Thread by @Rrrrnessa

Chomsky specifically said that a concentration camp in which thousands of Bosniaks were forcibly imprisoned in, raped, tortured, and killed and then put in mass graves was "a refugee camp in which people could come and go as they please".

He specifically denied the atrocities.

https://twitter.com/Archimbaldo/status/1503822085096935432

He fell for the Living Marxism propaganda at the time and never did his own research. Living Marxism accused Fikret Abdic, a survivor of the concentration camp whose photo was taken by British journos when they uncovered the camps as a "fake". They were sued by ITN for libel.

The people who spewed that propaganda are now some of the worst ultra-right wingers in the UK. The magazine has been reformed after the lawsuit they lost into Spiked Online which spews incessant far-right bs and propaganda constantly. That's what Chomsky was defending.

Then there was Chomsky who stated that Serb forces only killed "military aged men" in Srebrenica and throughout Bosnia. Both the youngest & oldest victims at Srebrenica are women. There are hundreds of women in Srebrenica still missing. Teen and pre-teen boys were also killed.

Not to mention the crimes of Serb forces throughout the rest of Bosnia. Thousands of children in Sarajevo were killed by Serb snipers. Hundreds of children in Prijedor. Visegrad was destroyed by Serb forces almost completely with babies and elderly people set on fire.

Chomsky said that the word "genocide" cheapens the Holocaust if it is used to refer to what happened in Bosnia. But what happened in Bosnia was a systematically planned and executed genocide. We have evidence from 1991 about their plans to destroy and disappear the Muslim pop.

Chomsky never did his own research on Bosnia and the genocide. He simply parroted what others said. Not to mention that he denied the genocide committed by Khmer Rouge too. He specifically downplayed the number of victims at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.

Anyway...kill your heroes. Let it go. They're just people. They're not automatically right simply because they share some ideological similarities with you. The world is vast and comrades can be found everywhere, you do not have to worship genocide deniers. You really don't.

Genocides do not happen against cities and villages. They happen against the people. The genocide in Srebrenica and throughout Bosnia was and remains a genocide against the Bosniak population.

I need you to understand, beyond the legalities of genocide and legal definitions of it, beyond the deniers propaganda...what happened in Bosnia was a genocide against Bosniaks. It did not just happen in Srebrenica...it happened in every town and village Serb forces stepped in.

There were no both sides or all sides. The crimes of genocide & war crimes are defined differently for a reason. Bosnia did not have a plan nor did it attempt to execute a systematic genocide of Serbs, but the Serb leadership absolutely did. They knew about it & they executed it.

Genocide is about intent. It is a process. Every single step of the 10 stages of genocide applies to Bosniaks as committed by Serb forces. It's about the planning and the execution. This was not a one off, this wasn't just war crimes, this was carefully planned and executed.

There is a huge difference between civilian casualties of war and civilian casualties of genocide. There is a huge difference between certain individuals or small groups committing war crimes and a state sanctioned and backed execution of genocide of a group of people.

The problem is many people (Chomsky) do not understand what genocide means, how does it unfold, why does it unfold. Genocide is a process. It does not happen overnight. It's not about the numbers of killed people. It's intent, planning, and execution. It's a systematic process.

Maybe it's time for all of you to start reflecting on why certain people deny genocide and crimes against humanity...not just in Bosnia but in Rwanda, Cambodia, Syria, Mynamar, Ethiopia. If their modus operandi is the same for all of these countries, don't you think that's iffy?

Doesn't it seem strange that wherever there are crimes being committed and aggression of one group towards another (that the US is not necessarily fully involved in) the crimes are denied? Or the people attacked are painted as terrorists and extremists?

You have to ask yourself why there's a pattern here and a really strong pattern too. Do they genuinely believe that the US/The West are the only governments capable of committing war crimes & crimes against humanity? If so...why? Who does it serve to deny genocide?

Proceed as you want. But know that with every single justification of genocide or denialism of genocide...all you are doing is further contributing to the 10 stages of genocide. You are validating the ethno-nationalists who committed genocide and want to repeat it.

This is not about my feelings being hurt even though it does get exhausting for all genocide survivors who constantly have to watch you minimise and deny our suffering and pain as we continue to seek out the remains of our loved ones even today. It's about preventing genocide.

Typo on here: Fikret Alić* is the name of the concentration camp survivor.

Pictured here:

For those asking for evidence of Chomsky stating the above. In 2006 during an interview he specifically stated the photo was "faked" even though it was proved real & that it was a refugee camp

1. chomsky.info/20051031/

2. monbiot.com/2012/05/21/218…

3. chomsky.info/20060425/

Just so you know that one of my dearest friends, who was just a child at the time, and is now thankfully a mother of two beautiful children who has returned to Bosnia to face her trauma was imprisoned in that concentration camp. She was a CHILD. We are around the same age.

I have had the privilege of giving my testimony of being shot at by snipers as a child alongside her, who bravely spoke of her time imprisoned in the concentration camp as a child. She is one of my heroes and I love her deeply. Because of people like her...I fight for the truth.