PART II OF
 

`

August 2001.  I will be in Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Slovenia again, until the middle of September.

THE BEGINNING ESSAY FROM THE EASTERN EUROPEAN WEB BOOK, PART I.  

Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia.  Voyvodina, Kosovo, Moldavia, Montenegro. Armenia, Belarus, Chechnya, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine.  Gypsies, Ustashi, Holocaust, Milosovic, Karadicz, Kings and Queens, Genocide, Revolution . . .

Eastern Europe? Central Europe? East Central Europe? Southwestern Europe? Southeastern Europe? The Balkans?  What name shall we use?  The "groupings" are illusive and changing - based on myth, tradition, dreams, treaties, geography, trade-offs, history, symbols, perceptions, prejudice, power politics, arrogance, ignorance, and HOPE.  The concepts of "Balkans" and "southern" bring erroneous or incomplete images of unique civil wars, hatred, barbarism, primitive, poor, irredeemable.  The concept of "central" brings the same erroneous or incomplete images of unique civilized, developed, "western" values.  Is it any wonder that the nations bordering the "western" and "civilized" nations such as Germany and Austria exert enormous effort to link themselves to them and distance themselves from "the other."  Is "it" a region?  What is "it."  The reader will need to make his/her own distinctions.  Whatever else, the "civilized" nations of the world in the 20th Century have treated this area with disdain, indifference, frustration, and reacted with ignorance, hubris, cruelty, and discrimination.

For 30 years, I have spent large chunks of time in this area, in all of the countries, making friends (and enemies), driving into every large city and small hamlet, listening - and caring.  I have spent considerable time being "interviewed" by the secret police of each nation that had them - because it was always assumed that I must be either Jewish or a CIA agent.  What I was was a human being intrigued, perplexed by the beauty, cultures, complexity, talents, cruelty, myths, courage, suffering, strength, dreams, yearnings, of people, personalities, in an area of the world that had always been powerless and faced with  the kind of CHOICELESS CHOICES that few Americans could understand.  Small countries hemmed in on all sides by big bullies whose interests could always be imposed.  Small countries surrounded by danger and enemies. Human beings, like us, who have the same needs for recognition, stability, a better future for their children, community, and food and clothing and shelter.

    Created Primarily for Netscape

None of the following may be reproduced in any manner.

ALERT:  I LEAVE THIS SITE AS A COMPLEX AND DETAILED HISTORY OF THESE COUNTRIES DURING THE "YEARS OF CRISIS" FROM 1989.  MANY OF THE SITES ARE LONG GONE.  I HAVE "UNCONNECTED" THE DEAD SITES.  A surprising number of Bosnia sites remain vividly on line.  Most of the Milosevic-backed Yugoslavia sites are down (and there were many). BUT READING THROUGH THE INFORMATION REMINDS ONE OR INTRODUCES ONE CLEARLY TO THE LAST 10 YEARS OF STRUGGLE.  Also, I have left all my comments and essays as they were at the time. I did not change my analyses to be current or correct.

FOR STUDENTS IN MY EASTERN EUROPEAN COURSE, HISTORY 9, WHO SELECT THESE COUNTRIES FOR THEIR CASE STUDIES, I ASK THAT YOU ALSO USE THE REGIONAL INFORMATION IN THE PREVIOUS WEBSITE, EASTERN EUROPE, AND SEARCH IN GOOGLE FOR WHAT ELSE YOU NEED. The activities in these countries are "active."  They are on the news constantly.  Thus, you should do the searches for material, not me!

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

CURRENT YUGOSLAVIA - SERBIA AND MONTENEGO -

THE HOLOCAUST IN YUGOSLAVIA

THE YUGOSLAVIAN "LESS THANS" KOSOVO   AND   VOJVODINA

THE  NEW NATIONSOF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA  CROATIA AND  MACEDONIA AND  SLOVENIA

(click)MAJOR WEB COLLEGE COURSES The Spectacular Western Civilization Series Hist. 4A: The Ancient World; Hist. 4C: The Modern World, Hist. 9:  20th Century Europe

COLLEGE COURSE: 20th CENTURY EUROPE History 9:  Thematic Focus - Eastern Europe SYLLABUS FOR WEB COURSE Winter Quarter Course Begins September 2001 Foothill College Information Here

THE REGION

US State Department - Use all the time

SEPTEMBER 1998

Secretary of State's Trip to Bosnia, Croatia, etc.

ALERT: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

THE KEY:  To understanding Eastern Europe on a regular basis.  Students MUST read this site once a week and go through for research.  Outstanding daily press releases, Radio Free Europe interviews of Eastern European leaders and their biographies and speeches, outstanding Special Reports and Special Analyses, quotes of the week.  The single most important site.

Balkan Media & Policy Monitor

Old reporting source. But an interesting story from the war in Kosovo, 1996.

EuroDocs: Western European Primary Historical Documents

G-Text: Kaiserreich

Range of German Documents in English translation.

Yalta Conference - Original Source

SPECIAL ESSAYS ON SPECIAL TOPICS - Students 1998

The Expansion of NATO and the Continuation of Support for Bosnia.

Indifference as a National Pastime:  The Bosnian Dilemma

• The Global Imperative:  More Sympathetic, Less Apathetic - Because Murder and Death are Permanent.
• Indifference Kills

The West in Former Yugoslavia:  Indifference or Stupidity

MAJOR NEWS SOURCES

Each country publishes electronic news magazines that are excellent resources. Use all the Web news sites out there.

