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One of the quality problems with [[Wikipedia]] is that an editor or a group of editors can learn to work the system and then push his/her own point of view thus then becoming a stated Wiki fact. These Wikipedian facts then become a promotional tool for political agendas. This then brings up all sorts of moral and ethical issues.
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'''[[Directory:The Wikipedia Point of View/Wikipedia & Political Agendas|Parent article]]'''
  
Wikipedia itself states that all articles and other encyclopaedic content must be written from a neutral point of view. This neutral point of view approach, which is fine, seems to be disappearing from Wiki’s agendas. Content bullies are simply more and more moulding the articles. Controversial historical articles are becoming targets and are showing outright bias. If we use the Encyclopedia Britannica and BBC History as a yardstick for qualified encyclopedic work, certain articles in Wikipedia seem dated.  
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The '''History of the Balkan states''' is a complex affair. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, evidence has emerged that portrays the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its leader Josip Broz Tito in a totally different light. His regime now seems to be much more '''Stalinist''' <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=FeiKg3TuNl0C&pg=PA56&dq=titoism&client=safari&cd=9#v=onepage&q=titoism&f=false Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse:] Causes, Course and Consequences by Christopher Bennett. "A dispassionate, intelligent introduction to the civil war that has destroyed the former Yugoslavia. A useful first book by Bennett, a British journalist who has the good fortune to speak both Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian, a skill that has enabled him to draw heavily on literature of the region that would be unavailable to most American or British journalists". </ref><ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=4t5gBayTeDQC&pg=PA214&dq=Yugoslavia+Totalitarian+state&hl=en&ei=CJ_eS7HuF8uLkAXJxd3PBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCDgU#v=onepage&q=Yugoslavia%20Totalitarian%20state&f=false Titoism in action: the reforms in Yugoslavia after 1948] by Fred Warner Neal. Page 214. Second chapter: "In a totalitarian state, personal freedom and human rights invariably most at the hands of unrestrianed police activity. That Yugoslavia was no exception was admitted by '''Rankovic''', himself head of secret police or State Security Administration. This organization is known in Yugoslavia as UDBA."</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=N1j1QdPMockC&pg=PA354&lpg=PA354&dq=Frank+Waddams,+a+British+representative+who+had+lived+outside+of+Belgrade&source=bl&ots=0ogZwcLZau&sig=fTZXy1TLYBQBJnbyYCoeyZ61ABw&hl=en&ei=e13IStXNJZiQ6APPjMXKDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=Frank%20Waddams%2C%20%20British%20representative%20who%20had%20lived%20outside%20of%20Belgrade&f=false Death by Government by R. J. Rummel:] p354 "Frank Waddams, a British representative who had lived outside of Belgrade, said he knew first hand of ten “concentration camps” and had talked with inmates from nearly all of them. “ The tale is always the same, he said “ Starvation, overcrowding, brutality and death condition, which make Dachau and Buchenwald mild by comparison. Many Slovenes who were released from Dachau at the end of the war came home only to find themselves in a Slovene camp within a few days. It is from these people that the news has come that the camps are worse than Dachau.” Out of a Slovene population of 1,200,000, Waddams believes that 20,000 to 30,000 were imprisoned."</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=3WLxbI1EhFAC&pg=PA312&dq=Josip+broz+tito+Cult+of+Personality&lr=#v=onepage&q=Josip%20broz%20tito%20Cult%20of%20Personality&f=false Great leaders, Great Tyrants Contemporary Views of World Rulers] by Arnold Blumberg-"Biographical profiles of 52 major world leaders throughout history, written by subject specialists, feature pro/con essays reflecting contemporary views of the creative and tyrannical aspects of their record. They provide librarians, students, and researchers with critical insights into the figure's beliefs, a better understanding of his or her actions, and a more complete reflection on his or her place in history. Coverage is global, from Indira Gandhi to Fidel Castro, and spans history from the Egyptian king Akhenaton to Mikhail Gorbachev. Among the leaders profiled are Otto von Bismarck, Oliver Cromwell, Charles de Gaulle, Elizabeth I, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin, Louis XIV, Mao Zedong, Napoleon I, Kwame Nkrumah, Juan Peron and '''Tito'''."</ref> than the image that was portrayed to the people of Yugoslavia and to the West during the Cold War. Josip Broz Tito Commander of all Partisans and Communists during WWII oversaw some of the worst crimes know to mankind. There are Goverment Reports (including the [[European Union|European Union's]] Commission)<ref>[http://www.mp.gov.si/fileadmin/mp.gov.si/pageuploads/2005/PDF/publikacije/Crimes_committed_by_Totalitarian_Regimes.pdf European Commission/Slovenian Presidency of the-EU 2008] Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes/
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Milko Mikola: COMMUNIST CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND LABOUR CAMPS IN SLOVENIA:
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*"In his paper, the author deals with concentration and labour camps established in Slovenia under Communist rule after the end of the war in Slovenia in 1945. Concentration camps were established already in May 1945 and were filled with members of the German and Hungarian national minorities, captured members of the Slovenian Home-guard (“domobranstvo”) and members of military units from other Yugoslav regions who fought against the partisans."
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*"The treatment of internees in these camps was as cruel as in the Nazi concentration camps. In certain Communist concentration camps, for example, such as the camp in Teharje and at the Bishop’s institutes (Skofovi zavodi) in St. Vid nad Ljubljano, the great majority of internees were killed without any trial. In the autumn of 1945, concentration camps in Slovenia were abolished."
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*"Communist labour camps in Slovenia were established already in 1945. These were camps for forced labour and were called “penal camps”. In 1949, “correctional camps” and camps for socially beneficial labour called “working groups” were established. All these labour camps were abolished in the beginning of 1951, when new criminal legislation, free of the concept of forced, correctional and socially beneficial labour, was adopted." </ref>, books, articles (written by professionals) as well as TV documentaries (some were aired on  [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kspj_4TcjOQ&feature=related BBC 4]) in which people testified to the truth of these historical events.  
  
A series of articles are appearing on Wikipedia that are reflecting the propaganda of the former '''Communist Party of Yugoslavia'''. One would assume that this would be a problem, as matter of fact Admin at Wikipedia doesn’t have a problem with this at all. It is a disturbing phenomenon.
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The notorious Bleiburg, Way of the Cross <ref>[http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=27516&lang=en Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia] by Mr Dizdar's ''Scientific Journal'' - An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross. "This paper dedicated to the 60th anniversary of these tragic events represents a small step towards the elaboration of known data and brings a list of yet unknown and unpublished original documents, mostly belonging to the Yugoslavian Military and Political Government 1945-1947. Amongst those documents are those mostly relating to Croatian territory although a majority of concentration camps and execution sites were outside of Croatia, in other parts of Yugoslavia. The author hopes that the readers will receive a complete picture about events related to Bleiburg and the Way of The Cross and the suffering of numerous Croats, which is confirmed directly in many documents and is related to the execution of a person or a whole group of people and sometimes non-stop for days."</ref> and Foibe massacres <ref>[http://miran.pecenik.com/ts/balkan/balkan6.htm Where The Balkans Begin (The Slovenes in Triest-The Foiba Story)] by Bernard Meares-"During the early Communist occupation in Trieste, Gorizia and the Littoral, and the 40 days of Communist rule in Trieste city, some 6000 arrests were made and the prisoners carried off to Communist-controlled areas. When the Allies finally imposed their rule they found out about the Yugoslav execution squads. The more objective Italian historians and statisticians such as Galliano Fogar and Raoul Pupo point to between 1000 and 1800 Italian and Slovene victims. The '''Red Cross''' estimates that 2,250 failed to return , in rough agreement with Bogdan Novak who said in 1971 that 4200 Italians returned out of 6000 arrested." </ref> were three of these. Additionally there is the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans, Hungarians and Italians of the former Yugoslavia. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=RWZLZaxPUXQC&pg=PA17&dq=Communist+Retaliation+and+Persecution+on+Yugoslav+Territory+During+and+After+germans&lr=lang_en&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=falseCommunist Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII] by Dr. Ph. Michael Portmann-"The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communist-dominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at '''Vienna University''' in 2002"</ref>
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* Evolution in Europe; Piles of Bones in Yugoslavia Point to Partisan Massacres: [http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/09/world/evolution-in-europe-piles-of-bones-in-yugoslavia-point-to-partisan-massacres.html?pagewanted=all New York Times]
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* Italy-Croatia WWII Massacre Spat: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360429.stm BBC News]
  
