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From notes@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 16 15:59:14 1995 Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.1) by MediaFilter.org with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Wed, 16 Aug 1995 15:59:15 -0500 Received: (from notes) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.203 ) id KAA04537 for "conf-zamir.chat"; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 10:47:48 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 09:56:33 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat"From: Ivo Skoric Subject: No Subject Given To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l Message-ID: X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 72 >From majordomo Wed Aug 16 00:42:05 1995 Received: (from majordomo) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) id AAA23783; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 00:42:05 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 00:42:05 -0700 Message-Id: <199508160742.AAA23783@igc3.igc.apc.org> To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org From: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Subject: BOUNCE zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org: Non-member submission from [Robert John Bennett ] Status: U >From iskoric@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 16 00:42:01 1995 Received: from eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (eikon.regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de [129.187.42.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) with SMTP id AAA23774 for ; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 00:41:50 -0700 Received: (from root@localhost) by eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (8.6.12/8.6.9) id JAA03820; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 09:40:02 +0200 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 09:35:15 +0200 (MET DST) From: Robert John Bennett Subject: The Serbs' Reputation To: President Clinton cc: 100440.270@compuserve.com, 131!tim003@dialcom.tymnet.com, 5jensen_e@spcvxa.efn.org, 71154.1605@compuserve.com, 74431.3674@compuserve.com, AmComSaBos@aol.com, Balkaninst@aol.com, BosNet@cu23.crl.aecl.ca, bosnews@doc.ic.ac.uk, daleh@efn.org, dc42@cornell.edu, fastx@sky-tv.com, GMKURZON@aol.com, haberman@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, IHT@eurokom.ie, mag@news.nbc.com, nightly@news.nbc.com, Pressestelle@tu-muenchen.de, realitycheck@cbsnews.com, Vice.President@whitehouse.gov, wobidot@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear President Clinton: In his latest interview on CNN, General Mladic complained that the Serbs have been "demonized." Whether the following statements could be characterized as demonization or not, is for a more impartial observer to decide. Some hours after General Mladic spoke, UNHCR Spokesman Mark Cutts, declared on CNN: "After three years of murder, intimidation, expulsion, and harassment, and the systematic blowing up of more than two hundred mosques in the Banja Luka region, this seems to be the final effort of the Bosnian Serbs to achieve their goal of ethnic purity in the Banja Luka region." About the same time, Kris Janowski, the UN Spokesman in Sarajevo held a press conference, also broadcast over CNN, at which he said: "We also expect a mass expulsion of the remaining Moslem population, and then Banja Luka will be - will achieve the barbaric goal of ethnic purity." Janowski then paused and looked at the reporters, who must have been startled at such candor from a UN official. He then went on: "The good news in all this is that the Bosnian Serb authorities agreed to release from the working obligation - which often amounted to slave labor on the front line - the Croat and Moslem men, who will apparently be allowed to leave together with their families." I am an ordinary American who continues to be astonished that events like these can have gone on in Europe for nearly four years now, half a century after the defeat of the Nazis. Moreover, I believe General Mladic is right. The Serbs really have been demonized. As Cutts and Janowski indicate, however, it is the Serbs who have demonized themselves. Sincerely yours, Robert J. Bennett Munich From notes@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 16 16:03:01 1995 Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.1) by MediaFilter.org with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Wed, 16 Aug 1995 16:03:01 -0500 Received: (from notes) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.203 ) id KAA04504 for "conf-zamir.chat"; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 10:47:35 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 09:55:31 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" From: Ivo Skoric Subject: No Subject Given To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l Message-ID: X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 80 >From majordomo Mon Aug 14 09:04:11 1995 Received: (from majordomo) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) id JAA29890; Mon, 14 Aug 1995 09:04:11 -0700 Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 09:04:11 -0700 Message-Id: <199508141604.JAA29890@igc3.igc.apc.org> To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org From: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Subject: BOUNCE zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org: Non-member submission from [Robert John Bennett ] Status: U >From iskoric@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 14 09:04:07 1995 Received: from eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (eikon.regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de [129.187.42.