Vote For Henrik!

I saw on Gates of Vienna three days ago this excellent news: Henrik, long-time commenter who runs the website EuropeNews is running for the European Parliament. He's a member of the Danish People's Party and is someone with whom I have personally corresponded.

So if you're Danish: vote for him! (Read his statement first, of course.) I'd vote for him if I could (unfortunately I'm not eligible to vote in Denmark). I wish him the best of luck and I hope he wins a seat.

Book Review: "The Exception"

"We all have it in us to be murderers and executioners and war criminals."

So states one of the characters in Christian Jungersen's excellent book The Exception. I won't tell you the exact circumstances in which this quote was said, but it encapsulates one of the major themes of the novel.

I found out about this excellent book from a calendar my mum has (it's one of those themed calendars that has a page for each day--in this case, there's a book for each day of the year). The Exception was originally published in Danish, so I read a translation. I've read translated fiction before and though I liked it, it read a tad awkwardly. Some of the phrasing was just off, and I could tell that it was a translation (most likely by someone whose first language was not English).

I did not have that problem with The Exception. It read beautifully and easily. It's not a short book by any means, but I finished it in a day because I could not put it down. I have only two criticisms of it: I could have done without the author's politicking--he took a few shots at the Danish People's Party, which I didn't take too kindly to because I like that political party. Also, his facts about the genocide that took place in Yugoslavia were just plain wrong (but to be fair, most people are wrong about Yugoslavia). Other than that, though, the book is excellent.

The book focuses on four women who work in the fictional Danish Center for Genocide Information. Three of them are not very nice to the newest addition to the group from the very start, but their unkindness reaches new proportions when two of them receive death threats by email. Though they logically know that the death threats probably came from a free war criminal (a Serb who is very obviously modeled after Dr. Radovan Karadzic), they manage to delude themselves into thinking that their ostracised colleague sent the emails. The whole incident escalates, and all the while, the women continue to study genocide and war criminals as well as the philosophical questions that go along with this, such as how people become war criminals and why.

I don't want to give away any more, but I will say this about the ending: it's very powerful and ambiguous. There are basically two interpretations one can make and in the one that I think is correct (though I don't really think there's a correct answer per say), one of the women turns out to be nearly as bad as the war criminals she so ardently studies at work.

Today In Russia

Two interesting news stories from Russia, technically yesterday (since I'm posting this so late), both from the Washington Post.

First off: Amnesty raps Medvedev on Russia rights violations

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has failed to deliver on promises to improve human rights and some violations have worsened since he took office last year, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Medvedev, a 43-year-old former lawyer, has scolded officials for breaching human rights, vowed to battle corruption and end what he terms legal nihilism in the court system.

Well, my first suggestion to Mr. Medvedev is to get rid of those horrendous cages that the defendants have to sit in when they're in court. (Look up any picture of a Russian on trial in a courtroom and you'll see what I mean.) Talk about giving the impression of guilty until proven innocent.

Medvedev has recently struck a decidedly different tone on political dissent and human rights to that of Putin, who now serves as prime minister.

The Kremlin chief used an interview with an opposition newspaper last month to chide the trade-off between prosperity and freedom which critics say was the hallmark of Putin's rule.

I personally was impressed with his giving of the interview. Symbolically, it was an interesting gesture. The paper to which the refer, by the way, is none other than Novaya Gazeta, the paper that the late journalist Anna Politkovskaya wrote for.

Now, onto the second article: After Initial Mild Reaction, Kremlin May Consider Tougher Stance on Tests

For years, Russia has appeared to take a back seat in international efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. It urged diplomacy and resisted tougher sanctions, but usually let China take the lead in relations with Pyongyang.

There are signs, however, that the Kremlin may be considering a more active, tougher stance following Monday's surprise test of a nuclear device by North Korea less than 60 miles from the Russian border.

After an initial, mild expression of "concern" by the Russian foreign minister, the government issued a high-level statement denouncing the underground blast as a "direct violation" of U.N. resolutions.

An interesting move in general by the Kremlin. Now, if only they'd act the same way towards Iran...

Trifkovic On The Balkans

Gates of Vienna has an excellent essay by Srdja Trifkovic posted: The Green Corridor in the Balkans. Head over there and read it, as I am not entirely sure if I'm allowed to reproduce or quote from it.

