GarryB wrote:The interesting thing is that when I talk to westerners or all the ethnic groups actually involved in the conflict except the Serbs... they say the bad guys were the Serbs.
Most of the Serbs I talk to about it say there were no good guys and everybody did very bad things, but that the Serbs tended to get the blame for everything... largely likely because of their link to Russia no doubt.
Croats, Bosnians and later Albanians had great support from Germany most notably, even weapons, Croatians were supplied for an example with significant amounts of Ambrusts. Now when Germany says something, others EU members follow. And how i see it, Germans always had thing for Croatians and their blind obidinence to German influence. For God sake they sent 10.000 men "Black Legion" to fight in Russia during WW2. They were running one of the biggest WW2 death camps, Jasenovac. So i guess that way way to repay Croats and Muslims (Yes Muslims too were members of NHD Ustaše, they were actually last to lay weapons in place called Fazlagića Kula).
See, Croats fought on German side in WW2, WW2 both times post war "hugged" by Serbs which prevented them from being listed on losing side, they never answered for their crimes aganist civilians in Serbian Mačva in WW1 (and there were plenty), then again after WW2 Serbians formed state with them included, some Ustaše were punished by new Communist regime but it was all beans compared to real scale of that organisation. And what happens? Croats only remember Blajburg, place were captured Ustaše were executed for their crimes, they never mention anything before. They actually blame Serbs directly for "killing Croats in Blajburg", which was basically Yugoslavian Nirmberg trial.
Serbs are not saints, but things that Serbs did are so sporadic, unorganised and mostly done in revenge.
Let me tell you one story, its longish but i think it will say thing or two:
Youngest person from my family to die in June 1941. by Croats was 15 years old. Croats that gathered all male Serbs from my village were our actual Croatian neighbours reinforced by Croats from city of Dubrovnik. They said various lies to make them come peacefully, my grand-grand father which was 55 at that time, was village knez (term derived from Russian, means like leader/chieftain of a sort) and they told him he needs to come to a meeting, new Independent State of Croatia needs to read him changes in laws etc, to rest of my family they said they need to give away old documents and recieve new so that they need to come too. When they left village they were tied up in long line with ropes and taken on foot to 7-8km away natural deep natural pit. Some were killed by knife and thrown, some hit in head with big wooden hammer, some thrown alive, occasionally handgrenade was thrown after them to stop screams of wounded that did not die.
Now let me come back to 15 years old guy. He was sick, and was laying near fireplace with temperature. They asked my Grand-grand mother whats up with a kid (it was brother of our Croat neighbour, his family way very poor and they would often use our land to feed their cow, and grandmother would send them every sunday big wheat flour bread, as they mainly ate corn bread, this guy however was working in Dubrovnik on docks and came here only for this "job") and she said (like many mothers would to boost sick kids morale): "He is not a kid, he is a bachelor now, he might need to marry soon". Then our neighbour, friend, copatriot said: "Then if he is a man, he should come with us too". Naturally she never saw him again, his remains were identified in 1991. taken from that same pit, decades after his mother died. Grand-Grand mother blamed herself for his death, and she never pointed out who that guy was, out of fear i guess.
Now, lets say some 15 years post WW2, was is long over, one of my far cousins talked with Croatian train conductor about my village and he apparently "had a few drinks" and said at one moment: "I am sorry of nothing in my life, but for that young <insert my surname> boy i took from <insert village>". Lets say this information came to ears of my grandfather cousins. They stopped the train one day, took conductor off it, took him to mountains on foot, tied far, far and took his brains out with a rifle bullet. None of them is alive today, police lets say "turned head away" too so i am fairly free to share this. My point, Serbs are not genuinely some butchers and maniacs like West likes to portrait us... but sure as Hell you should not make them your enemy. Coz if you do, you will have to cry out loud to Germans, Brits and Americans to save your ass.