From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Comments On Professor Hastings' Letters (from Haluk)
Date: 22 Jan 1993 05:48:07 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Forwarded message:
 From cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk!TEX5HAD Thu Jan 21 02:48:27 1993
 Via: uk.ac.leeds.ucs.cms1; Thu, 21 Jan 1993 07:56:50 +0000
 Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 06:31:38 GMT
 From: Haluk DEMIRBAG <TEX5HAD@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk>
 Subject: Comments On Professor Hastings' Letters (fwd)
 To: TRH@JACK.SNS.COM, TRH@MCIMAIL.COM
 Message-Id: <21 Jan 93 06:34:47 GMT #1776@UK.AC.LEEDS.CMS1>

 "SOS BOSNIA"

 SOME EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS RECEIVED IN COMMENT

 London, 14 May 1992

 My husband is a Bosnian Muslim born in Sarajevo, who came to this
 country some  18 years ago. His  mother and the other  members of
 his immediate family remained in Sarajevo.

   Since marrying  my husband I  have visited Sarajevo  many times
 and  from my  first visit  fell  in love  with the  city and  its
 people. The harmony and tolerance  between all ethnic groups that
 I observed there seemed to me  quite unique. The laughter and fun
 we  had on  our  many  visits brought  so  much  joy. I  remember
 visiting some relatives in a village outside of Sarajevo, and was
 astonished  to meet  such  untouched, honest  and simple,  Muslim
 country folk. Photographs of my  dear relatives there are some of
 my most precious possessions. I could go on!

   My point in writing  to you is to thank you  for sending such a
 clearly written  letter describing  the Muslim people  of Bosnia,
 and which hopefully  will be read and appreciated  by many people
 here in England.

 St. Albans, 16 October 1992

 I am writing  to thank you for your letter  to The Guardian about
 Bosnia. My wife and  I do have a knowledge of  the history of the
 region and direct experience of the tolerance which until a short
 time ago was  such a wonderful characteristic  of community life.
 At  Easter 1990,  we shared  a  spit-roast lamb  with a  Croatian
 Catholic family, a Serbian family, (one grandfather was a retired
 JNA General), and a Moslem and his wife.

   We attended the principal Easter Mass in the Cathedral at Banja
 Luka  at which  the Catholic  Bishop sent  greetings to  Orthodox
 Christians and their Bishop. East coincided in both calendars.

   By  Easter 1991  things had  started to  change. This  year the
 family which we  know best were dispersed; a son  in Germany, the
 younger  son and  mother  permanently in  Zagreb  and the  father
 remaining in  Banja Luka. Mixed  marriages have broken  up. Young
 people of  Croatian origin are  fearful of having to  serve under
 Serbian command. I am in danger of becoming over anecdotal but as
 events have  unfolded, I have experienced  a powerlessness almost
 without parallel in my life.

   On Good Friday  of this year, I  was in Zagreb and  as the news
 from Bosnia was far more detailed and terrifying than it had been
 in London, I was  moved to write to my MP who is  a member of the
 Cabinet. He  passed the  letter on  to Douglas  Hogg who  when he
 eventually  replied   was  adamant  "that  Bosnia   must  not  be
 dismembered",  although  he  was  also certain  that  no  outside
 involvement was possible ....

   .... When the history of this  tragedy comes to be written ....
 it will, I  believe show that our British  Belgrade diplomats did
 not  provide  London with  the  kind  of intelligence  about  the
 impending break up of the Federation  that was all too evident to
 experienced Yugoslav  watchers and  which might have  allowed for
 very early intervention especially on supply lines ....

   .... Thank  you  again  for   writing  with  such  clarity  and
 authority. Such truths will not be expressed in British political
 circles.  Radicals and  liberals appear  to have  been hypnotised
 into silence  because the logic  of the situation  suggested that
 military intervention  was a  necessity and  they could  not face
 that likelihood.  So far as  the masters  of the economy  and the
 leaders of government are concerned, the answer to their inaction
 has  been given  over  and  over again  by  Croation and  Bosnian
 friends, "We leave no vast reserves of oil".

 Anonymous, undated

 HASTINGS YOU BASTARD YOU LIE YOU  HORRIBLE MAN. YOU USE THE WEZEL
 WORD "RACIST" WHEN YOU ARE  IGNORANT YOU MOHAMMADAN APPROVING MAN
 YOU. THEY DO NOT LIKE  BEING CALLED MOHAMMEDANS DO THEY HASTINGS?
 but mohammadans they are the bastards ....

   .... HASTINGS MR GLADSTONE  CALLED ON THE TURK TO  CLEAR OUT OF
 THE EUROPEAN  PROVINCES HE HAD  DESOLATED AND PROFANED.  WHEN THE
 BULGERS SUFFERED.  THE BRAVE  SERB PATRIARCH FOUGHT  THE HORRIBLE
 TURK. NOW  HASTINGS YOU DOG YOU  WANT TO BRING THE  STINKING TURK
 BACK. THE MURDERING SADISTIC TURK.

   HASTINGS HAS A  MULLAH CIRCUMCISED THE FLESH  OF YOUR FORESKIN.
 HAVE YOU CONCUBINES HASTINGS DO  YOU MAINTAIN A HAREEM WHERE WILL
 THE ENUCHS COME FROM?

 31 July 1992

 .... To me  and to many  people it is  obvious that force  is the
 only thing  which Serbs understand  and it should have  been used
 much earlier.  The Serbian army is  a bandit army that  would run
 away like rats if faced with  a properly trained and armed force.
 I cannot understand why the whole  world is afraid of Serbs! I am
 really disappointed with  Mr Bush and Europe for  failing to stop
 the  tragedy unfolding  in Yugoslavia.  The signs  were there  of
 trouble as  soon as Mr Milosevic  rose to power and  started with
 mass demonstrations and whipping up hatred. I dread to think what
 will happen when Kosovo blows up!!

