BELGRADE -- A Belgrade daily writes that the Croatian and Bosnian parliaments have no intention of adopting resolutions condemning war crimes committed against Serbs.
“Croatia, Bosnia won’t condemn crimes against Serbs”
BELGRADE -- A Belgrade daily writes that the Croatian and Bosnian parliaments have no intention of adopting resolutions condemning war crimes committed against Serbs.
Source: Blic
Close the entire text of the article here
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party official Andrija Hebrang said that Serbian President Boris Tadić must first apologize on behalf of Serbia for the crimes committed against Croats.
He claims that there was “no real apology” given by the Serbian side yet.
Tadić said several years ago that he was sorry for crimes committed in the name of the Serbian people, but according to Hebrang, that is not the same as saying “I apologize”.
He said that “15,000 Croats were killed during Serbia’s aggression against Croatia, 8,000 of them civilians”, while according to his data, only 140 Serbs were killed in Operation Storm.
Hebrang was further quoted as saying that he had no information on how many Serbs were killed during the war in Croatia and that “claims that hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes” are in fact “out of the question”.
Even though Muslim leaders supported the adoption of the Serbia parliament's Srebrenica resolution, there are no indications that they will be taking similar steps any time soon for condemning crimes committed against Serbs in Bosnia.
“In order for us to vote for condemning any kind of crimes committed against anyone in the war, it must be confirmed as a crime legally by a verdict from the International Court of Justice, Hague Tribunal or Bosnian courts,” Bosnian Presidency member Haris Silajdžić’s legal advisor Damir Arnaut said.
Party of Democratic Action (SDA) leader Sulejman Tihić, who is also chairman of the Bosnian House of Peoples, said that it was “not realistic at this time to condemn crimes against Serbs, since parliament has not yet taken care of the issue of a declaration on Srebrenica, as a prerequisite for any other kind of declaration”.
"Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck"
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)
===…==
We tried that three times. We tried to live in peace with Croats and Muslims after WW1 and got murdered for that. We tried again after WW2 and copped it again.
We are trying again now with Tadic apologizing to everyone but all we are getting is more accusations thrown at us and more demands.
I suggest YOU open YOUR eyes and see the truth.
There is no respect and wish to reconcile with us not the other way around.
It's a two way street buddy. We can't keep doing this to ourselves any more. The ball is clearly in their court now.
I am not talking about hate here. Just rationality. Get some self respect man and stop begging them to accept us.
(Peggy, 4 May 2010 00:58)
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka)
-
One of the few comments that I have seen on this site, with rational/logical zero-emotional referencing. Thank you Peter.
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 02:16)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor)
-
What do you want to know? I cannot compete with your irrationalism obviously. Your sensitivity towards what happened to our church is too fragile to comment on. There is many of our own who would do the same thing, you NEED to understand this.
It is time to grow up Taylor, the times of nationalism/patiotism are over, its all about humanism. The people are innocent. The politics are dirty.
Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)
All the breast beating and cries of victimisation overlooks the reality of causation. Serbia through its instrument of the JNA and their proxies, later to be called RS, initiated a campaign that has stained the good name of Serbia for generations to come, no matter the outcome of Bosnia’s fate. The reality will constantly surface to haunt the ignorant indignant until they come to terms with the betrayal of the nationalist’s policies over the Serbian culture and its good name. Even now the events of 1992-1995, rather 1989 onwards, leading to the current war of attrition, played out through disinformation, political erosion and subterfuge, are barely understood or known by the average Serb. Such is the result of the campaign, but to others who suffered and survived the carnage and betrayal by neighbours, it is a cold living reality. Hence the difficulty to accept the condolences from Serbia and the disbelief when they attempt to quantitatively equate their suffering with the victims of their aggression. Full disclosure, open their archives, if they have nothing to hide.
(iko, 21 April 2010 12:58)
Serbia should retract their statement about Srebrenica.
Keine weise, all or nothing.
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka, 21 April 2010 10:31)
Bringing up what occured in WW2 has nothing to do with what happened in Croatia during the 1990s.
My generation, those of my parents and grandparents had nothing to do with Jasenovac or the Ustasha. However what a number of Serbs did across Croatia not even two decades ago deserves an appology from Serbia who waged a war via their proxies in Croatia and Bosnia.