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) with SMTP id JAA29762 for ; Mon, 14 Aug 1995 09:02:56 -0700 Received: (from root@localhost) by eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (8.6.12/8.6.9) id SAA26069; Mon, 14 Aug 1995 18:00:02 +0200 Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 17:53:53 +0200 (MET DST) From: Robert John Bennett Subject: Peace by September? To: President Clinton cc: 131!tim003@dialcom.tymnet.com, 71154.1605@compuserve.com, 74431.3674@compuserve.com, AmComSaBos@aol.com, Balkaninst@aol.com, BosNet@cu23.crl.aecl.ca, bosnews@doc.ic.ac.uk, dc42@cornell.edu, fastx@sky-tv.com, GMKURZON@aol.com, haberman@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, IHT@eurokom.ie, nightly@news.nbc.com, Pressestelle@tu-muenchen.de, realitycheck@cbsnews.com, Vice.President@whitehouse.gov, wobidot@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear President Clinton: A friend of mine, just back from Bosnia, phoned me this morning. She said she'd run across a quote from Bismarck somewhere about the Balkans not being worth "the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier." "What the Europeans and the Americans don't realize," she said, "is that the continent is infinitely smaller than it was in Bismarck's day. A disaster there sends out shock waves that can be felt all the way to Berlin. What would happen if all those refugees now streaming out of Croatia decided one day to head north into Austria or Bavaria? I think Bismarck would see the problem a little differently today." I told her about a television interview yesterday with Nikola Coljevic, a key member of the Bosnian Serb leadership, who predicted there would be peace by September. She gave a rather cynical laugh. "Yes, the Serbs always say something like that. After Srebrenica, they said the Red Cross would be permitted to see the men and boys who were taken hostage. And then the Serbs killed them." I couldn't think of anything to say, so she went on, "And what about Kozyrev and Anthony Lake? All they did was talk. There was absolutely no final decision on any further action, as far as we know. And Kozyrev still wants to lift the sanctions against Serbia - can you believe it?" I still didn't quite know how to respond, and she continued, "Anyway, I'm glad Clinton vetoed the arms embargo bill, because now the Moslem countries are sure to be galvanized into sending even more aid to the Bosnians than they have already." I said I thought that maybe you were working behind the scenes in ways that were more effective than we're now aware - like helping to arm and train the Croatians. "I know," she replied, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "If Clinton really is doing something like that, he's earned a very important place in history." "But it's too bad nobody knows about these things now," I said. "Don't worry," she replied, "someday - when it won't cause problems, when it will only make Clinton look good - they'll know." Sincerely yours, Robert J. Bennett Munich From notes@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 16 16:12:17 1995 Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.1) by MediaFilter.org with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Wed, 16 Aug 1995 16:12:17 -0500 Received: (from notes) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.203 ) id KAA04527 for "conf-zamir.chat"; Wed, 16 Aug 1995 10:47:44 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 09:56:28 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" From: Ivo Skoric Subject: No Subject Given To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l Message-ID: X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 77 >From majordomo Tue Aug 15 01:55:25 1995 Received: (from majordomo) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) id BAA21329; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 01:55:25 -0700 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 01:55:25 -0700 Message-Id: <199508150855.BAA21329@igc3.igc.apc.org> To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org From: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Subject: BOUNCE zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org: Non-member submission from [Robert John Bennett ] Status: U >From iskoric@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 15 01:55:22 1995 Received: from eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (eikon.regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de [129.187.42.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) with SMTP id BAA21318 for ; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 01:55:17 -0700 Received: (from root@localhost) by eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (8.6.12/8.6.9) id KAA10987; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 10:55:01 +0200 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 10:51:29 +0200 (MET DST) From: Robert John Bennett Subject: There Comes a Time To: President Clinton cc: 100440.270@compuserve.com, 131!tim003@dialcom.tymnet.com, 71154.1605@compuserve.com, 74431.3674@compuserve.com, AmComSaBos@aol.com, Balkaninst@aol.com, BosNet@cu23.crl.aecl.ca, bosnews@doc.ic.ac.uk, dc42@cornell.edu, fastx@sky-tv.com, GMKURZON@aol.com, haberman@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, IHT@eurokom.ie, mag@news.nbc.com, nightly@news.nbc.com, Pressestelle@tu-muenchen.de, realitycheck@cbsnews.com, Vice.President@whitehouse.gov, wobidot@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear President Clinton: Another friend said to me today, "There are some people who seem terribly bothered by those letters you send to Clinton, aren't there? I mean, even if they don't read the letters, they're bothered by them - they seem to be bothered by the very existence of that kind of letter." I asked her what she thought the reason was. She looked at me thoughtfully. "I suppose, like anything, there's really no single reason. Some people, obviously, are just sympathetic to the Serbs, and the things you write incense them for that reason. The Serbs have spent four years weaving a tissue of lies about their activities, and they certainly don't want anyone writing the truth about them now." She looked out the window for a moment, and then went on, thinking out loud. "Then, too, there are the politically correct people. They think it's wrong to criticize any group, no matter what they've done. Those people would be upset if you criticized the Nazis or the Soviet Communists for having committed crimes against humanity." She considered that idea too for a while and then said, "But you know what I think really bothers a lot of people? The whole Balkan problem simply makes them uncomfortable because they know it has to be dealt with. They've tried to ignore it for four years, hoping it will go away, but it doesn't. It just keeps getting worse, and the longer they wait, the worse it gets. It's almost as if they're paralyzed, and your letters remind them of that paralysis." I said she might be right. I also said I'd heard an interesting comment on NBC Nightly News. Tom Aspall concluded a report on the Balkans with what amounted to a rather startling throwaway line: "There's a new determination to continue the UN mission - by force, if necessary." "If that's true," she said, "then maybe there really is hope after all. I don't like using force, I hate war, and I don't like the military. But how long do you go on just talking to a group of people who are carrying out mass expulsions, rape, murder, and genocide? I mean, there comes a time when you've simply got to stop kidding yourself." Sincerely yours, Robert J. Bennett Munich