Karadzic News Update: Immunity Deal With Holbrooke

More fascinating news from The Hague today concerning Radovan Karadzic, courtesy of the BBC: Immunity deal 'protects Karadzic'.

Lawyers for the former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, have filed papers arguing that all charges against him should be dropped.

They say US diplomat Richard Holbrooke promised him immunity from prosecution on condition he gave up politics - something Mr Holbrooke strongly denies.

Mr Karadzic is on trial at the UN tribunal in The Hague, facing 11 charges including genocide.

The tribunal has said that any immunity deal would not be binding.

The tribunal says even if a deal had been agreed, the trial would proceed anyway.

'Witnesses'

Mr Karadzic's lawyers filed a motion of more than 100 pages, demanding the court hold a special hearing to establish the truth of his claims.

He says Mr Holbrooke, then the US envoy to Bosnia, agreed to provide him with immunity at a meeting in Belgrade on 18-19 July, 1996.

Mr Karadzic does not claim to have attended the meeting, but says the former Bosnian Serb assembly speaker, Momcilo Krajisnik, and foreign minister, Aleksa Buha, were there and could testify to Mr Holbrooke's alleged promise.

He also says he has testimony from other witnesses, including sources in the US state department, along with written documents and articles, to support his claim.

"The indictment should be dismissed, or the proceedings should be stayed, so that the hands of the tribunal are not stained with Holbrooke's deception," the motion said.

One of Radovan Karadzic's legal team, Peter Robinson, told the BBC: "The first step that we want to take is to ask that the trial not be held and the case be dismissed because of the promise that Richard Holbrooke made. If that's not successful, then we'll have to defend the case at trial, and Dr Karadzic is prepared to do that."

Mr Holbrooke - now the US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan - strongly denies any such deal, describing the claim as "laughable" and "a lie".

The BBC correspondent in The Hague, Geraldine Coughlan, says court observers are anxious to see whether judges will allow a special hearing, which Mr Karadzic's lawyers argue in is in the interest of "fundamental fairness".

Mr Karadzic was arrested and brought to the tribunal last year, after more than a decade in hiding.

He is accused of genocide over the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, and is also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court filed a not guilty plea on his behalf after he refused to offer a plea, saying the court lacked jurisdiction.

I know I quoted the entire article, but I felt it was important. And please be sure to go to the original BBC page and listen to the short interview with one of Karadzic's lawyers, as it's very interesting.

I am hoping against all hope that Karadzic will be freed and not tried, but I don't think it's going to happen. Still, I can hope, though.

Memorial Day

I thought I would take a few moments to remember all the brave people who loved this great country so much that they made the ultimate sacrifice and died fighting for it. It is because of them that we enjoy our current status as the greatest country in the world, and let us hope that we retain that status for years to come.

Photo credit.

Breaking News: Leon Panetta Is A Nazi

Los Angeles, CA -- Rather disturbing news has emerged about CIA director Leon Panetta: he is a Nazi, or at the very least, has Nazi sympathies.

The allegations of Nazism were first raised by Chris Jackson, director of the non-profit, non-partisan organisation Let's Get Fascists! (LGF) when he saw a photo of Panetta in an internet news story.

The offending photo
Jackson says that only an initial look at the photo revealed Panetta's unorthodox views.

"I mean, look, man, at that arm. That's a Nazi salute if I ever saw one. I mean, look up any photo of Hitler--and I've seen a lot--and you'll see him sticking his arm out like that. The Nazis in Hitler's time did it, and so do all those neo-Nazis over in Europe today," Jackson said in a press conference.

Jackson and his organisation LGF embarked on a campaign several years ago to make Nazi sympathising and having Nazi views a war crime that would be liable to be tried in an international court. Jackson says he is an admirer of international courts: "The ICTY has done such a great job prosecuting all those disgusting Serb war criminals." So far, LGF's efforts have been unsuccessful.

That doesn't mean that Jackson has stopped trying. He says that lawyers working for LGF are preparing an indictment against Panetta and even if Panetta is never tried, he says it's the effort that counts. In his words, it's "symbolic".

The US government and Panetta were unavailable for comment, though a CIA spokeswoman said that the charges are "ridiculous". She continued, "Mr. Panetta has never had, nor will ever have, neo-Nazi sympathies, ties, or associations. He simply was gesturing and stretching his arm in that photograph."