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, certain historical factual information has come out into the open portraying the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its leader Josph Broz Tito in a totally different light. It seems to be much more Stalinist [http://books.google.com/books?id=3WLxbI1EhFAC&pg=PA312&dq=Josip+broz+tito+Cult+of+Personality&lr=#v=onepage&q=Josip%20broz%20tito%20Cult%20of%20Personality&f=false] in nature than the image that was portrayed to the people of Yugoslavia and to the West during the Cold War. Josph Broz Tito Commander of all Partisans and Communists during WWII oversaw some of the worst war crimes know to mankind. The notorious Bleiburg [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleiburg_massacre] and Foibe massacres [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foibe_massacres] were two of these. There are books, articles (writtem by professionals) as well as TV documentaries (some were aired on BBC 4) in which people testified to the truth of these historical events.
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== Wikipedia Articles Concerning Former Yugoslavia==
  
The editors who wrote these articles, expressly the Dictator Josip Broz Tito are written in a child like manner. Actually the articles are very similar to a Yugoslav primary school textbook from the 1970s. Additionally from the late 1960’s to the 1970’s, economic decisions that were made by Josip Broz and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, put the country in a disastrous political situation. Ironically the article on Tito does not even mention the fact that he was a Dictator or his Cult of Personality [http://books.google.it/books?id=TjOsyebOTS8C&pg=PA152&dq=yugoslavia+tito+cult&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=yugoslavia%20tito%20cult&f=false]. None of this information is presented in a professional encyclopedic fashion and when qualified references are presented to prove otherwise, Wikipedia Admin meets it with silence. Why is this the case?
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The articles that appear in Wikipedia (as of 2009) do not reflect this modern view of the former Yugoslavia. They still adhere to and reflect the propaganda of the former  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Yugoslavia Communist Party of Yugoslavia].  
  
Since the early 90’s information concerning historical events surrounding Croatia are turning out to be similar to the history of the Soviet Union (massacres, ethnic cleansing, power struggles, political propaganda for cover ups of the truth). I am shocked that Wikipedia is not presenting this information in a scholarly way. These issues in Australia and in Croatia are now being more openly discussed. The University of Zagreb’s Ivo Goldstein, and other professional historians from Croatia, are already tackling these issues. Funny enough, the Croatian government is now paying compensation to former victims of the Communist regime.
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The article about the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito Dictator Josip Broz Tito] is written in a child-like manner, similar to a Yugoslav primary school textbook from the 1970s. From the late 1960’s to the 1970’s, economic decisions that were made by Josip Broz and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, put the country in a disastrous political situation (none of this is mentioned). Ironically the article on Tito does not even mention the fact that he was a Dictator or his  '''Cult of Personality''' <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZx70JDseU&feature=related BBC 4]Tito's Ghosts. Directed by Mira Erdevicki. Combining stunning archive with incisive interviews this documentary charts how every stage of Tito's life has left its mark on the former Yugoslavia</ref><ref> [http://books.google.it/books?id=TjOsyebOTS8C&pg=PA152&dq=yugoslavia+tito+cult&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=yugoslavia%20tito%20cult&f=false Death of the Father:] An Anthropology of the end in Political Authority by Di John Borneman. "This international anthropological project is a study of the closure of political authority in the 20th century and consists of a Website, databases of research materials, an audio-visual essay, and a book. Six anthropologists, led by Cornell professor John Borneman, take up the end of an authority crisis that spanned most of this century, 1917-1991, and that crystallized around four state political forms: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the State Socialist regimes of East Germany, '''Yugoslavia''', Romania, and the Soviet Union."</ref> None of this information is presented in a professional encyclopedic fashion. Why is this the case?
  
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Since the early 90’s information concerning historical events surrounding Croatia are turning out to be similar to the history of the Soviet Union (massacres, ethnic cleansing, power struggles, political propaganda for cover ups of the truth). They are a sharp contrast to what the public of the West was feed (media wise) and taught during the Cold War. There is very little mention of Tito's notorious [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB KGB] police style organisations (UDBA<ref>Australia's Four Corners:UDBA activities in [[Australia]] from the 1960's- The Framed Croatian Six in Australia. [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=vyv9ShOL7HwC&pg=PT272&lpg=PT272&dq=abc+THE+FRAMED+CROATIAN+SIX++Croatians+in+Australia&source=bl&ots=oE4yDCmyGT&sig=3CAFMhhmPgvrUlKX2JAiseYAZFg&hl=en&ei=CCu4S5PRFMyLkAW327jJCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Framed%20Croatian%20Six%20in%20Australia&f=false  Croatians in Australia: Pioneers, Settlers and Their Descendants] by Ilija Sutalo</ref> & OZNA).
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Because the articles about these subjects are controlled by Croatian or Slovenian nationalist editors, Wikipedia does not present this information in a way that reflects modern scholarly research. The  [http://www.unizg.hr/homepage/ University of Zagreb’s] Ivo Goldstein, and other professional historians from Croatia, are already tackling these issues. The Croatian government is even paying compensation to former victims of the Communist regime.
  
== Cult of Personality ==
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The Government  of the Republic of Slovenia created ''"Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia"'' in 2005. In October 2009 they issued their report to the Government of Slovenia. Significant '''factual statements''' have come to light, concerning the  Communist Commander (Croatian Partisan) Josip Broz Tito. The period in question is post WW2, 1945-46. The Jutarnji newspaper reported  on the 01/10/2009 commissions find, in all it is estimated that there are 100 000 victims In 581 mass graves.
  
The below referenced information is from ‘Discontents: Postmodern and Postcommunist’ by Paul Hollander[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hollander].
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In Mr Dizdar's ''Scientific Journal'' he stated that Tito asked the "Croatian Home Guard" to surrender or face the consequences of not surrendering. After the war ended POWs who did not surrender were slaughter on mass, estimates are about 100 000 victims in total.
  