THE NEW FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

PEACE IN OUR TIME?: BOSNIA AND THE OLD YUGOSLAVIA

THE CHALLENGE:  Keeping "OUR SOULS TERRIBLY SURPRISED" as Emily Dickinson would have asked.

MY JOURNEY OF 30 YEARS:

a two edged sword:  with the complexity of simplicity and the simplicity of complexity

AND

A HORRIBLE EXAMPLE OF THE THE KILLING MISUSE OF HISTORY

SPECIAL PLACES

Beserkestan: An Interactive Newsmagazine: VERY SPECIAL SITE

TIME-Magazine-type SUPER SITE. Professionally done - in design, width, depth, and in the journalism, outlook, vision. Published "constantly." July 30 edition holds the following lead articles: "Smith: UNWithheld Air Power Against Serbs at Srebrenica"; "Smith Blames Politics for Lack of Arrests of Bosnian War Criminals"; "Mostar Croats, Angry Over Vote, Refuse to Halt City Council Boycott"; "Witness Says Tadic Not Present at Prison Castration of Moslem"; "Bosnian Serbs to Press for Izetbegovic Indictment." Its archives are deep. July's for example is a 5-page affair. The extra feature Journal is first rate. The travel section is UNIQUE. Keep this by your "bedside," along with "Balkan Median and Policy Monitor." Every article is followed by many follow-up sources.

Bosnian Virtual Fieldtrip: A SPECIAL SITE

SIMPLY INCREDIBLE

Faces of Sorrow: Agony in the Former Yugoslavia - A SPECIAL PLACE

This wrenching exhibition is brilliantly conceived, creatively produced, and should be seen by everyone studying this area or the issues of human abuse. The six sections: Ethnic Cleansing, Combatants, Prisoners, Siege of Sarajevo, Refugees, and Faces of Rape. It offers "indisputable pictorial witness to the searing effects of man's inhumanity to mankind. The more than 50 photographs by 36 photojournalists from 14 countries depict unspeakable acts of destruction." As valuable is the bibliography of news articles and reports which can be secured with a click. Important are the Reuters News bits on Bihac, Mostar, Srebrenica, and reporting on the horrible conditions and torture in the detention and concentration camps.

The stumbling decision side of Srebrenica.

Last Ambassador: A SPECIAL ARTICLE

Letter to the BBC: A SPECIAL EFFORT

"During that period, the BBC...failed to provide credible and independent coverage of the events in former Yugoslavia." Strong and courageous letter sent to the heads of the BBC.

NYTimes Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace: A SPECIAL PLACE

Mesmerizing journey. Interactive photo essay, discussion forums by experts, maps, whos who, et. al. Probaby all students should visit.

Past Men of the Year: The Time Men of the Year - A SPECIAL 20TH CENTURY PLACE

For 20th Century Europe, these in-depth articles are invaluable. From 1931. If I wanted to begin or to brush up on the history of the world from 1931 to today, I would read every one of these (I have). Few realize that most of the annual article is about the issues in the world for that year, not about the man or (the woman?-Wallace Simpson). Time writers are not always right, but it is fascinating to watch their predictions. Hitler was Man of the Year and Stalin was twice, for example. To understand the Balkans today, read about the oil crisis, another for example. The traiter Laval in 31, Hitler in 38, Stalin in 39 and 42, Adenauer in 53, the Hungarian Freedom Fighters in 56, Khrushchev in 57, Willy Brandt in 70, Gorbechev in 87, Churchill in 49.

UN and Bosnia: The Institution That Saw No Evil: A SPECIAL ARTICLE

What Went Wrong in Bosnia? A SPECIAL THOUGHT PIECE

By the philanthropist, George Soros, who is doing so much to help in former Yugoslavia. While I disagree with two of his precepts, his statement is so eloquent that it needs to be termed SPECIAL.

New York Times: A SPECIAL CONCENTRATED PLACE

Special concentration and effort. Anyone can participate in the forums. Simply get your password for free and move in.

Bosnia Forums:  "A major component of "Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace" was the opportunity for international dialogue. The forums remained active for more than two months and attracted thousands of postings, some thoughtful, some vituperative. They were based on a computer-generated interface that cannot be archived in full, but here are highlights, along with biographies of the hosts."

Bosnia: Context

Bosnia: Dayton Accords

Chronology: 1990-1995

Chronology: 1996

Forums Agreement

Map: Balkans/Dayton Accord

Richard Haass

Web Browser Tips

WHERE IS BOSNIA/HERZEGOVINA? MAPS, BASIC FACTS

Business Europa Briefing: Bosnia-H Summary

Best Maps of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

A wonderful Net access. Just click on any place from hundreds of listings, and presto, you are there. Keep this on top when you are studying this issue. Once there, you can move with an arrow all over the place.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: PBS Online Backgrounders

From the 1995 CIA World Factbook. Geography, people, government, economy, transportation, communication, defense, update on current situation.

Bosnia Maps

Ten Things You Should Know About Bosnia

Careful about this text of a flyer.

BOSNIA'S AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIA'S PAST

Bosnia Crisis of 1908

Brief summary of complicated situation.

Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation

Embassy: The Historical Review

Short history of Bosnia.

Flashback: The Balkan Crisis

Exceptional opportunity from Atlantic Magazine. After a thoughtful analysis of the Balkan Crisis, Atlantic goes to its vaults and presents articles starting back in 1913, then again in 1960s.

Balkans: A brief History

Excellent brief summary and history. Particularly important in clarifying the 1st and 2nd Balkan wars, then WWI and WWII.

