Thursday, December 4, 2008

#564 INTL - GHOST OF BOSNIA AS LEGAL PRECEDENT; HOLBROOKE – OBAMA

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

ONLINE NEWSLETTER - International

No. 564

August 13, 2008

http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/

CONTENT

1. GEORGIA – GHOST OF BOSNIA AS LEGAL PRECEDENT; HOLBROOKE – OBAMA

2. PRESS TV: Francis Boyle, calls for the prosecution of former US envoy to UN Richard Holbrooke

3. Why Georgians felt so confident in their military might

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1. GEORGIA – GHOST OF BOSNIA AS LEGAL PRECEDENT; HOLBROOKE – OBAMA

By Vahid Sendijarevic, Ph.D.
vsendijarevic@yahoo.com

The legal precedent that a sovereign nation can be divided into two “entities” (read as “states”) as a result of a military aggression, ethnic cleansing, and even genocide was established for the first time in modern times in the case of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 at the signing ceremony of the Dayton Agreement under mediation of the Clinton administration and Mr. Richard Holbrooke, who prides himself as a chief creator of the arrangement.

Russia’s military invasion of Georgia and its objective to divide this country into two “entities” by ethnic cleansing in order to insure full control of ethnically cleansed territory and unlimited influence over all territory of Georgia fits very well with the precedent established in international law by the Dayton Agreement.

So, the limits of US military power and geopolitical influence to stop Russia's blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia is not a result of an era following the invasion of Iraq, as some like to claim, but legal precedent established in Bosnia. It is Bosnia stupid. It is a ghost of the Dayton Agreement that haunts the ability of the U.S. administration to do anything to influence what is taking place in Georgia, regardless of the tremendous interest at stake.

Just as a reminder, immediately after the aggression, the Bush Senior administration succeeded to adopt two resolutions, 752 and 757 by the United Nations Security Council that clearly indicated Yugoslavia (Serbia) as an aggressor against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia did not use a veto against these two resolutions, obviously honoring the understanding of that time that military aggression of one neighboring country by another was unlawful. That was the time of the New World Order promoted by the Bush Senior Administration that assumes that no nation in the world is above the law.

Based on the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the International Court of Justice in the case of the law suit of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) for genocide in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled in 1993 that Yugoslavia was obligated to prevent the genocide recognizing that genocide was taking place in Bosnia as a result of Serbian aggression.

The International Court of Justice, on February 26, 2007, in its legally binding judgment in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, “Finds that Serbia has violated the obligation to prevent genocide, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995.” The Court ruled that genocide in Srebrenica, against the people of Srebrenica and against Bosniaks of the entire East Region of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Podrinje), was committed by the government and institutions of “Republika Srpska” and specifically the Army (VRS) and Police (MUP) of “Republika Srpska” and that Serbia had an obligation to prevent the genocide.

Therefore, at the time when the Dayton Agreement was negotiated and signed, Mr. Holbrooke and the Clinton Administration knew that Serbia was the aggressor and that as a result of that aggression half of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was ethnically cleansed, and that in the process genocide was committed.

It is also important to recognize that the Clinton administration maintained the arms embargo against the Republic of Bosnia regardless of the effort of the U.S. Congress to lift the embargo and help Bosnians to defend themselves.

Under the duress of aggression, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina were forced to accept the Dayton Agreement (November 1995), which rewarded the aggressors by imposing an illegal and unjust division on the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina into two “entities”: Bosniak-Croat Federation (approximately 51% territory) and Serb Republic (approximately 49% of Bosnian territory cleansed of non-Serb population), and by constructing a self-paralyzing constitutional system that resulted in ineffective government structures. The present Dayton Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Annex IV of the General Framework of the Dayton Agreement) was imposed and never ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objectives of Russian aggression and invasion in Georgia are exactly the same as those of the Serbian aggression in Bosnia – to divide Georgia and introduce a constitution which will for ever prevent Georgia to function as a normal nation.

