General Sir Hugh Michael Rose is a retired British Army General. As well as commanding 22 Special Air Service Regiment, he was Commander UNPROFOR Bosnia in 1994 during the Yugoslav Wars. Extracts from the book ''Mission in Bosnia:Fighting for Peace'' , published by The Harvill Press, London, 1998: source Ceasefire agreements Since there is no such thing as a tidy end to fighting, a certain amount of shelling in Sarajevo continued throughout the day, mostly from the Muslim side. When I sent a note of protest to Divjak, he replied that he would rio longer talk to me because of the way I had treated him the day before. (...) About that time, I watched a dramatic report by Peter Arnett of CNN, filmed from the roof of the Holiday Inn, implying that the UN ceasefire had already broken down and that Sarajevo was under heavy attack by the Serbs, although from his footage, it seemed to us that the rounds were outgoing and had been fired by the Muslims, not by the Serbs. Someone commented that he appeared to be confusing Sarajevo with Baghdad. I immediately complained to CNN, and I was not sorry to see Arnett leave Bosnia. (pages 53-54) ------------------------------- Bosnian forces were sometimes firing on their own citizens More serious were reports we started to receive from the French in the city that the Bosnian forces were sometimes firing on their own citizens. In one such incident a tram had been fired on from a building on the Bosnian side of the conflict line normally occupied by paramilitary police. In another incident, following a mortar attack near the Residency that killed two children, two more shells had been fired at the same location while a French Army team was investigating the first incident. These secondary shots could only have come from the Bosnian side of the firing line. On the other side of the city, on several occasions, UN and NATO aircraft at Sarajevo airport had been fired at from the Muslim-held suburb of Butmir. The Bosnian Government always denied that their forces had ever fired on their own people or on the UN. Nor, in the circumstances of civil war in Bosnia, was it always possible for the UN to prove conclusively who had fired any particular shot, though it was sometimes possible to identify the firing point. It is also possible that the Bosnian Government never gave orders for such attacks. Nonetheless, in my view the moral distinction between Bosnian forces firing at the Serbs with the intention of provoking retaliation against civilians and the Bosnians themselves firing on their own people is a fine one. (pages 197) -------------------------------- Ilijas In mid-August, the Bosnian Army shelled the Serb town of Ilijas on the outskirts of Sarajevo. Ilijas was well within the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around Sarajevo, and once again the Bosnians were in breach of the NATO ultimatum. In the attack, a school was hit and women and children killed. (page 163) ------------------------------ Inhuman tactics We watched the battle for about two hours, after which the fighting began to die down. The Serbs, whom we could clearly see in their trenches in the pine-covered forest behind us, had beaten off the Bosnian Army attack. By then, they were using their own artillery and mortars to fire at the Bosnian mortars, one of which had been established in the grounds of Kosevo hospital; a tactic already observed and pro-tested about my predecessor, Gen. Francis Briquemont. The Bosnians had evidently chosen this location with the intention of attracting Serb fire, in the hope that the resulting carnage would further tilt international support in their favour. History is likely to pass judgement on the Bosnian leaders for using these inhuman tactics. "History will judge us accordingly," as Winston Churchill once said, "but do not forget that I will be one of the historians." ---------------------------- Igman mountain On the following night (6 October), having successfully achieved the return of its missing prisoners, a Bosnian Army patrol crossed the demilitarised zone and killed 20 Serb soldiers and nurses in a medical aid and command post. Passing through the zone, the patrol caught the Serbs unawares and most of the victims had been killed in their sleeping bags. A French doctor summoned to the scene found that eight of the Serbs had been killed with knives and most of them had been finished off with a single bullet in the back of the head. Some of the bodies had been badly burned. Four of the victims were female nurses. The next afternoon an open lorry passed us in Sarajevo with a group of black-suited soldiers with blackhandkerchiefs knotted round their heads waving weapons in the air and shouting "Allah Akbar!" We were told they were a specially trained unit that had just had a glorious victory on Mt Igman. Based on the evidence presented so far, this action constituted a war crime, and Akashi courageously denounced the killings as an atrocity. The Bosnian Government countered this by claiming that the action was a legitimate military operation. "Our guys just wiped them out," bragged Ganic, while Izetbegovic accused Akashi of slandering his army.