Trying to bring up what happened in WW2 and comparing it to the recent wars is pathetic and only does further injustice to all of the victims past and present.
(SinCity, 21 April 2010 07:09)
The Croats and Bosniaks refusal to apologise for their atrocities during the war in the 1990s is no surprise. There is a mind set that Serbs are expendable and that they should have laid down and killed. The Croats are ticked off that they never defeated the Serbs at anything – operation storm was not a victory and that’s why there is this empty feeling and bitterness.
Meanwhile the Bosniaks were cannon fodder for the west and the Croats stabbed them in the back when they were at their weakest, but all is blamed on the Serbs for their misfortune. In some ways that resolution was a good idea in that Serbia will use it like a weapon, flinging at the EU at appropriate times. Croatia is going to have big problems in joining the EU regardless of the propaganda from the west – it has already failed on 6 items in the latest chapter.
I am one of the happiest people on earth that we no longer have these “brothers” in one country. As I have repeated many times, with RS Serbia retains the best and richest parts of the old Yugoslavia.
(sj, 21 April 2010 02:13)
I have always said that Serbs will be the only people to go down in history as the only criminals during that war because of Serbia's declaration on Srebrenica.
Even blind Freddy could see this coming, except for Tadic and his team I guess.
(Peggy, 21 April 2010 02:09)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor, 21 April 2010 01:23)
While as a Serb in the diaspora I understand why we may be angry with our former comrades, but don't let their hypocrisy do that. It takes someone special to admit their faults and mistakes. Once again let democracy long live in Serbia, while the others try to get away with highway robbery. In the end they too will have to come to terms to their aggressive hypocrisy.
(Ilija, 21 April 2010 00:46)
Serbia and Serbs were ignorant fools to expect otherwise. Don't Serbs ever learn from history? Don't they know that the old phrase "a leopard doesn't change its spots" applies to Croats and most Bosnian Muslims. They will always be of the same temperament and mindset they have continued to be over the generations. They are just like that. Accept it and stop the wishful thinking.
(ida, 20 April 2010 21:31)
What did you expect? It just goes to show, Serbs are better on their own, than with these so called 'brothers', and that brotherhood and unity was a sham, which was only created to weaken Serbia.
I am soooo happy that Serbia is no longer attached to these people. Now we only need Republika Srpska to join, and all will be well. That day is coming.
Cheers!!
(Dragan, 20 April 2010 19:24)
I wouldn't expect an apology from either Croatia or Bosnia for a number of reasons:
1. Playing the complete victim is the state-sponsored narrative of both states. Croatia celebrates Storm as its day of national liberation. To think of it as an episode in ethnic cleansing contradicts over 15 years of ideological (un)orthodoxy that has been firmly embedded by HDZ revisionists from Tudjman to Mesic to Kosor. Josipovic attempting to nudge historical memory towards something more objective (understood as Croatia being both victim and perpetrator) has already been met by stiff resistance.
The same sort of narrative functions in Federacija, though on a more understandable level considering Srebrenica. Yet it is clear that both sides appropriate commemorations of suffering at the hands of others more for political gain than actual commemoration of the dead.
2. More importantly, neither Croatia nor Bosnia are pressured in acknowledging such crimes by the West. Particularly with Croatia, being supported by the US in Operation Storm has served as a legitimizing factor that what was done was not only right, but supported from the outside. Croatia doesn't have to apologize for Storm if the government never received international condemnation. By siding with the West, one's dirty laundry mysteriously gets whitewashed.
(Mike, 20 April 2010 18:33)
As Orthodox Christians, Serbia is not only fulfilling it's legal and political obligations for itself by standing against the crimes committed in it's name, but cleansing it's soul of the past and moving away from communist nationalism that tore SERBIA apart.
Do not expect anything in return, it's not important and it's not going to happen. We recognize the crimes committed against our people and we remember them according to our love. Do we actually expect Muslims to respect us, did the Ottomans? Do we also expect the children of the Ustache to respect Serbia and it's people and condemn the crimes they committed in a true Genocide?
I don't think the US will ever apologize to Japan for using the A-Bomb, and I don't expect Osama Bin Laden to apologize for September 11.
