Prof. Dr.Rajko Doleček,DrSc. Ostrava, 16.12.09.
TALKS WITH GENERAL MLADIĆ
Dear Reader,
My wife Dobra and I had the privilege to meet general Ratko Mladić repeatedly and to discuss with him many problems of Yugoslavia, especially of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BaH) and the dirty anti-Serb involvement of the official West and its media during the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in the civil-ethnic-religious war that they had fomented . The West increased the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred in the former Yugoslavia. After each encounter with Mladić, I made short notes of the topics discussed. At that time I was the president of the Czech Foundation of friends of Serbs and Montenegrins. In 1996 we met Dr.Radovan Karadžić, the president of Republika Srpska in BaH, a well-known poet and psychiatrist. He gave us two books of his poetry. When speaking about today´s shameful approach of the West to its trusted friends and allies, the Serbs, Dr.Karadžić said:
-„It is unbelievable how the western media described us in their absolutely one-sided, tendentious reports: out of ignorance and for money."
„Talks with General Mladić" is not a General´s Biography. It covers the topics discussed with him, with some explanatory and complementary notes added.
I was upset because the official West had made his friends and protégés out of those who had fought to the bitter end on the side of the nazis and fascists (1941-45): the Croats from the ustasha fascist Independent state of Croatia (NDH), a part of the Muslims from BaH, and the Kosovo Albanians. On the other side, the official West and its powerful propaganda machine, a big part of its media, made villains out of its staunch allies, the Serbs, who had fought gallantly on their side during two big wars (1914-18 and 1941-45) with a loss of almost a third of Serbia´s population. The US journalist Peter Brock called it in his book (2006) „the dirty reporting".The main culprit for that switch was Kohl´s Germany, whose foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, with the help of Vatican, compelled the venal European Community (later the European Union, EU) to recognize at Maastricht (Dec.17, 1991) Croatia and Slovenia as sovereign and independent states, thus paving the way for recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and for bloody inter-ethnic and inter-religious wars. The final act of Helsinki (1975) about the non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states was ruthlessly violated by the West. According to the French general P.M.Gallois, Germany took revenge on Serbia because it fought in two wars when Germany was defeated. In 1941 the Serbs compelled Hitler to postpone his attack on USSR for 5-6 weeks and it was one of the reasons why the Germans lost the war. The US foreign secretary W.Christopher accused (1993) Germany of responsibility for the war in the Balkans.
After the collapse of the bipolar world, when the USSR lost its supremacy in the eastern bloc, a majority of its people thought that they entered a free world, but it was just an illusion where the media played a big part in manipulations and disinformations of the public. The governments of the so called „free world" and its media showed a moral decadence in spreading their selfish interests and fabrications, shouting down critics.
I was very eager to hear the opinions of general Mladić whom the western officials and a part o media started unjustly to brand him as a war criminal, without enabling him to defend himself and shouting down any positive informations from the Serb side. It is necessary to explain why the phenomenon Mladić appeared, under which circumstances this talented, honest and brave officer became, not by his will, one of the leaders and protectors of his people in mortal danger. He became an epic hero for ordinary people, for his troops, when they had been abandonned by all. To understand this phenomenon, one must know at least some features of the Serbian history of the last 100 years, including the genocide of Serbs (700-800 000 assassinated) in the fascist ustasha state of Croatia (1941-1945) and the cruel German regime in the occupied Serbia at that time. General Radovan Radinović, a teaching professor in the Military Academy told about his „student„ Mladić:
-„In my opinion and experience, he is the most talented officer we had since 1918...His greatest handicap was the fact, that he was the best warrior who was not allowed to win the war…"
During our first meeting, general Ratko Mladić told us with a sad smile:
-„I am the third generation of Serbs who did not know their fathers, because they had been killed in wars when their sons were too young." General´s father Nedja, a peasant from Bosnian mountains, was killed in 1945 in the fight with the ustashas, when Ratko was only two years old.
