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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71
Topic starter  

Over 250,000 Krajina Serbs were ethnically cleansed
from their ancestral homes, thousands slaughtered, and those too old or infirm to
flee remained only to have their throats slit. Approximately 650,000 Serbs have
been driven out of Croatia since 1992 with little prospect of ever returning. It
was military aid and technology provided by the Clinton Administration, on the
advice of Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, that made it possible for
Croatian forces to conduct "Operation Storm" in order to achieve their goal of a
pure Croatian state that Hitler could only promise. Nor was there any outrage
from Congress when Croatian jets bombed and strafed Serbian refugee columns.
No general media outrage to what Charles Krauthammer described in Newsweek
(April 5, 1999) as "the largest ethnic cleansing of the entire Balkan wars.
Investigators with the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague have concluded that this
campaign was carried out with brutality, wanton murder and indiscriminate
shelling of civilians . . . No denunciation. No sanctions. No bombing. No
indignant speeches about ethnic cleansing and the slaughter of innocents. In fact,
in justifying the current bombing of Serbia, Clinton made an indirect reference to
this Croatian campaign when he credited the ‘courageous people in Bosnia and in
Croatia’ who ‘fought back’ against the Serbs and ‘helped to end the war.’
Indeed, they did. Croatia’s savage ethnic cleansing so demoralized the Serbs that
they soon agreed to sign the Dayton peace accord of 1995."


!!!!!! no comments on this too ?


   
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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71
Topic starter  

"Operation Storm" was not the only incident of Croatian criminal brutality for
which President Mesic evidently see no reason to make amends. In 1993,
Canada’s Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry unit attempted to enter a
town where they could hear the Serbian civilian population being massacred.
Croatian troops attacked the Canadians and engaged them in some of Canada’s
worst battles since the Korean war. The battle came to be known as the Battle of
the Medak Pocket. The Ottawa Citizen wrote: "Almost five years after it
happened, a House of Commons committee has heard details of Canada’s finest
hour during its peacekeeping mission to the former Yugoslavia." From the
Calgary Herald: "Sgt. Rod Dearing couldn’t see the Croatian soldiers who were
trying to kill him but he could hear the rattle of their AK-47s and see their bullets
kick up earth just centimeters away. The Croats wanted to delay the Canadians
to enable their ethnic cleansing units to finish their killing and looting [of Serbs].
A Croatian general stood in the middle of the road, glaring and yelling at the
Patricians [Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry]. The soldiers came on the
remains of two teenagers who had been held captive by the Croats. They had
been shot and set on fire. What was left of their bodies were still smoldering
when the Canadians found them."


   
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(@treslavance)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 835
 

it gets uglier, worse.
repeat=repeat=repeat.

a wash of injustice.

i dont question it.


   
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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71
Topic starter  

Kostunica Says Ethnic Albanian Rebels Receive Aid From U.S. Lobbies

PARIS, Dec 19, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Ethnic Albanian separatist rebels in southern Serbia are receiving aid from U.S.-based organizations,
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica claimed in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro.

"The Albanian terrorists not only have access to their own funds in Kosovo, but also to aid ... from abroad, in secret fashion, from the United States," he
said in the interview to be published in the paper's Tuesday edition.

Kostunica said the aid did not come from the U.S. government, but from what he dubbed "powerful lobbies."

"In America, you have non-governmental organizations which exert considerable influence, and very strong lobbies working for Kosovo's independence
and against the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia," he said.

The interview was conducted before Kostunica's upcoming visit to France on Thursday, when he is expected to meet with French President Jacques
Chirac, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

The self-proclaimed Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) has clashed in recent weeks with Serb police in a demilitarized zone
five kilometers (three miles) wide between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.

The rebels want the towns of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, and the surrounding area, which have a large ethnic Albanian population, to be part of
an independent Kosovo, currently under UN administration.

