THE MUSLIMS, MEDIA AND MACHINATIONS IN SARAJEVO

by Martins Branco,
Officer of the Portuguese Army, Former UN Military Observer

Published in "Diario de Noticias", Lisbon, July 3, 1996

On 6 February 1994, television broadcast the destructive effect of two shells which killed 68 persons at a market in Sarajevo. The public opinion was stunned, the Serbs were proclaimed responsible and their international isolation worsened. It was subsequently unveiled that the Serbs had not been the authors of these explosions. The authors were the Muslims who did not hesitate to shell their own population in order to attract international attention and have the Serbs accused and justify in that way the imposition of punitive measures against them. The mass media, so quick in accusing the Serbs, kept silent when they were called upon to change lies with truth. Surprisingly, UNPROFOR behaved in the identical way, unwilling to inform the public objectively.

On 28 June 1995, television broadcast on numberless occasions the pictures of the wounded in the explosion of a shell fired on the Sarajevo TV building. By a fluke, a UN observer located the place from which the shell had been fired: about 1,800 metres from the line of conflict in the territory under Muslim control. The Muslim authorities prevented any investigation in the location. UN officers intended to unveil this incident but they were proclaimed "personnae non gratae" in Sarajevo by the responsible people in the Muslim Army. Subsequently, the UNMO version was substantiated by statements of other witnesses. For the public opinion this was yet another savagery committed by the Serbs. The event was misrepresented and the truth was not unveiled.

In Sarajevo, the Muslims often violated cease-fire agreements. They shelled Serbian positions to force them to retreat, accusing them immediately thereafter of attacking unprotected and innocent civilians. This was how the hoax was spread that the Serbs were violating peace agreements. The weapons used to be positioned in the immediate vicinity of the locations of the representatives of the United Nations, international organizations, hospitals etc. in order to achieve a greater effect for the mass media with respect to Serbian counter-attacks. On countless occasions the Serbs fell for the trap and almost always answered the deftly thought up provocations of the Muslims who used them as propaganda very cunningly. Once again were the media silent accomplices of the Bosnian Muslims by systematically refusing to name the real culprit in their reports.

On 28 August 1995 at about 11 a.m. the scene similar to the one from February 1994 was repeated. A 120 mm mortar shell exploded at the Sarajevo Markale market. According to the official data, 38 persons were killed and 88 wounded. 45 minutes later a UNMO team and am engineer team of the French battalion came to the place of the accident. The reports of both teams went without a conclusion as to who was responsible for the act. It was technically possible for the shell to have been fired from Muslim positions. English ammunition experts who had also analyzed the crater, went even further in their conclusions: even though they too did not specify who was responsible they did state that there existed a great probability that the shell had been fired by the Muslims. Not only did the media not carry the reports of these teams but they never doubted who the culprit was. The investigation of the accusations lasted several days. Yasushi Akashi found it difficult to blame anybody on the basis of two unfinished reports. Those were the days of great tension. The decisive evidence of the unmistakable Serbian guilt on which his decision was based was the result of radar observations which provided no precise data (guaranteed no credibility). The Serbs were accused once again, now in the full meaning of the word. As a consequence of the events, the UN mission was to use NATO air force which caused essential changes in the relation of forces and led to the defeat of the Serbs, compelling them to Dayton negotiations. There is every indication that the decision on Serbian guilt for the firing of the damned shell was conditioned by the reasons of political nature extraneous to the philosophy of peace maintenance. The decision was not based on special technical reports on the analysis of the crater. It caused embarrassment and some public reactions, beginning with the UNPROFOR Commander for the Sarajevo sector. Surprisingly, the industrial infrastructure around Sarajevo which according to Dayton should be transferred to the control of the Bosnian Government was not destroyed. However, this did not happen to the territories which according to Dayton have been returned to the Serbs.

More radical analysts confirmed that the truth of the events at the Sarajevo market had been deliberately hidden from the public in order to justify the aggression against the Serbs.

On 13 September 1995, having noted that the time of the flight of shells had been unusually short, an UNMO team in a village a few kilometres away from Bihac came quickly to the place from which they were being fired and found an artillery crew well equipped which was quite evidently responsible for the firing. UNPROFOR high officials were informed, but facts were kept silent about once again and the Muslims were not unmasked. In order to convince the public opinion and fabricate truth, the Bosnian Muslims did not hesitate to enlist a US public relations firm. The concern about the seriousness of the approach can be inferred from the words of its director, James Harff, who confirms that he is not paid to watch over public morals, that his work is not based on checking information but on speeding up its circulation, it being once included into targets selected beforehand. Sufficient for that purpose is, in his words, just a good database containing several hundreds of names of journalists, politicians, academicians and humanitarian organizations, a computer and a telefax.

In distorting history, the mass media have been active accomplices; a good broth justifies almost everything even if it represents distortion of facts and does not present truth. All the peoples of that region suffered the same and were the victims of an absurd conflict. However, only the suffering of one side in the conflict deserved to be pointed out in the mass media. In this way the conflict in the former Yugoslavia was transformed in a media revenge because of the way in which the media were treated in the Gulf War. Unlike in the Gulf War, the journalists have become interventionists, not limiting themselves to a neutral information role. They begin to interfere into events in an attempt to provoke political events and military actions: they set conditions, directed and exerted pressure on politicians' decisions. Media reporting from the former Yugoslavia made no contribution to the objectivity of information. Leaning towards one side alone, distorting events, engaging in propaganda and hiding the blows below the belt, they departed from their basic mission - to inform truthfully and objectively. As they have been the co-authors of, and accomplices in machinations, they served the society bad and undermined the right of citizens to objective information.

[ Markale market massacre #2 ]
[ Sarajevo staged atrocities ]