Colonel Mladić was sent in june 1991 to the Serb Krajina in Croatia, to help reorganize the 9th corps of the Yugoslav army (JNA) weakened by desertions of Albanians, Croats, Muslims from BaH and Slovenes, while the Macedonians, Montenegrins and Serbs stayed. He renewed the discipline and stopped the advance of the Croatian paramilitary groups which had started to expel and even to assassinate the Serbs in Krajina, as they had done during 1941-45. But he was not able to stop the inter-ethnik clashes. Later, he was unanimously chosen (already as a general) on May 12, 1992, to be the commander in chief of the newly created Bosnian Serb Army (VRS).
When speaking about the ICTY Tribunal in The Hague, Mladić said with defiance:
-„I´ll come personally to The Hague, as soon as the American generals from Vietnam and the Britisch from the Falkland Islands will be there…"
He told it when we spoke about the illegally created Tribunal by the Security Council of UNO (1993), because it had no mandate for such an action. It was the German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel who had suggested its formation and it was Madeleine Albright who had strongly supported its creation. From its very beginning, it became a one-sided court, a sort of a „kangaroo court" with double standards, „a prolonged arm of the USA interests", very unfavorable to Serbs. Diana Johnstone described it in one of her papers „Selective justice in The Hague – The war crimes Tribunal on former Yugoslavia is a mockery of evidenciary rule" (The Nation, Sept.22, 1997). There are many examples corroborating it. Nasir Orić, the Muslim commander of Srebrenica, whose men looted and destroyed up to 100 Serb villages in eastern Bosnia, killing and injuring thousands of Serbian villagers, was given a prison sentence of only TWO years. General Rasim Delić of the Bosnian Muslim army got only THREE years, while the mujaheddins under his command decapitated many Serb (and initially even Croat) prisoners. Three Kosovo Albanians, well known killers of Serbs, Romanies and pro-Yugoslav Albanians, Ramush Haradinaj (for some time the Prime Minister of Kosovo) and his brother Daut, Fatmir Limaj (a member of Kosovo Parliament) were not even sentenced. The witnesses of their crimes were either assassinated, or just disappered, or refused to witness. Carla del Ponte, the ICTY prosecutor general, wrote about it in chapter 11 of her book (2008). Most generals of the VRS were sentenced to 20-30 years imprisonment. The well known British journalist J.Laughland called the ICTY „Rogue Court with Rigged Rules" (The Times, June 17,1999). The high UNO representative C. Thornberry described openly the immoral one-sidedness of ICTY in his article „Saving the War Crimes Tribunal" (Foreign Policy, Fall, 1996). Mladić was happy when I showed him those papers. –„Thank God, after all there are some honest journalists and media in the West!"
General Mladić was absolutely devoted to his Serbian nation and to his troops, his popularity was tremendous. My wife and I spent a very friendly afternoon chatting at the HQ of VRS at Han Pijesak in eastern Bosnia with his top commanding officers, drinking coffee and sipping „frontovača", a 50% plum brandy, with them.
We had a talk with the blue-eyed general about „the meaning of the Serb history"
-„As a whole, but there were some exceptions, the Serbs are honest, fair and gallant, knightly, you could say. Without those features they would not fight for 500 years against the Turkish invaders with unbelievable sufferings, when it was so easy to convert to Islam and to become „a sultan´s son", with all accompanying privileges…"
The first two big victories in the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary (1914-1918) were won by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1914, the battle of Cer (august) and the Kolubara-Suvobor battle (november-december). The latter was won by general Živojin Mišić, who was promoted to vojvoda (field marchall) after the battle.
-„Those victories have been studied even in western Military academies, as examples of a brilliant military strategy. My cap has the same form as the cap of vojvoda Mišić," said Mladić proudly. In a few minutes he explained how the battles were going on. Mladić hated the war, with its killings and destructions, with its disregard for human life and with its consequent revenge and hatred. When we spoke about the famous Chinese Master SUN and his book „About the Art of Warfare" (from the 4-5.centuries B.C.) I found in its first chapter a perfect description of the brilliant military leader Mladić:
-„The profession of a military leader means prudence, reliability, humanity, courage and hard resolutness."
General Mladić could not understand the hypocrisy of the West, its unhumane approaches in many events, its tendency to disinform or to overtly lie.