Jackson says "the arm-stretching excuse" is "the oldest trick in the book." According to him, individuals accused of Nazism will employ it as their first excuse. "But," he continued, "it doesn't fool me, or any of us at LGF. Believe me, we know Nazism when we see it. And that picture blatantly shows Leon Panetta's disgusting associations that he should be prosecuted for."

When contacted later about questions about Nazism and fascism, LGF and Jackson were unavailable for comment.

With special reporting by Penny Gibson, Los Angeles.

Photo credit.

Editor's note: I apologise for pointing out the obvious, but I want to make it clear that this piece is satire and should not be taken seriously, as fact. It is simply meant to make a point about a certain group of individuals.

Kangaroo Court, Literally

The website Deconstruct.net always has very unique photos in their posts. And from this post comes one of the best ones yet:


It's inspired by the phrase kangaroo court and I think it's adorable. I have a fondness for kangaroos anyway--I think they're absolutely adorable animals. I've obviously heard of the phrase before, but I never really pondered it literally, unfortunately, as it's quite amusing.

Serbs To Biden: Go Home

I quoted a BBC article in this post that talked about some of the Serb MPs who held up signs in the parliament telling Joe Biden to go home. Many thanks to Adam at Balkan File for finding an actual photo of these MPs, from this site.


They don't mince any words, do they? Short, sweet, and to the point.

Exposing Yushchenko

I don't like Viktor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine. I am fine with the Ukrainian people in general--in fact, I am rather fond of them as a whole. But I do not like Yushchenko one bit, and I especially do not like how the Western media presents him.

I do not like the Western media at all. Most of them are a bunch of mendacious lying cowards--one need only look at their coverage of the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s and their coverage of the 2008 presidential election to see that. Their coverage of the former Soviet Union is similarly biased and wrong.

The impression always given by the Western media about Yushchenko is that he's a leader who took power during a democratically-inspired revolution in 2004, was poisoned by Putin's evil ex-KGB forces, then miraculously recovered and became a democratic leader, enjoying enormous popular support and always acting democratically, of course.

The truth is much less rosy. Yushchenko took power during the Orange Revolution in 2004, but the Orange Revolution was not some democratic Ukrainian movement--rather, it was Western-backed. Somehow, for some reason, Yushchenko became the candidate favoured by the West, even though in essence he was quite similar to his rival Viktor Yanukovich. I'm not really sure why, beyond the obvious that we thought we could control him and he would prove amiable to us in years to come. Interestingly enough, Yushchenko's wife was a United States citizen of Ukrainian descent (she has since renounced her citizenship).

During the election, Yushchenko did not win by democratic means. In fact, his rival Yanukovich won several rounds until a re-run was ordered due to alleged electoral fraud, when Yushchenko finally won with 52% of the vote (compared to 44%, hardly a large margin). During the election, Yushchenko received lots of foreign aid, specifically from the United States, and had a virtual monopoly of the media.

During his time as president, Yushchenko has scarcely become more democratic. In fact, he has done two very troubling and un-democratic things. First, he tried to make denying that the Holodomor was genocide a criminal act. In 2006, a bill passed in the Ukrainian parliament recognised it as genocide and in 2007, he expressed a desire to criminalise denying that the Holodomor was genocide. (I have been unable to verify whether Yushchenko's desired law actually passed--I seem to recall that it did not, but I could be wrong.)

I don't like that at all. The Western media's reportage seemed to focus on how the Russians did not like calling the Holodomor genocide and not on how anti-free speech Yushchenko's desire was. First off, criminalising any viewpoint really does not sit well with me, which is why I am opposed to criminalising Holocaust denial (though I am not a Holocaust denier, I do believe that people should be free to express their views, no matter how wrong said views may be). Also, there is ample evidence that the Holodomor was not necessarily genocide because the Ukrainians were not the only people to suffer in the famine--many other people did in addition to them. I think Yushchenko is just using the Holodomor to try to stir up Ukrainian nationalist fervour against Russia.

Second, Yushchenko recently banned a music video extolling alleged virtues of Vladimir Putin. Apparently, a band released a song praising Putin, and there's also an animated music video to go along with it (the prior link has the embedded video). Yushchenko apparently did not take too kindly to the video, and it was taken off the air for "political reasons". Well, the Ukrainian government can give whatever reason they want--I still call it censorship, because that's what such an action is.

