Dear Amy Goodman & the Producers of Democracy Now,
I wanted to thank you for the interview that you conducted with General Wes Clark and recently aired on your television program. As the first 4 Star General to proudly call himself a Democrat,
I'm encouraged that many of your viewers got to see Wes Clark answering your questions without the now routine antagonistic gotcha format often time seen. As one very closely related to members of the armed forces, I'm glad to see less blame fall on our military, and greater accountability given to our civilian leaders, who have much more say on our Foreign Policy and our ultimate action in wars.
I found Wes Clark to be refreshingly honest, even if at times I didn't totally agree with his take on certain issues. I believe that authenticity and reasoned competence are important factors required for anyone involved in politics and discussions about war and peace.
In reference to one of your questions posed on the NATO Bombing of the RTS Studio, I did some internet research and found Wes Clark to have answered your question truthfully. It does appear that the station was adequately forewarned, and it does appear that Pres. Milosovic bears responsibility for the ultimate deaths of the 16 who died due to the NATO bombing. Had the warnings NATO and Gen. Clark gave been heeded, the 16 would not have perished.
I am enclosing my internet research thus far as to the truth of that incident. I would suggest that you order the award winning book, "Silence on Aberdareva Street" by Zoran Janjic being discussed in several of the articles I am linking.
Respectfully,
XXXXX
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Author of book 'Silence in Aberdareva' claims: Milosevic sacrificed RTS employees 'Dan graf', a publisher of Belgrade, published a book with proofs that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic sacrificed on purpose 16 employees of Radio and Television of Serbia during NATO air strikes on our country in 1999. In the book it is further claimed that the action was carried out in cooperation with then Yugoslav Army and top officials of RTS. The aim was getting of decisive advantage in propaganda war against the international community.
Zoran Janic, the author of the book called 'Silence in Aberdareva' points out that from the documents and reliable testimonies it can be concluded that NATO and even its commander in Europe General Wesley Clark had informed Milosevic on time about their intention to bomb RTS. Former RTS director Dragoljub Milanovic is the only serving prison sentence for the death of 16 RTS employees, although it is obvious that several other of them knew in advance what was going to happen. 'The Army had not only the transcript of the intercepted conversation between the pilot of the combat jet that took off at Aviano, Italy, but as it turned out later on, knew about the attack three days in advance', the author of the book says.
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0604&L=twatch-l&D=1&O=A&P=18710
Vesna Peric Zimonjic
Inter Press Service English News Wire
05-03-2006
BELGRADE, May 2, 2006 (IPS/GIN) --
A book by a Serbian journalist has again stirred controversy over the NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia building in Belgrade in April 1999. Sixteen people were killed in the attack. The book "Silence on Aberdareva Street" blames the Serbian regime then led by
Slobodan Milosevic and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the bombing. "This was a premeditated sacrifice of 16 innocent people by the regime, with the aim of scoring a propaganda point," author Zoran Janjic ...
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-122938074.html
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Letter to Carla Del Ponte
Jasmina Tesanovic's blog -
28.09.2006, 18:17:22
Dear Mrs. Del Ponte,
Referring to the trial of former Serbian State officials for the crimes committed in Kosovo during the war there I want to attract you attention to the fact that these people, this criminal group, did not kill only the OTHERS, that is people of other nationalities, but also people of their own nationality, their compatriots, when it suited them. One of the particular crimes was the act of deliberately targeting 16 employees of Television Belgrade (RTS) to win the propaganda war with the West. For that crime nobody was convicted except the former RTS General manager Dragoljub Milanovic, who was sentenced to 10 years on charges of negligence, that is, he was accused of violating a governmental order about evacuation from the TV building. There is a book about the crime, which came out in Serbia in April "Silence in Aberdareva street" which summarizes brilliantly all the existing evidences and even offers some new evidence that the top Serbian State and Military officials of the time knowingly left the television staff to be killed since they had been informed previously about the upcoming NATO raid.
In connection with the crime there are at least three indictees in the Hague: there is former Yugoslav Army Chief of staff, General Dragoljub Ojdanic, the Third Army Comander General Nebojsa Pavkovic and the former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, who also was a member of the Supreme Defence Council.
The latter two, Pavkovic and Milutinovic, had already suggested that, under certain circumstances (and surely under pressure) they were "willing" to speak about the RTS workers’ victimization. Indications for this can be found on pages 127 and 308 (footnote No 231) of the book, writtenby Zoran Janic.In the case of Milutinovic, who was Serbian President, as well as the Supreme Defense Council member (with Milosevic and President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic) and at the same time CiviDefense Head (and thus in charge of committing the Federal Government order about the RTSbuilding evacuation), the indication that he would talk about the crime arises from his confirmed and well-known cowardliness since, after Milosevic's fall, he offered the new authorities his cooperation swearing to be loyal. During the Kosovo war, in Milutinovic’s office had been where he and other officials coordinated the propaganda war for several months (pages 258-260). His guilt regarding the RTS staff victimization was written about in the book on pages 30, 197 (at the end of the footnote No 150) 212, 253 i 254, 258-260, 309 i 314-316, including the whole last chapter of the book "Silence in Aberdareva street".