Kostunica said that NATO was "making real efforts to improve (how easy it was to cross) the administrative border between Kosovo and the rest of
Serbia."

"NATO Secretary General (George) Robertson has given suitable orders," he added.

Kostunica said he continued to oppose independence for Kosovo.

"Any change in the international borders in this region could bring other changes with it," he said, alluding to nearby Macedonia -- which proclaimed
independence from Yugoslavia eight years ago -- and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The United Nations Security Council will convene a special session on the crisis in southern Serbia and Kosovo on Tuesday. ((c) 2000 Agence France
Presse)


   
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(@daniela)
Eminent Member
Joined: 24 years ago
Posts: 42
 

NATO's Empty Victory
by Ted Galen Carpenter (Editor)



a review of this book:

Bad for Yugoslavia, Bad for the US, August 31, 2000
Reviewer: Phillip Corwin, author Dubious Mandate: A Memoir of the UN in Bosnia, Summer
1995 from New York, NY USA
A real gem of an essay collection: articulate, passionate, and in the deepest sense, boldly patriotic.
From several different angles, the authors of these essays -- eminently qualified scholars, diplomats,
and foreign policy experts -- show why NATO's military aggression against Yugoslavia, under the guise
of humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, was bad, very bad, for America's national interest. Here from the
introduction, is a brief balance sheet on the Clinton-Albright war of aggression: "In the course of
acquiring the dubious role of baby sitter of the Balknas, NATO inflicted enormous suffering on innocent
Serbian and Albanian Kosovar civilians; created serious economic and political prolbmes for neighboring
Balkan countries, stimulated fears through the world that the democratic West had embarked on a new
round of imperialism under a phony banner of humanitarian intervention; further undermined a key
provision of the U.S. Constitution; and badly damaged relations with Russian and China."

One wonders, after reading these essays, why did the so-called "independent" Western press act as
publicist and promoter for US foreign policy? Where were the dissenters? Moroever, these essays
suggest that the real dangers in the Balkans are Albanian nationalism and NATO expansionism. Do we
want American soldiers sacrificed in foreign wars that have no impact on our national interest -- in fact,
undermine out national interest?


   
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(@treslavance)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 835
 

"undermine our national interest?"
do any of them _know_ what it is?
==
...and the other day i wanted to say "what would
you have me 'DO', then? go to plymouth rock and
start yelling?"
reading the material on this page has been like
standing under a cold rain.
lately i attempted to consume a great deal of
yugo-related material;
i have stood under a deluge.
==
and that... particular...fire.... inside;
it's not a fire i carry with me.
no such backdrop for that sense of being wronged
and justice undone...on such a scale.

and a sense of blood, and kin, and faith.

you can say "you'll never know"
and i'll never know.
==
etc.


   
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(@daniela)
Eminent Member
Joined: 24 years ago
Posts: 42
 

2000-12-19
NATO FORCES KILL CIVILIANS IN KOSOVO

A serious incident took place on Saturday night in Leposavic, northern Kosovo, between Serb civilians and
Belgian forces from the NATO Kfor peacekeeping force.
The incident was provoked by the imprisonment of a Serb by Kfor forces. The NATO barracks were
surrounded by a furious group of Serb civilians, who have accused NATO of favouring the Albanians and
discriminating against the Serbs.


In the middle of the disturbance, Belgian soldiers in the NATO force
opened fire, killing one civilian (Milan Jokovic, 20 years old) outright and seriously wounding another
(Mladen Obradovic, 19), while a third civilian (Trifun Milenkovic, 42) died of a heart attack.


Meanwhile in southern Serbia, the Albanian terrorist group UÇPMB continues to launch attacks on Serbian
targets from their strongholds deep within Kosovo.

NATO has proved useless in controlling the Albanians
and the case was taken to the United Nations Organization, which has decided to launch a series of
“debates” on the issue.


The Yugoslav and Serbian authorities have decided to launch a massive operation against these terrorists,
in case the UNO does not manage to react.

