Genocid in Bosnia

During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), the fighting was fierce among the region's three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs (in pact with Serbia-Montenegro army). At the start of the war, the Bosnian Serb army and Serbia-Montengro army (JNA) set about ransacking and burning the homes of Bosniaks. Then army rounded up Bosniaks civilians, who were beaten, killed, or detained in camps. By the war's end, as many as twenty-six thousand Bosniak civilians had been systematically murdered.

„Ethnic cleansing“ became a common term used to describe the mass killing occurring in Bosnia and other areas on the Balkan Peninsula. The phrase remined people of the Holocaust, which was perpetrated by Adolf Hitler's Nazis during World War II. During that genocide, the Nazis used intimidation and force in their attempt to „cleanse“ Germany.


„Killing centers“ were places where the victims were brought for immediate or nearly immediate execution. Thus the famous Drina River bridge in the eastern Bosnian town of Višegrad was used for nightly executions and „sport atrocities“ against Bosniaks by Serb militiamen; the victim would be tortured and then throw off the bridge and shot as they fell down into the Drina River. Similar centers were found in Zvornik, Foča and most other centers of Bosniaks population occupied by the Serb army.

Massacres, one-time acts of mass killing at discreet locales, occurred in every area occupied by the Serb army. There were various basic forms of massacre; those that took place as Serb militias entered a village or town; those that took place against unarmed civilians behind Serb lines during the time an area was already occupied and fully under the control of Serb forces; those committed against Bosnian villagers in deportation transit; and those committed against Bosnian prisoners in war. Even when captives thought they were being released, they were often disabused of their hope. In the Vlašić mountain massacre, busloads of Bosnians who had been released from the Trnopolje camp were stopped by Serb soldiers and killed.



In late 1992, after the Serb army had consolidated the 70 percent of Bosnian territory it controlled, the mass killings changed into steady, individualized killings and rapes. In the fall of 1994, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) made an extraordinary apeal to world leaders to stop the atrocities. The appeal was ignored.


The following testimony was offered by a survivor of the Sušica camp in eastern Bosnia, whose commandant, Dragan Nikolić, has been charged by the Internationl Criminal Tribunal with crimes against humanity. The witness was testifying about several young women who had been „selected“ from other refuges: „They started selecting young women. The first was only 14, the second could have been 16 or 17.... I knew them all, they were from Vlasenica.....Then they started yelling: „We want the Bosniaks to see what our seed is“ Then women were never seen again...We know that Dragan Nikolić knows about it very well. That's what he did...He told us himself: „I'm the commander of the camp. I'm your God and you have no other God but me“.

In one sense, the rapes in Bosnia are a manifestation of the toleration for and condoning of rape throughout history. Rape is also a feature of warfare, and some have argued that it is a rationale for war – that a purpose of war is the free rein it gives to rape. But the use of rape against Bosniak women in Bosnia has been overwhelming even by the bleak standards of war. In one town, Foča, a rape center was set up in the former Partizan Sports Hall in May 1992. Bosniak girls and women were held there, underwent continual rape and other physical violence, and also were sent out to apartments where they were held to several days and then returned to the Partizan Hall. The organized rape of Bosniak women took place throughout the portions of Bosnia occupied by the Serb military, as well as in areas controlled by Croat nationalist forces. Militiamen boasted about their gang rapes of Bosniak women.

www.bosnianmagic.blogspot.com

Evil eye

Gaza became the largest concentration camp in the history of mankind which lasts for over 40 years. With the world watching, Israel expelled millions of Palestinians from their homes, continuing their Nazi policy and killing innocent people without regard whether it is a small child, a woman or an old man. For them the Palestinians are a people that need to perish and without a doubt in that regard they are copying Hitler and Nazi Germany- anyone who watches the news will notice that Israel usually kills ten Palestinians, with no regards of the gender or age, for every solider they lose.

It is ironical that the people who are presenting themselves as victims of the holocaust are committing the same atrocities over the Palestinian people. The once "holly land" is everything but holly, today it is a land filled with blood of the worst crimes and everyday killings. The Israelites are no longer a people who experience genocide but a people who commit genocide.

But no matter what Palestine is still alive and breathing. We need to write and talk about Palestine and its people and we should never let the memory of Palestine fade from existence.

The Palestine people as well as the rest of the Arab world have a rich store of folklore and beliefs. The most famous beliefs relate to spellbound eyes and their detrimental effect on people, especially children. According to the beliefs in Palestine, if a child falls ill suddenly after a visit from guest and starts crying for no reason and starts to reject food, it is then believed that it had fallen prey to the guest's spellbound eyes.

The ritual of annulling spellbound eyes is usually done by the mother or some old lady surrounded by a couple of curious women that are anxiously observing the ritual.

To neutralize foreign evil the mother needs to take three fingers of flour and salt, that need to be clean for this occasion, and repeat the following magical formula:

„Bism al-ain, bismi en-nadra, bism el-hasud“. And then throw the salt and flour in a metal container filled with hot coals adding to that mixture some dust from four rooms, seven grains of barley, a piece of Alum, and then she takes one hair from all the present inhabitants of the house („min atarha“). If one knows for sure who has spellbound the child, then it is only necessary to take a piece of thread from that person. To the hot coal a couple of seed of incense are added and one needs to wait for the thick fog to form in which the child will be bathed while pronouncing the magical formula. While holding the metal container (bassat nar) the woman that is conducting the ritual circles around the child saying: „Smallah alek! Hawattak ballah udachiltak lallah...“.

The magical formula is repeated three times and then the woman dips hands into a prepared vessel full of water and shaking it off in the direction of the fire she pronounces: „Ih! Intefi ja uwenw bin nuwere! En-nar lamakanha wel-ain Allah la'anha“. If squeaking sound are heard coming from the fire, that is deemed as a good sign-the effect of spellbound eyes is disappearing. Animated by what she hears the woman continues with the pronunciation of another magical formula to neutralize the evil: „Takhat, sahat. Ain el-adu rahat kusch! El-ebid“.

But if the effect is not forthcoming then the present women whisper and conclude that the spellbound eyes have resisted the power of the fire. Because of this revelation everyone is awaiting for the fire to burn down and for all the ingredients to melt and for it to cool down and form some kind of a figure, mostly it is determined who caused the child to be spellbound, the evil starts to lose its power.

A detrimental item for spellbound eyes is garlic, as is believed in Palastine, whose smell keeps away most evil from human beings.