Dear Mrs. Del Ponte, these families are grateful for your readiness to help in our fight for thetruth about the concrete crime committed by the Serbian State officials, the crime in which (according to the book) all the key Milosevic criminal state institutions, including army and secret police, were involved. I believe that the crime, committed on their compatriots, can also be brought under the category of war crimes. If not, then the investigation, although restricted (moguæi dodatak: as it may be), would force Pavkovic, Milutinovic and the former head of the Secret police Jovica Stanisic to admit some new facts about the circumstances of the crime. In this case they have nothing to lose since their boss is dead.
On the other side, the Serbian Special Court for organized crime, if it agreed to deal with the RTScase, according to the evidence provided in the book "Silence in Aberdareva street", would losepretexts for not having grounds for carrying out a proper investigation. In such a proper investigation, its findings would be that the former Serbian State officals were guilty of a premeditated act of murder. Since the victims are Serbs, rather thanmembers of the other nationalities, it would be an opportunity to talk about Milosevic and his companions as killers. May be this would bea step towards reconsidering the Serbs’ own guilt.
Yours sincerely,
Zanka Stojanovic
( in the names of the victims families)
http://blog.b92.net/node/2309 also at http://www.blogodak.com/2006/09/page3
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Award for Book "Silence in Aberdareva Street"
[Wed, 25/10/2006 |
(Danas, p.1/October 24, 2006) ]
The award Dusan Boagavac which the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) grants for journalist ethic and courage was given to Zoran Janic, a journalist and publicist, for the book "Silence in Aberdareva Street". The award will be presented on 26 October, on the NUNS premises.
http://tinyurl.com/yow8fo
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Serbian authorities were informed about RTS bombing beforehand
Belgrade, 16:11
Recently deceased Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had deliberately sacrificed 16 journalists killed in the building of the National Broadcaster RTS during NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. This is stated inthe book "Aberdar's Silence" authored by Zoran Janic and issued by Belgrade-based publishing house "Dan Grafa". The book contains evidence accounts on the involvement of the, then, top Serbian officials, SCG Army and RTS executives in the bombing of the building, aimed at winning the propaganda war against the International Community. The book cites official records dating a few days prior to the attack, such is "the death toll would be acceptable with respect to the achieved propaganda effect." "The documents and confirmed witnesses' testimonies leave no doubt that the Commander of Allied Forces for Europe, General Wesley Clark had notified Milosevic in due time on NATO's intention tobomb the building of RTS", reads Janic's book.
"The top men in RTS were Milosevic's closest aides. During the attack, they were hiding in the vicinity of the RTS building, in order to appear at the scene immediately after the blast and broadcast the material which was to deliver the final blow to the international community", the book further says.
Besides Dragoljub Milanovic, the general director of RTS at the time, who is the only convicted thus far, his assistant Jovan Ristic, RTS Secretary Dusan Jakovljevic, and editors MiloradKomrakov, Tatjana Lenard and Dusan Vojvodic had information of the imminent attack, the book reads. "The Army knew about the impending attack three days ahead", Janic alleges in his book. He quotes a man, claiming he had witnessed a conversation between Slobodan Milosevic's son Marko and Major-General Aleksandar Bakocevic, which took place in a restaurant in Pozaravec a day ahead of the attack. According to his source, the interlocutors agreed that "the number of victims would be acceptable comparing with the propaganda effect", reads "Aberdar's Silence".
Makfax Independent News Agency
http://tinyurl.com/28zbfz
(I located this last article a while ago, but the link is no longer active. I have inquired with the reporting news agency about securing a "PDF" of the original article)
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The best books in Serbia today are being written in our courts. Our transcripts may be our only real literature. It is sure that "Legija," that hero of the criminal underground, is writing his own books. His third publication was heavily promoted at the recent book-fair in Belgrade. I've yet to read this masterpiece of his, but I know that it sold like crazy. It certainly outsold, by far, a prize-winning, factual book by an actual Serbian journalist Zoran Janic, which detailed a sinister war crime by Milosevic, in which that recently-deceased dictator, as one part of his gaudy panoply of war-crimes, sent sixteen Serbian TV technicians to meet their certain doom in a building bombed by NATO.
http://cobrapost.com/documents/lstars.htm
