Mr Delic goes to The Hague
Needless to say, Delic was wartime commander of the Bosnian army, in which quite a few non-Muslims fought. It was the legal army of the internationally-recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not some warlord’s private militia. I thought journalists stopped using these terms many years ago but apparently that ain’t so.International News Article | Reuters.com:
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The wartime commander of the Bosnian Muslim army said on Tuesday he would surrender next week to the U.N. war crimes court, which has indicted him over atrocities by foreign Islamic fighters in the 1992-95 war.
Uh, how about “The government-controlled Bosnian army was heavily outgunned due to an international arms embargo that favored the Yugoslav army, which had attacked Bosnia together with Bosnian Serb militias under its command” — ? It is of course one of the ironies of the war that (i) the Muslim/Islamic volunteers brought to the Bosnian army what it already had — manpower — while not helping on what it really needed — weapons, while at the same time denting its international image. In other words, accepting these volunteers, most of them Arabs who may or may not have fought in Afghanistan, was supremely stupid. But the reason they were taken in was that nobody else was interested in helping. So there’s a healthy dose of hypocrisy in this whole story. (Disclaimer: of course, everyone should be punished for crimes committed under their command. I just doubt that Delic was really among the top six people in the Balkans who hadn’t been charged yet and needed to be charged in the Hague tribunal’s last, final round of indictments.)Bosnian Muslim officials and some analysts criticized the indictment of retired General Rasim Delic as an attempt to distribute guilt in the three-cornered war equally but unfairly among Serbs, Croats and Muslims. The Muslims were heavily outgunned and suffered the highest number of casualties.
Technorati Tags: Balkania
T K Vogel | 9:00 am |
Right on, I get fed up with the same stuff. It’s pretty clear who did the most nasty stuff, and it’s pretty clear why it worked. Certain people just wanted Milosevic to win and were really disappointed he didn’t.
Comment by Katja — February 25, 2005 @ 5:16 am
I am sick of alleged ‘holiness’ of Bosniaks in this war!
When ICTY indicts Serbs and Croats, then it is fair and impartial… When it indicts a Bosniak, then you cry ‘Foul’ and dismiss the indictments as ‘politically motivated’ – you are no better than Serbian and Croat nationalists!
Please read the indictment on http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/del-ii050215e.htm — main Delic’s fault is that he didn’t punish those who committed crimes – sheltering criminals is criminal act itself. I hope that Delic will rot in prison, alongside Milosevic, Gotovina, Hardinaj and friends…
Go and tell families of people mentioned bellow that Delic was hero:
“Two captured VRS soldiers, Momir MITROVIC and Predrag KNEZEVIC, were killed and decapitated by the ABiH soldiers. […]the accused Rasim DELIC failed to take the proper steps to prevent the crimes that occurred in this camp as described above.”
“[…] all of the approximately 60 VRS soldiers that were captured in Vozuca and subsequently taken to Kesten and then to Kamenica are missing and presumed dead.”
“[…]Nenad JOVIC, an elderly Bosnian Serb man was brought into the camp and detained. He was beaten, stripped of his clothes and given water mixed with petrol to drink; he died in the Camp after a few days.”
“Three women, Slobodanka RADOVANOVIC, Bogdana SIMIC and Milija JOVANOVIC, were captured during the attack on Vozuca and taken to the Kamenica Camp on 11 September 1995. The women, who were kept separate from the male prisoners, were beaten and kicked, hit with metal sticks and rifle butts and subjected to sexual assaults, including rape.”
Comment by SJ — March 14, 2005 @ 8:43 pm
I’m not sure what gave you the idea that I believed in the “holiness” of Bosniaks in the war. In fact, I said that everyone should be punished for crimes for which they held command responsibility. I was merely questioning whether the ICTY’s scarce prosecutorial resources were well-spent on Delic.
Comment by Teekay — March 15, 2005 @ 12:07 pm