BOSNIA NEWS

SREBRENICA,Bosnia - The remains of more than 400 Bosnians murdered in Srebrenica by the genocidal Serbian aggressor in July 1995 will be buried there this month on the 12th anniversary of Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, organisers said.

. The remains of 436 genocide victims had been recently identified by DNA analysis. Thousands of the genocide victims’ relatives and the genocide survivors are expected to attend on July 11 a joint funeral at the cemetery where more than 2,400 genocide victims have already been buried.

Some 10,000 Bosnian men and boys were summarily executed in only a few days after the genocidal Serbian aggressor overran the then United Nations-protected enclave on July 11, 1995.

Their bodies had initially been buried in a dozen mass graves, but the Serbian aggressor moved them later by bulldozers to a number of other locations in order to cover up the crime.

The victims’ body parts were separated during reburial, and forensic experts sometimes found parts of a single person buried in three different mass graves.

The remains can only be identified by DNA analysis. Following the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia forensic experts found some 60 mass graves around Srebrenica. The slaughter is the only episode of Bosnia’s bloody war that has been ruled a genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal and the International Court of Justice, both based in The Hague.

Wartime leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, the two people considered the most responsible for the genocide, still remain at large.

According to figures often used by local and international officials the Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia claimed some 200,000 lives.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The US Congressman Chris Smith will receive this year’s “Srebrenica 1995” Award and the Bosnian Commission on Missing Persons Chairman Amor Masovic will receive the “Potocari Charter” Award. The associations of families of the Srebrenica genocide victims, together with the Institute for Researching Crimes against Humanity and International Law from Sarajevo, made this decision. They will receive the awards on July 9 in the Memorial Centre Srebrenica-Potocari.

Director of the Institute for Researching Crimes against Humanity and International Law Smail Cekic announced this decision at a press conference in Sarajevo.

The “Srebrenica 1995” and the “Potocari Charter” awards are given to individuals and institutions for the fight against genocide and the promotion of peace and tolerance in the entire world. It was established on July 10 2005 by Reisu-l-ulema Mustafa ef. Ceric at the initiative by the associations of the families of genocide victims from Sarajevo, Tuzla and Srebrenica. “The (Serb) RS Army and Police murdered more than 8.000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995 in what was the largest massacre in Europe after WWII. Humanity must not forget this horrific crime. It has to keep it alive in memory, relay it to the new generations so that this planetary evil does not happen ever again. One of the ways to fight oblivion is to give awards to distinguished individuals and institutions from various fields which firmly and consistently fight against genocide, the gravest of all crimes against humanity and international law”, Cekic said at the press conference.

US Congressman Chris Smith is a proven friend of Bosnia. He called for the lifting of the arms embargo against Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia, Prof. Dr. Ismet Dizdarevic said as he explained the decision to give the “Srebrenica 1995” Award to him. Smith is considered one of the strongest promoters of human rights. He tabled before the US Congress a resolution reminding of the genocide in Srebrenica.

President of the Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves’ Mothers Association Zumreta Sehomerovic explained the decision to give the “Potocari Charter” Award to Amor Masovic. The mere fact that Masovic is exhuming the bodies of the Srebrenica victims from mass graves speaks enough about his contribution to discovery of truth on the committed genocide, she said.

The “Srebrenica 1995” Award was presented to Tadeush Mazovjecki and the “Potocari Charter” to Paddy Ashdown in 2005.

In 2006 the “Srebrenica 1995” Award was presented to Tilman Cilh and the “Potocari Charter” to Fuad Rijat, a former judge with the Hague Tribunal.

CHICAGO,USA - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested four Serbian war criminals living in Chicago.Dalibor Butina, 33, Radovan Jankovic, 61, Vlado Kecojevic, 53 and Branislaw Cancar, 47,concealed their service in the genocidal Serbian army and are accused of fraudulently entering The United States of America as refugees between 1997 and 2004. Agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement say the four lied about their past.

Identifying and removing persecutors and human rights violators from the United States is one of ICE's top enforcement programs. To achieve this goal, ICE created its Human Rights Violators Unit, with a specific mandate to deny safe haven to human rights violators by bringing to bear a full range of investigative techniques and legal authorities to identify, locate, investigate and remove them from the United States. ICE has currently identified more than 800 cases from 85 countries involving suspected human rights violators.

ICE encourages the public to provide any information they may have regarding human rights abusers living in the United States. In the United States anonymous tips may be reported at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423).

Four Serbian war criminals claimed refugee status and were granted permanent US residence.All four failed to disclose on their immigration applications that they had served in the genocidal army of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS) which was involved in the genocide of Bosnians during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.Four Serbian war criminals now face a deportation hearing before a U.S. Federal Immigration Judge who will make the final determination in their cases.

TUZLA,Bosnia - A hand over ceremony at former U.S. Eagle Base, near Tuzla,was held yesterday , June 30, 2007. During the ceremony the U.S. Army handed over the base to the Bosnian Army.In its day, Tuzla Air Base was as central to the U.S. military effort in Bosnia.