Judging from past experience, it would seem better to launch
this operation now, because waiting for the United Nations Organization to perform, when unauthorized to
do so by NATO, is a lost cause.


The situation in the Balkans can be blamed fair and square on NATO. In a gross error of judgement, a very
serious miscalculation of the situation was made when it was decided to enter Kosovo, sovereign territory
of the state of Yugoslavia, freeing the Albanian eagle to fly all over the Balkans, something which 500 years
of history had been trying to prevent.


The incidents of last weekend were certainly not premeditated murder by NATO troops, but rather acts by
frightened young soldiers, out of their element and too deeply involved in conflicts and cultures which have
nothing to do with them. Nobody expects NATO to understand the Balkans, but nobody asked them to
intervene.


What is totally unacceptable is that civilians have to pay the price of death for demonstrating against the
terrorists who are destroying their country and stealing their livelihoods.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Lisbon

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2000/12/19/1548.html


   
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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71
Topic starter  

No sanctuary for a mother's grief


Marta Meric leans down to touch her daughter, Marica, 35,
during her funeral Sunday. The mother blames KLA rebels for
her daughter's slaying. [Times photo: Jamie Francis]


By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 29, 1999


PEC, Yugoslavia -- For centuries, the Patriarchate of Pec
has been the center of the Serbian Orthodox Church. When
Serbs speak of the importance of Kosovo to their religion,
this serenely beautiful place is foremost in their minds.

Set at the mouth of a deep river gorge, the Patriarchate is a
secluded compound of four churches and a monastery dating
to the 1300s. Within its ancient stone walls, priests and nuns
walk among fragrant roses and hedges trimmed in the shape
of the cross.

The beauty remains. But much of the tranquility is gone.

For the past two weeks, hundreds of terrified Serbs have
sought sanctuary here from angry ethnic Albanians now
returning to Kosovo. From early morning to late at night,
Serbs carrying suitcases and bundles pass through the
massive iron gates, waiting for NATO troops to escort them
out of Kosovo and into the Yugolsav republic of
Montenegro, 30 miles across the mountains.

But Radomir Nikcevic, the archbishop of Montenegro, who
came to help the beleaguered monastery, could not leave
Sunday with the newest members of his flock. Instead, he
had a terrible task.

"It is time," a young priest said at 3 p.m., "to go get the
bodies."

An imposing figure with long gray beard and flowing black
robes, Nikcevic climbed into a Land Rover with three other
men. An Italian NATO jeep led the way; an Italian tank
brought up the rear. They drove through Pec, a city as ruined
as any in Kosovo, and into a village where many Serbs live.

Or used to live.

In a deadly but predictable cycle of vengeance, ethnic
Albanians who were driven from their homes are now looting
and burning the houses of Serbs. Tall columns of smoke rose
along either side of the road as the convoy made its way
through the nearly deserted village. The air, already hot and
hazy, became almost choking as they passed the crackling
pyres of what had been Serbian homes.

The jeep and Land Rover finally turned down a dirt road and
stopped at a white house with red geraniums growing in the
window. A thin, gray-haired man in frayed jeans stood
outside, almost overcome with shock and sorrow.

"No, no, no," he moaned. A Serb, he had returned from Pec
that morning to find his 46-year-old wife shot at point-blank
range in the head. There apparently had been no witnesses,
but he had little doubt about the killers -- members of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, the Albanian paramilitary group
commonly known as the KLA.

An Italian soldier guarding the house stepped aside, and the
sight behind him was one to turn the stomach. A woman's
arm, covered in blood, extended from under a blanket. The
blood was so thick by the door it was almost impossible to
tell that a white tile floor lay underneath.

The archbishop looked in, crossed himself and began to
chant: "Oh Lord, be merciful to these souls."

The others stepped inside the narrow hallway and, with
considerable effort, wrapped the body in a gray blanket and
covered it in plastic sheeting. Still chanting, Nikcevic picked
up a small rug from the front stoop and laid it over the pool
of blood. Then he too went inside.

