bill Schiller Toronto Star Dateline: Belgrade, Yugoslavia
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - When Bosnian Serb commander Gen.
Ratko Mladic swept triumphantly into Srebrenica last
week, he not only wanted to sweep Srebrenica clean of
Muslims - he wanted Nasir Oric.
In Mladic's view, the powerfully built Muslim commander
had made life too difficult and too deadly for Serb
communities nearby.
Even though the Serbs had Srebrenica surrounded, Oric was
still mounting commando raids by night against Serb
targets.
Oric, as blood-thirsty a warrior as ever crossed a
battlefield, escaped Srebrenica before it fell. Some
believe he may be leading the Bosnian Muslim forces in
the nearby enclaves of Zepa and Gorazde. Last night these
forces seized armored personnel carriers and other
weapons from U.N. peacekeepers in order to better protect
themselves.
Oric is a fearsome man, and proud of it.
I met him in January, 1994, in his own home in Serb-surrounded
Srebrenica.
On a cold and snowy night, I sat in his living room
watching a shocking video version of what might have been
called Nasir Oric's Greatest Hits.
There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads,
and people fleeing.
Oric grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork.
"We ambushed them," he said when a number of
dead Serbs appeared on the screen.
The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by
explosives: "We launched those guys to the moon,"
he boasted.
When footage of a bullet-marked ghost town appeared
without any visible bodies, Oric hastened to announce:
"We killed 114 Serbs there."
Later there were celebrations, with singers with wobbly
voices chanting his praises.
These video reminiscences, apparently, were from what
Muslims regard as Oric's glory days. That was before most
of eastern Bosnia fell and Srebrenica became a "safe
zone" with U.N. peacekeepers inside - and Serbs on
the outside.
Lately, however, Oric increased his hit-and-run attacks
at night. And in Mladic's view, it was far too successful
for a community that was supposed to be suppressed.
The Serbs regard Oric, once Serb President Slobodan
Milosevic's personal bodyguard, as a war criminal.
But they don't want to send him to the international war
crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. They want to
track him down and kill him.
The only songs they want sung of Nasir Oric are funeral
dirges.
But that hasn't happened.
Srebrenica, surrounded by 3,000 armed Serbs as it was
then, was a strange town. It held a desperate kind of
life - a life in suspended animation.
People talked about what they used to do, or used to be.
Or about what they would do or would become once they
were free again.
Sleeping beneath the sheltering sky near Tuzla as
Srebrenica's surviving residents did last week - after
having been driven from their homes - was not in their
catalogue of expectations.
I remember steep streets lined with snow and, everywhere,
firewood.
Srebrenica, an old silver mining town, was built to hold
4,500 residents, but was then crammed with 22,500. And
the overall pocket, some 14 kilometres wide by 16
kilometres long, had swelled to 46,000 in all.
It had the look and feel of an overcrowded, somewhat
dilapidated, ski resort town.
But it was anything but.
Still, people were friendly. The face of an outsider, an
unexplained newcomer, came as a pleasant surprise to them
and I was welcomed into their homes, served tea brewed on
makeshift firewood stoves, and treated with kindness.
There was, even then, some tension in the air about our
Canadian peacekeepers there. But they were still doing a
good job - even an excellent one - despite
extraordinarily high expectations.
I got into Srebrenica by convincing Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic that the time was right for a journalist
to visit. None had been allowed for more than 100 days.
People were wondering what was going on behind the
curtain.
In the end, another journalist asked to come along. He
had a vehicle, and I didn't. It was a good trade-off.
But what we smelled there, besides the smoke of a thousand
and one cooking fires, was the slow death of hope.
No one wanted to admit it was a hopeless situation. They
wanted to believe that someone, something, perhaps some
extraordinary act of fate, was going to save them and
their town.
They just didn't know what it was. And that not knowing
ate away at them, just as their thinning food supplies,
having been choked off by the Serbs, did.
At the very end of the only real street that led all the
way down into the town and became, in effect, main
street, I'll always remember dozens of kids taking turns
whizzing across a pool of sheer ice, their bottoms
protected by worn pieces of thin cardboard.
We don't use the word "glee" anymore. But
that's what it was then. Glee on Main Street, Downtown
Srebrenica.
A bit of laughter against the cold. A bit of glee in the
face of inevitable doom.
(c) The Toronto Star 1992 - Posted for
educational and fair use only
=======================================
'JUDGMENT!'
- Shown As Evidence at The Hague Tribunal
On September 26, at the
opening of the Bosnian part of Milosevic's trial at The Hague, a movie
called 'Judgment! was shown, proving
that famous photos of what was supposed to be a Bosnian Serb death camp,
broadcast worldwide on August
6, 1992, were fabricated.
The movie shows step-by-step how the phony
pictures were
created.
Twenty
minutes after the photos were shown on TV on August 6, 1992, George
Bush Sr. held a press conference, expressing shock and outrage and announcing tough
measures against Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs. This was
followed by a worldwide media campaign, using the pictures to isolate
the Serbs and justify economic and military attacks.
If the pictures were a
fraud, as we feel 'Judgment!' proves, then what about the injustice done
to the Serbian people?
Purchase a copy of
'Judgment!' If you conclude that we're not telling the truth, return it
and we'll refund the purchase price, no hassle. To date, not one person
has asked for their money back.
'Judgment!' is based on footage shot
by Serbian TV and edited by Mihajlo and Petar Ilic of Ilke Productions,
who have graciously permitted Emperor's Clothes to use their work to
produce thgis movie for an English-speaking audience.
Here's how to order:
In U.S. - $25.00
Outside U.S. - $32.00
[Please consider making an additional donation to support our work.]