Tito's Home Page

Strange page with many technical difficulties. If you want to listen to about 15 speeches and see about 20 photos of Tito with nothing else, brave the long download.

THE WAR AND ITS BRUTAL HISTORY

Bosnia Main Menu: NY Times Photo Essay

Brief History of Bosnia-Herzegovina

I intended to write a brief essay on the history of BH. But Riedlmayer does it better in ten pages than I could. Written in 1993 so slightly dated. Students should BEGIN here.

Europe's Wild East:  What Europe did not Understand

How the War Started

By Nalini Lasiewicz who reprints this essay from Alan Fogelquist's book, "The Break-up of Yugoslavis," 1993.

Lesson From the Former Yugoslavia

"Mediterranean Quarterly," Fall 1994. This article is solidly scholarly, well-researched and reasoned. The reason I include it here is it is a stunning example of UNREALITY. One cannot quarrel with the article is one believes in the old rules dating back to the 18th and 19th Centuries. Rules that said that the Great Powers can and must decide the fate of the independence and boundaries of small states. Rules that said that people existing under the heavy yoke of oppressors should be allowed to build a new nation or reconstitute their old one only if the Great Powers say yes.

Nora Belloff - Wars for Successinon

Rape of Bosnia

Author unknown. Two rape campaigns. Why the systematic rape of women? Ethnic cleansing doesn't need rape. As important, how Europe raped Bosnia - the "story of diplomatic blundering of the most awesome proportions."

Steering Clear of Balkan Shoals

George Kenny, "The Nation," Aug. 1996. The man who resigned from the State Department in 1992 to protest Bush Administration policy. Wanted America to intervene. Now he's changed his mind. He blames everyone.

AND ALWAYS SIEGES, DESECRATION, DEATH OF TOWNS AND CITIES

Mostar Postcard

"Philadelphia Inquirer": The Story of Srebrenica and the Missing Men

In a series of sensitve articles, the reporter interviewed many women who survived the Srebrenica destruction. The women and children were rounded up and driven away. Later they went to Tuzla where they live today as refugees. No one knows of the fate of their men. The International Red Cross estimates that as many as 8000 men are missing. Reporter Fawn Vrazo writes here of the stories of the fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, uncles, nephews, boyfriends who have disappeared without a trace.
In April 1992, the long siege of Srebrenica began, and it would last more than 3 years, largely unnoticed while world attention focused on the siege of Sarajevo. Jewel on Bosnia's east side, a famous health center, thick forests, fine hunting grounds, 75 % non-fundamentalist Muslim. For three years, meals consisted mainly of humanitarian aid beans, bread, or rice. The Serbs crushed the residents by poverty and hunger. Serbs allowed only 1 convoy of relief food in each month for 42,000 people.. Even the UN troups had no fresh food and no gasoline.

Srebrenica: A Chronicle of Suffering

Intense sources: text, audio, video.

Srebrenica: A History of Events

Step by step, of the safe haven, siege, fall, massacre.

Story of Banja Luka

Site presents this destroyed city from 1991 - as though it were still alive. After my "visit" last year, it is like a surrealistic painting of facts, songs, tales, pictures - calling it a "lovely city."

Tuzla Home Page

A destroyed and proud city places its story, history, pictures of the lost town, pictures of the destruction, and its courage on the Net.

Mayor of Tuzla Condemnation of UN

Speech, May 25, 1995 to UN Security Council (in form of a letter?). Devastating critique. "If after this terrible crime you again stay silent,...then without any doubt you stay on the side of the evil, darkness and fascism....For the sake of the God and humanity use the force finally." [ Writes again after another attack within 24 hours of first one: "The citizens of Tuzla have nothing to say to you. The civilisation of the 20th century has nothing to say... you are quietly watching the killing of the innocent people."

AND ALWAYS THE REFUGEES, THE MISSING, THE HOMELESS AND THOSE IN NEED

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Refugees in Zenica

Krajina Refugees

Be careful with the facts and comparisons.

One Day in the Life of a Refugee

Serbian refugee camp.

People Finder Service

By Applied Computing Solutions. Facilitates task of finding lost relatives, friends, family or other displaced persons from the war torn countries of former Yugoslavia. Enter info into database. Refugees can register. Info maintained for one year. Exceptional service.

 AND ALWAYS THE TORTURE AND MASSACRE

Bearing Witness to the Massacres

Remarkable effort, remarkable site.  Contains the indictments.

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Massacre Hill - Bosnia's Killing Fields

Betrayal:  The Missing Men of Srebrenica

David Rohde did careful investigation, unauthorized by the Bosnian Serb authorities, of the missing Muslims (in the thousands) and his own individual search for the mass graves - which he found. The Serbs discovered him, arrested and held him for 10 days. Accused of being a spy, he is fortunate to be alive to win the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. Now, he wonders if it meant anything.

Betrayal of Srebrenica - by Bianca Jagger

Ethnic Cleansing and Destroyed Islamic Heritage in Pocitelj

Human Rights Archives and Data on the Genocide in Bosnia : The Indictments

Massacre in Srebrenica

Time table, Pulitzer and "Philadelphia Inquirer" articles, raklpe as ethnic cleansing weapon, fall of Srebrenica. Page done "to commemorate massacre of approximately 8000 Muslim men and boys, which occured from July 12 through July 18 (1995) after the Serb nationalist forces entered the UN designated 'safe haven' of Srebrenica."

Massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica

On the Latent Function of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia

Srebrenica & Zepa: The God-Awful Stories

  AND ALWAYS THE CAMPS

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Father Tells Tribunal of Delivering Son to Tadic for Fatal Beating

Go to archive at bottom of page.

The Evil at Omarska

  AND ALWAYS THE CHILDREN

Incredible sources in the Berserkistan Archives.  The following articles plus many others are available but you will have to search the archives.  They are here.  Go to the bottom of the page.

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Bosnia's Kids

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Sarajevo's "Terminator"

Berserkistan in Bosnia: To Save A Boy's Leg

Serious Road Trip: Aid to Deprived Children

Amazing projects, creative, intense, to assist children in Yugoslavia - from clowns to meals.

  AND ALWAYS THE WOMEN

Incredible sources in the Berserkistan Archives.  The following articles plus many others are available but you will have to search the archives.  They are here.  Go to the bottom of the page.
Berserkistan in Bosnia: Muslim Women Protest Missing Persons

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Srebrenica Victim Graves Probed at Brnica

Look for mass graves of Moslems missing from the Srebrenica horror.

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Tortured, Raped Women Can Sue Karadzic

June 96. Based on 200-year-old law.

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Tribunal Hears of Rape as Ethnic Cleansing Weapon

July 96. Young girls systematically raped, tribunal judges hear. Systematic nature of the rapes - premediated policy.

Investigators Compile Mass Rape Allegations

Testimonies of Rape

Women Anti-War organizations in Belgrade, Zagreb

Remarkable organization of a remarkable group of unbelievably, consistently courageous women. What they are doing is stunning.

Women for Women in Bosnia

The inter-faith non-profit organization attempting to work with the 60,000 Bosnian and Croatian women and children genocidally raped in the systematic plan to dehumanize and demoralize the civilian population. 1.5 million women and children have fled their homes and villages, and most now live in overcrowded and primitive refugee camps. This organization helps you support a woman in the camps and to write to the person you sponsor. PS.  These pages are IMPORTANT.

Women In Black, Belgrade, Announcement and Dayton Agreement

Women of Bosnia - Wounded Souls

By Zafar Siddiqui. The title says it all.

  AND ALWAYS THE SICK AND DYING

Berserkistan in Bosnia: Lost Souls - At Zavod Mental Institution

  AND ALWAYS OTHER LIVING CREATURES

Berserkistan: Veternairen Sans Frontiere

Needed by Bosnian horses.

  AND ALWAYS A STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE

Berserkistan: Landmine Survival Guide - use archives

I was given a sheet like this one when I went last into Bosnia. It was momentarily unnerving. But then so was the heavy flakjacket all were required to wear. It was summertime and weighed a ton. Take a look.

Berserkistan: Stalking Bosnia's Hidden Killers

  YES - ALWAYS A REBUILDING OF CULTURAL, INTELLECTUAL, DAILY LIFE AND HERITAGE

Berserkistan: Searching for Bosnia's Lost Cultural Treasures - Use Archives

Bosnia's Academic Exiles

Students who fled their war-torn country face new challenges abroad. May 95 article from "Chronicle of Higher Education." Factual report.

Bosnia-Herzegovinan Culture, Academia and Daily Life

Excellent source on a very important subject.

Culture, Resistance,  and Ethnic Cleansing

Sarajevo's rubble contains more than the ordinary atrocities of war. "Rubble in BH signifies nationalist extremists hard at work to eliminate living beings, living cities, AND living memories of the past. Targets are libraries, archives, museums, univeristies, academies, historic districts, cemeteries, and places of workship - to destroy "evidence of a successfully shared past."

OEM 2/95: Three Forgotton Universities

The situation of Bosnian students. Mostar U was cut into two parts. Tuzla U has been forgotten. 80% of the infrastructure and equipment of the Univ. Sarajevo damaged or destroyed. 41% of the students have lost a close relative. Every second family "had to bear sufferings from concentration camps, rape or wounding. 87 % of the Bosnian refugee students have no contact with their parents." Here is how to help.

University System in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Analysis, history, current conditions in Bosnia's 4 universities.

We Must Save What is Left - Art in Bosnia

"The Independent" (London) 4/20/95. So much of the art, books, mosques, National Library was destroyed. "But a few souls battle on to save their heritage."

  AND ALWAYS THE QUESTION: WHERE IS GOD?

In Bosnia's Tragedy, Equivocation Means Death

To Bear Witness: An Ecumenical Gathering for the Dead and the Suffering

Sponsored by the US Holocaust Memorial Council, with the speeches and prayers of clergy from the Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, Baptist, Hindu and Sikh faiths. Includes speach by the Director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. Also the formal statement of the Council. Very moving.

  AND ALWAYS THE WAR CRIMES

Court TV Casefiles: The Bosnia War Crimes Tribunal

Includes all the reports from Court TV and the american Lawyer Media, the indictments and other court documents, the Dayton Peace Accord, State Department policy briefings, and a look back at Nuremberg.

Major War Criminals/Suspects - in the Bosnian Conflict

12 pages of briefs, lists of perpetrators including Milosevic, Karadzic, Mladic; all the indictments and accusations

UN Commission of Experts' on Former Yugoslavia

Established 1992 by UN Security Council after UN resolution on war crimes in Yugoslavia in response to "credible reports of atrocities in the former Yugoslavia on a scale not seen in Europe since the Nazi era. Worked through April 94. Final report contained here. It must be a million pages long. But pull up the Table of Contents, then go to the Substantive Findings and the General Conclusions and Recommendations. If you need graphic details, go to the sections on crimes against humanites and genocide.