“I can’t tell you how many Americans rotated through the place,” said the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia , Douglas McElhaney, “but there must have been thousands and thousands of them.”

But those days are long gone. And now, so too is that strategic air base from the U.S. inventory.

The United States yesterday transferred responsibility for the airfield to the Bosnians, though, technically, that happened three days earlier. The ceremonial return of what the U.S. Army referred to as Eagle Base was attended by U.S. and NATO representatives, as well as a host of dignitaries.

The Bosnian peacekeeping mission “has been a huge success,” McElhaney said. Twelve years ago, McElhaney was a member of the U.S. Mission to NATO. “I didn’t think back in 1995 that we would have a new Bosnian military any time soon,” he said.

The war in Bosnia officially ended on Dec. 14, 1995, with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Paris.

Though frustrated by days of thick fog, the U.S. Air Force managed four days later to fly a few hundred paratroops of the 3rd Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment into Tuzla Air Base from Vicenza, Italy. Their job was to relieve the U.N. Nordic forces that had secured the airfield for nearly two years.

Over the next few weeks, Mother Nature conspired against the peacekeepers as bad weather slowed the arrival of the 20,000-strong task force, whether by air or by land. But however they arrived, the airfield in Tuzla, which by then had been renamed Eagle Base, held great importance since it was the headquarters of the U.S.-led Implementation Force in northeastern Bosnia.

“For the foreseeable future, this will be headquarters for Task Force Eagle,” Maj. Garrie Dornan, an Army spokesman, said at the time. “This place suits our needs.”

And it would remain that way for some time to come.While the number of troops in Bosnia would gradually decrease over time, the old Soviet MiG-21 base remained central to the overall U.S. and coalition effort. It was, after all where the U.S. military set the tone for the balance of the peacekeeping mission.

That tone changed in December 2004 when a European Union-led stabilization force took over the Bosnian peacekeeping mission from NATO. And it changed again this weekend when Bosnians took another step forward on the road to peace.

TORONTO,Canada - It is easy to see why Adidas would want to build an advertising campaign around Asmir Begovic.Begovic is a Bosnian-born Canadian.He is the tall and athletically gifted goalkeeper for Canada's Under-20 World Cup team. But the Adidas marketing hook has nothing to do with Begovic's hunk appeal. It is the 19-year-old's life story that the company is selling.

It is a global campaign for a corporate giant, and Begovic is the perfect pitchman. He is a young man of the world, and his life, and love for soccer, was born in what was once a particularly dangerous corner of it.

"I don't have very many memories of Bosnia.I do remember that it was tough to be there, and I remember having to play (soccer) in my room, and I was forced to do that (because of the danger outside). But I don't remember the politics",Begovic says.

"I was too young, and thank God that I was. I would rather be young and not know, than be old and worried about it," he said.

Begovic's father and mother, Amir and Ajnija, did all the worrying for him. The family home used to be Trebinje, a seaside town that fell under Serbian control during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Amir was a professional soccer player there, a goalie, just like his son turned out to be. The violence ended his career, and he had to to uproot his family and move to Germany in 1992. Seven years later, he moved them again, to Edmonton.

But it is the route the father was forced to take after leaving Bosnia that has drawn the son's admiration.

When he arrived in Canada, Amir found work as a courier in Edmonton. It wasn't what he was qualified to do. He was an athlete, and he had trained for four years as a draftsman. But his past experience was meaningless in the Begovics' new home. So the father did what he had to do to pay the bills, and he watched with pride as his son travelled a similar athletic path to the one he once took.

The Begovics became Canadian citizens in 2002.He played for Canada's Under-17 team, and at age 16, he caught the eye of a scout for the Portsmouth Football Club in England. The Premiership club signed him to a two-year contract, and off Begovic went to soccer heaven.

His family moved, too, a couple years back, to Germany. They have relatives there, and they are not quite so far away from England. Amir works as a plasterer. His son, the footballer, mails a portion of every paycheque home. It is something Asmir can do now, to say thank you.

He also sends the family stuff from Adidas. Begovic's commercial, which debuts when Canada kicks off its World Cup campaign against Chile, in Toronto, on Canada Day, was filmed in London. Begovic had just finished training with Portsmouth when a fancy car appeared to whisk him to the shoot. He had a trailer, just like David Beckham - who is featured in a subsequent spot.

"You get the makeup done," Begovic says. "And they really take care of you, you know, 'Are you hungry, are you thirsty?' "

There was more to the experience than the face paint and celebrity treatment. Begovic's spot features some of his drawings. They depict his journey from war refugee to starting goaltender for Canada's Under-20 team.

"My drawings suck," he says. "I drew a ball. I drew my bedroom. I drew the furniture in the room, and the planes, and the stadium. It took me a while.

"I was more nervous about doing the drawings than I am before a game," Begovic said.