What does the second-largest human rights organization in Europe say about Dr Darko Trifunovic?
Blog Editor’s Note: Darko Trifunovic (photo on the left) was the first Secretary in the Foreign Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the U.N. (2001), who was fired from the position after for being involved in a document forgery and falsification of BiH citizenship – an identity theft crime. He traveled through many European states with forged documents until his fraud was uncovered and the BiH authorities took away his passport. Currently, he is a member of several leftist apologist organizations on record for denying Srebrenica genocide, and they are: International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), Defense & Foreign Affairs publications, the Global Information System (GIS). He authored the 1st Srebrenica Report (published by the Republika Srpska Government – the Bosnian Serb Government responsible for committing Srebrenica genocide in the first place) in which he claimed that only 100 Bosniaks (Muslims) died in the massacre.
OPEN LETTER (ORIGINAL COPY)
Society for Threatened Peoples International (GfbV)
The second-largest human rights organization in Europe
Dr Darko Trifunovic – Serb Nationalist, Supporter of Greater Serbia and Genocide Denier
To all participants of the International Police Congress; the EU Justice ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs; EU-, US and Serbian institutions in Serbia and the Republic of Srpska; the Bosnian government and Bosnian institutions
Dear Sir/Madam,
Our human rights organisation wishes to draw your attention to the dubious activities of Dr Darko Trifunovic, of the Faculty of Security Studies of the University of Belgrade.
Dr Trifunovic is a self-proclaimed “expert on Islamist terrorism” in the Balkans. Among other things he claims that Islamist terrorism has deep roots in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country now largely at peace with itself once again but which he maintains is the base of what he refers to as the “White Al-Quaeda”. These claims have been dismissed as frivolous and unsubstantiated not just by Bosnia’s state-level special police agency, the State Information Protection Agency (SIPA), but also by EUFOR (the European Union Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and EUPM (the EU Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina). Not surprisingly Trifunovic was recently obliged to withdraw from the 11th European Police Congress in Berlin (29-30 January 2008) which he had been invited to address.
Dr Trifunovic has been guilty of misleading the public on a number of occasions. In a report published in 2002 he accused the wives and mothers of Srebrenica of filing falsified reports about missing relatives and alleged that “less than 100 Muslim soldiers” had been executed at Srebrenica. These observations flew in the face of the finding by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), subsequently confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that the killing of over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by Serb firing squads at Srebrenica in 1995 constituted an act of genocide. To date 2907 victims have been interred in the cemetery at Potocari and more bodies continue to be found.
Since the start of the Yugoslav wars our international human rights organisation has been campaigning on behalf of the victims of expulsion, genocide and other war crimes. We continue to work closely with the Mothers of Srebrenica and other victims’ organisations. We speak for them as well in expressing our outrage at the way international bodies refer to Dr Trifunovic, a man who publicly denies that genocide was perpetrated in Bosnia and undermines efforts to bring about reconciliation and achieve closure for the crimes committed there, as a “security expert”.
Our protest is supported by Lord Paddy Ashdown, former High Representative of the international Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has remarked to us “I am appalled that Trifunovic is still able to do so much damage”.
Accordingly we urge you to end all contact and co-operation with Dr Trifunovic with immediate effect.
Yours sincerely
Jasna Causevic
Desk Officer for South-Eastern Europe
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Related Documents:
– GfbV International, Press Release (original copy)
Biography of Dr Darko Trifunovic:
1. Dr Darko Trifunovic / Part I. Biography /
2. Dr Darko Trifunovic / Part II. Biography /
3. Dr Darko Trifunovic / Part III. Biography /
4. Dr Darko Trifunovic / Part IV. Biography /
Srebrenica Genocide 1995 
I heard about “Dr Darko Trifunovic.” He is a failed Serbian propagandist. Forget about him; he is irrelevant.
Happy Kosovo Independence!
Trifunovic isn’t irrelevant as long as major European agencies recognise his “expertise” and give him a platform to propagate his views. And he’s not irrelevant as long as those views continue to rub salt into the wounds of people trying to come to terms with what they see as the world’s failure not just to prevent what happened but even to acknowledge the reality of what did happen. He may be incompetent but that doesn’t mean he’s irrelevant.
yes!Forget about him; he is irrelevant.
While people (Herman et al.) continue to cite the West’s rejection of the first Republika Srpska report on Srebrenica for which Trifunovic was responsible as a signpost to the reasons for the NATO intervention in Kosova and Western support for Kosovar independence he will remain relevant.
“But didn’t the Bosnian Serbs “confess” that they had murdered 8,000 civilians? This has been the take of the Western media, but again demonstrating their subservience to their leaders’ political agenda. The Bosnian Serbs actually did put out a report on Srebrenica in September 2002, [67] but this report was rejected by Paddy Ashdown for failing to come up with the proper conclusions. He therefore forced a further report by firing a stream of Republica Srpska politicians and analysts, threatening the RS government, and eventually extracting a report prepared by people who would come to the officially approved conclusions. [68] This report, issued on June 11, 2004, was then greeted in the Western media as a meaningful validation of the official line—the refrain was, the Bosnian Serbs “admit” the massacre, which should finally settle any questions. Amusingly, even this coerced and imposed report didn’t come near acknowledging 8,000 executions (it speaks of “several thousand” executions). What this episode “proves” is that the Western campaign to make the defeated Serbia grovel is not yet terminated, and the media’s continuing gullibility and propaganda service.”
[67] Documentation Centre of Republic of Srpska, Report About Case Srebrenica (The First Part), (Banja Luka, Sept. 2002).
“The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre” By Edward S. Herman
http://www.srebrenica-report.com/politics.htm
Trifunovic’s propaganda has a life of its own. Paddy Ashdown’s dismissal of his rubbish has been given a political spin by the apologists and until Trifunovic is widely identified as the discredited distorter of truth that he is, his version of reality will continue to resurface and cause damage – witness the fact of him being invited to address the European Police Congress.
Dr Darko Trifunovic’s life is rather a sad existence of a failed individual, and I feel sorry for him. He’s not mentally well as his mind is filled with hatred. Not to mention logic, he has no intellect.
Darko Trifunovic will remain “relevant” (note the quotation marks) in the eyes of Srebrenica Genocide deniers and anti-American opinionists (such as Edward Herman et al) who have reduced their lives to Srebrenica genocide denial; however, people like Darko Trifunovic will never be relevant in the eyes of respectable academic community. They cannot change the facts; therefore, they are irrelevant.
True, the (pro)Serbian propaganda has a life of its own, but their propaganda has been largely unsuccessful. Serbs lost all wars they engaged in – just to mention few: vs Slovenia, vs Croatia, vs Bosnia, vs Kosovo… They even lost Montenegro, because they got tired of fighting and losing, so they allowed it to secede.
Just pause for a sec and think about it. No matter what the Serbian propagandists, such as Darko Trifunovic, say – they still cannot change the facts: Srebrenica Genocide is not a matter of anybody’s opinion; it’s a judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and subsequently by the International Court of Justice.
Dan, unfortunately we live in a world in which the facts are often not known and frequently not respected.
The International Court of Justice’s confirmation of the ICTY’s finding has certainly made it harder for individuals to deny the reality of Srebrenica.
But look at the European Police Congress’s invitation to Trifunovic to address them as an expert. And and look at Lewis MacKenzie, who also denied the genocide and minimised the extent of the massacre, being invited a couple of days ago to give his objective expert opinion on Kosova’s independence on CTV, in the face of his known record as a paid lobbyist for the Serbian lobby in the United States.
These people shouldn’t be important, but ignorance is still gunpowder.