Date sent: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 14:07:38 -0700
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Brad De Long <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [PEN-L:2260] Re: Re: Re: debating yugoslavia
Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >I don't mind if we demonize Milosevic, but I would like that
> >demonization to be
> >spread equitably. Tujman was equally evil, yet the U.S. embraced him.
>
> Really? The National Security Council staff when I was in the
> government wished daily for his overthrow, with their wishes checked
> only by the (vain) hope that Tudjman and Milosevic could be made to
> cancel each other out, leaving the Bosnians free to stay alive and
> keep their homes...
>
>
> Brad DeLong
>
I have tried to keep my temper and not respond to Brad's totally
misleading and erroneous posts for several days -- or at least to
respond only with the most mild and reproving response. But
enough is enough. This is disgusting nonsense. He has posted
so much racist nonsense in the last couple of days that if one
replaced Serb/ Milosevic references with Jew/Barak references, he
might be ... well I will leave it at that.
De Long's views are not what are important. What is important are
the facts of what are going on. What he writes above, and in some
of his other posts, is clearly nonsense. I do not have time to
respond in detail to all his misinformation though I will if he persists
in disinformation. The following, as a start, is a selection from
Talylors eyewitness account of what really happened in Croatia.
On September 9, 1993, the Croatian forces unleashed a massive
bombardment on a Serbian-held enclave known as the Medak
Pocket. This region, designated a United Nations Protected
Area, was occupied by a Canadian infantry battalion. Following
the artillery fire, the Croats launched a pincer-like attack that
effectively eliminated the Serbian defenders from the ridgelines.
Along the valley floor, Croat tank columns quickly captured
four Serb-held villages. Over the next three days, in an effort to
fulfil their “protection” mandate, Canadian soldiers from the
Second Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
engaged the Croatian special forces units in a number of
firefights.... Through this stoic display of determined
resistance, the commander of the PPCLI ... eventually convinced
the Croatian commander to withdraw his forces. Before pulling
out, the Croats massacred all of the remaining Serb inhabitants.
Ordered not to interfere by U.N. Headquarters in Zagreb ... the
only recourse possible for the PPCLI was to catalogue the
evidence they had collected [including photographic evidence
of the massacre], and to seek official U.N. indictments against
the Croat commanders as war criminals.... The general who had
planned and executed the Croatian attack was, in fact, an
Albanian Kosovar named Agim Ceku....
On August 3, 1995, in the same sector ... the Croats launched
Operation Storm. This time the Canadian peacekeepers did not
resist.... Once again under the direction of General Agim Ceku,
the Croatian Army unleashed a devastating artillery
bombardment. This time, however, it was German mercenaries
in Croatian uniform who spearheaded the attack, and NATO
fighter jets that provided them with tactical airstrikes.
The Serb defenders ... didn’t have a chance -- tactically or
strategically. The moment the artillery bombardment began,
Serb civilians -- aware of the massacre conducted by Ceku’s
troops in the Medak -- began to flee into Bosnia en masse. Their
soldiers were right behind them.
Nearly 250,000 Serbs were thus ‘ethnically cleansed’ from the
Krajina in advance of the Croat onslaught. Those who chose to
remain – or were too tardy in their flight – paid the price. As
Ceku’s men swept through the Krajina, all evidence of Serb
habitation was systematically destroyed. Civilians were
executed; livestock and pets slaughtered; houses burned; and
wells poisoned. When thousands of fleeing Serbs sought
refuge in the Krajina capital of Knin, General Ceku’s artillery
gunners deliberately shelled the city. According to U.N.
reports, over 500 civilians were killed or wounded in the
bombardment – at a time when Knin was devoid of military
targets. In other words, the shelling was an intentional act of
terror against unarmed civilians, a war crime.
Two senior Canadian officials serving with the U.N. were
present in Knin at the time of the attack.... Both men submitted
detailed complaints to the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in an effort
to indict not only the commanders (including Ceku, who was
responsible for the artillery), but also Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman....
Since the U.S. had covertly aided the Croats in Operation Storm
(through the provision of arms, training, advisors, satellite
intelligence and airpower), the massive Serbian tragedy went
virtually unreported in North America....
[Canadian peacekeepers had become very uneasy, after their
experience in Croatia and Bosnia with NATO’s invasion of
Yugoslavia.] They had seen firsthand the covert U.S.
involvement in building up the Muslim and Croat forces....They
were not alone. Medak Pocket veteran Matt Stopford had
begun to openly question NATO’s support of the Kosovo
Liberation Army as far back as February 1999.
As ultimatums were bringing the Alliance ever closer to war
with Yugoslavia, a new player quietly entered the scene. In U.S.
newspapers it was announced as a positive development that a
top Croatian general had resigned from his post to take over
command of the KLA guerrilla forces. Agim Ceku was going
home – as a hero and Canada’s ally.
Ceku took over command of the KLA in February 1999. Top Canadian
officers wanted him indicted for war crimes committed in Croatia in 1993
and 1995. [pp. 12-19]
By the way, Ceku is the hero of Brad de Long's Albanian terrorists.
Ughh! Please don't give me the s**t that the US administration opposed
Croatian fascism in the form of Mr. Tudjman since it was the Americans
that provided the airpower and intelligence for the mudering and ethnic
cleansing of the Serbian minority in Croatia.
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba and
American Studies,
University of Ljulbjana,
Slovenia