-„In summer 1992 the western part of Republika Srpska (RS) was cut from its eastern part, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FRY (Serbia+Montenegro). In the Banja Luka hospital suddenly no oxygen in cylinders was available. The local authorities asked the West to allow the oxygen cylinders from FRY or from the West to be sent to Banja Luka. It was not allowed and 12 newborn babies suffocated…The supplies arrived when my heroic Krajina and Drina corps after severe fighting opened a corridor at Brčko, in northern Bosnia…. A group of four British parlamentarians visited (1993) RS and found an appalling health service situation. Two boys, Siniša (9 yrs) and Dejan (10 yrs), had been severely wounded by a Muslim shell at the Serb held town of Doboj. The local doctors were not able to help them. They asked the West to transport them to a western well equipped hospital in Germany, France or Italy, as it was done when Croat or Muslim children were critically injured. This urgent appeal was rejected and both boys died soon…" The report of the four MPs was written in September 1993.
But one of the western crimes against humanity upset general a lot. It was the suspension of FRY from the World Health Organisation on May 3, 1993. It was initiated by Danmark and WHO thus became an instrument of punishment and not of help. As a consequence, thousands of babies, children, elderly people and chronically ill died in FRY, in Republika Srpska, in Republika Srpska Krajina. Infectious diseases spread.
As provocations, the Muslim government in Sarajevo organized three big explosions in Sarajevo (the bread queue massacre on May 27, 1992; the Markale I massacre on February 5, 1994; the Markale II massacre on August 28, 1995), with heavy loss of life, and accused the Serbs as perpetrators. The official West, its media (but not all of them) accepted „joyfully" that fabrication and severe sanctions were imposed thereafter on FRY and RS by the UNO. But the honest western journalists exposed that ploy: L.Doyle "Muslims slaughter heir own people – Bosnia bread queue massacre was propaganda ploy, UN told"(The Independent, Aug.22, 1992); B.Volker, a French TV TF1 journalist: „The mortar bomb which killed 68 people in a Sarajevo marketplace and evoked a NATO ultimatum against the Bosnian Serbs was fired from Muslim positions, according to a UN report" (Feb.5, 1994); HughMcManners: "Serbs ´not guilty of massacre´- Experts warned US that mortar was Bosnian" (The Sunday Times, Oct.1, 1995). At that time, the US lt.colonel John Sray (military inteligence) published his report „Selling the Bosnian Myth to America: Buyer Beware!"(Foreign Military Studies Office, Oct.1995), exposing many western lies and fabrications. Mladić was enthusiastic to hear it. He knew from the Serb intelligence, that explosions were organized by the Muslim authorities, the latest („Markale II") with the knowledge and approval by the official West because NATO needed a pretext to start the air raids on RS and to become practically an official ally of Croats and Muslims.
In spring and summer 1995 a powerful Croatian army was concentrated near the borders of RS. In may and in august 1995, the Croatian Army (about 140 000 troops), well equipped by Germany, Argentina and others, attacked the Republika Srpska Krajina (about 20-30 000 troops). The planners of that aggression were the US retired mercenary generals C.E.Saint, H.Soyster and C.E.Vuono (the Professional Military Resources,Inc). The Croatian attack was supported by the Bosnian Muslim army and by NATO planes (intelligence, supplies). About 250 000 Serbs were robbed and expelled from their ancient homes, over 1 000 of them were assassinated. Serb Krajina in Croatia was devastated, its towns heavily bombarded by artillery and planes. Krajina became ethically „clear" of Serbs. The Croatian attack happened during Croat-Serb negotiations, under UNO protection. There were no resolutions of UNO, no sanctions, there was only some sporadic official criticism. The Czech president Havel, obedient to his western mentors, did not use his phrases about truth and love against lies and hatred in the case of Serbs from Krajina.
