https://plus.google.com/118424303220107713936 Bosnian War Archives - ZA VAS

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Unless Theres a Magic Formula, Bosnia Could Be Heading Towards Another Conflict!

The war that started in 1992 between Muslims, Croats and Serbs which lasted four years in what seemed a lifetime. During the four years over 200,000 Bosnians were killed and millions displaced across the world. Since then the country has been trying to pick up the pieces. Because no one has a magic formula for rebuilding a country, Bosnia has become the poorest country in Europe since its war ended in 1995.

The whole idea behind the start of the 1992 war was Bosnian Serbs and Croats taking up arms against Muslims in order to prevent Bosnia breaking away from Yugoslavia, yet the international community hesitate for four years as thousands of innocent civilians were killed. Eventually the US stepped in; they got the furious leaders from all three parties to sign a peace agreement in Dayton Ohio at the end of 1995 in what became the Dayton Ohio Peace Agreement which still haunts Bosnia nearly 17 years later.

The kicker to the whole deal was the appointment of the  “High Representative.” With a single country consisting of two entities (Bosnian and Croat Federation vs. RS) and three religions, the deal balanced power so carefully any community can block the will of everyone else. In other words making it hard for any of the two entities to move forward. But let’s not forget the “High Representative, who happens to be today a gentlemen by the name of Valentin Inzko who holds the ultimate authority and the so-called ‘Bonn’ powers to impose decisions to keep Bosnia running.

Now there’s a problem – Bosnian Serbs don’t like this and find Mr. Inzko very upsetting due to his idea of the country being shared by all three nations – Bosnian, Croats and Serbs.

This has lead Milorad Dodik, the RS leader to talk about breaking away and has even made reference to calling a referendum in 2014 in hopes of of RS breaking away from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Dodik believes that Bosnia’s current government structure is not working, and this past October went on a limb by asking the RS parliament to discuss the option of abolition of Bosnia’s army – a move that hasn’t sat well with Mr. Inzko. This eventually lead Mr. Inzko to write to the UN Secretary general warning them about Mr. Dodik and his fascination of unraveling Bosnia – a move that can spin Bosnia into the same conflict of 1992.

So, is Bosnia heading towards another conflict? Is Mr. Dodik a serious threat to Bosnia? or is the High Representative bullying the Bosnian Serbs? We have our own opinions which we would rather not share on here. But this interview by Sami Zeidan of Aljazeera Network may give you a little insight into the issue and a clearer picture of who stands where.

Dark Past in Balkan War Comes Back to Haunt Azra Basic

She spent nearly two decades as a dedicated American citizen leading a quiet life in a small suburb community of Stanton, Kentucky.  Isabell Basic lived a very low key life, and often worked up to two jobs in order to provide a quality life. She worked locally in a factory making Hot Pockets, was handy around the house, and a pretty good cook as well.

She suffered from Emphysema, had no family members, had a dog and shared a home with Steve Loman and his wife Lucy. The Lomans, in turn, describe Ms. Basic, 51, as a “big-hearted” person — the kind who would not buy something for herself without first picking up a gift for a friend, but who was also so scarred by the Bosnian conflict that she could not watch war movies and had severed all ties with her native land.

Sounds all logical for not wanting to be reminded of the past, but perhaps there was another reason. The woman known to the community as Issabel, was actually Azra Basic who was wanted in Bosnia by the prosecutors for taking part in a vicious brigade of Croatian Army soldiers that tortured and killed ethnic Serbs at three detention camps in the early years of the Bosnian war.

Victims and witnesses from the camps, quoted in court documents, say that while wearing a Croatian uniform, twin knives strapped to her belt and a boot, Ms. Basic carved crosses into prisoners’ foreheads. They accuse her of slitting one man’s throat and forcing others to drink from the dead man’s wound.

She was first charged in 1993, but it took Interpol 11 years to locate her. The Bosnian government registered a formal extradition request in 2007, but United States authorities asked for additional evidence before she was finally arrested in 2011 by U.S. authorities.

The lies eventually caught up to Azra Basic.

She tried to hide her shady past in leading a double life. Court records contained in the extradition request indicate that she married Nedzad Basic in 1994. She never shared much about her husband, but instead put together a story on how the Red Cross had helped resettle the pair in the United States, after a bomb blast destroyed one of her kidneys and lodged shrapnel in her skull. Ms. Basic arrived to the United States in 1994, and she began reinventing herself. She changed her name to Issabell, moved from Rochester to Lexington, Ky., and became an American citizen, and in years down the road she ventually divorced her husband of 11 years in 2005.

Today Azra Basic is on trial and awaiting her faith for her crimes against humanity. Likely, she’ll ended up spending the rest of her life behind the doors of a prison cell which will put an end to her double life.