This is part of a documentary that talks about the Western intervention in the Balkans that lead to the civil wars in Yugoslavia during the 1990s. This particular part talks about how the Bosnian goverment staged atrocities in Sarajevo to turn world opinion against the Serbs. [video=youtube;8E81K71d00U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E81K71d00U[/video]
The first misconception about Sarajevo is that only Serbs control all of the surrounding hills. Igman, Mojmilo, Hum and some other hills controlled by Muslims. Sarajevo was divided into two parts. Muslims were shelled parts of the city controlled by the Serbs. They were doing it because they required the Serbian reaction. Muslims were well aware that they had an advantage in the propaganda war and the suffering of civilians in the Serbian part of the city will remain unknown world public. Another misconception is that Sarajevo was under Serbian siege. Bosnian Army had a way out of Sarajevo, but they did not allow the release civilians. Suffering of civilians were needed in the propaganda war. Different organizations are giving different information about the victims of war in Sarajevo and throughout Bosnia. Muslims claims that 5, 000 civilians and 6, 000 soldiers were killed in Sarajevo. Serbian side deny these figures and claims that most victims Serbian civilians killed by Muslim military and paramilitary forces. Many Serbian civilians remained in the city area, which was under the control of Muslim forces.During the war crimes against Serbs in Sarajevo were unknown to the world public. Many Serbs were killed in villages around the city. Every Serbian village on Mount Igman were destroyed during the war. According to Institute for Research on Suffering of the Serbs in XX c: http://www.serb-victims.org/en/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ Initiatives to raise the monument Serbian victims in Sarajevo came from the population of Sarajevo who are ashamed of this horrendous crimes. Bosnia: Monument in Sarajevo for Serbs killed by Muslims According to hopes of peaceful inhabitants of Sarajevo, the monument will contribute forgiveness. The idea of raising the monument is supported by the mayor of Sarajevo. There is another great monument to the victims of war in Sarajevo. It is the memorial complex of Vraca dedicated to the victims of the Second World War. The memorial complex of Vraca was built on the site where Ustasa (Croatian and Muslim fascists) murdered over ten thousand Serbs, Jews, and anti-fascists.
do you care to offer some evidence in form of relevant bibliography by the way? Ustasa croatian and muslim fascist?! Muslims did join both cetnicks and ustashe however it was done in really small and almost irrelevant number. of course it was, Mount Igman was a battle field during 92-95 war, thus it was one of the rare important points that was under the control of ABiH. Moreover, that was the case with other villages as well, and Mount Igman is one of the points where most of the lives were lost when talking about members of ABiH (which stands for Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the sake of the possible viewers who may find this abbreviation unknown); Sarajevo was under the Serbian siege, this is not a misconception; besides saying that out do you really have a logical set of points that may prove your point? every strategical point around Sarajevo was taken by Serb paramilitary forces including all these barricades all across the city, that came up out of nowhere few days before the first missile rain; any other point that was controlled by TO (territorial defense or teritorijalna odbrana) BiH and later ABiH was taken in a bloody manner seen from how equipped Serb paramilitaries were in comparison to TO's Molotov cocktails, rifles and armament that Serb paramilitary members and sniper groups who were helping them out didn't manage to take from weapon bases that were previously formed during the Yugoslav era which were supposed to belong to independent R. of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the separation. Namely, Sarajevo roses or painted shell impacts throughout the city where numerous citizens lost their lives by bombshells that were falling over Sarajevo from Serb paramilitary positions more than 18 hours per day, and much more during months and years. Finally, that was a siege, defined by all parameters thus the longest siege in a modern warfare and what defines a siege is following: more exact form of the assault and attrition can be found in next quote : *it refers to the Serb paramilitary positions around the city also: this also includes water,gas and electricity supplies that were obviously cut and controlled by Serb paramilitaries and were set into use only few times, sometimes once in 3 weeks, sometimes once in month, two or three months which is finally why so many citizens were standing in a line for water, bread, and other essential supplies and where most of the citizens and UN and other members of humanitarian organizations who were giving out supplies were killed by Serb paramilitaries.
Mission in Bosnia 2 Bosnia’s state security agency questioned top government officials and searched their offices today in simultaneous probes of alleged corruption, drug smuggling and organized crime, the authorities said. The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia-Herzegovina said it authorized the State Investigation and Protection Agency, or SIPA, to carry out “investigative activities” at the offices of Bosnia’s Presidency in the capital, Sarajevo, and at the seat of the Muslim-Croat Federation in Mostar. Bosnia-Herzegovina consists of the Federation and a Serb entity, known as Republika Srpska. The investigation focused on Federation President Zivko Budimir and his alleged role in “cash-for-pardon” cases, state broadcaster BHRT1 reported. Budimir’s office declined to comment. SIPA said it was focusing on “tens of persons” involved in corruption, abuse of office, drug trafficking and organized crime and that “searches are ongoing at many locations.” “The aim of these investigative activities is to discover corruption offenses whose perpetrators are the highest officials,” the prosecutor’s office said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...esidency-in-crackdown-on-organized-crime.html
as long as USA dominates Balkans , serbs will suffer....just wonder somebody here believe that Bosnia a solid state can work ?