-„We have been in an awkward situation. A huge Croatian army and tens of thousands of Muslim troops, with NATO support, were there. The 28th Muslim division at Srebrenica (it was not demilitarized !) was a knife in our back. We had to take Srebrenica…The West used Srebrenica to divert world´s attention from the horrible crimes of Croats against the 250 000 expelled and looted Serbs in Krajina. It was Mrs Albright´s cover-up that created the fantastic fabrication, the alleged Srebrenica massacre…During the 3 years of fighting around Srebrenica we lost about 1 200 men, while the Muslims about 2 000…Our VRS had strict orders to behave according to the international laws. There were absolutely no mass murders or mass executions. But I cannot exclude personal revenges of some of our troops from this area when they recognized among the Muslim troops the killers of their families, who had devastated their villages…
We used our buses to transport about 30 000 civilians who wanted to leave, and Muslim soldiers who surrendered, to the position of the Muslim army near Kladanj or Tuzla. Was this a genocide? Maybe 10 000 of Muslim troops fought on trying to break through to Tuzla. Oddly enough, their commanders withdrew well in advance. Was it planned? Muslims suffered heavy losses in fighting, but thousands of them reached Tuzla. The West and the Sarajevo authorities made out of this losses during fighting a genocide.
The Dutch troops (the Dutchbat of appr.450 men) stationed at Srebrenica, including their commander Lt.Colonel T.Karremans and the Dutch Chief of Staff general Hans Cousy negated the official western version about genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica (H.Hetzel, Die Welt, July 12, 1996). While the Dutch defence minister J.Voorhoeve talked about more thousands of Muslim victims, the Dutch troops talked about more hundreds, up to one thousand, of Muslim troops killed in fighting. A group of the western experts (Y. Bodansky, G.Copley, P.Corwin, Sept.18, 2003) declared that the independent forensic analyses found the 7 000 or even 8 000 alleged Muslim dead a very inflated figure, the real losses were in the range of hundreds. About 3 000 of those allegedly „killed" Muslims took even part in BaH elections in 1996 !!! Their names were on the voting lists.
When the Serb ex-president S.Milošević was tried (2004) in The Hague for the alleged war crimes, the French general P.Morillon (ex-commander of UNPROFOR) said that the Serbs wanted a revenge in Srebrenica for those Serbs murdered by the Muslims earlier. His statement made the Muslim regime furious. Before the war (1941-45), about 50% of inhabitants of Srebrenica were Serbs, in 1991 only about 29% of them, because thousands of them had been expelled or murdered by the Croatian ustashas and the local Muslims during the war. When the VRS entered Srebrenica in 1995, no Serbs lived there any more.
One day general Mladić told us with some sadness in his voice:
-„I know, that both the Muslims from BaH and the Croats hate me, especially their mothers because they see behind my name their dead sons, soldiers and, unluckily, civilians as well. And their destroyed houses, lost property. But they must realize, that THEY wanted and started to dismember this country in defiance to constitution, that they started all those destructions and killings. What could I do? Had I to allow them to kill the Serbs, as they did in the ustasha state of Croatia in 1941-45? We, the Serbs, as well as many Muslims and Croats with a pro-Yugoslav ideology did not want a war, did not start it. We did not want to secede from Yugoslavia. It was terrible that many of our pro-Yugoslav bothers, Croats and Muslims, found themselves unintentionally behind hostile barricades, driven there by their leaders and fanatic fellow believers. Many Muslims knew that they had been originally the Serbs, before they converted to Islam.There were many Muslim prominent men, poets, writers who declared that they were the Serbs of Muslim faith.
„Do you imagine what an orgy of brutal murder brought to Bosnia the mujaheddins from Irak, Chechnya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, etc.? They taught our Muslims how to kill in a more brutal way. They even decapitated their prisoners, the Serbs and even the Croats when they waged a very bloody and cruel Croat-Muslim war (mainly in 1993).
Generally speaking, general Mladić felt that he was a Yugoslav, he declared it during a population census in 1991. He was very angry with the Slovenes, about their dirty role in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and their very anti-Serb attitudes.
-„The Slovenes have forgotten how they and Croats implored the Serb royal authorities in Belgrade at the end of 1918, to be accepted by the victorious Serbia to become a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS) and how the SHS saved the Slovenes from a final germanization and italianization. As a member of a victorious country, neither the Slovenes nor the Croats were obliged to pay reparations, otherwise they would be obliged to, because they were a part of Austria-Hungary during the war…Finally the Serb army expelled the Italians who started to occupy Slovenia, Dalmatia and parts of Croatia.Both in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and in Tito´s Yugoslavia, the Slovenes had the highest living standard in our country", said Mladić angrily.
But even Warren Zimmermann, the last US ambassador in Belgrade, who behaved in an anti-Serb, pro-Slovene way, made a few caustic remarks about the Slovenes in his article „Origins of a Catastrophe" (Foreign Affairs, March/April, 1995): -„Their virtue was democracy and their vice was selfishness. In their drive to separate from Yugoslavia, they simply ignored the 22 million of Yugoslavs who were not Slovenes…Contrary to the general view, it was the Slovenes who started the war…"
One event, among others, made general Mladić sad. His memory about it recurred again and again.
-„I am sorry about the fact that nobody in the West mentioned how the Serbs from VRS saved 40-50 000 fleeing Croats pursued (in 1993) by the"bloodthirsty" mujaheddins. We defended them, fed them, treated them in our hospitals, we shared our food with them as their brothers, although we ourselves suffered a lot od deprivations. Their troops, including officers, solemnly promised to me, even swore, not to use arms against their Serb brothers any more. But they did not keep their word. It made me really sad. Otherwise, my personal bodyguard was a young Croat, a sergeant of our VRS, whom I trusted completely. He was a good Yugoslav. Well, I must tell you, that we saved occasionally the Muslims as well. Usually it was from their fanatic fellow Muslims…"
There was another aspect of the mujaheddin activities that must be mentioned. They did not want only to defend their brothers in faith from the infidels, „giaours", but they wanted to keep the local Muslims „on the right side of the traditional Islam", to compel them, even by force, to conform to the ancient islamic laws and traditions. Mladić told us how some of his „normal" muslim acquaintances were shocked to hear about all those limitations the mujaheddins wanted to impose on the muslim women. They would not be allowed to meet alone any men not related to them, they would not be allowed to show their face and hair when out of doors. –„It seemed as an anti-propaganda for Islam," said Mladić
To stop the hostilities in BaH, a summit was held in Athens (May 1-2, 1993), chaired by the Greek Prime Minister K.Mitsotakis. The Presidents of Serbia S.Milošević, of FRY D.Ćosić and of RS Dr.R.Karadžić were present. They supported the Vance-Owen plan, even Dr.Karadžić accepted it with some reluctance, only when a corridor was promised connecting the Serb cantons through the northern Bosnia. The plan divided BaH into 9 cantons (for each nation three), the tenth would be Sarajevo under a joint administration. The Parliament of RS had to ratify it on May 15th at Pale. And it was there that general Mladić addressed the guests and the RS Parliament. His speech was fascinating, it would deserve to be in textbooks of history.
-„This war was forced upon the Serbs, it is a civil, ethnic and religious war, we were expelled to a place of windstorms and we were branded as „criminals" to the world… And the same world and the same international community did not condemn the inhuman and cruel acts by the Slovene and Croatian secessionists…We, the military, have serious worries that the international community made out of Srebrenica an international stage spectacle…All the humanitarian agencies appeal to supply Srebrenica with water without admitting that we were informing the world a whole year through that the Serbs were without water, without electricity, without the posibility to produce food…Our people breathes through a straw, we are under blockade, we cannot import drugs or oil for our agriculture.
Gentleman, on the heroic Ozren (mountain range between Tuzla and Doboj) live more than 100 000 Serb refugees from Tuzla, from the central Bosnia, Zenica, Vareš… There was no war between the Muslims and Croats as long as they did not sign the Vance-Owen plan. Do you know that our holy place, the abyss GOLUBINKA, is in Croat hands? In 1941 the ustashas threw into it, dead or half dead, 2 000 Serbs from surrounding Serbian villages and Mostar. Their bones were lifted on Aug.4, 1991, on the anniversary of the 1941 massacre. The orthodox graveyard, church and the war memorial here were destroyed by the Croatian troops and paramilitaries in 1992, when the JNA had withdrawn…Our RS, if devided according to the V-O plan, would become undefensible…"
After hearing general´s speech, the RS Parliament rejected almost unanimously the Vance-Owen plan. It was rejected overwhelmingly as well in a later referendum. This caused a hostile reaction by president Milošević (the support of FRY to RS almost stopped), by the western politicians and media. Karadžić-Mladić relations deteriorated for some time. But later, when the US ex-president Jimmy Carter visited at the end of december 1994 Pale in RS, they were already much improved.