''“Virtually every communist system extinct or surviving at one point or another, had a supreme leader who was both extraordinarily powerful and surrounded by a bizarre cult, indeed worship. In the past (or in a more traditional contemporary societies) such as cults were reserved for deities and associated with conventional religious behavior and institutions. These cults although apparently an intrinsic part of communist dictatorships (at any rate at a stage in their evolution) are largely forgotten today.”''
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*[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hr&u=http://www.isp.hr/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D66%26Itemid%3D38&ei=VUn1SvGFEcaDkAXR0vmfAw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DZdravko%2BDizdar%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us Zdravko Dizdar]: Croatian Historian (Institute for History in Zagreb): Partisan/Communist Repression &  Atrocities in Croatia/1944th to 1946th - Document: [http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=27516&lang=en Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia]
''“ Stalin, Maio, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Sung, Enver Hoxha, Ceascesu, Dimitrov, Ulbricht, Gottwald, '''Tito''' and others all were the object of such cults. The prototypical cult was that of Stalin which was duplicated elsewhere with minor variations”''
 
  
Paul Hollander is an American scholar, journalist, and conservative political writer. (Ph.D in Sociology. Princeton University, 1963, B.A. London School of Economics, 1959 Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center Associate, Davis).
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== European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes'' on Yugoslavia''==
  
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'''Reports''' and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”, organised by the '''Slovenian Presidency''' ([[Slovenia]] a former republic of Yugoslavia) of the Council of the [[European Union]] (January–June 2008) and the European Commission:
  
== Josip Broz Tito & the Yugoslav Economy ==
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(a) '''Totalitarian machines'''
 
''Self -management as system was only slightly more efficient than the Soviet model. It was bureaucratised and cumbersome and could not compete with Western economies. People could obtain so much free or for less than the market price (e.g. apartments) that they could be obtain without work. All this made the settling of accounts in the 1980s and in the post-socialist age more difficult''
 
  
''In Tito’s system no interest or ideas could be expressed in a truly democratic way. This did most harm where feelings of ethnic identity were concerned because their suppression led to growth of extreme nationalism. Furthermore, the economic failure of Tito’s system, most clearly expressed in the protracted crisis of the 1980s, left people who even if they were not poor, were disillusioned and open to manipulation by demagogues. Finally Tito’s practical solutions ensured that he would retain unlimited power during his life time, but foreshadowed the problems would come after his death.''
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Let us mention briefly Fascism, National Socialism and '''Titoism''' in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Three Christian nations, with nationalist tendencies, were infected with totalitarianism. The descent into barbarism has comparable structural elements:
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*Abuse of national sentiment to carry out racial and class revolutionary projects;
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*Cult of a great leader, who permits his fanatics to murder, steal and lie;
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*Dictatorship of one party;
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*Militarisation of society, police state – almighty secret political police;
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*Collectivism, subjection of the citizen to the totalitarian state;
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*State terrorism with systematic abuses of basic human rights;
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*Aggressive assumption of power and struggle for territory.
  
Professor Ivo Goldstein’s[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Goldstein] work  ''above'' proves that Josip Broz, put simply, was a bad economist and the Communists Party members were bad economists too. According to these and other references, this was one of the reasons that contributed to the break-up of Yugoslavia. As this was such an historical event, this information should be in the Wikipedia article in order to make it more encyclopaedic.
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Ref: Joze Dezman CRIMES COMMITTED BY
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TOTALITARIAN REGIMES page '''''197'''''  [http://www.mp.gov.si/fileadmin/mp.gov.si/pageuploads/2005/PDF/publikacije/Crimes_committed_by_Totalitarian_Regimes.pdf Slovenian Presidency of the [[European Union]]  2008]
  
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(b) '''Mass killings without court trials'''
  
== Communist propaganda within the Former Yugoslavia ==
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{{Cquote|The Main Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army had already called attention to respecting the Geneva Convention on 3 May in its order on the treatment of prisoners of war. However, despite this injunction, both prisoners of war and civilians were killed massively at the end of May and in the first half of June 1945 in Slovenia. Tito’s telegram on respecting the Geneva Convention was later revoked; however, it could only be revoked by the person who issued it in the first place, i.e. '''Tito himself'''.'' }}
  
The Yugoslav Communist state propaganda machine shared much with the Soviet Union. The Soviet format was imposed and then slightly modified. The Yugoslav Communist state used youth indoctrination, which were all too similar to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Communist political, historical and philosophical courses were all part of general education. They can be found in any Yugoslav primary school textbook from the 1970s.
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''The killings without a trial were most massive in the first months after the war in 1945 and continued until the beginning of 1946. How extensive these killings were is illustrated by the fact that 581 hidden graves of victims of post-war killings without a court trial have thus far been found in the territory of Slovenia.''
Media and arts were used as a powerful means of propaganda and were all placed under heavy censorship. Josip Broz Tito was the main subject. Images, monuments, towns, street names, endless awards were given and a never ending production of books, films and poetry were created. Financially a huge amount of resources were used to keep the Communist propaganda and political activities running on a daily basis. Glorification and hero worship of the leader Josip Broz were a constant diet for the former peoples of Yugoslavia.
 
