(E) A Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail by Dr. Vranic
A Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail
A Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail: The “real story� behind
the writing of General Lewis MacKenzie (Globe and Mail July 14th, page
A17).
The Economist on July 7, 2005, published a extensive article about the
massacre of Srebrenica. To quote: “There is a small flowerbed, a simple
open pavilion toped by tiny Islamic crescent and a plain stone slab
inscribed with an invocation, may revenge be turned into justice, may
mother’s tears be turned into prayers, that there should be no more
Srebrenicas. Dignitaries from all over the world marked, on July 11th,
the tenth anniversary of Europe’s worst mass killing since the second
world war: the murder of up to eight thousand Muslim men and boys by
Bosnian-Serb forces.� General MacKenzie describes this sad occasion
“with much fanfare ceremonies focused on this massacre.� What does he
mean by this word “fanfare?� Even the government of Republika Srpska
recently officially reported that between seven to eight thousand men
and boys were murdered in a few days following the fall of
Srebrenica. General MacKenzie doubts this figure. This reminds me of so
many attempts to diminish the crime of the Holocaust, an issue which
I’m particularly sensitive about. How can General MacKenzie even imply
the crimes committed by the Bosnian General Naser Oric’s troops raids
against Serbs in the Bratunac region caused the onslaught on
Srebrenica? To compare the Srebrenica massacre with the number of Serbs
killed by Oric troops seems partisan, preposterous, and certainly
uncompassionate. Most of these raids, for which Naser Oric is tried in
the Hague, were committed more than 2 years before the Srebrenica
massacre. General MacKenzie forgot the context of the aggression of the
Bosnian-Serbian army with the essentially defenceless Muslim
population. The Tribunal in Hague condemned the massacre as
genocide. I’m concerned the Tribunal in Hague will have problems with
their statement because General MacKenzie indicated that only men and
young boys, an no women , were killed. As a proud Canadian, and
non-Bosnian, I would try to express my disappointment on behalf of so
many of my colleagues and friends, that the Globe and Mail published
this article. I would urge the editors to write an editorial responding
to the article of General MacKenzie to provide, at least, minimum
justice to those effected. To quote again the Economist: “In this place
every other women lost a husband, a father, and often several sons.�
Mladen Vranic, M.D, D.Sc., FRCP(C), FRSC, professor and former chair of
the department of physiology, and professor of medicine.