UN International Criminal Tribunal

Press releases, case files, rules of procedure and evidence, manual, documents, commentaries. Contains the full indictments of all the charged.

  AND WHAT OF THE PEACE?

Analysis of September 8, 1995 Geneva Agreement

Balkan Media & Policy Monitor: Special Thematic Issue on Bosnia

The Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Going back to all articles since June and moving on the events to Aug. 20, 96, BMPM provides an exceptionally deep analysis. Of course, the pros and cons of whether flawed elections should be held before the Dayton Accord is implemented (and two of its major provisions were not at that time) is addressed. BMPM should be read periodically for the Balkan area.

Beyond the Pale: Perspectives From the Two Serbias

David Binder, "Mediterranean Quarterly," Spring 96. Peace won't hold without outside forces.

CNN - Bosnia - Mission: Peace:

CNN's special series on THE BALKAN TRAGEDY deserves applause. Roots of the Balkan Troubles: a hisory of ethnic skirmishes. The Balkan Players: Who are they and what do they want? With Independence Came War: recent events in the Balkans. Daily Reports on the Balkan Conflict - Archives.

Dayton Peace Agreement Summary: Online Backgrounders, PBS

Six page summary from PBS.

Geneva Agreement

Izetbegovic Speech to CSCE Conference - Dec. 16, 1995.

Lament for Bosnia By Susan Sontag

Unprincipled Principles: Critique of the Geneva Principles

Geneva, Sept. 1995. Holbrook and Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian foreign ministers agree to set of principles to guide the Dayton meetings. Principles violate 5 basic tenets of international law. Thus enormous problems for future.

  AND WHAT OF PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA?

An Analysis of Germany's Yugoslav Policy

Nora Beloff, May, 92. One-minded, anti-German polemic - but with somewhat solid history.

Journalists at War: Media Coverage of Post-Cold War Conflicts

By the London International Research Exchange, focusing primarily on Bosnia, a study of basic questions about the media and the war. Who decides which target is covered? The causes of conflict. Does the media make foreign policy? Should we blame the messengers?

Letter to the BBC: A SPECIAL EFFORT

"During that period, the BBC...failed to provide credible and independent coverage of the events in former Yugoslavia." Strong and courageous letter sent to the heads of the BBC.

Potemkin's Sarajevo

A. Vukovic, July 94. Skewed but clever with some truth. "Sarajevo is a city defined by people who do not live in it...the strangest city in the entire world." European journalists as cheerleaders who root for one of the gladiators. Their reporting - "a catastrophic debacle. From the War of Success Site.

Yugo-Victimology

By Lee Bryant from "Casablanca." Critic of the media presentation of war which had such deadly effect. 1) the conflict as a generalised bloodletting between equally sinful warring factions. 2) all sides are guilty. 3) all people are victims. Result - confusion, paralysis in decision-making and action. Excellent article.

  PROVOCATIVE SOURCES

Most of these come from the first source, "Bosnia." Rather than categorize them, I simply list them for your reading pleasure.

Balkan Odyssey

Crimes of Humanity

General Mladic Interview

Historical Comparisons: Citing from Shirer's "Rise and Fall of Third Reich."

More to Bosnia Than Ethnic Hatreds

Republic of Srpska: Bastion of Hate

Serb Chief Painted as Warmonger by Ex-Aide

Thatcher Statement on Bosnia

Margaret Thatcher: "The Serb is the aggressor. The Bosnians are the victim. We would not deny them the fundamental right of self defence. I doubt the legality of doing it....The UN are not peacekeeping. There is no peace to keep...We have the weapons. We have the quality, the number...They are not being used to protect the innocent."

The World of Radovan Karadzic

Williams at UCSF

  BEST CONTINUOUS SOURCES

Balkan Media & Policy Monitor

Berserkistan World Links for Bosnia

Bosnia HomePage at Caltech

Hodgepage is a surprise GEM. Articles, interviews, letters are excellent source. At end, the information resources list is an uncommingly good source. Someone has done a superior job.

Business Europa Country Summary Briefings

Excellent current risk analyses in brief.

Former Yugoslavia in Cyberspace

Covering Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, this major source has great sites but - doesn't seem to have been updated in the past year. It just stops.

Online NewsHour: Public Broadcasting System

Outstanding source of news, essays, background reports, interviews on eastern and western Europe. Recent material of value on Bosnia, Serbia, Russia, Nazi Germany, NeoNazism

This Week in Bosnia-Hercegovina: The Bosnia Action Coalition Project - VERY CURRENT

A weekly news summary with history, politics, and, of course, suffering.

  OTHER SOURCES

Bosnia and East Timor

Good source list for articles.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: The 18 Page Navigator

How they did it I don't know. But here is a mass of information of every conceivable subject from History to geology, from business to communication. Current news, economics, environment, geography, health, language, law, et.al.

Community of Bosnia Homepage

Although very slow to load, this foundation is worth the effort. Evidently founded by students at Haverford, it works for a "culturally pluralistic, multi-religious Bosnia." Its greatest contribution are the pages, information on, and efforts toward countering the cultural cleansing and terrible destruction in Bosnia.

List of World Wide Web and other Internet Resources in and about Bosnia

Yugoslav Resources on the Internet

Fine and thoughtful.

  OFFICIAL ORGANIZATIONS & SITES

U.S. Policy in Bosnia

Official State Department Site with the usual speeches, testimony, texts of Dayton peace accords, briefings, fact sheets.