  
Most of Josip Broz’s images, monuments, town names and street names are now being removed. This started after the fall of the Berlin Wall and after the break up of Yugoslavia.
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Ref: Milko Mikola CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN REGIMES page '''''163'''''  [http://www.mp.gov.si/fileadmin/mp.gov.si/pageuploads/2005/PDF/publikacije/Crimes_committed_by_Totalitarian_Regimes.pdf Slovenian Presidency of the [[European Union]] 2008] <ref>CRIMES COMMITTED BY
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TOTALITARIAN REGIMES
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Crimes and other gross and large scale human rights violations committed during the reign of totalitarian regimes in Europe: cross-
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national survey of crimes committed and of their remembrance, recognition, redress, and reconciliation. Reports and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on“Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of
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the [[European Union]] (January–June 2008) and the '''European Commission'''
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</ref>
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== Draza Mihailovic ==
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Draza Mihailovic was one of the organisers the royalist Chetniks in Yugoslavia during WW2. He has been portrayed by the Former Yugoslav State (& the Western Allies) as being allied with the Germans. The truth is turning out to be much more complex (Mihailovic was awarded the  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Merit Legion of Merit], based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower General Dwight D. Eisenhower] recommendations).
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=== Wikipedia ===
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The Wikipedia article begins
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Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic (Cyrillic script: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; also known as "Чича Дража" or "Čiča Draža", meaning "Uncle Draza"; April 27, 1893 - July 17, 1946) was a Yugoslav Serbian general, now primarily remembered as a World War II collaborator.
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=== Britannica ===
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{{Cquote|Having fought in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and World War I, Mihailovic, a colonel at the time of Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia (April 1941), refused to acquiesce in the capitulation of the Yugoslav army. He organised the royalist Chetniks, who operated mainly in Serbia. He was appointed general in 1941 and minister of war that same year by King Peter’s Yugoslav government-in-exile.}}
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{{Cquote|Both the Chetniks under Mihailovic and the communist-dominated Partisans, who were led by Josip Broz Tito, resisted the occupying German forces, but political differences led to distrust and eventual armed conflict between them. Reports of Chetnik resistance in the early stages of occupation buoyed the Allies and made of Mihailović a heroic figure. Fearful, however, of brutal reprisals against Serbians, Mihailovic came to favour a restrained policy of resistance until the Allies could provide more assistance; the Partisans supported a more aggressive policy against the Germans. Favouring the latter policy and confronted with reports of Chetnik collaboration (particularly in Italian-held areas) directed against the Partisans, the Allies switched their support from Mihailović to Tito in 1944.}}
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{{Cquote|After the war Mihailovic went into hiding. He was captured by the Partisans on March 13, 1946, and charged by the Yugoslav government with treason and collaboration with the Germans. Mihailovic was sentenced to death and was executed in Belgrade in 1946. Although a U.S. commission of inquiry cleared Mihailovic and those under his immediate command of the charge of collaboration, the issue is still disputed by some historians. Following the break-up of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, his former refuge in the Ravna Gora region came to be a focus of royalist sentiment.}}
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=== Chambers' Biographical ===
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Article Tito:
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{{Cquote|He contrived to discredit utterly the rival partisan leader, Draza Mihailovic, in Anglo-American eyes and win support and arms and material solely for himself}}
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==Dictator Josip Broz Tito==
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'''Josip Broz''' a Croatian born in Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Croatia was the Commander of all Partisans and Communists during WWII. He then later became Yugoslavia's political leader and was the main decision maker in military and political matters. He was President for Life of Yugoslavia and played crucial if not the main role in historical events of that country. He was considered to be by many, one of the prominent Eastern European Balkan Dictators of the Cold War Era.
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===The Wikipedia article===
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Some of the major Eastern European historical events that are related to Tito and that are controversial, are not encyclopaedically covered at all (or simply didn't get a mentioned).
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The Wikipedia article needs more information on the first two decades of Tito's reign. From 1945/46 onwards his style of leadership was similar to that of Stalin's. Tito was a member of the '''Soviet Communist Party''' and the notorious Soviet Police  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD NKVD] (this is mentioned only briefly in the Wikipedia article) The NKVD executed the rule of terror and political repression, on a grand scale (NKVD executed tens of thousands of Polish political prisoners in 1939-1941/ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyń_massacre Katyn massacre]). Tito and his comrades set up KGB/NKVD style police units (UDBA & OZNA) in former Yugoslavia and also ran Partisan Death Squads towards the end and after Word War Two:
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*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml#six0 BBC History] Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 - 1945
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*[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1160708/300-victims-Yugoslavias-communist-regime-mass-grave.html Gassed to death:] 300 victims of Yugoslavia's communist regime found in mass grave ''written by'' GRAHAM GURRIN (11th March 2009)
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*[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hr&u=http://www.mojevijesti.ba/novost/15435/na-otoku-daksi-ekshumirano-48-zrtava-komunizma&ei=Uh3cSrTJB4Xs6AOgvvmYBg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&ved=0CAgQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DDubrovnika,%2Bna%2Bstrati%25C5%25A1tu%2B%25C5%25BErtava%2Bkomunizma%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us Island Daksa exhumed 48 victims communism]
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'''Further Readding''':
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*[[Wikipedia’s Communist Propaganda Articles!|Wikipedia’s Communist Propaganda Articles!-Josip Broz Tito & Titoism]]
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*[[Titoism and Totalitarianism]]
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*[[Directory: Josip Broz Tito|Josip Broz Tito]]
  
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== BBC UK/History (by Tim Judah) ==
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{{Cquote|Tito's Yugoslavia also gained enormous prestige as a founder of the non-aligned movement, which aimed to find a place in world politics for countries that did not want to stand foursquare behind either of the two superpowers.
  
== Draža Mihailović ==
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Despite all this, and although there was much substance to Tito's Yugoslavia, much was '''illusion''' too. The economy was built on the shaky foundations of massive western loans. Even liberal communism had its limits, as did the very nature of the federation. Stirrings of nationalist dissent in Croatia and Kosovo were crushed. The federation worked because in reality the voice of only one man counted - that of Tito himself.}}
  
=== Britannica ===
+
== Encyclopaedia Britannica: Josip Broz Tito ==
  
"Having fought in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and World War I, Mihailović, a colonel at the time of Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia (April 1941), refused to acquiesce in the capitulation of the Yugoslav army. He organized the royalist Chetniks, who operated mainly in Serbia. He was appointed general in 1941 and minister of war that same year by King Peter’s Yugoslav government-in-exile.
+
{{Cquote|He knew that the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and others could not be integrated within some new supranation, nor would they willingly accept the hegemony of any of their number; yet his supranational Yugoslavism frequently smacked of unitarism. He promoted self-management but never gave up on the party’s monopoly of power. He permitted broad freedoms in science, art, and culture that were unheard of in the Soviet bloc, but he kept excoriating the West. He preached peaceful coexistence but built an army that, in 1991, delivered the ''coup de grace'' to the dying Yugoslav state. At his death, the '''state treasury was empty''' and political opportunists unchecked. He died too late for constructive change, too early to prevent chaos.}}
  
:"Both the Chetniks under Mihailović and the communist-dominated Partisans, who were led by Josip Broz Tito, resisted the occupying German forces, but political differences led to distrust and eventual armed conflict between them. Reports of Chetnik resistance in the early stages of occupation buoyed the Allies and made of Mihailović a heroic figure. Fearful, however, of brutal reprisals against Serbians, Mihailović came to favour a restrained policy of resistance until the Allies could provide more assistance; the Partisans supported a more aggressive policy against the Germans. Favouring the latter policy and confronted with reports of Chetnik collaboration (particularly in Italian-held areas) directed against the Partisans, the Allies switched their support from Mihailović to Tito in 1944.
+
== Bleiburg massacre ==
 +
Wikipedia's article '''Bleiburg massacre''', is an article that reads as if it was written by the former ''Communist Part of Yugoslavia''. It has a dated writing approach that is reminiscent of the propaganda of the former Communist Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav regime was desperate to keep the massacre a secret however this all changed after the break up of Yugoslavia. These events happened after the end of [[World War Two]]. It has been written that the massacre was a revenge against the war crimes that were committed by the Nazi element of the retreating Axis Forces. This is true, but it is only part of the picture. The large scale execution of people were guilt by ''association only'' and no trials. They were very similar to the Soviet Purges and the massacre of Polish troops by the Soviets.  
  
:"After the war Mihailović went into hiding. He was captured by the Partisans on March 13, 1946, and charged by the Yugoslav government with treason and collaboration with the Germans. Mihailović was sentenced to death and was executed in Belgrade in 1946. Although a U.S. commission of inquiry cleared Mihailović and those under his immediate command of the charge of collaboration, the issue is still disputed by some historians. Following the breakup of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, his former refuge in the Ravna Gora region came to be a focus of royalist sentiment."
+
The article '''had''' this one dubious sentence:  
  
=== Chambers' Biographical ===
+
The vast majority of the refugees were returned to Yugoslavia and were repatriated as Yugoslav citizens via forced marches under inhumane conditions over long distances.
  
Article Tito: "He contrived to discredit utterly the rival partisan leader, Draza Mihailović, in Anglo-American eyes and win support and arms and material solely for himself".
+
The key word is '''repatriated'''.  
  