We come to the final lie propagated by the Western media: Yushchenko's popularity. The man is just not very popular: as previously mentioned, he won with only 52% of the vote--hardly an overwhelming victory. And his current popularity (which I found, oddly enough, in the Western media) is an astoundingly low 2.7%. Apparently, the man actually expects to run for reelection (and the sad thing is, I would not be surprised if he won).

The Orange Revolution was a mere semblance of democracy, as Yushchenko's time in power has been. It's time to stop lauding the Orange Revolution and President Yushchenko himself as emblems of democratic reform because that is simply a fallacious claim to make.

Sources: Most of the information about the Orange Revolution and Yushchenko's rise comes from the article Ukraine: The Clockwork Orange Revolution, which provides fascinating insight. Though not discussed beyond brief mention, this article provides an interesting and dissenting perspective about Yushchenko's poisoning. The photo comes from here.

Biden In The Balkans

The war criminal we call our vice president is visiting the Balkans this week. First, some words from the BBC: Biden opens new page with Serbia.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has assured Serbia that the two countries can open a new page in relations, regardless of differences over Kosovo.

Yes, but were I a Serbian leader, I'm not sure I'd want relations with a country that had senselessly bombed Serbia ten years ago.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said the two states could progress "on the basis of dialogue rooted in mutual respect".

But he made clear that Serbia would not give ground over its claims to Kosovo, which declared independence last year.

"Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence, and would never recognise it. Serbia has the legitimate right to defend its territorial integrity peacefully by diplomatic and legal means," he said.

I'm not a fan of Tadic in general--he's a tad too leftist and way too eager to pander to the EU--but I do applaud him on this Kosovo issue.

The rare visit by a top US official marks a new effort by the Obama presidency to re-engage with the Balkans, BBC Eastern Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe reports.

But the US remains deeply unpopular among some Serbs.

Belgrade, where protesters torched the US Embassy in February 2008, banned all public gatherings on Wednesday.

MPs from the hardline nationalist Serbian Radical Party held up banners in parliament saying: "Biden, you Nazi scum, go home."

Another opposition party put on an exhibition of harrowing photos, showing civilian victims of Nato air attacks in 1999.

I like what those MPs were saying--Biden is scum--but I'm not too crazy about the thought of him coming back home, because that means he'll be in America, and I just honestly wish he would go away. And good for the party that put up the photos--people ought to remember what war crimes NATO committed ten years ago, aided and abetted (unfortunately) by the United States.

In Bosnia on Tuesday, Mr Biden urged MPs in the multi-ethnic federal parliament to seize the opportunity they had been offered to integrate their country into the EU.

Otherwise, he said, Bosnia would remain among the poorest countries in the region and might even slip back into ethnic chaos.

Criticising nationalist politics, he said: "God, when will you tire of that rhetoric?"

[...]

Efforts since then [i.e. 1995], and constitutional reform, have been largely thwarted by Bosnian Serb governments afraid of losing Serb power in their half of the country, our correspondent says.

Well, Joe, when will you tire of the anti-Serb rhetoric you've engaged in for years now? You have said some of the most offensive and disgusting things about the Serb people. And about the Serbs being afraid of losing power: well, no fooling! They're rightfully afraid. What happened in the 1990s was a result of the Serbs losing power over their own people in non-Serb regions, which allowed the Croats and Bosnian Muslims to ally against these Serbs, with disastrous results.

That's all I have for now--I did not quote the whole article, so read it in its entirety if you so desire. I hope to have more on Biden and the Balkans soon, but for now, I am going to go read my book: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Interview With A Stalin Biographer

During Christmas break, I saw Simon Sebag Montefiore's book Young Stalin in the bookstore. I was initially drawn to it because of the cover--I'd had no idea that Stalin was so much different-looking when he was younger. I bought the book, read it, and loved it. It was a very fascinating and readable account about Stalin, a person I had grossly misjudged. I'd originally dismissed him as a common thug who acquired power sheerly by luck, by being in the right place at the right time--how wrong I was. Stalin was actually an extremely intelligent and fascinating person.

A few weeks ago, I came across this interview with Montefiore. Here are a few excerpts; I'd highly recommend reading the whole thing.

“Stalin is one of those subjects that one never gets bored with,” he [Montefiore] explains. “He was incredibly complex and subtle, both diabolical and terrifyingly seductive.” He is also the subject of surprisingly few authoritative biographies when compared to his contemporaries, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler.

[...]