United Nations Headquarters Homepage

   THE NEW FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF
    YUGOSLAVIA:

SERBIA, MONTENEGO, KOSOVO, VOJVODINA

Who are these Serbs? Branded by some as Europe's new Nazis, they are seen by others - and by themselves - as the innocent victims of nationalist aggression and of an implacably hostile world media.  From all the time and years I have spent in Yugoslavia, I find that neither image is true.  Additionally, I also know without qualification that a Serb is not a Serb is not a Serb.  There are all "kinds" of Serbs.  To understand, one needs to explore the great epics of its past to the dreadful present on the battlefields of Bosnia and on the steaming, dreadful streets of Kosovo.  It was Slobodan Milosevic who used a version of the history of Serbdom to drive or lead or lure (depending on one's version) his people to nationalist euphoria and an explosion of vicious cruelty and destruction.  There has never been a legitimate excuse for what happened and is happening.  But there are reasons and antecedents.  Serbs are human beings, many of whom  whom have lost the vital image of those living around them as human beings.  And that loss created a life loss and a genocide rampage of the most brutal and basest kind, such as the Western world has not seen since WWII.

One needs to ask four questions:  How could this happen in the midst of the modernizing European state that produced that genuine, lovely, inspiring picture of the Sarajevo Olympics?  and What will happen next, in the next year ? and What will this new Yugoslavia and its new neighbor countries be like in the year 2000?  Will they exist?  and What role should the US and the UN play?   

Business Europa Briefing: Serbia & Montenegro

Bosnia 101

What is Bosnia from the Serbian Perspective. Simply an "administrative unit." This tiresome argument if taken any where would eliminate many, many nations of the world.

Bosnia-Hercegovina's History By Republika Srpska

Chronicle of a Punishment: Of Yugoslavia

A troubling portrayal.

Dr. Karadicz' Christmas 1995 Message

List of World Wide Web and other Internet Resources in and about Yugoslavia (Serbia+Montenegro)

Good solid source.

Republika Srpska Home Page

Serbia

The history of the people on Servian soil has always been turbulent." Focus on cities, graphics, music, pronunciation files, and everyday life.

Serbian Legacy

Serbian Legacy: Table of Rulers

Serbs of Greater Serbia Find Suffering and Decay

Excellent analysis. Serbian aggression is about an attempt to settle a fundamental question: where is Serbia? In Kosovo, where the medieval kingdom was strong? In Bosnia? In Croatia, where Serbs had fled westward from the Turks? In Krajina? Milosevic has one answer: Serbia lies wherever there are Serbs.

Slavs: A Selection of Historical Sites

   Painted With A Heart - The Yugoslavia Page

This well developed site saddens me so. Until I had gone into its depths and was relying only on its superficial presentation, I decided it was so outstanding that I would select it as a special place. And then I probed. I read it all. Its contents are so disturbing in their effort to deceive and distort that I cannot even comment.

www.yugoslavia.com - Landscape Painted With Heart

www.yugoslavia.com - News - Serbia Bulletin

www.yugoslavia.com - Economy

Culture

  USTASHA MOVEMENT: From WWII to Today - Ever Present in Croatia

These are the sites by the intense Serbian sources that have prepared a full-scale propaganda attack against Croatia - by intricately and constantly connecting everything today with the Ustasha and Jacenovac during WWII. They warn over and over again that history repeats itself exactly. It is important to go here to understand the propaganda that has been fed over fully controlled media to the Serbian people. One serbian writer I read someplace said, "If the Klu Klux Klan owned completely all the media in the US for the past five years, I bet you Americans would have many new fears after that kind of constant barrage." Here is part of the barrage. In these contents are some good points. Lately, it seems, a few good points somehow make the theses and conclusions valid. It reminds me of what I heard in Germany so many years ago. "Hitler had some good points. Other countries had not been fair to us. Besides he built roads, ended unemployment, created the Volkswagen." And I have to ask then as now, "So?"

Democracy in Modern Day Croatia

Collection of articles connecting the present day with the past.

From 1991 to Now: New Independent State Croatia

Talks again of the "third genocide attempt against the Serbs is taking place today within the borders of the internationally recognized Republic of Croatia under the leadership of Franjo Tudjman," reminding viewers that present day state continues exactly the Ustasha state of WWII.

Hiding Genocide: The Balkan Conflict

"The Psychological Strategy Aspects," Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, Dec., 1992. The 27-page article begins, "twice before in this Century there have been well documented attempts by the Croats to destroy the Serbian people, and to obliterate their culture, religion and memory...there is no doubt that the genocide against Serbs in Croatia and BH resumed immediately after Germany forced the European Community, in 1991, into premature recognition." Half of the article is graphic details of Jasenovac during WWII. By the Editor-in-Chief of this Journal.

Jasenovac 1995

The eternal comparison of the Ustashi to today with a list of articles.

Patriotic Crimes

Ten Reasons Krajina Fell So Quickly

Again, equates the WWII war years with 1990s. As "proof," cites from Tudjman, the remark: "Thank God my wife is neither a Serb nor a Jew!" And then Simon Wiesenthal's correct observation that "even the Germans were appalled by the crimes committed in it," referring to Croatia in WWI.

Ustasha Now

Victims of Jasenovac should be remembered

Milwaukee Journal, June, 1995. Again, the comparison.

Yugoslav Civil War, 1991-1993

By the Serbian-American Affairs Office in WDC. Fairly straightforward historical summary of the events leading up to the Serbian Uprising from the Serbian point of view.