=== Wikipedia ===
+
The European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes" stated: 
  
The Wikipedia article begins
+
(Please read: [[Titoism and Totalitarianism#European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes"|Titoism and Totalitarianism]] for information on the European Commission)  
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Cyrillic script: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; also known as "Чича Дража" or "Čiča Draža", meaning "uncle Draža"; April 27, 1893 - July 17, 1946) was a Yugoslav Serbian general, now primarily remembered as a World War II collaborator.
+
* The victims of these events were estimate to be 100 000.
 +
* There were a large number of civilians.
 +
* Many of the victims were also women.
 +
* There were a large number of regular POW army units.
 +
* Concentration and labour camps were established in Slovenia under Communist rule after the end of the war in Slovenia.
  
User:Direktor reverts one editor with the comment "Reverting another defender of the Serbian nation... My Ustaše-like plans are so far functioning perfectly" [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dra%C5%BEa_Mihailovi%C4%87&diff=314297692&oldid=314213126]
+
It seems that the word ''repatriated'' does reflect the truth of the matter.  
 +
*[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yugoslav-hist1.htm Yalta and The Bleiburg Tragedy] C Michael McAdams University of San Francisco-California.
 +
* [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N1j1QdPMockC&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=bleiburg+massacre&source=bl&ots=0ogZwdMZaw&sig=rVYUuGNBghft65XS9j-bUewKVQk&hl=en&ei=dYjISoDGM8v24AaI0K3HAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=bleiburg%20massacre&f=false Death by Government] R. Rummel, p. 352
 +
* [http://www.serendipity.li/hr/bleiburg_massacres.htm Tolstoy's account]
 +
*More info:
  
== Partisan editors ==
+
Among the Croats were real or alleged members or collaborators of the fascist regime. Killings were done presumably with the full knowledge of their supreme commander Josip Broz Tito. The majority of the Croats were members or collaborators of the fascist regime, although there were many frightened innocent people, however, these two were inextricably mixed and the pursuing partisans appear to have unfortunately labelled them all as traitors since they were fleeing with the fascist units that were attempting to surrender to British forces in [[Austria]]. Apart from Croats, present in the fleeing military columns were remaining units of the Serbian Chetniks and the Slovenian Bela Garda, the vast majority of both were killed as well. The British forces refused to accept the Ustasa's surrender as per the Allied agreement and they were prevented from entering the British occupied areas.
 +
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bleiburg_massacre&oldid=317227743 Wikipedia, 4 Oct 2009] (Number one on Google)
 +
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bleiburg_massacre&oldid=127716400 Wikipedia, 7 May 2007]
  
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/PRODUCER Producer] (Bosnian)
+
== See also ==
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DIREKTOR Director] (Croatian - "Terms like dictator are not allowed on Wikipedia" [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AJosip_Broz_Tito&diff=317296014&oldid=317292403]).
+
* [[Top 10 Reasons Not to Donate to Wikipedia]]
 +
* [[Criticism of Jimmy Wales]]
 +
* [[Directory:The Wikipedia Point of View|The Wikipedia Point of View]]
 +
* [[Directory:The Wikipedia Point of View/Wikipedia & Political Agendas|The Wikipedia Point of View/Wikipedia & Political Agendas]]
 +
* [[Wikipedia’s Communist Propaganda Articles!]]
 +
* [[Josip Broz Tito, Titoism and Wikipedia]]
 +
* [[Bleiburg Massacre and Wikipedia]]
  
 +
==Notes==
 +
<references/>
 
==References==
 
==References==
  
* [[BBC]] UK/History by Tim Judah [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_03.shtml]
+
* Encyclopaedia Britannica
 +
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_03.shtml BBC/UK-History] by Tim Judah
 
* '''Tim Judah''' is a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Judah’s first jobs were at the BBC African Service and BBC World Service. He writes most of the Balkan coverage for “The Economist” but also works for the “New York Review of Books”, “The Observer”, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and others. He is the author of two books on the region: “The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia” and “Kosovo: War and Revenge”.
 
* '''Tim Judah''' is a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Judah’s first jobs were at the BBC African Service and BBC World Service. He writes most of the Balkan coverage for “The Economist” but also works for the “New York Review of Books”, “The Observer”, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and others. He is the author of two books on the region: “The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia” and “Kosovo: War and Revenge”.
* '''David B. MacDonald''': Identity politics in the age of genocide: the Holocaust and historical  [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZK2WE_2H3UEC&pg=PA168&dq=Bleiburg+massacres&lr=#v=onepage&q=Bleiburg%20massacres&f=false]
+
*BBC.UK/History Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 - 1945 By Dr Stephen A Hart
* '''C Michael McAdams''' : Yalta and The Bleiburg Tragedy[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yugoslav-hist1.htm]
+
*BBC 4: Tito's Ghost
* '''Ivo Goldstein'''-Croatia: A History [http://books.google.com/books?id=pSxJdE4MYo4C&pg=PA189&dq=Ivo+Goldstein+Josip+broz+tito&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false]
+
*Australia's Four Corners: Tito's UDBA Activities in Australia from the 1960's
* Ivo Goldstein is a Professor at the University of Zagreb & former Director of the Institute for Croatian History of the University of Zagreb
+
*Great leaders, Great Tyrants Contemporary Views of World Rulers by Arnold Blumberg
* '''Encyclopaedia Britannica''': Josip Broz Tito
+
*Discontents: Post-modern and Post-communist by Paul Hollander
* ''He knew that the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and others could not be integrated within some new supranation, nor would they willingly accept the hegemony of any of their number; yet his supranational Yugoslavism frequently smacked of unitarism. He promoted self-management but never gave up on the party’s monopoly of power. He permitted broad freedoms in science, art, and culture that were unheard of in the Soviet bloc, but he kept excoriating the West. He preached peaceful coexistence but built an army that, in 1991, delivered the ''coup de grâce'' to the dying Yugoslav state. At his death, the '''state treasury was empty''' and political opportunists unchecked. He died too late for constructive change, too early to prevent chaos.'' (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
+
*Death by Government by R. J. Rummel (Rudolph Joseph Rummel is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii).
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Concealed_Mass_Graves_in_Slovenia Commission_on_Concealed_Mass_Graves_in_Slovenia] from Wikipedia
+
*Communist Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII by Dr. ph. Michael Portmann (Fellow of the ZEIT Foundation in Hamburg, doctoral studies at the University of Vienna (Dr. phil.)
*'''Vjekoslav Perica'''-Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States By [http://books.google.com/books?id=jIoKMGRHxn4C&pg=PA103&dq=Balkan+Idols:+Religion+and+Nationalism+in+Yugoslav+States+tito#v=onepage&q=&f=false]
 
*Vjekoslav Perica is a Croatian writer and academic.He is the author of the book Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA
 
 
 
* '''R. J. Rummel''': Death by Government
 
 
 
:"''Frank Waddams, a British representative who had lived outside of Belgrade, said he knew first hand of ten “concentration camps” and had talked with inmates from nearly all of them. “ The tale is always the same, he said “ Starvation, overcrowding, brutality and death condition, which make Dachau and Buchenwald mild by comparison. Many Slovenes who were released from Dachau at the end of the war came home only to find themselves in a Slovene camp within a few days. It is from these people that the news has come that the camps are worse than Dachau.” Out of a Slovene population of 1,200,000, Waddams believes that 20,000 to 30,000 were imprisoned."''
 
