Snuff Reality

Killers of People and Truth

Almost two weeks since the airing of the controversial atrocity video, whose purveyors claim it represents proof of Serbian war crimes against the Muslims of Srebrenica, many questions about the horrifying film still remain open. That has not stopped the vast majority of the mainstream media from declaring the video "irrefutable proof" of serious accusations and offering up sordid accounts of the "genocide" in Srebrenica.

The smoking gun the media and the Hague Inquisition’s partisans claim to have uncovered is nothing of the sort; their fanciful assertions have been irrefutably proven false. Yet the lies continue to be repeated, and at an ever greater pitch. Defenders of Official Truth are determined not to let the facts get in the way of their story. It is an attempt to shape reality through the sheer willpower and determination of those describing it, with nothing but contempt for the "reality-based" masses who, after all, always fall prey to propaganda sooner or later.

Frightening Fabrications

A story the Los Angeles Times ran on Monday managed to include almost every bit of false information about the video and the events in Srebrenica. LAT reporter Alyssa Rubin claims the Serbs were shocked by the video, having "heard their former president, Slobodan Milosevic, deny for years that troops from Serbia had even participated in the war in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, let alone committed war crimes."

What, if anything, in the video renders Milosevic’s claim false? Nothing at all. In Rubin’s own words, the tape "appears to link wartime atrocities to paramilitary units believed to have been controlled by the upper reaches of the Serbian government." Appears to whom? Believed by whom?

Why of course: Natasa Kandic, a "human rights activist" who heads "a research organization in Belgrade … that has been gathering information for the war crimes trials in The Hague." An agent of the Hague Inquisition posing as a human-rights advocate, author of half a dozen horrendous accusations of Serb atrocities, none of which have been in the least substantiated – this is the person on whose impressions and beliefs the LAT and the rest of the media rely to deem Milosevic’s documented claim false.

Similar reliance on belief and perception marks Rubin’s mention of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general charged with ordering the "genocide": "Mladic is widely believed to have either ordered the massacre in Srebrenica or failed to stop it. He was present in the town at the time of the killings." Well, he either ordered it, or didn’t stop what someone else ordered – it can’t be both! And how can his presence in Srebrenica by itself prove anything?

Attempting to nail the case shut, Rubin avers that "government officials in the ethnically Serb portion of Bosnia have admitted that forces from Serbia were active on Bosnian territory during the war." But the reported admission was speculation by anonymous sources cited in a Bosnian Muslim newspaper, and has in fact not taken place.

A day earlier, the San Francisco Chronicle carried a story by Paula McCracken, who told of the passionate, hate-filled descriptions of Serb atrocities by her Muslim interpreter, triggered by the sight of two Serb men who "committed some of the worst crimes in Bosnia." Evidently emboldened by this outpouring of hatred, McCracken writes compassionately about the women of Srebrenica, who "lost 8,000 husbands and sons in a matter of hours, while Dutch peacekeeping authorities sat idly by," and who "heard 8,000 shots fired, claiming their beloved men and boys one by one." Trouble is, that never happened. The Dutch peacekeepers did not witness a single execution, and have testified repeatedly to that effect. There has never been a serious suggestion – much less proof – that the men of Srebrenica were killed in the manner McCracken describes. Oh, but it makes for such good copy, she could not resist – and neither could her editors. Pornography sells, and atrocity porn is no exception.

Proof That Isn’t

Basically, the video is used to support two distinct claims: that Serbs massacred "up to 8,000" unarmed civilian males in Srebrenica (inevitably described as "Europe’s worst single atrocity since World War Two"), and that Serbian police took part in the killing. Yet the killings on the tape supposedly took place far away from Srebrenica, near the town of Trnovo – and obviously did not involve thousands of men, but six. As for the "Serbian police," here is Reuters expressing the official line:

"The video proved that forces from Serbia proper had taken part in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, which Serbia had until then denied. The depiction of Serbian paramilitary police casually killing unarmed Muslims from Srebrenica shocked the nation."