-„We have not been aggressors. It was our own country, where we have lived for many centuries together with Croats and Muslims. I am not a war criminal. The Serbian people suffered a lot, unluckily nowadays from its former friends and allies (Britain, France, USA), on whose side we fought in two big wars. Almost nobody did understand the suffering of our people, its just struggle here in Bosnia. Only the US ex-president Jimmy Carter said, during his visit to Pale, when he was sitting between Karadžić and me, that the US public is quite insufficiently acquainted with our Serb problems in BaH. But, I am proud, that the army under my command prevented the repetition of the Serb genocide in the fascist ustasha state of Croatia during 1941-1945…"
There was one thing that neither general nor I could understand: the colossal and arrogant fabrications of the West and of their Yugoslav „clients" (Croats, Muslims from BaH, Slovenes) regarding the alleged systemic raping of Muslim women by the Serb military, as a part of their war strategy. It was actually started by the Bosnian (Muslim) foreign minister Haris Silajdžić in autumn 1992 in Geneva, when he announced in cold blood that the Serbs have raped 30 000 Muslim women. Since that time the figure has been rising steadily. A Czech journalist Jitka Obzinova was probably a „record holder" with her 100 000 raped women (Czech TV2, December 5, 1992, 22,00 „Don´t Divide Bosnia"). Another prominent record holder was a US professor of law Catharine MacKinnon with her over 50 000 raped. A crazy (one mut say so) American Judy Darnell in 1993 stated that the Serbs in BaH ran 47 „rape camps". Even the CIA and the International Red Cross looked for them and did not find them. The Europe, including the Czech republic, was prepared to accept the „epidemic" of thousands of poor children (they are called sometimes devil´s children) born by those raped women. But no children appeared. Prominent newpapers, periodicals (e.g.,Newsweek) published that arrogant propaganda stupidity that caused a lot of problems to the Serbs. Even the European union swallowed the bait. The numbers were poorly documented and absolutely unproven.It was finally found, by a OUN commission, that the numbers of officially accepted rapes of those ill-fated women of all three warring nations were very very much less. The Dutch professor of state law Fric Kalshoven said:
-„People tell horrible stories because someone has told them to tell it for propaganda objectives – or because everyone is telling horrible stories…" Professor Kalshoven wanted proof, not propaganda…
When we talked with general Mladić about the „rape propaganda", he laughed at the stupidity of those who believed it, but he admitted that the „rape campaign of the West" caused a lot of harm to the Serbs, that it was actually just a goofy, but unluckily a successful, but very dirty ploy organized by the West and its clients from BaH and Croatia.
