Message from Chris Mathieu regarding James Bissets disgusting denial of genocide in Bosnia
More: http://bosniavolimte.blogspot.ca/2012/07/response-to-james-bissetts-racists.html
Chris Mathieu is the Member of the International Expert Team of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada
A response to the shameful explanation by the Former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett on Canadian Television as to why the Srebrenica Genocide and the War in Bosnia occurred
James Bissett explains why there was so little action in the west in the face of atrocities during the war in Bosnia. Although mandate after mandate was set, yet ignored by the international community. The illegal UN arms embargo created a clear advantage to the Bosnian Serb VRS and Bosnian Croat HVO who could rely on an endless supply of weapons and ammunition.
In addition, Many power brokers both out in the open and behind the scenes, like Yushi Akashi, Boutros Boutros Gali and General McKenzie openly and clearly sided with the Bosnian Serbs following in the treacherous footsteps of Margaret Thatcher and Lawrence Eagleburger who clearly favored the strongest (militarily) and largest population group in the Balkans, which happened to be the Serbs.
Bissett’s explanation that America was responsible for the war in Bosnia is reprehensible and is just a repeat of what Serb apologists claim. While nearly the entire international community openly recognizes that almost sole responsibility for the wars that consumed Yugoslavia belongs to the Serbs. A CIA report covered in the book “Balkan Battlegrounds” show that through an extensive review of the war the Serbs were responsible for over 90% of crimes committed in Bosnia during the war.
Bissett claims that for Bosnian Serbs what happened in Srebrenica is controversial, claiming that Bosniaks during the breakout “fought their way across” to free Bosnian territory is an outright lie not backed by any facts and is completely inaccurate. Yes, the Bosnian Army’s 28th division led one of three main groups out of Srebrenica, but to claim they fought their way out is way off base. Ambushes, choke points and artillery and tanks were laid out all the way along the path and there was no fighting except at the eventual breakout point across to Bosnian territory. Almost all men were unarmed and carried no extra ammunition for their small arms. The idea that he purports that this was soldiers fighting is just another ridiculous account of blaming the victims and a repeat of Karadzic’s lies made up after the fact that those killed in Srebrenica were soldiers who died in fighting. When in fact it has been proven that they were bussed, herded into collection points, executed, buried then reburied in order to hide their crimes. There is no controversy over what happened in Srebrenica happened in cold blood, the facts have been established over and over again for 17 years except in the minds of racist nationalists and their apologists, like Bissett, around the globe.
Bissett’s claim that Tuzla was a “Muslim stronghold” is another use of words to obscure the truth. Tuzla was the one and only truly multi-ethnic city still left in Bosnia during the war. He purposefully uses the terms “Muslim stronghold” in order to raise fear among westerners and makes an attempt to tie Bosnian Muslims to Muslim extremists which helps to back up racist Serbian stereotypes of why they started the war in the first place.
His claim that “roughly the same percentages” of Bosnians and Serbians died during the war are widely inaccurate. Most Bosnian Muslims killed were civilians, most Bosnian Serbs killed were soldiers and relatively few Bosnian Croats died during the war.
Bissett’s further claims that Srebrenica was used as a base to raid Serbian villages has also been found to be untrue by the international courts. The Bosnians were starving and the Serbian villages nearby were chocked full of food and guarded by civilian defense forces who were heavily armed. The claim that 3,000 Serbian civilians were killed around Srebrenica is also an outright lie. While it is true that some Serbians died in that region, almost all were from combat both around Srebrenica, but also with the Serbian VRS across Bosnia. It has been established that fewer than 400 Serbian civilians died around Srebrenica during the war.
His claim that the US started the war mixes two stories; the referendum on independence being defeated is incorrect. There was a referendum and almost all voted for independence (most Serbs did boycott this referendum). Also there was an agreement to work on a loose confederation of States in the early 1990’s but once Slovenia and Croatia pulled out of these negotiations, it was dead, as Bosnians knew that meant Serbian domination of Bosnia and rump Yugoslavia.
The claim of Serbs not wanting to live under “Sharia law” is another example of Bissett trying to place fear in the minds of westerners and conjure up images of Iraq, Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden.
In the end he spends less than a minute of the interview talking about what happened in Srebrenica the next five minutes making excuses for what the Serbs did.
Please contact this network and point out what he said was wrong, factually inaccurate, racist and has no place in a discussion on the Genocide that was committed in Srebrenica by the Serbs against Bosnian Muslims.
