The shame of Europe......

Let's not forget today's date. Today, July 11, 2005. The 10th anniversary of the largest massacre to take place on European lands since the end of World War II. 10 years ago, Radovan Karadzic and Radko Mladic, two fascists of Hitlerian level, gave orders to the Serbian forces to enter the safety zone guarded by the UN Forces, Srebrenizca to be specific. The security of Srebrenizca was the responsibility of Dutch soldiers working with the UN. At the head of the UN command was French General Biernard Janvier. The real responsibility therefore was with Janvier. When General Janvier took over, the first thing he did was to gather the weapons of Bosnians living in Srebrenizca. You know how it is: in a procured "safety zone," civilians cannot be armed. The biggest mistake the Bosnians made was to believe the sense of safety created by the foreigners in their midst. So when Karadzic and Mladic's fascist dogs entered the city, neither the French general nor the Dutch soldiers lifted a finger or did anything to stop them. The first thing the Serb soldiers did was to gather all of the men between the ages of 16 and 70, and put them into certain buildings. Then, after raping, stealing, and killing the women of the city, they told the remaining women to leave the area. Following that came the massacre, which is thought to have been of between 7 and 9 thousand men. And now, 10 years later, the hearts broken by the massacre are in Srebrenicza remembering those killed. We wil never know how it is that a Serbian State Minister had the nerve to participate in the ceremonies. The massacre at Srebrenicza was itself of course so awful. But equally awful was the way Europe ignored what was happening from 1992 to 1995 in the region. If the then-president of the US, Bill Clinton, hadn't forced NATO to move into action, the Serbs would have killed tens of thousands more in Bosnia. For that reason, the Srebrenitcza disaster is not just the shame of the UN, which had proclaimed the area "safe," not the just the shame of the Dutch soldiers and the French general who didn't do anything to protect the citizens, but the shame of all of the European countries. And the shame continues. Because the Dutch soldiers and the French general walk free, just as the hundreds of Serbian soldiers do. As do, most sadly, the two men who ordered it all to happen, Radovan Karadzic and Radko Mladic.  Â