  
*This referenced information shows the inner workings of Josip Broz Tito and his government post WW2. The Wikipedic article does not mention such things. If it had done so, it would show a more balanced and modern view of history. Also it would be a more current scholarly view that was formed after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
+
* Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia (Government of the Republic of Slovenia)
 +
''Academics'' involved:
  
*'''Rudolph Joseph Rummel''' is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii.
+
*Joze Dezman: Slovenian Historian-Director of the National Museum of Contemporary History-Ljubljana (Slovenian) National Museum of Contemporary History-Slovenia
 +
*Mitja Ferenc: Slovenian Historian-University of Ljubljana
 +
*[http://www.cmj.hr/2009/50/3/19480024.htm Croatian Medical Journal]: Identification of Skeletal Remains of Communist Armed Forces Victims During and After World War II
 +
*Crimes Committed By Totalitarian Regimes Slovenian Presidency of the EU & European Commission 2008 - [http://europa.eu/index_en.htm Europa's EU] /[http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm# European Commission]
 +
*Croatian Government:Deputy PM and with Representatives of the Croatian society of Political Prisoners-Victims of Communism
 +
* '''Zdravko Dizdar''': Scientific Journal-An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross-Hrcak Portal of Scientific (Zdravko Dizdar a Croatian Historian/Croatian Institute for History in Zagreb)
 +
* Croatian Centre for Research of Crimes of Communism
 +
* Government Leaders, Military Rulers and Political Activists: An Encyclopaedia of People Who Changed the World (Lives & Legacies Series) by David W. Del Testa.
 +
* Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the end in Political Authority by Di John Borneman
 +
* Where The Balkans Begin (The Slovenes in Triest-The Foiba Story) by Bernard Meares
 +
* Keeping Tito Afloat by Lorraine M. Lees
 +
* Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy by Anne R. Pierce
 +
* Identity politics in the age of genocide: the Holocaust and historical by David B. MacDonald
 +
* [http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yugoslav-hist1.htm Yalta and The Bleiburg Tragedy] by C Michael McAdams
 +
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=pSxJdE4MYo4C&pg=PA189&dq=Ivo+Goldstein+Josip+broz+tito&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false Croatia: A History] Ivo Goldstein (Ivo Goldstein is a Professor at the University of Zagreb & former Director of the Institute for Croatian History of the University of Zagreb)
 +
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=jIoKMGRHxn4C&pg=PA103&dq=Balkan+Idols:+Religion+and+Nationalism+in+Yugoslav+States+tito#v=onepage&q=&f=false Balkan Idols:] Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States - Oxford University Press, 2002 by Vjekoslav Perica (Vjekoslav Perica is a Croatian writer and Academic. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)

Latest revision as of 09:13, 18 September 2010

Parent article

The History of the Balkan states is a complex affair. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, evidence has emerged that portrays the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its leader Josip Broz Tito in a totally different light. His regime now seems to be much more Stalinist [1][2][3][4] than the image that was portrayed to the people of Yugoslavia and to the West during the Cold War. Josip Broz Tito Commander of all Partisans and Communists during WWII oversaw some of the worst crimes know to mankind. There are Goverment Reports (including the European Union's Commission)[5], books, articles (written by professionals) as well as TV documentaries (some were aired on BBC 4) in which people testified to the truth of these historical events.

The notorious Bleiburg, Way of the Cross [6] and Foibe massacres [7] were three of these. Additionally there is the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans, Hungarians and Italians of the former Yugoslavia. [8]

  • Evolution in Europe; Piles of Bones in Yugoslavia Point to Partisan Massacres: New York Times
  • Italy-Croatia WWII Massacre Spat: BBC News

Wikipedia Articles Concerning Former Yugoslavia

The articles that appear in Wikipedia (as of 2009) do not reflect this modern view of the former Yugoslavia. They still adhere to and reflect the propaganda of the former Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

The article about the Dictator Josip Broz Tito is written in a child-like manner, similar to a Yugoslav primary school textbook from the 1970s. From the late 1960’s to the 1970’s, economic decisions that were made by Josip Broz and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, put the country in a disastrous political situation (none of this is mentioned). Ironically the article on Tito does not even mention the fact that he was a Dictator or his Cult of Personality [9][10] None of this information is presented in a professional encyclopedic fashion. Why is this the case?

Since the early 90’s information concerning historical events surrounding Croatia are turning out to be similar to the history of the Soviet Union (massacres, ethnic cleansing, power struggles, political propaganda for cover ups of the truth). They are a sharp contrast to what the public of the West was feed (media wise) and taught during the Cold War. There is very little mention of Tito's notorious KGB police style organisations (UDBA[11] & OZNA). Because the articles about these subjects are controlled by Croatian or Slovenian nationalist editors, Wikipedia does not present this information in a way that reflects modern scholarly research. The University of Zagreb’s Ivo Goldstein, and other professional historians from Croatia, are already tackling these issues. The Croatian government is even paying compensation to former victims of the Communist regime.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia created "Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia" in 2005. In October 2009 they issued their report to the Government of Slovenia. Significant factual statements have come to light, concerning the Communist Commander (Croatian Partisan) Josip Broz Tito. The period in question is post WW2, 1945-46. The Jutarnji newspaper reported on the 01/10/2009 commissions find, in all it is estimated that there are 100 000 victims In 581 mass graves.

In Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal he stated that Tito asked the "Croatian Home Guard" to surrender or face the consequences of not surrendering. After the war ended POWs who did not surrender were slaughter on mass, estimates are about 100 000 victims in total.

European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes on Yugoslavia

Reports and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency (Slovenia a former republic of Yugoslavia) of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission:

(a) Totalitarian machines

Let us mention briefly Fascism, National Socialism and Titoism in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Three Christian nations, with nationalist tendencies, were infected with totalitarianism. The descent into barbarism has comparable structural elements:

  • Abuse of national sentiment to carry out racial and class revolutionary projects;
  • Cult of a great leader, who permits his fanatics to murder, steal and lie;
  • Dictatorship of one party;
  • Militarisation of society, police state – almighty secret political police;
  • Collectivism, subjection of the citizen to the totalitarian state;
  • State terrorism with systematic abuses of basic human rights;
  • Aggressive assumption of power and struggle for territory.

Ref: Joze Dezman CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN REGIMES page 197 Slovenian Presidency of the European Union 2008

(b) Mass killings without court trials

The Main Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army had already called attention to respecting the Geneva Convention on 3 May in its order on the treatment of prisoners of war. However, despite this injunction, both prisoners of war and civilians were killed massively at the end of May and in the first half of June 1945 in Slovenia. Tito’s telegram on respecting the Geneva Convention was later revoked; however, it could only be revoked by the person who issued it in the first place, i.e. Tito himself.

The killings without a trial were most massive in the first months after the war in 1945 and continued until the beginning of 1946. How extensive these killings were is illustrated by the fact that 581 hidden graves of victims of post-war killings without a court trial have thus far been found in the territory of Slovenia.

Ref: Milko Mikola CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN REGIMES page 163 Slovenian Presidency of the European Union 2008 [12]

Draza Mihailovic

Draza Mihailovic was one of the organisers the royalist Chetniks in Yugoslavia during WW2. He has been portrayed by the Former Yugoslav State (& the Western Allies) as being allied with the Germans. The truth is turning out to be much more complex (Mihailovic was awarded the Legion of Merit, based on General Dwight D. Eisenhower recommendations).