(michael, 20 April 2010 17:53)
Hebrang is another in a long line of Croat revisionists who won't take responsibility for their people's horrendous crimes against the Serbian people in the Krajina and Slavonia during Storm and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Serbs at Jasenovac and elsewhere coupled with forcible conversions to the "Papal heresy" and forced removals from the supposed Greater Croatia motherland. How can they deny the vacuum created by the loss of around a quarter million Serbs from Croatia in 1995 and prior? The evidence is in the people living in Serbia right now who previously lived in Croat territory, like my wife's family. I know former refugees from Croatia all over Belgrade...they are too numerous to be counted. I say no apologies to the Croats for anything that was done or allegedly executed by Serbs against Croats during the wars until they confess their sins. That will never happen, so Serbia needs to keep a watchful eye on their "neighbors" and keep them at an arms-length distance. What kind of friends and brothers vehemently support the excision of their "siblings" territory and consistently deny such massive instances of hate and genocide? The Croats, that's who.
(Karanovic, 20 April 2010 17:14)
"He said that “15,000 Croats were killed during Serbia’s aggression against Croatia, 8,000 of them civilians”, while according to his data, only 140 Serbs were killed in Operation Storm."
If numbers are so important then the croats failed to include the 700.000 Serbs civilians killed by croats during WW2. But I guess that doesn't count since the victims were Serbs and it was millions of years ago. Serbia don't be fooled by our "friendly" neighbours. They say they are not happy with the wording used by Tadic. That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. Croats and muslims want nothing but our demise. They have proved that throughout history and by refusing to acknowlage the suffering of Serbs they are showing their true intentions for future relations. They want to be our "friends" on their terms which is equal to degredation and humiliation.
Serbs have always been an independent and proud people, let that continue by limiting the contact with hypocrite neighbours.
(Mikael C, 20 April 2010 15:33)
Surprise surprise. NOT!!! And so the denial goes on. I wonder if there was outside pressure to come to these conclusions. The myth that Serbs were the only aggressors and the Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians the only victims must be kept alive at all costs for it may expose the West's dirty laundry and maybe history has to be rewritten. Reconciliation is a two-way process and since the other sides have no interest I recommend Serbia to stop any efforts in that direction. Let's just process our own pain and suffering and do not care about others anymore. It is no use and all it does is create more anger and pain.
(Milan, 20 April 2010 15:25)
"He said that “15,000 Croats were killed during Serbia’s aggression against Croatia, 8,000 of them civilians”, while according to his data, only 140 Serbs were killed in Operation Storm."
If numbers are so important then the croats failed to include the 700.000 Serbs civilians killed by croats during WW2. But I guess that doesn't count since the victims were Serbs and it was millions of years ago. Serbia don't be fooled by our "friendly" neighbours. They say they are not happy with the wording used by Tadic. That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. Croats and muslims want nothing but our demise. They have proved that throughout history and by refusing to acknowlage the suffering of Serbs they are showing their true intentions for future relations. They want to be our "friends" on their terms which is equal to degredation and humiliation.
Serbs have always been an independent and proud people, let that continue by limiting the contact with hypocrite neighbours.
(Mikael C, 20 April 2010 15:33)
As Orthodox Christians, Serbia is not only fulfilling it's legal and political obligations for itself by standing against the crimes committed in it's name, but cleansing it's soul of the past and moving away from communist nationalism that tore SERBIA apart.
Do not expect anything in return, it's not important and it's not going to happen. We recognize the crimes committed against our people and we remember them according to our love. Do we actually expect Muslims to respect us, did the Ottomans? Do we also expect the children of the Ustache to respect Serbia and it's people and condemn the crimes they committed in a true Genocide?
I don't think the US will ever apologize to Japan for using the A-Bomb, and I don't expect Osama Bin Laden to apologize for September 11.
(michael, 20 April 2010 17:53)
Surprise surprise. NOT!!! And so the denial goes on. I wonder if there was outside pressure to come to these conclusions. The myth that Serbs were the only aggressors and the Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians the only victims must be kept alive at all costs for it may expose the West's dirty laundry and maybe history has to be rewritten. Reconciliation is a two-way process and since the other sides have no interest I recommend Serbia to stop any efforts in that direction. Let's just process our own pain and suffering and do not care about others anymore. It is no use and all it does is create more anger and pain.