MEDIA BIAS IN YUGOSLAV WARS

Some of the more helpful articles are listed under Media Category. The following are included to give reader a more "arbitrary" feel for the intensity.

"Slaughter" Is Something Other Countries Do

Is the Entire Press Corrupt?

Media Bias in Yugoslav War

News, Advertising or Propaganda

Srebrenica

The War in Former Yugoslavia and the American News Media

Article blaming media for labeling Serbia the aggressor. A "peace at any price" perspective. Blames just about everyone.

Witnesses - Authentic or in the Service of Propaganda

ROLE OF EXTERNAL POWERS

AGAIN, the Blame.

Francesca von Habsburg, Archduchess of Austria.

Misha Glenny Condemns US Covert Activity

Nat. Public Radio Interview with Misha Glenny, Aug.95.

Research Center for Crimes against the Serbs

Role of External Powers in the War

Serbhaters: Statements About Serbs

Given by distinguished world intellectuals and politians, listed by alphabet, six pages. Includes just about everyone.

US "Great Game" in Bosnia

KOSOVO: The Next Ethnic Cleansing

(Written in Fall 1996 and Material on Site is from that Period). Province of Yugoslavia. In Kosovo, I wonder if I am going to die on the spot! I have been in a lot of places of grinding poverty. At one time in Bosnia I was afraid of bombs and land mines. In Kosovo, I am afraid of disease. The conditions are so dreadful that the Albanians have nothing to lose by standing up to Serbia, except their lives, and they believe they are losing anyway. "Where is Serbia," we ask Milosevic. "Anywhere that Serbs live," he responds. "Well, since Kosovo is 90% Albanian, will you let those people go?" "No, of course not," he replies, "they are riffraff." The Albanians will not rest.  How long it will take?  The Serbians will not let them go.  Who wins?  No one.  But it will blow up - taking some of the region with it.

Federal Republic of Yugos.: Truth About Kosovo and Methohija

Belgrade, October 95, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Measured Kosovo statement from the Serbian point of view.

Kosova: A Detailed Summary History

Long, detailed article.

And this TERRIBLY DAMMING PLACE STILL UP:  The Kosovo Crisis

A MUST SEE (August 2001).  Done in 1998.  Almost like someone forgot to take it down.  But it does tell so much of what has been taken off.

VOJVODINA: Making this Province Pure

"Mr. Milosevic, where is Serbia," we ask. "Serbia is wherever Serbs live," he responds. Sir, "Even if they are a minority?" "Well," he ponders, "the answer is yes, if they are being deprived of rights and harrassed and brutalized as in Croatia." We ask again, "Does this apply of course to the nasty situation in Vojvodina for the strong Hungarian minority that is being brutalized.?" "Of course not," he responds.
Vojvodina, always for me one of the more pleasant places in Tito's Yugoslavia in the old days. Now fear is in the air and nastiness. My Hungarian friends who are left are frightened. My "pure" Vojvodinan friends are oblivious.

HOLOCAUST IN YUGOSLAVIA IN WWII

JASENOVAC: THE WORST OF IT AND THE SYMBOL

I sat here by myself some years ago at the Memorial Complex. It was always worse for me than sitting by myself in Treblinka, or Chelmo or the other killing centers in Poland. Jasenovac was not mechanized. The killing methods were more "hand to hand." But I have also stood at the edge of the gorges into which the bodies were thrown. When I returned later after Tudjman was elected President, I found he had taken steps to make it a "pleasant" place with no Holocaust memories. My quarrel with the Web presentation about Jasenovac and the Ustasha is the one-to-one identification that the same exact thing is happening in Jasenovac again. Poor history but stunning propaganda by the Serbian groups.

What about the Jews in Croatia? Tudjman has not helped much by refusing to acknowledge what happened during the war, by writing in his book that only 25,000 were killed at Jansenovac. Or by deciding to clear the grounds and make it a rare bird paradise. Or lately by deciding to bring back all the Croatian dead from WWII including the Ustasha and burying them all together in Jasenovac as a memorial for all victims of the Germans. He hadn't done that yet during summer 1995, when I went out and sat there. He was too busy at the time taking back the Krajina. But I met with the leaders of the Croatian Jewish community - and they believe they have made headway. The mayor of Zagreb wrote an essay in the camp memorial book in which he recognizes clearly what happened to the Jews and apologizes. If this is meant, it means something.

As an indication of how vile things are, in summer ('96), the "great humanitarian" President of the Bosnian Serbs, indicted as a war criminal, Karadicz, jumped in and wrote an article on the Net deploring the situation in Jasenovac and saying the world must never let it happen again! I was there by myself in the silence and the desecration in summer 97.  I cannot write about it.

Ante Pavelic: Croatian Attila the Hun

Biography of and documents on the Holocaust. Generally accurate. Reinforces the evidence that the German Nazis and Italian Fascists were shocked at what was happening. The problem is that in this WWII paper, it says, "the problem with history is that it tends to repeat itself. Today's Independent State of Croatia is the copy of the Nazi puppet state of some fifty years ago." Heavy duty constant propaganda by the Serbs.

Cardinal Dr. Viktor Gutic's Infamous Speech

Made at a meeting in Sanski Most on May 28, 1941 and published in the Utashi magazine, May 30, 1941. And again at a Ustashi rally in Banja Luka and later at a Prnjavor ralley. The Cardinal exhorted the crowd: "Do not be weak towards anyone...destroy them where you come upon them...the Serbs are not to hope for anything." Dr Peric, the Franciscan from the Livno manastery who, from the altary of the monastery church in Gorica, June 1941, urged the Croats: Brothers Croats, go forth and slaughter all Serbs. First kill my sister because she is married to a Serb...Then I will hear your confession and give you communion."

