Ingeborg Beugel is a Dutch reporter and author of several documentaries about the crimes committed in Bosnia. In an interview for the online site Sarajevo-x.com, she talks about the rise of the Greek nationalism and the participation of Greek mercenaries in the war in Bosnia, including the Srebrenica massacre.
She was married to a Greek, and lived a social life surrounded by the Greek political elite, watching first hand how the socialists around Papandreu "made a total mess, and by the end of the 80-ties, the socialist government proved to be as inefficient and corrupt as all the previous ones, which were selfish dictatorships". She delayed her departure, only to decide later she's had enough! I will briefly reprint a few of her points here:
Link: Ingeborg Beugel: Zbog Srebrenice sam napustila Grčku! (Sarajevo-x)
She was married to a Greek, and lived a social life surrounded by the Greek political elite, watching first hand how the socialists around Papandreu "made a total mess, and by the end of the 80-ties, the socialist government proved to be as inefficient and corrupt as all the previous ones, which were selfish dictatorships". She delayed her departure, only to decide later she's had enough! I will briefly reprint a few of her points here:
- 'I was very surprised that the Greek people ignored what was going on in the neighboring countries. The Greek press, minus a very few brave exceptions, was blindly copying the Milosevic war propaganda. They refused to read other sources, and when they did, they would attribute the reports about ethnic cleansing to the "conspiracies from the jews, Turks and Vatican".'
- 'While debating about what was going on in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia or Kosovo, I lost a lot of my Greek friends, because they simply didn't believe in what I was witnessing, what I saw with my own eyes. They kept going back to the conflicts and unresolved issues in the Balkans from the Middle Ages, and refused to look at the present.'
- She traveled with a group of Greek journalists to some Bosnian towns, where they witnessed many heart-breaking stories of atrocities made by both sides of the war. Her insisting that the other reporters should equally write down the both sides made the majority of the group hostile towards her (someone even suggested they should leave her in the middle of the war zone). However, although it was expected for the reporters to be neutral, when they got back to Greece, everyone except her, wrote only about the atrocities over the Serb population, ignoring those made over the Bosnians. When she asked her colleagues why they chose to ignore the Bosnian side, they answered that if they did so, they would surely lose their jobs.
- 'During all that time I heard talks about the dangers from the "Muslim spear" - the possibility that Kosovo joins Albania, which would then put Greece in a sandwich between two Muslim countries: Albania and Turkey. On the other side, Greece was the only EU country that supported the Palestinian side in their conflict with Israel. Also, their "Orthodox love" disappeared when they were fighting the Macedonians about the name of their country.'
- 'In the meantime, the Greek nationalism was growing. My 6-year old son one day came back from school 3 hours late, all excited. He told me that the teachers took all pupils to the port (we lived on the small island of Hydra), where they had to demonstrate. They gave them banners and told them to shout: "Europe, hands off from Macedonia. Macedonia is Greek!" My son didn't have a clue where and what is Macedonia, he was too young. When I got to the school to complain about this political indoctrination of the innocent little children, - and they could also tell my boy to shout "kill all gays" or that the women are not allowed to work, - I was told that if I don't like the Greek education, I might as well go back to Holland. When after Srebrenica I saw many Greek denying what happened there, that's what I did... I didn't want my kids to grow in a country so blind and nationalistic.
- 'Who would like to hear my story? I was a little journalist with a big opinion that nobody wanted to listen. Then, suddenly, Takis Michas called me, and told me he found out that Greek mercenaries were participating in the Srebrenica massacre. This was my chance: now my new employer was interested in this unheard story about the role of Greece in the Yugoslav war... My film "In a Greek Way" ("Op z'n Grieks") was made in October 2002, and it caused a lot of rage in Holland - they had no clue about this. Also, in Greece the film caused rage, and it was not even aired in any Greek TV. For me, it is most important that this film is aired in both Greece and Serbia.'
'One candidate from PASOK... had a poster where he poses together with Karadzhich... who was at that time one of the most wanted war criminals in the world, together with Osama bin Laden and Ratko Mladich... There are others, like mister Lykourezos, who is proud of his pictures with Mladich, Karadzhich and Miloshevich (he has an entire wall of these photos in his office), and openly denies everything that happened in Srebrenica... Most people in Hydra are still proud that they had Miloshevich as guest on their island.'- 'The Greek mercenaries that participated in the killings in Srebrenica are well known, but they aren't brought to justice. The Greek cooperation with the Hague Tribunal is very poor, even today.'
- 'When the press tells lies to it's people for over a decade, and neither a politician nor any public figure stands up and tells the truth, the process will be slow. Somebody in Greece should apologize.'
Link: Ingeborg Beugel: Zbog Srebrenice sam napustila Grčku! (Sarajevo-x)
6 comments:
You say only bad things about Greece in this blog Goodbytes, yet many of your people would like to come back and live to this nationalistic country. Why's that? And don't tell me you like the place and not the people because that means you only want to create nationalistic trouble by arriving here.
Linktothepast, it is their country, as much as it is yours. They originate from their birthplaces, they are born and lived there, they have their houses and land there. Is it so hard to figure out why someone wants to come back to his home, the home that was taken away from them?
The Aegean Macedonians do not hate the Greeks. They just want what's theirs. It is Greece and radical Greeks that do not want (or hate) them.
After all dear goodbytes who can ignore historical facts !!Although the largest part of the political refugees that fled Greece at the end of the disastrous civil war (1949) profess themselves as “Macedonians” and have fully espoused your propaganda, there are still political refugees in the country with complete greek conscience.
The voices of these people,who fled Greece because they had found themselves on the side of the defeated after the civil war (1946-1949), are heard more and more lately. It's not just those who fought in the battle fields but their women and children they took with them.
It's illustrative that at the time Yugoslavia was a single country,only few political refugees with greek conscience accepted to change their names into slavic ones and take the suffix -fski.
Today, most of those political refugees that are still living are over 80 years old. Although they feel embittered by the behaviour of the greek authorities towards them,justified or not I have my personal opinion, they never thought even for a moment to betray their roots. They passed their love for Greece to their children and grandchildren.
These people have the right to return legally to Greece, as happened with the rest of the political refugees from various countries of Eastern Europe after 1982.
They don't want to return to Greece and create problems or nonexistent issues like the self-proclaimed “Macedonians”. They want to return to their villages and die where they were born,under the greek flag. There are many of course that because of their old age and condition do not wish to return to Greece but they wish to recover their greek nationality, even if they continue living in the FYROM. After all, 59 years of living there cannot be considered insignificant.
It's time the greek authorities saw with interest the cases of these people who are greeks and declare it without any hesitation.Who found themselves living in your region due to political conditions but never forgot their origins.
It is unreasonable for the self-proclaimed “Macedonians” who dream a return to the “occupied” by the greeks “Aegean Macedonia” to be put in the same sack with those who want to return again to Greece,their homeland,or to obtain greek nationality,even if they chose to stay for the rest of their lives in your region.
These people consist the third group of the citizens of your country with greek origins,following the greek vlachs in the area of Pelagonia and the Sarakatsani who live in various areas of the country.
You cannot ignore them and be sure that many Greek Books arrived allready to their childs and grandchilds !!! After all access to knowledge is the highest democratic right !!
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