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The Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar, above in 1943, was made up of 18,000 Bosnian Muslims and 300 Albanian Muslims. Bosnian Muslims were not Nazi and fascist “collaborators”, but Nazis themselves.
The Bosnian Muslim Government and Army of Alija Izetbegovic reformed and reconstituted the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar from World War II. Contrary to the nonsensical screed of Croat Marko Attila Hoare, whose mother is Croatian Marxist and Ustasha apologist Branka Magas, and other Bosnian Muslim apologists and propagandists, there is overwhelming and abundant proof of the existence of a “Handzar Divizija” in the Bosnian Muslim Army. The existence of the Handzar Division in the Bosnian Muslim Army was proven by testimony and exhibits presented at the Hague ICTY war crimes trial of Bosnian Muslim commander Sefer Halilovic.
Moreover, further proof was tendered at the war crimes trial of Bosnian Muslim Zijad Kurtovic, a platoon commander of the Military Police Battalion Dreznica of the 4th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was tried for war crimes in Bosnia by the State Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Kutovic was tried for war crimes allegedly committed at the All Saint’s Roman Catholic Church in Donja Dreznica in Hercegovina in October, 1993, against Bosnian Croat civilians and POWs. Kurtovic and Hasan Delic allegedly forced two Croatian Defence Council (HVO) POWs to perform oral sex on each other. Bosnian Muslim troops also were alleged to have tortured and beaten civilians and POWs detained at the Church with crosses, bats, and with statues of Christian saints. Prisoners were also forced to eat pages from The Bible and from other Christian books.
The Bosnian Muslim faction fostered and revived the legacy of the Handzar Division. The cover of the October, 1991 Sarajevo magazine Novi Vox showed a Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS officer stepping on the decapitated and bleeding head of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wearing a shubara cap. The other three decapitated Serb heads were those of Nikola Koljevic, a Bosnian Serb leader and a Bosnian refugee during World War II when he and his family fled to Belgrade following the Croat and Bosnian Muslim Ustasha takeover of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic, and Vojslav Seselj. The threat against Serbs, made half a year before the civil war started in 1992, was an incitement to genocide and ethnic and religious hatred and enmity. The headline reads: “The Handzar Division is ready.”
A Bosnian Muslim soldier, Sedin Mahmic, testified that on the night of October 3, 1993, he and other Bosnian Muslim soldiers had gone to the All Saint’s Roman Catholic Church “to see what the Ustasha were doing”. Mahmic testified that a Bosnian Muslim soldier, Zijo, was “a member of the Handzar Division” (“jedan od handzaraca”) who, along with Hasan Delic from Dreznica, were present in the church.
Sedin Mahmic further testified that:
“I was in Dreznica when they brought the prisoners. I saw members of the Handzar Division [“handzaraca”] of the Army of BiH kicking them a bit. Nihad Bojadzic, commander of the Special Purpose Squad ordered them to take them to the church and said that the Civil Protection Unit, which was composed of the elderly, was to guard them.”
Mahmic also denied that Zijo, a named member of the Handzar Division of the BiH Army, was invloved in the mistreatment of POWs:
“Zijo was not a man who would be interested in going to church to maltreat somebody.”
In the article “Kurtovic: Handzarci [Handzars] in Dreznica”, April 24, 2008, the witness Mahmic gave his personal account of the events:
“I know that they told one man to lie down and to roll like an animal, like a crocodile. At the entrance Delic forced two detainees to have oral sex with each other, while he was cursing their Ustasha mother. He told one prisoner to take his trousers off. I told them to leave him alone and, as I could not watch any longer, I left the place.”
The War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina found Kurtovic guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to 11 years in prison on April 30, 2008.
Based on the orders issued by Bosnian Muslim commander Rasim Delic during Operation Neretva 93, a Bosnian Muslim military offensive against Bosnian Croat areas in the Mostar region, the “Handzar divizija” was one of the units that participated in the offensive, along with other special purpose units of the Bosnian Muslim Army such as “Igmanski vukovi” and “Adnanova grupa”. These units were sent to Jablanica and Grabovica.
On September 8, 1993, Bosnian Muslim Army troops tortured and massacred 32 Croat civilians in Grabovica. Bosnian Croat Jozo Brekalo was crucified, beheaded, and his head was impaled by Bosnian Muslim troops. Luca Brekalo was tortured then burned alive by Bosnian Muslim Army forces. Ivan Saric was murdered in front of his wife, Ljubica, who was subsequently raped by Bosnian Muslim soldiers. Bosnian Muslim commander General Vehbija Karic issued an order to Zulfikar Ali Spago to seal off the town of Grabovica to prevent the discovery of the massacres. Bosnian Muslim officers were alleged to have taken measures to cover-up the war crimes and acts of genocide in Grabovica committed by the Bosnian Muslim Army. The corpses of Croats murdered by Bosnian Muslim troops were thrown into the Neretva river and orders were reportedly issued to execute any witnesses to the crimes.