(Milan, 20 April 2010 15:25)
Hebrang is another in a long line of Croat revisionists who won't take responsibility for their people's horrendous crimes against the Serbian people in the Krajina and Slavonia during Storm and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Serbs at Jasenovac and elsewhere coupled with forcible conversions to the "Papal heresy" and forced removals from the supposed Greater Croatia motherland. How can they deny the vacuum created by the loss of around a quarter million Serbs from Croatia in 1995 and prior? The evidence is in the people living in Serbia right now who previously lived in Croat territory, like my wife's family. I know former refugees from Croatia all over Belgrade...they are too numerous to be counted. I say no apologies to the Croats for anything that was done or allegedly executed by Serbs against Croats during the wars until they confess their sins. That will never happen, so Serbia needs to keep a watchful eye on their "neighbors" and keep them at an arms-length distance. What kind of friends and brothers vehemently support the excision of their "siblings" territory and consistently deny such massive instances of hate and genocide? The Croats, that's who.
(Karanovic, 20 April 2010 17:14)
I wouldn't expect an apology from either Croatia or Bosnia for a number of reasons:
1. Playing the complete victim is the state-sponsored narrative of both states. Croatia celebrates Storm as its day of national liberation. To think of it as an episode in ethnic cleansing contradicts over 15 years of ideological (un)orthodoxy that has been firmly embedded by HDZ revisionists from Tudjman to Mesic to Kosor. Josipovic attempting to nudge historical memory towards something more objective (understood as Croatia being both victim and perpetrator) has already been met by stiff resistance.
The same sort of narrative functions in Federacija, though on a more understandable level considering Srebrenica. Yet it is clear that both sides appropriate commemorations of suffering at the hands of others more for political gain than actual commemoration of the dead.
2. More importantly, neither Croatia nor Bosnia are pressured in acknowledging such crimes by the West. Particularly with Croatia, being supported by the US in Operation Storm has served as a legitimizing factor that what was done was not only right, but supported from the outside. Croatia doesn't have to apologize for Storm if the government never received international condemnation. By siding with the West, one's dirty laundry mysteriously gets whitewashed.
(Mike, 20 April 2010 18:33)
What did you expect? It just goes to show, Serbs are better on their own, than with these so called 'brothers', and that brotherhood and unity was a sham, which was only created to weaken Serbia.
I am soooo happy that Serbia is no longer attached to these people. Now we only need Republika Srpska to join, and all will be well. That day is coming.
Cheers!!
(Dragan, 20 April 2010 19:24)
Serbia and Serbs were ignorant fools to expect otherwise. Don't Serbs ever learn from history? Don't they know that the old phrase "a leopard doesn't change its spots" applies to Croats and most Bosnian Muslims. They will always be of the same temperament and mindset they have continued to be over the generations. They are just like that. Accept it and stop the wishful thinking.
(ida, 20 April 2010 21:31)
The Croats and Bosniaks refusal to apologise for their atrocities during the war in the 1990s is no surprise. There is a mind set that Serbs are expendable and that they should have laid down and killed. The Croats are ticked off that they never defeated the Serbs at anything – operation storm was not a victory and that’s why there is this empty feeling and bitterness.
Meanwhile the Bosniaks were cannon fodder for the west and the Croats stabbed them in the back when they were at their weakest, but all is blamed on the Serbs for their misfortune. In some ways that resolution was a good idea in that Serbia will use it like a weapon, flinging at the EU at appropriate times. Croatia is going to have big problems in joining the EU regardless of the propaganda from the west – it has already failed on 6 items in the latest chapter.
I am one of the happiest people on earth that we no longer have these “brothers” in one country. As I have repeated many times, with RS Serbia retains the best and richest parts of the old Yugoslavia.
(sj, 21 April 2010 02:13)
Bringing up what occured in WW2 has nothing to do with what happened in Croatia during the 1990s.
My generation, those of my parents and grandparents had nothing to do with Jasenovac or the Ustasha. However what a number of Serbs did across Croatia not even two decades ago deserves an appology from Serbia who waged a war via their proxies in Croatia and Bosnia.