Whoever murdered Mileva Vujosevic, the mother of two
grown sons, had also ransacked her house. The archbishop,
lifting his robes around his ankles, waded through piles of
rumpled clothing to retrieve a framed black-and-white
photograph from the bedroom.

It had been taken many, many years ago, and it showed a
smiling, dark-haired young couple, perhaps newlyweds. The
archbishop also grabbed a painting of Christ and a pair of
brown trousers for Branislav Vujosevic -- "He's afraid to
stay here" -- and left as quickly as he had entered.

The body was in the back of the Land Rover, gray socks
sticking out from under the plastic. Vujosevic closed his
garden gate, perhaps the last time he ever would, and got
into the NATO jeep. The convoy started up again, briefly
became lost, then 10 minutes later arrived at a second house
guarded by an Italian armored personnel carrier. A huge,
fire-blackened haystack was still smoldering as Nikcevic
went inside.

"Oh, Lord, be merciful to these souls," he began to chant.

It was another body. Marica Meric, 35 and Serbian, had
been dead since the night before, her throat slit. She was still
lying on the couch where she had been raped as her mother,
bound and gagged, had been forced to watch.

"KLA," the mother told NATO later.

Two of the men from the monastery wrapped the body in a
brown and white blanket as a fourth videotaped the scene.
Although two women had been murdered, it appeared that
no one but the church had any interest in investigating the
deaths of Serbs.

Meanwhile, 30 miles away, dozens of FBI agents from the
United States continued to pore over the site where 20
Albanians were slain in April.

"The KLA has the protection of NATO," Nikcevic said
angrily. "The Serbian people have no protection from
NATO. This is total ethnic cleansing of Serbians."

The second body was set on top of the first in the Land
Rover, and the convoy headed back to the monastery.
Several men, including a priest in a T-shirt, had almost
finished digging a deep hole in the rocky soil. Both women
would be placed in a single grave. They would be the first lay
people to be buried at the Patriarchate since its establishment
nearly eight centuries before.

"In this situation," said Nikcevic, "it is too dangerous to go to
the cemetery."

Preparations moved quickly. One of the priests used a black
felt-tip pen to write the women's names on plain wooden
crosses. The bodies were wrapped in clean white sheets and
placed side by side on benches. The nuns pulled back the
sheet from the younger woman's face and gently wiped away
the blood. It took two towels to get it all off. They did not
touch the sheet over Mileva Vujosevic, so badly damaged
was her face.

Then the priests and the archbishop donned their magnificent
vestments as Serbs who had taken refugee in the monastery
-- many of them old women -- began to gather on the grass
with candles in hand. Branislav Vujosevic stood alone. The
nuns flanked Marica's mother, who looked much like them in
her black scarf, black shirt and black skirt.

"Why did the terrorists have to kill you?" she cried, wringing
her gnarled hands over her unmarried daughter. "Why did
you have to die so young?"

At precisely 6 p.m., church bells pealed and a full Orthodox
funeral began as the archbishop swung a silver incense
burner over the bodies. There were many prayers and a
sermon.

"Innocent people are being killed by the evil in Kosovo,"
Nikcevic said, his voice growing stronger and louder as he
spoke. "The spirit that comes from hell kills Albanians and
Serbians. I pray to God these will be the last victims, that
innocent blood will be like grain from which peace and
understanding will grow. From the suffering there will come
new life and resurrection."

Nikcevic touched the gold Orthodox cross to each woman's
head and kissed the sheeted bodies. So, too, did the nuns
and all those gathered. When it came Branislav Vujosevic's
turn, he knelt and hugged his wife as though he could not
bear to let her go.

The women were buried in the order they were found, the
one who had been shot under the one who had been raped
and stabbed.

Outside the monastery, their killers were free, perhaps
forever. Within the high stone walls, the other Serbs were
safe.