Wikipedia

The Wikipedia article begins Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic (Cyrillic script: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; also known as "Чича Дража" or "Čiča Draža", meaning "Uncle Draza"; April 27, 1893 - July 17, 1946) was a Yugoslav Serbian general, now primarily remembered as a World War II collaborator.

Britannica

Having fought in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and World War I, Mihailovic, a colonel at the time of Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia (April 1941), refused to acquiesce in the capitulation of the Yugoslav army. He organised the royalist Chetniks, who operated mainly in Serbia. He was appointed general in 1941 and minister of war that same year by King Peter’s Yugoslav government-in-exile.
Both the Chetniks under Mihailovic and the communist-dominated Partisans, who were led by Josip Broz Tito, resisted the occupying German forces, but political differences led to distrust and eventual armed conflict between them. Reports of Chetnik resistance in the early stages of occupation buoyed the Allies and made of Mihailović a heroic figure. Fearful, however, of brutal reprisals against Serbians, Mihailovic came to favour a restrained policy of resistance until the Allies could provide more assistance; the Partisans supported a more aggressive policy against the Germans. Favouring the latter policy and confronted with reports of Chetnik collaboration (particularly in Italian-held areas) directed against the Partisans, the Allies switched their support from Mihailović to Tito in 1944.
After the war Mihailovic went into hiding. He was captured by the Partisans on March 13, 1946, and charged by the Yugoslav government with treason and collaboration with the Germans. Mihailovic was sentenced to death and was executed in Belgrade in 1946. Although a U.S. commission of inquiry cleared Mihailovic and those under his immediate command of the charge of collaboration, the issue is still disputed by some historians. Following the break-up of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, his former refuge in the Ravna Gora region came to be a focus of royalist sentiment.

Chambers' Biographical

Article Tito:

He contrived to discredit utterly the rival partisan leader, Draza Mihailovic, in Anglo-American eyes and win support and arms and material solely for himself

Dictator Josip Broz Tito

Josip Broz a Croatian born in Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Croatia was the Commander of all Partisans and Communists during WWII. He then later became Yugoslavia's political leader and was the main decision maker in military and political matters. He was President for Life of Yugoslavia and played crucial if not the main role in historical events of that country. He was considered to be by many, one of the prominent Eastern European Balkan Dictators of the Cold War Era.

The Wikipedia article

Some of the major Eastern European historical events that are related to Tito and that are controversial, are not encyclopaedically covered at all (or simply didn't get a mentioned). The Wikipedia article needs more information on the first two decades of Tito's reign. From 1945/46 onwards his style of leadership was similar to that of Stalin's. Tito was a member of the Soviet Communist Party and the notorious Soviet Police NKVD (this is mentioned only briefly in the Wikipedia article) The NKVD executed the rule of terror and political repression, on a grand scale (NKVD executed tens of thousands of Polish political prisoners in 1939-1941/ Katyn massacre). Tito and his comrades set up KGB/NKVD style police units (UDBA & OZNA) in former Yugoslavia and also ran Partisan Death Squads towards the end and after Word War Two:

Further Readding:

BBC UK/History (by Tim Judah)

Tito's Yugoslavia also gained enormous prestige as a founder of the non-aligned movement, which aimed to find a place in world politics for countries that did not want to stand foursquare behind either of the two superpowers.

Despite all this, and although there was much substance to Tito's Yugoslavia, much was illusion too. The economy was built on the shaky foundations of massive western loans. Even liberal communism had its limits, as did the very nature of the federation. Stirrings of nationalist dissent in Croatia and Kosovo were crushed. The federation worked because in reality the voice of only one man counted - that of Tito himself.

Encyclopaedia Britannica: Josip Broz Tito

He knew that the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and others could not be integrated within some new supranation, nor would they willingly accept the hegemony of any of their number; yet his supranational Yugoslavism frequently smacked of unitarism. He promoted self-management but never gave up on the party’s monopoly of power. He permitted broad freedoms in science, art, and culture that were unheard of in the Soviet bloc, but he kept excoriating the West. He preached peaceful coexistence but built an army that, in 1991, delivered the coup de grace to the dying Yugoslav state. At his death, the state treasury was empty and political opportunists unchecked. He died too late for constructive change, too early to prevent chaos.

Bleiburg massacre

Wikipedia's article Bleiburg massacre, is an article that reads as if it was written by the former Communist Part of Yugoslavia. It has a dated writing approach that is reminiscent of the propaganda of the former Communist Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav regime was desperate to keep the massacre a secret however this all changed after the break up of Yugoslavia. These events happened after the end of World War Two. It has been written that the massacre was a revenge against the war crimes that were committed by the Nazi element of the retreating Axis Forces. This is true, but it is only part of the picture. The large scale execution of people were guilt by association only and no trials. They were very similar to the Soviet Purges and the massacre of Polish troops by the Soviets.

The article had this one dubious sentence:

The vast majority of the refugees were returned to Yugoslavia and were repatriated as Yugoslav citizens via forced marches under inhumane conditions over long distances.

The key word is repatriated.

The European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes" stated:

(Please read: Titoism and Totalitarianism for information on the European Commission)

  • The victims of these events were estimate to be 100 000.
  • There were a large number of civilians.
  • Many of the victims were also women.
  • There were a large number of regular POW army units.
  • Concentration and labour camps were established in Slovenia under Communist rule after the end of the war in Slovenia.

It seems that the word repatriated does reflect the truth of the matter.