Trying to bring up what happened in WW2 and comparing it to the recent wars is pathetic and only does further injustice to all of the victims past and present.
(SinCity, 21 April 2010 07:09)
Serbia should retract their statement about Srebrenica.
Keine weise, all or nothing.
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka, 21 April 2010 10:31)
I have always said that Serbs will be the only people to go down in history as the only criminals during that war because of Serbia's declaration on Srebrenica.
Even blind Freddy could see this coming, except for Tadic and his team I guess.
(Peggy, 21 April 2010 02:09)
All the breast beating and cries of victimisation overlooks the reality of causation. Serbia through its instrument of the JNA and their proxies, later to be called RS, initiated a campaign that has stained the good name of Serbia for generations to come, no matter the outcome of Bosnia’s fate. The reality will constantly surface to haunt the ignorant indignant until they come to terms with the betrayal of the nationalist’s policies over the Serbian culture and its good name. Even now the events of 1992-1995, rather 1989 onwards, leading to the current war of attrition, played out through disinformation, political erosion and subterfuge, are barely understood or known by the average Serb. Such is the result of the campaign, but to others who suffered and survived the carnage and betrayal by neighbours, it is a cold living reality. Hence the difficulty to accept the condolences from Serbia and the disbelief when they attempt to quantitatively equate their suffering with the victims of their aggression. Full disclosure, open their archives, if they have nothing to hide.
(iko, 21 April 2010 12:58)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor, 21 April 2010 01:23)
While as a Serb in the diaspora I understand why we may be angry with our former comrades, but don't let their hypocrisy do that. It takes someone special to admit their faults and mistakes. Once again let democracy long live in Serbia, while the others try to get away with highway robbery. In the end they too will have to come to terms to their aggressive hypocrisy.
(Ilija, 21 April 2010 00:46)
"Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck"
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)
===…==
We tried that three times. We tried to live in peace with Croats and Muslims after WW1 and got murdered for that. We tried again after WW2 and copped it again.
We are trying again now with Tadic apologizing to everyone but all we are getting is more accusations thrown at us and more demands.
I suggest YOU open YOUR eyes and see the truth.
There is no respect and wish to reconcile with us not the other way around.
It's a two way street buddy. We can't keep doing this to ourselves any more. The ball is clearly in their court now.
I am not talking about hate here. Just rationality. Get some self respect man and stop begging them to accept us.
(Peggy, 4 May 2010 00:58)
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka)
-
One of the few comments that I have seen on this site, with rational/logical zero-emotional referencing. Thank you Peter.
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 02:16)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor)
-
What do you want to know? I cannot compete with your irrationalism obviously. Your sensitivity towards what happened to our church is too fragile to comment on. There is many of our own who would do the same thing, you NEED to understand this.
It is time to grow up Taylor, the times of nationalism/patiotism are over, its all about humanism. The people are innocent. The politics are dirty.
Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)
Surprise surprise. NOT!!! And so the denial goes on. I wonder if there was outside pressure to come to these conclusions. The myth that Serbs were the only aggressors and the Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians the only victims must be kept alive at all costs for it may expose the West's dirty laundry and maybe history has to be rewritten. Reconciliation is a two-way process and since the other sides have no interest I recommend Serbia to stop any efforts in that direction. Let's just process our own pain and suffering and do not care about others anymore. It is no use and all it does is create more anger and pain.
(Milan, 20 April 2010 15:25)
"He said that “15,000 Croats were killed during Serbia’s aggression against Croatia, 8,000 of them civilians”, while according to his data, only 140 Serbs were killed in Operation Storm."
If numbers are so important then the croats failed to include the 700.000 Serbs civilians killed by croats during WW2. But I guess that doesn't count since the victims were Serbs and it was millions of years ago. Serbia don't be fooled by our "friendly" neighbours. They say they are not happy with the wording used by Tadic. That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. Croats and muslims want nothing but our demise. They have proved that throughout history and by refusing to acknowlage the suffering of Serbs they are showing their true intentions for future relations. They want to be our "friends" on their terms which is equal to degredation and humiliation.