At least for now. The KLA has threatened to burn this holy
place, too.


http://www.sptimes.com/News/62999/Worldandnation/No_sanctuary_for_a_mo.shtml


   
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(@daniela)
Eminent Member
Joined: 24 years ago
Posts: 42
 

Srebrenica

The following will be quotations of David Rohde from his book "End Game: The Betrayal and Fall of
Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II" (Westview Press, 1998).

First of all, we do not agree with his assessment of the situation in Srebrenica, we believe that his title is
nothing more than diatribe that does injustice to the truth. Yet, because we disagree so strongly with him
we have decided to quote him in order to show just how much the "other side" was reporting the situation
more justly than say the US State Department for example:

In the Preface, on page X, Rohde goes on to give his conclusions and the evolution of his understanding
of the situation, notably, we think these two tidbits are intersting:

" At that time [Dayton peace talks - Nov. 1995], I believed Srebrenica's fall to be a simple tale of victim
and perpetrator. But the town's fall has proven far more complex, convoluted and darker than I expected.
"

" The truth in the former Yugoslavia […] is a nebulous concept. Exaggeration and manipulation of the
facts are well-accepted tools for survival and propaganda is the norm. All sides in the brutal war -
including many Western and UN officials - have resolutely convinced themselves that they are blameless
and the other side is guilty. "

Someone from our perspective could not agree more, this is precisely what the Serbian side has been
trying to voice all along, yet no one dared believe them…




On page 215:

" Serbs estimated that 2,000 Serbs - mostly soldiers but also several hundred civilians 35 - had died
around Srebrenica since the outbreak of the war. [since 1992] "

In the corresponding footnote (35) on p. 419:

" A list of those killed produced by General Milenko Zivanovic in a November 1996 interview with Stacy
Sullivan of Newsweek magazine appeared to contain the names of mostly young men who were
apparently soldiers. As of June 1998, the interview had not been published. "

A smart investigator would ask, why wasn't that interview ever published? That list never mentionned?
That figure never given by the US State Department when it made frequent references to Srebrenica?





p. X

" Survivors and people from Srebrenica exaggerated, openly lied or presented a sanitized version of their
actions and decision making. "

p. XI

" I apologize for any inaccuracies, distortions or omissions. I have tried to make this as accurate as
possible. All errors in judgment are mine.

This book should be considered only and initial account of the fall of Srebrenica, not the final word. "

p. XV

" Oric then led Muslim forces from Srebrenica to a series of stunning victories in 1992, which more than
doubled the size of the island of Muslim territory. By January 1993 the enclave was only five miles from
linking with Muslim-held central Bosnia. "

" By mid-March 1993, over 60,000 Muslim civilians packed the town of Srebrenica and a small area
around it. "

Now, if 7,079 of Srebrenica's Muslims are alleged to be missing, that would mean, that the Serbian side
provided safe passage to 53,000. That is certainly a courtesy never extended to the hundreds of
thousands of Serbian refugees that fled before the Muslim or Croat armies…

" The Serbs allowed a few food convoys into the enclave […] "

p. XVI

" Two years later, a Serb flag flew where the UN's once did and 7,079 Muslim men were missing. "

p. 4

" Observation Post Foxtrot had been nicknamed "OP Holiday", "OP Sun Beach" and "OP Relax", because
so little happened there. Klaver [a Dutch UN peacekeeper who gave a testimony to Rohde] and the five
other peacekeepers had spent much of their time sunbathing. This was the first time Foxtrot had been
shelled since their battalion arrived five months earlier. "

This sends us the message that

p. 5

" Muslim soldiers had grudgingly turned over this and a half dozen other strategic hills to the UN when
Srebrenica became a safe area. "