Unfortunately for that befuddled agency, the story from which this paragraph came dealt with the arrest of a former "Scorpions" member in Croatia. Several witnesses at the Milosevic trial in The Hague have confirmed that the "Scorpions," were not a Serbian (i.e., from Serbia) police unit, but a Krajina Serb unit, loyal to breakaway Serb authorities in territories claimed by Croatia. That many Scorpions now live in Serbia is due to the fact that Eastern Slavonia, where they were originally from, came under Croatian control in 1997. (Other Krajina territories were overrun in the summer of 1995, and their inhabitants sought shelter in Serbia.) The Scorpions were clearly not a Serbian unit; so much for Reuters and its "proof."

Selling "Genocide"

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that officially ended the hostilities in Bosnia referred to the war as the "tragic conflict in the region." But for Bosnian Muslim leaders and their allies in the U.S., the war was one of Serb aggression and genocide; their power and reputations rested for the most part on this foundation. Any description of the war that did not consider the Serbs criminal aggressors and the Muslims entirely innocent victims was simply unacceptable to Sarajevo, but also to Washington. And while the Dayton Agreement did not reflect this dogma, it has been systematically violated by American-supported European viceroys over the years, to the point where it hardly even exists anymore. The case for "genocide," meanwhile, was advanced by American lawyers in Bosnian Muslim service, as well as the Hague Inquisition.

During the war itself, the claims of "genocide" rested on maliciously framed photographs of malnourished refugees in what was billed as "death camps." This is hardly mentioned today, except by people who made a name peddling those claims originally. Today’s key argument is Srebrenica. It has everything needed for an aggression/genocide argument: supposedly Serbian troops, Muslim victims, the UN standing idly by, and only the noble United States stepping in to intervene on behalf of the innocents. But every step of the way, "facts" are shown to be remarkably ephemeral, and those that are firmly established contradict the official story.

The "Scorpions," identified as executioners of the six young men in the video, were not a Serbian unit. The "safe haven" of Srebrenica was not disarmed, but rather a base of the 28th Infantry Division of the Bosnian Muslim army, which continued attacking the surrounding Serb villages after the arrival of Dutch peacekeepers, committing horrendous atrocities. The Dutch did not witness any executions at their compound after the Serbs took Srebrenica. They did witness the Serbs giving food and water to the Muslim women and children, who were then evacuated to Muslim-held territory. Meanwhile, the menfolk of Srebrenica, soldiers of the 28th Division and attached units, chose not to surrender and tried to break through to Muslim-held territory. Obviously, some of them were captured and executed. How many, under what circumstances, and on whose orders, is still an open question. There are no facts to it, only speculation, assertions, and accusations. And while those make for powerful propaganda, they are proof only of the character of their authors, nothing more.

A Broken World

But what else is to be expected in a world that thrives on reality television, power and force, and an utter indifference to obvious lies so long as they are comfortable, or comforting? Ours is a world that has gradually abandoned all vestiges of civilization, reason, and humanity, lapsing instead into the deluded worship of aggression and the false religion of politics.

The executioners from Natasa Kandic’s snuff video are certainly deplorable human beings. Yet what can be said of those who use that video to present lies? They are murdering truth and justice in the same sick way as those shooters murdered six men on the forested slope somewhere in Bosnia.

It is a twisted, broken world where invasion is "liberation," occupation is "freedom," and someone like Natasa Kandic is considered a "respected human rights activist" and not a professional pathological liar. Watching this unfold is just as sickening as watching the grainy images of executions, beheadings, and torture that are the omnipotent State’s ultimate reality show.

Thomas Jefferson once said: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." Those who live by murdering – whether people or truth – should start trembling.

Author: Nebojsa Malic

Nebojsa Malic left his home in Bosnia after the Dayton Accords and currently resides in the United States. During the Bosnian War he had exposure to diplomatic and media affairs in Sarajevo. As a historian who specializes in international relations and the Balkans, Malic has written numerous essays on the Kosovo War, Bosnia, and Serbian politics. His exclusive column for Antiwar.com debuted in November 2000.