Serbs have always been an independent and proud people, let that continue by limiting the contact with hypocrite neighbours.
(Mikael C, 20 April 2010 15:33)
All the breast beating and cries of victimisation overlooks the reality of causation. Serbia through its instrument of the JNA and their proxies, later to be called RS, initiated a campaign that has stained the good name of Serbia for generations to come, no matter the outcome of Bosnia’s fate. The reality will constantly surface to haunt the ignorant indignant until they come to terms with the betrayal of the nationalist’s policies over the Serbian culture and its good name. Even now the events of 1992-1995, rather 1989 onwards, leading to the current war of attrition, played out through disinformation, political erosion and subterfuge, are barely understood or known by the average Serb. Such is the result of the campaign, but to others who suffered and survived the carnage and betrayal by neighbours, it is a cold living reality. Hence the difficulty to accept the condolences from Serbia and the disbelief when they attempt to quantitatively equate their suffering with the victims of their aggression. Full disclosure, open their archives, if they have nothing to hide.
(iko, 21 April 2010 12:58)
Bringing up what occured in WW2 has nothing to do with what happened in Croatia during the 1990s.
My generation, those of my parents and grandparents had nothing to do with Jasenovac or the Ustasha. However what a number of Serbs did across Croatia not even two decades ago deserves an appology from Serbia who waged a war via their proxies in Croatia and Bosnia.
Trying to bring up what happened in WW2 and comparing it to the recent wars is pathetic and only does further injustice to all of the victims past and present.
(SinCity, 21 April 2010 07:09)
Hebrang is another in a long line of Croat revisionists who won't take responsibility for their people's horrendous crimes against the Serbian people in the Krajina and Slavonia during Storm and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Serbs at Jasenovac and elsewhere coupled with forcible conversions to the "Papal heresy" and forced removals from the supposed Greater Croatia motherland. How can they deny the vacuum created by the loss of around a quarter million Serbs from Croatia in 1995 and prior? The evidence is in the people living in Serbia right now who previously lived in Croat territory, like my wife's family. I know former refugees from Croatia all over Belgrade...they are too numerous to be counted. I say no apologies to the Croats for anything that was done or allegedly executed by Serbs against Croats during the wars until they confess their sins. That will never happen, so Serbia needs to keep a watchful eye on their "neighbors" and keep them at an arms-length distance. What kind of friends and brothers vehemently support the excision of their "siblings" territory and consistently deny such massive instances of hate and genocide? The Croats, that's who.
(Karanovic, 20 April 2010 17:14)
As Orthodox Christians, Serbia is not only fulfilling it's legal and political obligations for itself by standing against the crimes committed in it's name, but cleansing it's soul of the past and moving away from communist nationalism that tore SERBIA apart.
Do not expect anything in return, it's not important and it's not going to happen. We recognize the crimes committed against our people and we remember them according to our love. Do we actually expect Muslims to respect us, did the Ottomans? Do we also expect the children of the Ustache to respect Serbia and it's people and condemn the crimes they committed in a true Genocide?
I don't think the US will ever apologize to Japan for using the A-Bomb, and I don't expect Osama Bin Laden to apologize for September 11.
(michael, 20 April 2010 17:53)
Serbia should retract their statement about Srebrenica.
Keine weise, all or nothing.
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka, 21 April 2010 10:31)
I wouldn't expect an apology from either Croatia or Bosnia for a number of reasons:
1. Playing the complete victim is the state-sponsored narrative of both states. Croatia celebrates Storm as its day of national liberation. To think of it as an episode in ethnic cleansing contradicts over 15 years of ideological (un)orthodoxy that has been firmly embedded by HDZ revisionists from Tudjman to Mesic to Kosor. Josipovic attempting to nudge historical memory towards something more objective (understood as Croatia being both victim and perpetrator) has already been met by stiff resistance.
The same sort of narrative functions in Federacija, though on a more understandable level considering Srebrenica. Yet it is clear that both sides appropriate commemorations of suffering at the hands of others more for political gain than actual commemoration of the dead.
2. More importantly, neither Croatia nor Bosnia are pressured in acknowledging such crimes by the West. Particularly with Croatia, being supported by the US in Operation Storm has served as a legitimizing factor that what was done was not only right, but supported from the outside. Croatia doesn't have to apologize for Storm if the government never received international condemnation. By siding with the West, one's dirty laundry mysteriously gets whitewashed.