" For Klaver, the safe area was a humiliating joke. The Muslims refused to be disarmed and carried out
raids into Serb territory at night. Both sides occasionally sniped at the Dutch and each other. "

p. 6

" After the first half hour of shelling, it started to become predictable. […] It was clear that the Bosnian
Serbs were not targeting the observation post. They were pulverizing the network of World War I-era
trenches the Muslims had built behind the OP and on the small hills that flanked it. Klaver could hear
Muslims intermittently firing AK-47 assault rifles and mortars at the Bosnian Serbs from their trenches. "

" […] Klaver saw that three tanks, two howitzer artillery pieces and a multiple rocket launcher had taken
up position 1,600 yards east of the observation post. "

p. 7

" Mevludin was impressed by the thounderous sound of the rockets launching, buzzing through the air
and then detonating. It was the first time the Serbs had fired them into Srebrenica since it was designated
a safe area. "

" Mevludin had heard that Naser [Oric] and fiften of Srebrenica's best officers slipped out of town under
cover of darkness and trekked ten miles south to Zepa […] From there, they had been ferried by
helicopter to Muslim-held central Bosniain April. […] But only two of the fifteen, the deputy commander
and one brigade commander, had returned. "

p. 10

" Klaver anxiously watched the three Serb tanks on the hill 1,500 yards away. The two T-54 battle tanks -
modern by Bosnian standars [outdated by Yugoslav standards] - appeared not to be firing at the OP.
That job was left to what looked like a World War II-ear Soviet -made T-34, which was so primitive that it
had to come to a complete stop before it could fire a shell. "

p. 12

" The most powerful weapon at OP Foxtrot, a highly accurate American-made TOW antitank missile, was
already useless. It was sitting on the roof. "

p. 12-13

" […] the Dutch peacekeepers who first arrived in Srebrenica in January 1994 had mounted the missile on
the roof of Foxtrot's watchtower. From there, its telescopic night vision sight could see the farthest. The
sight enabled them to track Serb troops movements or Muslim raiding parties. "

p.13

" The Serbs had allowed only [!!!] six TOW launchers into the enclave when the Dutch first entered in
1994. "

" The OP also had two Dragon antitank missiles. "




Zoran Radic, a Srebrenica Serb.

p. 14-15

" Radic had been stunned when fighting broke out in April 1992. Like so many other people in Bosnia, he
had joked with his Muslim and Croat friends as Yugoslavia disintegrated and believed that war would
never come.

[…]

Before the war, Radic had always felt that he and his family were discriminated against by the Muslim
majority [of 73 % Muslims versus 25 % of Serbs in the Srebrenica commune, in the city ?] in Srebrenica.
His father worked as a miner for twenty-five years, but never received a company-owned apartment.
Muslims who worked for only five to ten years as miners got them instead. Radic had been unable to find
work in town after he graduated from high school, he felt, because he was a Serb. "

p. 14

" Entitled the Bloody Hands of Islam, it described atrocities carried out around Srebrenica by Muslim and
Croat fascists allied with Hitler during World War II. […] The book had been banned by Tito's government.
Forty Serbs had been executed in Zalazje, a village just outside Srebrenica. […] Roughly fifty years later,
on July 12, 1992 - the Serb Orthodox holiday of St. Peter's Day - Naser Oric's men killed 120 people in
the same town. "

" Srebrenica's Muslims and Naser Oric had played the United Nations beautifully in 1993. […] The safe
area was a joke. For two years, the UN had fed the Muslims, sold them weapons and done nothing as
Naser Oric launched raids from a town that was supposed to be "demilitarized." […] Serb villagers within
thirty miles of Srebrenica lived in constant fear, waiting to hear the voices in the night and then constant
smell smoke. Dozens of civilians had been burned alive in their homes by Oric's men. They had burned
Radic's village, Obadi, to the ground in June 1992. "

" Bratunac had the second highest casualty rate of any Serb-held community in Bosnia. Roughly 3,000
Serb soldiers and civilians had been killed around Srebrenica. Oric's men killed every prisoner they took
so there would be no witnesses, it was rumored. Serb bodies had also been reportedly found with heads
and ears cut off. Prisoners were allegedly skinned alive. "

" He [Zoran Radic] never thought he'd set foot in his hometown again, but if Srebrenica did ever fall,
Radic was sure of one thing: the Serbs would treat civilian and prisoners far more humanely than Naser
Oric did. "



   
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(@treslavance)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 835
 

joyeux noel, mademoiselle

the quickest trace of peace here.