Marko Attila Hoare argued that there was no evidence for the resurrection or recreation of the Handzar Division by the Alija Izetbegovic regime. Hoare maintained that only British journalist and military analyst Robert Fox had even noticed the existence of this formation, and that his account was based on hearsay. Fox had only related what UN personnel and peacekeepers had reported to him surmised Hoare. Hoare wrote that “no other journalist or anyone else seems to have noticed the existence of a unit of ‘up to 6,000 strong’ that named itself after the SS and that was, according to Fox, officered by Albanians and trained by mujahedin veterans from Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Hoare disdainfully dismissed any evidence for the existence of a reformed Nazi SS Handzar division as follows: “So what we’re left with is a single newspaper article from the ‘imperialist’ media, which describes at second hand a recreated SS ‘Handžar Division’ that nobody else ever noticed.”
The United Nations report from December 28, 1994, in “Annex III. A Special forces”, confirmed the presence of Albanian Muslim troops from Albania and from Kosovo and reported that they were fighting as part of the Bosnian Muslim Army:
“Ties with the Government and regular military of BiH
Several reports indicate that the Mujahedin were placed under the command of the BiH Army. … The Mujahedin forces were closely associated with the 5th Corps, the 6th and 7th Zenica Brigades, the 7th Travnik Brigade, and the 45th Muslim Brigade which belongs to the 6th Corps in Konjic of the Army of BiH. … They also allegedly fought alongside the Muslim Police, the Krajiska Brigade from Travnik, units of Kosovo Muslims, Albanian soldiers, and paramilitary groups such as the “Green Legion” and the “Black Swans”. … Reports also indicate that the Mujahedin had the support of President Izetbegovic and his government. …
The Mujahedin were also alleged to be part of the forces that invaded the village of Trusina near Foca on 15 April 1993. According to the report, attackers wore white ribbons on their arms and fought beside Albanian Muslim troops. Twenty-two civilians reportedly died in the attack.”
The UN reports conclusively proved the existence of Albanian Muslim “volunteers” from Kosovo and from Albania in the Bosnian Muslim Army. Moreover, Robert Fox personally observed Albanian Muslim mercenary soldiers who fought in the Bosnian Muslim Army in 1993.
Lt. Salko Gusic, the Bosnian Muslim commander of the 6th Corps of the Bosnian Muslim Army, stated under oath in a court of law, at the ICTY war crimes trial of Sefer Halilovic, that there indeed was a unit in the Bosnian Muslim Army known as the “Handzar Divizija”, i.e., the Handzar Division. The prosecution showed him an army order to the Handzar Division which he read at the trial. At the trial, Gusic testified as follows:
“This is an order whereby the following units, the Handzar Divizija, the Silver Fox Unit, become part of the special purposes detachment Zulfikar. This order was written in connection with the decision of the Main Staff of the 21st of August in Zenica with a view to making larger units out of smaller ones.”
The ICTY Prosecutor questioned Bosnian Muslim military police commander Emin Zebic about the Bosnian Muslim Army formation, the Handzar Division, and about its Albanian Muslim commander, Islam Peci-Dzeki, transcript # 050317ED, page 22:
“Q. Very well. You knew that a unit called the Handzar Division, a small unit called the Handzar Division, came to be located in the village of Grabovica; is that correct?
A. I don’t know that.
Q. Okay. Did you ever meet a man — an Albanian man, the commander of a unit called Handzar, who went by the name of Dzeki, D-z-e-k-i?
A. I heard about him. For a while, they were in the town of Jablanica.”
There was a formation or unit in the Bosnian Muslim Army known as the “Handzar Division”. The ICTY Prosecutor pointed to trial Exhibit 123, which was an official order by Bosnian Muslim military commander Sefer Halilovic to the formation “Handzar Division”, which was part of the Bosnian Muslim Army under Alija Izetbegovic. The existence of this formation was widely known in Bosnia during the conflict and was not much of a secret but was suppressed and censored by the U.S. and Western media.
The Bosnian Muslim Government and Army of Alija Izetbegovic not only reformed and revived the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar, but the reformed Handzar Division was implicated in war crimes and genocide committed by the Bosnian Muslim soldiers under the command of Alija Izetbegovic.
Originally published on 2008-09-29
Author: Carl K. Savich
Source: Serbianna
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