Revisionists at Work: Ustashas and Chetniks March Together Through History to This Day

By Sead Omeragić

President of the Presidency of BiH Mladen Ivanić and RS President Milorad Dodik attended the commemoration of the crimes in Jadovno on July 1st this year. Dodik and Ivanić remember the crimes against Serbs. What about the crime of genocide in Srebrenica and numerous crimes against humanity, committed by Serb units against their Bosniak neighbors? Serb politics persistently skips these crimes. These facts are absent from their history. For the policies of Belgrade and Zagreb towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a "smorgasbord" for everything, including crimes, even the crime of genocide. They pick and choose as it suits them. Just as Serge Bramertz recently said about these policies: "Our criminals are our heroes.".

Nothing has changed. Warnings about the worst revisionism are unheeded. The international community's casual attitude towards Greater Serb and Greater Croatian outbursts is problematic.

The policy of official Belgrade, which rehabilitates the worst war criminals Milan Nedić, General Draža Mihailović, and Vojvoda Nikola Kalabić, is the worst possible revisionism. Near Banja Luka, a monument to Vojvoda Lazar Tešanović is being erected, and on the Ustasha side, to Jure Francetić. Ustašism and Chetnikism march together. Chetniks and Ustashas feed each other with their radicalism and provocations. Even a superficial observer would see a common direction in these outbursts of Nazism and Fascism. With what motives, we will find out later.

The official Zagreb has a similar attitude towards Nazi outbursts, such as the "skipping" over the shameful plaque of HOS in Jasenovac. Thompson's concerts also serve to fuel and maintain tension. Singing nationalist songs, even by President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, has its background.

Why do official Belgrade and Zagreb do this? Historical revisionism has always been a prelude to new crimes.

The fact that Belgrade does not want to remember Srebrenica has its practical application. I know when the Tribunal began investigating Mladić's statement, made in Srebrenica on July 11th: "The time has finally come to take revenge on the Muslims after the rebellion against the Dahijas." Despite all the investigations, the Tribunal remained confused and to this day does not understand what connection an event from 200 years ago could have with the crime of genocide in Srebrenica.

Let us recall the actual figures of victims from World War II. Two studies, conducted by a Serb and a Croat, showed the scale of suffering of the peoples of Yugoslavia during World War II. Bogoljub Kočović researched post-war victims for the United Nations. According to Kočović, the greatest victims of the last war were Jews, of whom 36 percent of the population was killed. Immediately after them were Bosniaks with 12 percent. Serbs followed with 7.8 percent, etc. Vladimir Žerjavić's research only confirmed Kočović's percentages and only showed higher percentages of victims for Muslim Bosniaks.

Mehmedalija Bojić, a retired JNA colonel, author of the work "History of Bosnia and Bosniaks," a man considered a historiographer of Josip Broz Tito, was once employed at the Historical Institute in Belgrade. He noticed a small room that no one ever opened. On one occasion, he asked the janitor to open the door for him. When they did, a pile of photographs rushed out. Bojić says he looked through about twenty photos and was shocked. In all the photographs, Chetniks and Ustashas were together. Someone had deliberately hidden this part of the shared history of the Ustashas and Chetniks.

Just as then, so the cooperation of the Blackshirts flourished in the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The worst thing for the Blackshirts, Chetniks, and Ustashas is to talk about the coexistence of peoples in these regions. When the topic of coexistence arises, they cannot hide their anger. Because even in World War II, Pavelić and Nedić collaborated, as did their Ustashas and Chetniks. Just as Milošević and Tuđman collaborated. It seemed as if they were handing over their own people, over whom crimes were committed, to each other. It seemed as if they were destroying coexistence, for ethnic cleansing and the displacement of peoples. Vukovar was not chosen in vain as a place of slaughter and torture, with the most mixed marriages in former Yugoslavia. Why wasn't Osijek destroyed in the same way? There are many absurdities and secrets, such as the question of how the so-called Herceg-Bosna scheduled its establishment for November 18, 1991, a month before the fall of Vukovar. Namely, much later, the leaders of the so-called Herceg-Bosna claimed that they chose the date of the fall of unfortunate Vukovar as the day of the establishment of their para-state. The question is, why did Vukovar bother them if, three months after the start of the Bosnian war, they no longer fired a single shot at the Serb army?

Just as Vukovar in Croatia, so was the fate of all other cities that had built coexistence for centuries. Thus, the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina was destroyed. Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Prijedor were demolished and tortured, and people were forced to leave these cities through crimes.

Today, we can all ask ourselves: Despite all the agreements between Nedić and Pavelić, then Tuđman and Milošević, why were crimes committed? What were the crimes for? It would seem that the motives are known: the destruction of coexistence, which was deeply rooted in the population of those cities. Therefore, the ultimate goal was the destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a concept of that centuries-old coexistence.

That is where the memory of crimes from 75 years ago comes from, and the amnesia regarding the crimes of genocide from 25 years ago.