Croatian Cardinal Stepinas as Pavelic's Head Military Chaplain

Supposedly half of the concentration campus were headed by Roman Catholic clergy.

Cyberjournal: Articles, Letters of Comparison

WWII atrocities in Croatia as the same as today.

Embodied Devils: Who was Who in the Ustaha

Gallery of Horror: The Pictures of the Croatian Holocaust

Genocide in Yugoslavia During the Holocaust

Dr. Christopher Browning's article.

German and Italian Authors on the Ustashi Genocide

Correctly, military historian, Walter Gorlitz who was in the Nazi government refers to it as a"terrible military venture of extermination." The Commander of the Italian "Sasari" division wrote: "the horrors that the Ustashi have committed over the Serbian small girls is beyond all words." Talks of hundreds of photographs which he describes of unimaginable torture, after rape. Here too is the controversial oyster/eyes story.

Holy See and Pavelic's Croatia

The involvement of the Vatican.

In WW2: NDH - Independent State of Croatia

Ustasha Movement's summary of articles and documents.

Letter from Prvolsav Grizogono, Feb. 8, 1942

To the Archbishop from a Croatian politicial detailing the horrible things he had seen and begging for His Holiness to stop them.

Pius XII: Vatican and Ustashe

Extensive book review of the book, "The Vatican's Holocaust," newly reissued from its 1986 original printing. Reiterates well known involvement, knowledege of, support of Ustashe by Vatican and Legates. A support that made all the difference. Had the Vatican disapproved, for example, of the intense revival of the policy of forced conversions, no priest would have taken part in the massacres or conversions. This page needs to be read.

The Serbs Choose War

Ruth Mitchell, excerpts from her book chapter, "Yugoslavia Finally Dissolves," focusing on the events leading up to Germany's attack, the assistance Croatia gave Germany, the massacres. Includes the damning written protests and appeals by Croatians against what was happening.

Serbs, Jews and Gypsies to Honor Holocaust Victims of Jasenovac Concentration Camp

In Chicago, April 1995.

Simon Wiesenthal Center: Ustashi Murders in WWII

Figures on populations and deaths for Jews, Gypsies, Serbs. The death rate for the Gypsies, as we have always known, was almost 100%.

Ustaha Movement

Includes Who's Who, before WWII - and during WWII. Standard, documented material on the genocide against Serbs, Jews, Gypsies.

Yugoslavia and WWII

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1971. Good quick summary.

 CROATIA:
 The Country that Broke the Stalemate

Ambivalence describes the reaction and views of most Non-Serbs to Croatia. One fact, however, seems ignored. For better or for worse, it was the Croatians and their amazing military campaign of Summer 95 that broke the stalemate, regained the territory, scared the Serbs, and made the Dayton Accord possible. What that says in reality remains to be seen. Does Croatia bear some responsibility for the destruction in Bosnia? Yes.  Was it also responsible for making a brokered peace for Bosnia possible?  Yes.

From the ashes of former Yugoslavia, the independent Croatian state arose, the fulfillment, in the words of President Tudjman, of the Croats' "thousand-year-old dream of independence."  Yet few countries in Europe have been born amid such bitter controversy and bloodshed.  The savage war left about one-third of Croatia in ruins and resulted in the flight of a quarter of a million of its Serbian minority.  Croatia's unique position on the crossroads of Europe - between Eastern and Western Christendom, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans and betwee the old Habsburg and Ottoman empires - has clearly been both a curse and a blessing, inviting the attention of larger and more powerful neighbors.  Its history speaks of vigorous turbulence and drama.

 This short synopsis begins the Croatian Chapter in the major Web book on Eastern Europe. Travel there by clicking on Image.

  MACEDONIA:
   And Its Place in Balkan Power Politics

Macedonia is such a small country, the size of Vermont. And yet it has played such a role in history. My own pictures in my head are of beauty and simplicity, art, serenity, awful poverty, and a singular staying power. The Bulgarians destroyed the Macedonian Jews with Hitler's help during WWII. The great and small powers have partitioned it. Macedonian nationalists have assasinated figures they did not like. The last time I sat on the shores of Lake Ohrid overlooking the border, there was no serenity left. The war in BH, the results of the UN sanctions, the Greek actions and sanctions have left this country nearly at bare bones - to say nothing of the assassination attempt on the President which left him in the hospital for some time. Almost a year ago, a bomb blew out his right eye, imbedded 3 pieces of shrapnel in his head, and gave him a brain hemorrhage. Neurosurgeon from the US, France, Greece flew in to operate. He lived and is back. No one has ever been arrested.

It is a complex situation in Macedonia - and the material on this site shows that well - but the extremes are being reached. And if they are, the extremist fringes in Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria may well win - and involve Turkey also. Again, it is a question of badly-used history taken to the extreme. I have tried to keep the opposing views separate in the following sites as much as possible to give the view an opportunity to go to see what basically are two simple but starkly opposing "theses."

  This short synopsis begins the Macedonian Chapter in the major Web book on Eastern Europe. Travel there by clicking on image.

       SLOVENIA:
      The Next Best Thing to Western
      Europe - and THEN SOME

    This short topic summary begins the Slovenian Chapter in the major Web book on Eastern Europe. Travel there by clicking on image.