-„Good heavens! If it were true, my 80 000 boys would not fight, but just chase the Muslim or Croat women. What a nonsence ! But, to be true, rapes were reported as mostly coward and hidious atrocities, that must be exemplary punished. But punished must be all those as well who fabricated and abused it for propaganda purposes, stimulating hatred…"
General Mladić liked the US four-star general Charles Boyd, after I read him his paper „ To make peace with the guilty" (Foreign Affairs, september/october 1995). We just discussed the bizarre disinformations spread by the West and its clients about the casualties, about the numbers of those killed during the war in Bosnia. General laughed when I told him, that the record holder in this respect was again our journalist Jitka Obzinova. She informed, as a reporter from BaH (Czech Radio, July 11, 1993) that the number of those killed in BaH (casualties ?) was just 500 000! But the official figure as quoted by the US and western politicians and the Sarajevo government, was 250 000, even 300 000. Nobody from the West did question the Sarajevo or Zagreb authorities, where did they got those figures from. General Boyd, the deputy commander of the US forces in Europe, put the death toll between 60-100 000. He informed that the Sarajevo authorities „decreased" in spring 1995 the death toll to „only" 145 000, while George Kenney, an ex-member of the State Department put the losses in BaH (1992-95) at 25-60 000 („The Bosnian Calculation", The NYT Magazíne, Apr.23,1995). The CIA analyses were about tens of thousands. The big disinformer Bill Clinton told Americans on Nov.27, 1995. about the 250 000 killed, while the US defence secretary W.Perry told the US Senate (July 7, 1995) that there were 130 000 dead in BaH in 1992, 12 000 in 1993, and 2 500 in 1994 (130 000 + 12 000 + 2 500 = 144 500). Who did actually lead by the nose the Americans and the world? Finally a later study from Norway put the number of dead in BaH at 80 000, the study of ICTY at 102 000. But I was not able any more to discuss it with Mladić, because he had to disappear, to hide. Two booklets were published (2005) in Belgrade: „The Book of the Dead Serbs from Sarajevo" with 5 515 names, and „The Book of the Dead Serbs from Srebrenica-Bratunac" with 3 262 names. It included 344 names from Hadžići, 110 from Olovo and 89 from Kladanj.
Mladić was satisfied that his American „colleague", the four-star general C.Boyd was a fair man, who did not hesitate to tell the truth and that he had made some caustic words about the western media anti-Serb reporting and about their window-dressing.
Some Serb paramilitary groups caused many sleepless nights to both Mladić and Karadžić. Not all of them were helpful and welcome. Some of them included even criminal elements, psychopaths. The others treated the Croat or Muslim civilians too heavy-handedly, but it could be understood to some extent, but not permitted, even if some of them had seen their families assassinated by the Muslims or the Croats. President Karadžić issued many orders to protect Muslims from those irregulars. I have seen many relevatnt documents about it. On the other side, some Serb paramilitaries helped a lot the unprepared and undefended Serb settlements that had been at the berginning an easy prey to the organized and trained Croat and Muslim bands, e.g.,in the northrern and eastern Bosnia.
During our last meeting Ratko was very mad at the European union, when we talked about the criminal NATO aggression on FRY in spring 1999, with all those daily bombing raids lasting for 78 days:
-„I cannot understand the hypocrisy of those EU countries. Their words about humanism are just a fake because they used their bombers without any UNO mandate and under fabricated pretext killed and destroyed in Serbia and collaborated with the UÇK criminals in Kosovo and Metohija. How is it possible that the Germans were killing in Serbia again? Why were the American, Belgian, Dutch, etc. goody-goodies killing our children? How is it possible that the EU democratic and liberal parliament did not stop it?
The Czech ex-president Václav Havel had shown his face not only in BaH, but later in Kosovo and Metohija as well, promoting the independente of it. In January 2010 he was awarded the Golden Medal of Ibrahim Rugova by the president of the quasi-state of Kosovo. He was rewarded for the support of the Kosovo Albanians and obviously for his term „the humanitarian bombing" in 1999, and for the treason of the Serbian people, if you like.
When writing the above I was very sorry that I was not able to talk to Ratko later, to tell him e.g., about those Germans who „waged a war" against the lies and fabrications of their own government and against NATO because of their involvement in the dirty, criminal military action against the FRY. I am sure that Mladić would hear with enthusiasm what the German publicist Jürgen Elsässer wrote in his two books about the incredible lies of his government: War Crimes – The Mortal Lies of the Federal Government and Their Victims in the Kosovo Conflict (2000); The War Lies – From Kosovo Conflict to Milošević Trial (2004). He knew how the German writer Handke liked and defended Serbs in his novels.
Very interesting was general´s attitude to various UNPROFOR commanding generals.
