In "Bosnia genocide victims protest Gaza offensive," Reuters reports the over-the-top claims made by Bosnian Muslims that the action in Gaza is "just like" that of the 8,000 Bosnians murdered in 1995 in and around Srebrenica. This absurd comparison is, of course, these Muslims' opinion, but Reuters reports this straight without bothering to reveal the full facts that would show that there is, in truth, no comparison between the two situations at all.
The net effect of the article leaves hanging the Muslim claim that Israel is perpetrating an act no better than the ethnic cleansing in the 1990s in Serbia and does not bother to reveal the situation as it really exists. It would be easy for the reader to assume that the Israelis are all in the wrong here. And, one cannot help but feel that this is Reuters's goal all along.
The report originates from Sarajevo where survivors of the '95 massacre of Bosnian Muslims, with victims counted at more than 8,000 dead, mounted a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy there. Naturally, the call was for the U.S. to stop Israel's actions in Gaza.
There was all sorts of parading about to "stop the killing of innocent children," and placards that read "Srebrenica 1995 -- Gaza 2009," amidst the strained pleas to stop the Gazan efforts.
"During the war, the blood, the suffering and the pain were our everyday scenes and I cannot help but sympathise with the Palestinian people," said a protester about life during the 1995 massacre. "It all reminds us of what we went through during the war and it must stop."
Certainly no one likes to see the inevitable innocents get caught up in the actions in Gaza... well, no westerner does at least. But the Reuters story did not really do much by way of contrasting and comparing the two conflicts to validate the protester's position.
Not a word was said, for instance, that the Serb's actually meant to eliminate Bosnian Muslims. As in a sort of "final solution" program. By comparison, the Israelis have no desire to kill all Muslims in Gaza. Israel has never once had such a goal since its birth as a nation.
Additionally, even if you take the dubious word of Hamas as accurate, less than 800 civilians have died since the Israelis entered Gaza. compare this to the more than 8,000 that died when Serbian General Ratko Mladic, a man indicted on war crimes and charged with genocide, accosted Muslims in and near Srebrenica.
Then, Reuters didn't bother to compare Serbian General Mladic's actions of rounding up thousands of Muslims and eliminating them in batches in '95 to the fact that today Israel has delivered fliers and made thousands of telephone calls to warn civilians to get out of the areas she was about to bomb.
Reuters also seems not to recall that during the illicit attacks on Muslim civilians in Serbia, the world was locked out of being able to send aid to the afflicted Muslims. On the other hand, today so much aid is flowing into Gaza that some of it is simply misdirected to give aid to Israel's enemies.
But, no, Reuters does not bother to reveal that the foolish, though no doubt heartfelt, protests in Sarajevo do not in any way seem legitimate. When looking at the ethnic cleansing that went on in 1995 in Srebrenica and comparing it to what the Israelis are doing in Gaza in 2009, there is no way to conclude that they are the same despite the hatchet job Reuters tries to do here.
Thanks for the "news," Reuters.
(Photo credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