   
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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71

   
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(@treslavance)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 835
 

[w/g]
YES!
i had lately been to just that page via SHERLOCK!
saw a few things; sat through a selection of
church music at one link...

i did know the date was different, but i wasnt
sure when. i was trying to find out.

see? see?
==


   
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 d
(@d)
Trusted Member
Joined: 25 years ago
Posts: 71
Topic starter  

France reveals that 'Balkan syndrome' is
affecting soldiers

By Stephen Castle in Brussels

5 January 2001

The European Union promised to take action over Nato's use
of depleted-uranium munitions in the Balkans yesterday, as
Paris revealed that four French soldiers who served in the
region were being treated for leukaemia.

Depleted-uranium munitions should be banned even if there
was "minimal risk", said Romano Prodi, the European
Commission president, amid mounting international pressure
on Nato to investigate the "Balkan Syndrome".

Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, backed calls for a
new medical working group on the subject and promised a
discussion on the issue on 9 January. Bjorn von Sydow, the
Swedish Defence Minister, said: "It is important that we act."

In Paris, Alain Richard, the Defence Minister, has asked for
tests to determine whether the soldiers were exposed to
anything that might have caused the illness. He backed calls
for the alliance to discuss the issue next week.

Mr Prodi intervened after concern grew in Italy, where there
have been 30 cases of serious illness involving soldiers who
served in Bosnia and Kosovo, 12 of whom developed cancer.
Six of the Italian servicemen are said to have died of
leukaemia.

Mr Prodi said in a radio interview that he wanted "the truth to
be ascertained, not only concerning the soldiers, but also for
the people who lived near them, the population".

He said: "It is clear that if there is even a minimal risk, these
arms must be abolished. And even if this risk was not there, I
don't like the idea of using these particular weapons." Mr Prodi
proposed "immediate contacts with the governments of
Bosnia and Serbia to discuss pollution and the problems
linked to depleted uranium".

Although the EU's jurisdiction is limited, it may have powers in
environmental or health and safety areas under which it can
act, particularly if some of the ammunition was made in the
EU.

Greece said yesterday that it would screen more than 1,000 of
its soldiers stationed in Kosovo for side-effects from exposure
to depleted uranium ammunition.

So far, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Finland have said they will
screen their Kosovo veterans, and Bulgaria is also to monitor
the health of its small detachment in the province. In Britain,
the Ministry of Defence said it would monitor developments
closely. The Pentagon said it was aware of the worries being
raised by some of America's allies.

Nato insists there is no evidence of a link between the
munitions and cancer. Its spokesman, Mark Laity, said: "The
Italians have, very properly and in response to public concern,
launched a public inquiry, and Nato is assisting them in every
way it can."

Nato has pledged to help with a request from Italy for more
information on the use of depleted uranium.

There is also growing support for calls by Italy for a new
mechanism to exchange scientific and medical information,
and possible health issues, among the 19 Nato member
countries. The Italians will press for such a mechanism at a
political committee and at an informal meeting of Nato
ambassadors on Tuesday.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-01/france050101.shtml


   
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 d
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SFOR's Spokesman Bob Tomson could not confirm news broadcasted
by Radio "Deutche Welle" that 400 Serbs from BiH and several NATO soldiers died of leukemia
caused by usage of weapons with uranium.


   
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 d
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http://www.deltax.net/bissett/


James Bissett was Canada's ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and
Albania. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on
Balkan politics.
-more-


   
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