Some of them general even befriended, liked them (the Indian Satish Nambiar, the Swedish Lars-Eric Wahlgren, the Belgian Francis Briquemont, to some extent the Canadian Lewis MacKenzie). The French general Philippe Morillon was not close to Mladić, even though he showed repeatedly courageous firmness. As for the elite British Michael Rose, he was not close to general´s heart. He probably did not realize enough the Serb problems in BaH, the Serb tragedy in ustasha Croatia. He did not put himself in the Serb position, he was just an elite, aristocratic (may be too aristocratic?) British general, with a responsible task. He did not meet somehow the expectations of Mladić. The first meeting with the US general Wesley Clark in Banja Luka (Aug.27, 1994) was rather friendly, with some jokes and innocent teasing. Mladić reminded Clark that the Serbs never were at war with Americans, British, French and Russians. He told him that the Serb army of general Mihailović, itself in a critical position, saved over 500 American pilots shot down by Germans during the war 1941-45 and enabled their return home in the grandiose „Operation Halyard", at the end of 1944. Clark expressed his admiration to Mladić for his courage and patriotism. Mladić remembered that Clark had paid him a compliment:
-„You are the only commander who does not say to his men FORWARD, but FOLLOW ME!"
Clark, in a friendly talk, explained to Mladić, that he was on duty in many (17?) countries. Mladić answered that he was on duty and that he is still fighting in one country only, in his native country, which he was just now defending. They even exchanged their military caps. Clark said with enthusiasm: -„It is great that you allowed me to put your cap on my head!" Later, Clark had to explain it to the State Department. When parting, Mladić tapped in a friendly way Clark on his shoulders, as a sign of mutual trust, confidence. People allegedly heard that he called him „Wesley"… Regrettably, Wesley commanded NATO during its criminal aggression against FRY in 1999.
There was one general that Mladić did not like, even detested. It was the French general Bernard Janvier who knew or surely anticipated the planned Croat massacres of the Krajina Serbs and did not prevent them. In an angry letter Mladić made him responsible for all the crimes committed by the Croat forces in the UNPA zones, in Krajina, in may and august 1995. Mladić did not like the British general Rupert Smith either. He signed the results of a superficial investigation, that the Serbs had caused the Markale II massacre (Aug.28, 1995), although other experts denied it. He was thus responsible for the immediate (in less than two days) massive air raids of NATO planes against RS, with a lot of destructions and killing, without any detailed investigation. Two papers were published about that fraud by Hugh Mc Manners (see earlier) on Oct.1, and by David Binder (The Nation, Oct.2,1995).
General Ratko Mladić is a very prominent, positive personality of the Serbian history. He defended his Serb people in the most gloomy days with courage, unselfishly and successfully. He was not afraid even when he was confronted with the most powerful military organization of the world, with NATO, representing over half a billion richest people. He knew that he was right and that NATO behaved in Yugoslavia (1995, 1999) in a very criminal way. The North Atlantic Treaty, Article I, of Apr. 4, 1949. and how it was violated, will remind you of that:
„The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations,
to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by
peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security
and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international
relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent
with the purposes of the United Nations…"
Ratko Mladić, this very talented and gallant military leader, honest Serb and brave officer, was slandered by a dirty propaganda campaign both from the West and from its client states in the former Yugoslavia (the Muslim-Croat Federation of BaH, Croatia, Slovenia). Even some members of his own nation were slandering him, most of them in their endeavour to show how they obey and how they are loyal to their foreign lords in the West.
But one historical fact mustn´t be forgotten. The tandem Karadžić-Mladić, in spite of all those innumerable injustices and malices of the West, in spite of the Dayton dictate and its terrible consequences for hundreds of thousands of Serbs in BaH, managed to create against all odds a Serb State (Republika Srpska), in BaH.
I think that the time has come to give the name of Ratko Mladić to important streets, squares, parks in Serbia, and to decorate the walls or writing desks in apartments with his photos.
The book was not written because the autor´s mother was a Serb. It was written to hear the other side of the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia, in BaH, that was shouted down by western mafia, politicians and media, who thought that they were right because of their money and powerful armies. And I lived for 20 years in the former Yugoslavia.
Nobody was absolutely innocent in the tragedy of Yugoslavia, but the Serbian people is not responsible for the dismemberment of Yugoslavia which they did not want, and the Serbs did not begin all those killings and destructions. NATO behaved in Yugoslavia like a criminal organization, killing and destroying without any UNO mandate, and increasing the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred.
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