In their pursuit to reward Serbia as an aggressor and perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia through the Dayton Agreement, Mr. Holbrooke and Clinton Administration used as justification the fact that this agreement stopped the killing (stopped the war) and that Bosnian Muslims were a “willing” party to divide Bosnia along ethnic lines established by the ethnic cleansing and genocide. There is nothing now to stop Russia to achieve the same goals in Georgia. They will continue with the killing of innocent people and ethnic cleansing until they will find a party in Georgia “eager” to stop killing and “willing” to accept division of Georgia along the ethnic lines which will be establish by ethnic cleansing and who will be “willing” to sign a peace agreement that will provide a new constitutional agreement that will provide as much Russian control over Georgia as Russia desires.

What is bothersome in the case of Mr. Holbrooke is that he is all over the networks and cable outlets these days lecturing what is going on in Georgia using his Bosnian experience as his reference for expertise on foreign affairs. He is a man responsible for the situation that the U.S. government can do nothing to stop Russia to achieve its goals in Georgia because of the legal precedent in Bosnia. His body language shows that he is not comfortable in front of TV cameras in expectation that the right question might be asked, which never came: the question of Bosnian precedent in the international relationships that limits the US military power and geopolitical influence to stop Russia's blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Now, some might ask how all of this relates to Mr. Obama, as the title suggests. On August 12, 2008, the BBC introduced Mr. Holbrook as an adviser of Mr. Obama’s campaign. If this is true, then it becomes legitimate to question Mr. Obama’s judgment and his understanding of international relationships. There is nobody more qualified than Ms. Samanta Power to educate Mr. Obama on the role that Mr. Holbrooke played in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ghost that haunts and limits the US geopolitical influence regardless of the national interest at the stake in Georgia.

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2. PRESS TV: Francis Boyle, calls for the prosecution of former US envoy to UN Richard Holbrooke

A US lawyer, Francis Boyle, calls for the prosecution of former US envoy to UN Richard Holbrooke over his complicity with the 'Butcher of Bosnia'.

Boyle, a Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, said Friday that Richard Holbrooke, the then US assistant for Secretary of State, has been closely working with Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian war criminal who stands on trial at the UN war crimes court in The Hague for massacring 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

The lawyer, in an interview with Azerbaijani Trend News Agency, further added 'all evidence and records' confirm that Holbrooke was an accomplice in the genocide.

At a war crimes hearing, Karadzic said that Holbrooke gave him immunity, meaning that he would not be indicted to the UN tribunal in The Hague even if detained, should he end his political career.

Holbrooke, the US envoy to the November 3, 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement talks for Bosnia and Herzegovina, denied links to the genocide.

However, former Bosnian Foreign Minister Mohammad Sacirbey in an interview with Press TV confirmed that the former US diplomat had a deal with Karadzic.

MRD/MMN

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=65560&sectionid=3510203

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3. Why Georgians felt so confident in their military might

Here is a bragging report from an Israeli paper which shows why the Georgians felt so confident.

Jewish Georgian minister: Thanks to Israeli training, we're fending off Russia

By Haaretz Service

Jewish Georgian Minister Temur Yakobshvili on Sunday praised the Israel Defense Forces for its role in training Georgian troops and said Israel should be proud of its military might, in an interview with Army Radio.

"Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers," Yakobashvili told Army Radio in Hebrew, referring to a private Israeli group Georgia had hired.

Yakobashvili, Georgia's minister of reintegration, added that this training provided Georgia with the know-how needed to defend itself against Russian forces in the clashes which erupted last week in the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Yakobashvili said that a small group of Georgian soldiers had able to wipe out an entire Russian military division due to this training.

"We killed 60 Russian soldiers just yesterday," said Yakobashvili. "The Russians have lost more than 50 tanks, and 0we have shot down 11 of their planes. They have enormous damage in terms of manpower."

Source: New Trend Magazine


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