Among the Croats were real or alleged members or collaborators of the fascist regime. Killings were done presumably with the full knowledge of their supreme commander Josip Broz Tito. The majority of the Croats were members or collaborators of the fascist regime, although there were many frightened innocent people, however, these two were inextricably mixed and the pursuing partisans appear to have unfortunately labelled them all as traitors since they were fleeing with the fascist units that were attempting to surrender to British forces in Austria. Apart from Croats, present in the fleeing military columns were remaining units of the Serbian Chetniks and the Slovenian Bela Garda, the vast majority of both were killed as well. The British forces refused to accept the Ustasa's surrender as per the Allied agreement and they were prevented from entering the British occupied areas.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse: Causes, Course and Consequences by Christopher Bennett. "A dispassionate, intelligent introduction to the civil war that has destroyed the former Yugoslavia. A useful first book by Bennett, a British journalist who has the good fortune to speak both Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian, a skill that has enabled him to draw heavily on literature of the region that would be unavailable to most American or British journalists".
  2. ^ Titoism in action: the reforms in Yugoslavia after 1948 by Fred Warner Neal. Page 214. Second chapter: "In a totalitarian state, personal freedom and human rights invariably most at the hands of unrestrianed police activity. That Yugoslavia was no exception was admitted by Rankovic, himself head of secret police or State Security Administration. This organization is known in Yugoslavia as UDBA."
  3. ^ Death by Government by R. J. Rummel: p354 "Frank Waddams, a British representative who had lived outside of Belgrade, said he knew first hand of ten “concentration camps” and had talked with inmates from nearly all of them. “ The tale is always the same, he said “ Starvation, overcrowding, brutality and death condition, which make Dachau and Buchenwald mild by comparison. Many Slovenes who were released from Dachau at the end of the war came home only to find themselves in a Slovene camp within a few days. It is from these people that the news has come that the camps are worse than Dachau.” Out of a Slovene population of 1,200,000, Waddams believes that 20,000 to 30,000 were imprisoned."
  4. ^ Great leaders, Great Tyrants Contemporary Views of World Rulers by Arnold Blumberg-"Biographical profiles of 52 major world leaders throughout history, written by subject specialists, feature pro/con essays reflecting contemporary views of the creative and tyrannical aspects of their record. They provide librarians, students, and researchers with critical insights into the figure's beliefs, a better understanding of his or her actions, and a more complete reflection on his or her place in history. Coverage is global, from Indira Gandhi to Fidel Castro, and spans history from the Egyptian king Akhenaton to Mikhail Gorbachev. Among the leaders profiled are Otto von Bismarck, Oliver Cromwell, Charles de Gaulle, Elizabeth I, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin, Louis XIV, Mao Zedong, Napoleon I, Kwame Nkrumah, Juan Peron and Tito."
  5. ^ European Commission/Slovenian Presidency of the-EU 2008 Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes/ Milko Mikola: COMMUNIST CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND LABOUR CAMPS IN SLOVENIA:
    • "In his paper, the author deals with concentration and labour camps established in Slovenia under Communist rule after the end of the war in Slovenia in 1945. Concentration camps were established already in May 1945 and were filled with members of the German and Hungarian national minorities, captured members of the Slovenian Home-guard (“domobranstvo”) and members of military units from other Yugoslav regions who fought against the partisans."
    • "The treatment of internees in these camps was as cruel as in the Nazi concentration camps. In certain Communist concentration camps, for example, such as the camp in Teharje and at the Bishop’s institutes (Skofovi zavodi) in St. Vid nad Ljubljano, the great majority of internees were killed without any trial. In the autumn of 1945, concentration camps in Slovenia were abolished."
    • "Communist labour camps in Slovenia were established already in 1945. These were camps for forced labour and were called “penal camps”. In 1949, “correctional camps” and camps for socially beneficial labour called “working groups” were established. All these labour camps were abolished in the beginning of 1951, when new criminal legislation, free of the concept of forced, correctional and socially beneficial labour, was adopted."
  6. ^ Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia by Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal - An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross. "This paper dedicated to the 60th anniversary of these tragic events represents a small step towards the elaboration of known data and brings a list of yet unknown and unpublished original documents, mostly belonging to the Yugoslavian Military and Political Government 1945-1947. Amongst those documents are those mostly relating to Croatian territory although a majority of concentration camps and execution sites were outside of Croatia, in other parts of Yugoslavia. The author hopes that the readers will receive a complete picture about events related to Bleiburg and the Way of The Cross and the suffering of numerous Croats, which is confirmed directly in many documents and is related to the execution of a person or a whole group of people and sometimes non-stop for days."
  7. ^ Where The Balkans Begin (The Slovenes in Triest-The Foiba Story) by Bernard Meares-"During the early Communist occupation in Trieste, Gorizia and the Littoral, and the 40 days of Communist rule in Trieste city, some 6000 arrests were made and the prisoners carried off to Communist-controlled areas. When the Allies finally imposed their rule they found out about the Yugoslav execution squads. The more objective Italian historians and statisticians such as Galliano Fogar and Raoul Pupo point to between 1000 and 1800 Italian and Slovene victims. The Red Cross estimates that 2,250 failed to return , in rough agreement with Bogdan Novak who said in 1971 that 4200 Italians returned out of 6000 arrested."
  8. ^ Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII by Dr. Ph. Michael Portmann-"The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communist-dominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at Vienna University in 2002"
  9. ^ BBC 4Tito's Ghosts. Directed by Mira Erdevicki. Combining stunning archive with incisive interviews this documentary charts how every stage of Tito's life has left its mark on the former Yugoslavia
  10. ^ Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the end in Political Authority by Di John Borneman. "This international anthropological project is a study of the closure of political authority in the 20th century and consists of a Website, databases of research materials, an audio-visual essay, and a book. Six anthropologists, led by Cornell professor John Borneman, take up the end of an authority crisis that spanned most of this century, 1917-1991, and that crystallized around four state political forms: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the State Socialist regimes of East Germany, Yugoslavia, Romania, and the Soviet Union."
  11. ^ Australia's Four Corners:UDBA activities in Australia from the 1960's- The Framed Croatian Six in Australia. Croatians in Australia: Pioneers, Settlers and Their Descendants by Ilija Sutalo
  12. ^ CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN REGIMES Crimes and other gross and large scale human rights violations committed during the reign of totalitarian regimes in Europe: cross- national survey of crimes committed and of their remembrance, recognition, redress, and reconciliation. Reports and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on“Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission

References

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • BBC/UK-History by Tim Judah
  • Tim Judah is a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Judah’s first jobs were at the BBC African Service and BBC World Service. He writes most of the Balkan coverage for “The Economist” but also works for the “New York Review of Books”, “The Observer”, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and others. He is the author of two books on the region: “The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia” and “Kosovo: War and Revenge”.
  • BBC.UK/History Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 - 1945 By Dr Stephen A Hart
  • BBC 4: Tito's Ghost
  • Australia's Four Corners: Tito's UDBA Activities in Australia from the 1960's
  • Great leaders, Great Tyrants Contemporary Views of World Rulers by Arnold Blumberg
  • Discontents: Post-modern and Post-communist by Paul Hollander
  • Death by Government by R. J. Rummel (Rudolph Joseph Rummel is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii).
  • Communist Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII by Dr. ph. Michael Portmann (Fellow of the ZEIT Foundation in Hamburg, doctoral studies at the University of Vienna (Dr. phil.)
  • Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia (Government of the Republic of Slovenia)

Academics involved:

  • Joze Dezman: Slovenian Historian-Director of the National Museum of Contemporary History-Ljubljana (Slovenian) National Museum of Contemporary History-Slovenia
  • Mitja Ferenc: Slovenian Historian-University of Ljubljana
  • Croatian Medical Journal: Identification of Skeletal Remains of Communist Armed Forces Victims During and After World War II
  • Crimes Committed By Totalitarian Regimes Slovenian Presidency of the EU & European Commission 2008 - Europa's EU /European Commission
  • Croatian Government:Deputy PM and with Representatives of the Croatian society of Political Prisoners-Victims of Communism
  • Zdravko Dizdar: Scientific Journal-An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross-Hrcak Portal of Scientific (Zdravko Dizdar a Croatian Historian/Croatian Institute for History in Zagreb)
  • Croatian Centre for Research of Crimes of Communism
  • Government Leaders, Military Rulers and Political Activists: An Encyclopaedia of People Who Changed the World (Lives & Legacies Series) by David W. Del Testa.
  • Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the end in Political Authority by Di John Borneman
  • Where The Balkans Begin (The Slovenes in Triest-The Foiba Story) by Bernard Meares
  • Keeping Tito Afloat by Lorraine M. Lees
  • Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy by Anne R. Pierce
  • Identity politics in the age of genocide: the Holocaust and historical by David B. MacDonald
  • Yalta and The Bleiburg Tragedy by C Michael McAdams
  • Croatia: A History Ivo Goldstein (Ivo Goldstein is a Professor at the University of Zagreb & former Director of the Institute for Croatian History of the University of Zagreb)
  • Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States - Oxford University Press, 2002 by Vjekoslav Perica (Vjekoslav Perica is a Croatian writer and Academic. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)