Though the book is a detailed examination of Stalin’s childhood and youth, Sebag Montefiore resists any attempts to see it as a psychological explanation for the monster of later years. “My father is a psychiatrist, and sometimes people see a psychiatrist for 30 years and still don’t know who they are,” he says dismissively of Freudian histories that seek to explain a subject’s actions by their upbringing. “It’s ridiculous for historians to act as analysts.”

“Obviously he came from a really violent family and was brought up in the most violent city in the whole of Russia and was drawn to a violent underworld, but you don’t need to be Freud to know that.” It is simplistic to see Stalin as a product of his upbringing, Sebag Montefiore believes. “Plenty of people have drunken fathers and bad upbringings, but very few become brutal dictators.”

It was not his past that made Stalin, Sebag Montefiore maintains, it was his personality. “Jung Chang, who wrote a very good biography of Mao, asked me if Stalin was always different. Because, she said, Mao was always different. And he was. He always stood out.”

[...]

The toughness of his upbringing gave him a thick shell and a cynicism about human nature that led him to suspect everyone and trust no one. “He was one of those people whom no one can be close to, even if they think they are,” explains the author. “He was never so happy as when he was alone in Siberia,” he adds, recalling Stalin’s exile among the aboriginal people of the Russian wilderness during the early part of the First World War.

My Letter To The Wall Street Journal

Back in April, right before exam time, I saw this post on Little Green Footballs: Wall Street Journal Expels Paul Belien's Fascist Website. I, of course, was very disappointed to read such news, being that I hold the Brussels Journal in very high esteem, so I wrote the following letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Dear Editor,

It has recently come to my attention that the website the Brussels Journal has been removed from your OpinionJournal Federation page.

I was rather alarmed to see this. The Brussels Journal is an excellent website offering a much-needed perspective on the world that is often not represented in the media. Its writers offer differing and quite interesting points of view that are intellectually stimulating and fascinating to read. The Brussels Journal has always stood for free speech, an ideal that I am sure is near and dear to those at your newspaper, as it is to many Americans.

There have been, since October 2007, false allegations about the Brussels Journal that were started and continue to be perpetuated by the website Little Green Footballs. These allegations concern the associations that the Brussels Journal writers, specifically Paul Belien, have with certain political parties in Belgium, namely Vlaams Belang. It has been asserted by the owner of Little Green Footballs, Charles Johnson, that this political party is fascist and neo-Nazi in its ideology.

Of course I find fascism and Nazism extremely repulsive and such associations with fascists and neo-Nazis would be troubling if they were true. But the fact is that Vlaams Belang is certainly neither fascist nor neo-Nazi. They have consistently supported Israel--during Israel's actions in Gaza earlier this year, they were the only political party in the region supporting Israel. I certainly have never met a pro-Israel Nazi--that very idea is an oxymoron! With regards to alleged fascism, Vlaams Belang does not advocate authoritarian rule (certainly authoritarian rule is a hallmark of fascism) and does advocate a free enterprise market--again, two things that I think would be supported by many, many Americans.

Therefore, if the Brussels Journal were removed from the OpinionJournal Federation page because of its association with Vlaams Belang, then I do not find that to be a valid reason for their removal. I am curious about the reason for their removal and if in light of what I have said, you would consider reinstating them.

Please realise that I am in no way associated with the Brussels Journal. I am simply a concerned citizen curious about your motives.

Thank you for your time.

I have not received a response to my letter and I didn't see it printed anywhere, so I think I'm safe in assuming that my letter was not printed (I had entertained a secret hope that it would make it to the editorial section). As of today, the Brussels Journal is still missing from the OpinionJournal Federation page, so I would strongly urge readers to contact the Wall Street Journal about this troubling circumstance.

The Fallacy Of Demographics

In his book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn makes frequent use of demographic statistics to support his point that the continent of Europe is already lost to Islam. He mentions the low birthrates of native Europeans, as well as the alarmingly high immigration from Islamic countries.

I have a problem with Steyn's major point about Europe being a lost cause. One of my reasons is more personal: if Europe falls, the whole world will eventually fall--Europe, as a continent, is too powerful. It is the cradle of Western civilisation, and Western civilisation is the most powerful force for freedom present in the modern world. If Europe is already lost, there's really not anything left fighting for--America is therefore already lost as well.