(Mike, 20 April 2010 18:33)
What did you expect? It just goes to show, Serbs are better on their own, than with these so called 'brothers', and that brotherhood and unity was a sham, which was only created to weaken Serbia.
I am soooo happy that Serbia is no longer attached to these people. Now we only need Republika Srpska to join, and all will be well. That day is coming.
Cheers!!
(Dragan, 20 April 2010 19:24)
Serbia and Serbs were ignorant fools to expect otherwise. Don't Serbs ever learn from history? Don't they know that the old phrase "a leopard doesn't change its spots" applies to Croats and most Bosnian Muslims. They will always be of the same temperament and mindset they have continued to be over the generations. They are just like that. Accept it and stop the wishful thinking.
(ida, 20 April 2010 21:31)
I have always said that Serbs will be the only people to go down in history as the only criminals during that war because of Serbia's declaration on Srebrenica.
Even blind Freddy could see this coming, except for Tadic and his team I guess.
(Peggy, 21 April 2010 02:09)
While as a Serb in the diaspora I understand why we may be angry with our former comrades, but don't let their hypocrisy do that. It takes someone special to admit their faults and mistakes. Once again let democracy long live in Serbia, while the others try to get away with highway robbery. In the end they too will have to come to terms to their aggressive hypocrisy.
(Ilija, 21 April 2010 00:46)
The Croats and Bosniaks refusal to apologise for their atrocities during the war in the 1990s is no surprise. There is a mind set that Serbs are expendable and that they should have laid down and killed. The Croats are ticked off that they never defeated the Serbs at anything – operation storm was not a victory and that’s why there is this empty feeling and bitterness.
Meanwhile the Bosniaks were cannon fodder for the west and the Croats stabbed them in the back when they were at their weakest, but all is blamed on the Serbs for their misfortune. In some ways that resolution was a good idea in that Serbia will use it like a weapon, flinging at the EU at appropriate times. Croatia is going to have big problems in joining the EU regardless of the propaganda from the west – it has already failed on 6 items in the latest chapter.
I am one of the happiest people on earth that we no longer have these “brothers” in one country. As I have repeated many times, with RS Serbia retains the best and richest parts of the old Yugoslavia.
(sj, 21 April 2010 02:13)
"Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck"
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)
===…==
We tried that three times. We tried to live in peace with Croats and Muslims after WW1 and got murdered for that. We tried again after WW2 and copped it again.
We are trying again now with Tadic apologizing to everyone but all we are getting is more accusations thrown at us and more demands.
I suggest YOU open YOUR eyes and see the truth.
There is no respect and wish to reconcile with us not the other way around.
It's a two way street buddy. We can't keep doing this to ourselves any more. The ball is clearly in their court now.
I am not talking about hate here. Just rationality. Get some self respect man and stop begging them to accept us.
(Peggy, 4 May 2010 00:58)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor, 21 April 2010 01:23)
Either everyone apologises, or everyone refuses. After this, Serbia has no moral obligation to apologise to anybody. No one is innocent.
(Peter Sudyka)
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One of the few comments that I have seen on this site, with rational/logical zero-emotional referencing. Thank you Peter.
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 02:16)
Truudsman,
keep singing your song about brotherhood. They were never our brothers and never will be. Please understand that. and i am waiting for you comment from archive April 19th, patiently waiting...about the orthodox church vandalized in your beautiful Croatia
(Taylor)
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What do you want to know? I cannot compete with your irrationalism obviously. Your sensitivity towards what happened to our church is too fragile to comment on. There is many of our own who would do the same thing, you NEED to understand this.
It is time to grow up Taylor, the times of nationalism/patiotism are over, its all about humanism. The people are innocent. The politics are dirty.
Once you find it in you to finally face yourself you will understand the root of what I am talking about. Your hate towards the Croats comes from the labeling your masters have laid out for you. Break free from the shackles you have been tied to, and open your eyes brate. The time is now, more than ever to move on from tragedy and to live our lives with peace and love. Good luck
(trudsaam, 1 May 2010 00:20)