Mediating denial
...Bosnian-Serbian forces, which took over the majority of the Yugoslav army's armour and men in Bosnia, began the Bosnian war in 1992, against the largely unarmed Bosnian government and non-Serb civilian population...
<http://www.martinshaw.org/degraded.htm> *****
Martin Shaw brings up the tired myth of unarmed & defenseless Bosnian Muslims as "one of the central facts" of the local power dynamics in the destruction of Yugoslavia; & accuses Edward Herman, et al of "denying" it (among other things).
However, the fact of the matter is as follows:
***** 1996 Congressional Hearings Intelligence and Security Iran/Bosnia Arms
House International Relations Committee
30 May 1996
...[Peter] GALBRAITH [then US ambassador to Croatia, after having served for a number of years on the staff of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations before joining the administration]: Let me say that from -- the Iranian presence dated back to 1992. And as I said in my opening statement, it was the war that created the opportunities for the Iranians and other undesirables to come into Bosnia. In fact, there were very serious terrorist threats to Americans, including to the mission for which I am responsible, well before this -- the April 1994 discussions that we were talking about, and those threats were created because of the war. Paradoxically, and I say this -- paradoxically, or perversely, I should say -- perversely, from an Iranian perspective, the decision to permit the transit of arms through Croatia to Bosnia had the unintended, from the Iranian point of view, but nonetheless the very real effect of diminishing the Iranian influence. Why? Because it enabled the Bosnians to defend themselves, to survive, and then, in conjunction with the Croatians, to roll back some of the Serb gains, thus paving the way to the Dayton agreement.
HAMILTON: Were there in 1993 about 500 Iranian revolutionary guards and other military and intelligence personnel in Bosnia?
[Charles] REDMAN [then US Ambassador to Germany & principal US negotiator on Bosnia in 1994]: Yes, sir; let me just summarize the numbers as we best know them.
HAMILTON: Yes, would you, please?
REDMAN: And again, these were based on estimates by our best analysts at those times.
HAMILTON: I understand.
REDMAN: But what one can say is that there was already Iranian deliveries of arms into Bosnia in the summer and fall of 1992; that the revolutionary guards were deployed in Bosnia in late 1992 to begin a training program for the Bosnian army; that by 1993, hundreds of revolutionary guard personnel were in Bosnia; that the number probably never exceeded 500, which I believe is the same number that you made reference to; and that since we have begun to implement the Dayton agreement, the numbers have been very substantially reduced, and we would have to have someone in a better-placed position than ourselves to give you the exact estimate of what would -- (inaudible).
HAMILTON: In 1992, were not the Bosnian leaders calling Iran Bosnia's best friend in the world?
REDMAN: That is true. And Bosnian leaders had visited Tehran already in spring of 1991 in order to try to solicit assistance because of the situation they found themselves.
HAMILTON: And Iran was the first Muslim country to recognize Bosnia, was it not? Izetbegovic had gone to Tehran in 1991 seeking economic help. The foreign minister had been there in 1992. The Organization of Islamic Countries, which was led by Iran and Turkey, were very heavily involved in all of this, were they not?
REDMAN: That's right, sir....
<http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1996_hr/eur50031.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
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