My other reason is that the demographic predictions Steyn makes (and, to be fair, they are not made solely by him but by many prominent demographers as well) are predicated on the fact that current trends continue. Current trends present in the world are subject to so much change: countries' governments change, people's political leanings change, policies change. Look at America: in the months after September 11, 2001, I think the majority of this country would not have predicted that Barack Obama would be elected president within seven years of an Islamic terrorist attack. I know I certainly would not have. And further proving my point, I saw a news article last night: Hispanic and Asian Population Growth Slow Unexpectedly.

Deterred by immigration laws and the lackluster economy, the population growth of Hispanics and Asians in the United States has slowed unexpectedly, causing the government to push back estimates on when minorities will become the majority by as much as a decade.

Census data being released today also showed that fewer Hispanics are migrating to suburbs and newly emerging immigrant areas in the Southeast, including Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia. Instead, Hispanics are staying in traditional gateway locations such as California.

The nation's overall minority population continues to rise steadily, increasing 2.3 percent in 2008 to 104.6 million, or 34 percent of the total population. But the slowdown among Hispanics and Asians continues to shift conventional notions on when the tipping point in U.S. diversity will come -- estimated to occur more than three decades from now.

This is not intended to be a personal attack on Mark Steyn--I actually like him quite a bit and I think he is doing very important work. But I get frustrated with those who bemoan the loss of Europe and such. They base their view on demographic statistics, which are interesting and important to examine, but in the end are still just statistics and are easily manipulated and misrepresented.

Update, 2:50 PM: Apparently I'm Mark Steyn's reader of the day. Thanks, Mark--it's quite an honour.

Mother's Day

I feel bad that I wasn't able to blog yesterday, which was Mother's Day. But better late than never, so I figured I'd wish my mum and all mothers a very happy belated Mother's Day.

Victory Day In Russia

Today was Victory Day (or День Победы in Russian) in the Russian Federation. The president of Russia of course made an obligatory speech, as reported here:

President Dmitri Medvedev congratulated war veterans and promised a bright future. He warned any aggression against Russia would be met with an adequate response, but said he is committed to peace.

And, in more amusing news, Vladimir Putin sang a song with some random schoolgirl when she forgot the words. You can watch a video (courtesy of Russia Today) here, and it's hilarious. I never pictured Putin as someone who would sing before. I guess people are full of surprises ;-)

Croat War Crimes

All one hears about in the Western media regarding the wars in the Balkans during the 1990s is the alleged war crimes committed by the Serbs. My view since July 2008 has been that the Serbs' role was much overhyped and the other people who fought in the war are the true war criminals, such as the Bosnian Muslims and the Croats.

The BBC yesterday ran a story about Croatian war crimes. Apparently a Croatian MP has been jailed for war crimes he committed against the Serbs in 1991.

A far-right Croat MP has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes against Serb civilians during Croatia's war of independence in the early 1990s.

A court in Zagreb found Branimir Glavas had given orders to a paramilitary unit under his command to murder six Serbs in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

[...]

During the trial, prosecutors accused Glavas, 51, of ordering members of a paramilitary unit to abduct, torture and murder six Serbs in Osijek in late 1991, when he was in command of the city's defence forces.

The civilians were taken to the banks of the Drava river with their mouths taped and hands and feet tied, then shot and dumped into the water, they said.

Glavas was also accused of failing to prevent the killings of two other Serbs, one of whom was forced to drink battery acid before being shot dead.

It's been a long time to wait for justice, but perhaps eventually the true war criminals will be properly indicted, convicted, and sentenced.

All Finished

Well, I am finally finished with my year. I had my last exams on May 5 (yes, I had two that day) and then I moved out the next day, which was a pain.

I'm still not home yet, so don't expect too much posting. But I do have the following planned for the summer:

• A new about page for this blog


• Some new badges for the sidebar (I fully intend to make a "Support Robert Spencer" badge)


• Logistical changes to the template of this blog


• New essays, especially about the Balkans and Russia

In addition, I will be taking off most of the month of July because I will be abroad in Russia. I am flying to St. Petersburg and taking a riverboat cruise to Moscow, then flying to Kiev for a few days before returning home. Don't worry--I promise to take loads of pictures.

Laughland: The Crown Witness at The Hague

Well, I have my last exam tonight, thank goodness. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more soon (though I may have to be sending my computer away for a repair).

John Laughland is one of my favourite writers at the Brussels Journal. He has a very interesting article up that was published this past Saturday: The Crown Witness at The Hague. I highly suggest reading it, as it has absolutely fascinating insights about the alleged Srebrenica massacre.