   Let me tell you a little about myself. I come from Bijeljina, a
 town in NW  Bosnia, one of the first that  fell to Serbian gunmen
 recently, when the ethnic cleansing  started in Bosnia. My father
 was a  Serb from Serbia, and  a captain of the  Royal Army during
 the  war, under  General  Mihailovic. My  mother  also came  from
 Bijeljina and is of Hungarian/German descent.

   There has never  been any animosity between  the communities of
 my  home  town as  I  remember  it. There  used  to  be a  German
 community  before the  Second World  War  there, and  they had  a
 Lutheran church  (now in ruins).  There was even a  Jewish Temple
 there.  Muslims were  never militant.  It is  not true,  as Serbs
 claim, that they are  fundamentalist. If they turn fundamentalist
 it will be because of the Serbs!

 London, 12 October 1992

 Is it possible that someone who  is supposed to be a professor of
 theology and religious studies can  be such a crass, pathetic and
 ignorant man? ....

   .... what  kind of  "traditionally  and remarkably  unstressful
 society of Muslims,  Serbs and Croats living in  perhaps the most
 consistently  tolerant society  Europe  has known  ...." are  you
 talking about?

   Are you tellings  us, Serbs and Croaes and the  world at large,
 that we absolutely loved the Turkish occupation and the legacy in
 the form of Slav Muslims that they, the Turks, have left us with?
 ....

   .... There is not a single Croat  or a Serb who does not loathe
 the  sight  of mosques  in  the  heart  of  our land  Bosnia  and
 Herzegovina.

   And you  dare call us  aggressors. Whose country is  Bosnia and
 Herzegovina exactly? Yours? ....

   .... It is you,  and several other people, who is  engaged in a
 dishonest and dishonourable propaganda  full of ugly revisionism.
 Bosnia  and Herzegovina  is not,  and has  never been,  a foreign
 state! It is Croatian and Serbian land. Put this into your head!
 ....

   .... Why don't  you save  your energy for  the not  too distant
 future when  the three million  Muslims in this  country proclaim
 their republic in  Bradford and Leicester; and  when they finally
 forbid the  ringing of our  church bells  as it offends  them. So
 many, many people in Britain are aware of what is going to happen
 here one day.

   But you, as a religious  mongrel will have no terrible problems
 (after all you are so just and fair) in living with Muslims. That
 is if they will want to have you in "their" country ....

 South Glamorgan, 11 October 1992

 I write to  express my appreciation of your letter  to the Editor
 of  the Guardian  (Saturday,  10th October)  regarding the  total
 failure of the international community to do anything to stop the
 annihilation of the Bosnian muslims. I also wrote to the Guardian
 Editor last week but failed to get my letter published. I enclose
 my  text in  order to  show  you that  I share  your concerns.  I
 managed to  squeeze a  resolution through my  Constituency Labour
 Party  calling  on the  British  Government  to work  for  direct
 international  intervention  and  calling  on  the  Labour  Party
 leadership to provide all help  and encouragement, but I doubt if
 this will have  any effect. The Guardian has  given excellent and
 sensitive coverage  to events  in the old  Yugoslavia but  it has
 fallen  well  short of  a  campaign  for realistic  international
 intervention.

 Freckenham, 8 July 1992

 I greatly appreciated your letter in the Times today. My husband,
 who has lived  here in exile since 1948, is  a Bosnian Croat from
 Sarajevo and I myself know Sarajevo and much of Bosnia very well
 ....

   .... I am absolutely at a loss to know how a small country like
 Serbia has  been able  to hold  the whole world  to ransom  for a
 whole  year  and  managed  to  do in  that  one  year  even  more
 destruction than Hitler in the first  year of the war. I can only
 assume  that they  are  being rewarded  for  their alliance  with
 Britain and France in the two world wars.

 University of Reading, 13 October 1992

 May I  say how much I  endorse and applaud your letters about the
 Bosnian tragedy in  the Guardian and The Times Higher Educational
 Supplement. In  the former it  broke a long silence  in published
 correspondence  on the  issue,  which contrasted  oddly with  the
 continuing flow  of horrifying reports from  brave journalists in
 the front line.

   Yes, of  course there has  been an appalling  miscalculation by
 the  Western  powers,  a  compound  of  ignorance,  domestic  and
 community distractions, lack of concerted or individual political
 will  and,  above  all,  a  tactical  confusion  which  has  cost
 thousands of lives and resulted  in millions being displaced. The
 root of  the confusion has  been a resort to  largely ineffective
 mediation when what was required was deterrence. The decisions to
 recognise  the   component  republics  of  the   former  Yugoslav
 federation carried  an obligation to  support them, with  all the
 military and  economic capacity  the West commands.  Instead, the
 West has  sought to regard  the debacle  as some sort  of natural
 disaster,  to  be tackled  by  toothless  peace-making and  token
 efforts to provide humanitarian aid ....

   .... Unfortunately  the  unwillingness  to adopt  any  firm  or
 coherent stance  is not confined  to the British  government. The
 Labour  opposition  has  remained   supine  throughout,  and  the
 attendance at the Commons emergency debate on foreign affairs was
 pathetically small.  One feels  oneself back  in the  later 1930s
 when the feebleness and complacency of the Chamberlain government
 allowed terror to triumph and a world war to ensue.
             _
 |-| /-\ |_ |_| |<
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish