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Chemical Weapons in the Service of Genocide

by Azra Terzic, Nova Bosna, 12/30/95, Frankfurt, Germany

Enormous crimes have been committed against the Bosnian population in the last three years. All possible war schools have been tried out against the Bosnian people. Previously untested weapons have been used against innocent civilians.

Only recently, the world media have started writing somewhat more about the mass use of chemical weapons against civilian targets; chemical weapons which had been produced for years in the Serbian factories of death. One of these deadly factories was located on the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina, in the township of Potoci near Mostar. The former JNA installed in the village of Potoci the machinery for the production of chemical weapons. This was a nucleus from which later developed a whole industrial complex with completely isolated production-research facilities. The production of the toxin of the type SARIN which has a short term effect begun in the factory in Potoci.

Long Lasting Effects of SIPERIT

Later, the production of SIPERIT, a poison gas with long term effects, was started. For years on the slopes of the Vitez mountain, far from the eyes of the public, numerous experiments were performed: contamination of the terrain and experiments on animals. Only those with security clearance could work in the factories of death. The employees were usually brought in from Serbia and Montenegro. Many people from the Mostar area remember Serbians and Montenegrins who arrived with their families. Their wives were village teachers and spewed out "knowledge" to Bosniac children. All that was conceived under the guise of brotherhood and unity. Of course that now, after the discovery of everything that took place in Potoci the older locals remember that their sheep, cows and horses used to die for no reason. Domestic animals used to produce offspring without hair and with deformities. All this was of course, the effect of the toxins and their vapors. The whole monstrosity of the crime surfaced during the war when the Serbo-Montenegrin Armada, incapable to change the situation on the front, turned to the deadly chemical weapons which destroy nervous system and cause changes on the body.

According to the reports which have been completed these days by the experts from the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina (ABH), the mass production of the chemical weapons in Potoci started in 1984. In that year, a technological line for the production of psychological toxins of the type BZ with the capacity of 5kg per day was established. Those very same psychological toxins will have a decisive deadly role in the killing of the inhabitants of Srebrenica and Zepa. According to the report of the military experts from ABH, during those years, the experts of the former JNA feverishly worked on the development of the production of nerve poisons such as SOMAN, VX, TABUN and others. At that time began the collaboration with Iraq, to which large quantities of chemical weapons were sold. Colonel Bozidar Dzakula, M.Sc., was in charge of the whole project of the production and use of chemical weapons.

Poisonous Projectiles

In the factories of the former JNA began the production of the artillery shells with the caliber of 122mm which were filled with 1,8 liters of poison. 152 mm shell could be filled with 3.5 liters of poison gas... Airplane shells BAD 100 could hold as much as 20 liters of poison gas. Even landmines filled with poison gases were produced. All produced chemical weapons were stored in the military dump in Zunovnica. From that storage dump, at the beginning of 1992, 40 tones of raw materials necessary for the production of SARIN were taken for the former JNA. Since 1990, military experts at the Military Technical Institute in Belgrade have been feverishly investigating lack of iodine in the water supply of Srebrenica and Zepa. More precisely, they were trying to establish the consequences of the lack of iodine and salt on the human body.

In seems that even before the beginning of the war and mass suffering, Srebrenica and Zepa were earmarked for mass experiments on their population. It is not an accident that the former JNA and than also the criminals Karadzic and Mladic with their collaborators forbade the transport of salt to Srebrenica where the population was suffering en masse from the thyroid. Lack of salt together with the occasional bombardment with poison gases had a horrendous effect of the human body.

Srebrenica could have been occupied much earlier, with its disarmed population and cowardly behavior of the Dutch soldiers...

The West Knew Everything

However, according to the Serb Armada strategic goals at the time, it was more important to kill from time to time and observe what was happening to the population of Srebrenica than to immediately enter the town, slaughter the inhabitants and occupy the enclave. Srebrenica was a long time ago, it seems, predestined to become the training ground for various biochemical experiments. That is why it has been said that the West had known everything and had been warned on time; however they were also eager to obtain the results of the monstrous Serb experiments. Only now it is becoming clear why in every enclave, besides UN soldiers there were also experts for atomic and biochemical warfare who were always studying something in the field. No one was interested in what they were doing; only now it is clear what function they had.

Therefore, the West has known everything, but it reacted slowly. Poison gases were specifically produced with the aim to destroy the human psychic and unconsciousness. After a release of the gas in a certain area , the contaminated persons exhibit uncontrolled behavior. People from Srebrenica even now, after all the horror they have been through, talk about the horrendous effects of chemical weapons. Those affected by the poison gas used to shout that they didn't want to fight or move towards the free territory, but instead went straight towards the chetniks. People would become apathetic, scream when the chetniks were nearby or "drink" water from nonexistent streams; they hallucinated that huge blocks of ice were falling on them... Chetniks would infiltrate their criminals among the poisoned people and kill them.

Experiments on Camp Inmates

The criminals would usually distribute hand grenades which would soon be activated. It is possible that the chetniks were interested in how long the poison gas remains effective, what the limits of human stamina are and for how long it was possible to control the contaminated people. The camp prisoners from Manjaca, Keraterm, Bratunac, Batkovic and other camps, emphasize that the guards in the camps poured, in front of everyone, white powder in the water which was given to the prisoners; after that the prisoners were even more thirsty than before, became apathetic and resigned.

The tragedy of the population of Bosnia-Hercegovina, must not be ignored. Among the many accusations of genocide we should include this one about the mass crimes committed by the experts of the former JNA who produced chemical weapons; and certainly those who ordered these monstrosities should also pay.

Mesic's Testimony

The testimony of Stipe Mesic, the last president of the former presidency of SFRY who sent the classified documents about chemical weapons to the USA, confirms that the West knew about these criminal experiments.

"In June, 1991, while I was the president of the presidency of the former SFRY, by chance I stumbled across some documentation about the production of chemical weapons. I believed that such activity was dangerous, not only for this area, but also for the international community. Since it was obvious that a war would break out soon, one could assume that the possible use of these weapons could cause a catastrophe. Therefore, I used this situation to inform certain circles in the American administration about the case. Short time after that, I was taken to the USA where I turned the documents over to the accredited Pentagon officials," emphasizes Stjepan Mesic after the discovery of the massive use of poison gases in Bosnia-Hercegovina against the civilian population.

Alleged uses of chemical weapons in Bosnia-Hercegovina

Translated on 1/19/96

used without permission, for "fair use" only

Croats Insist on the Division of the City

Nova Bosna, 12/30/95, Frankfurt, Germany

In the statement issued yesterday regarding the implementation of the Dayton agreement, the Mostar County Presidency emphasizes that the Croatian side insists on the division of the city as the division of the war loot along the line of separation. Croatian representatives, led by Mijo Brajkovic, said that they didn't have a mandate to change the borders which were the result of the war, which is unacceptable for the Bosniac side. More than 20,000 Bosniacs were expelled from their homes in Mostar and are now mostly in the Western European countries. The acceptance of the Croatian proposal would be loke saying to the citizens of Mostar that they cannot return to their city, which is one of the goals of the Croat policy. In the statement of the Mostar County Presidency it is emphasized that such position of the Croat side augurs the ethnic division within the Bosniac-Croat Federation and therefore, contravenes the provisions of the Dayton agreement about the building of the Federation. The Bosniac side offered two solutions: the first one, in which the old center of the city would be preserved with its multiethnic character and the second one where common municipalities with majority Bosniac population would be formed. Neither one of the Bosniac proposals which are in agreement with the results of the population census from 1991 was accepted by the Croats.

The offer made by the Bosniac side balanced the demographic structure of the population in all municipalities so that every citizen, regardless of his or hers nationality, would be guaranteed security in any one of the future six Mostar municipalities. At the end of the statement, the Mostar County Presidency says that the Bosniac side will not compromise the principles of justice and equality for all citizens of Mostar and will request arbitration and participation of all relevant international institutions in this process.

More about Mostar and the Federation

Translated on 1/19/96