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Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Letters: Echoes of Sarajevo, yet we are supposedly the ones who are ‘out of step'
The telegram referred to the Genocide Convention, set out the criteria for defining genocide and cited the 'constant and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire' of Sarajevo by Radovan Karadzic's Yugoslav People's Army, 'which have taken a heavy toll among the civilian population'. It added that 'minority groups are also being harassed and subjected to pressure in an attempt to force them to leave' as evidence that genocide was being committed. In 2005, the US Congress passed a resolution declaring that 'the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide'. Over the last two years in Gaza, there has been continual and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire, which has taken a heavy toll among the civilian population. Tens of thousands of innocent people, including 17,000 children, have been killed. Almost two million Palestinians have been displaced. Israel has engaged in collective punishment of a captive civilian population, using starvation as a method of war and ethnic cleansing on a huge scale. It is genocide. There are many similarities between what happened in Sarajevo and what is happening in Gaza. Yet the US ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, recently said Ireland is 'much out of step' with America on Israel and Palestine. It is the US government that is much out of step with any objective sense of morality. Are there any two words in the English language hollower than 'never again'? Or maybe the term does not apply if the perpetrators are Israeli, in which case it is meaningless. The people of Palestine are not some kind of sub-human dark matter to be left to a psychopathic regime to erase and displace. They are human beings who deserve the full protection of international and human rights law. 'The West' should hang its head in shame. Rob Sadlier, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16 Western powers are either complicit, or apathetic to sickening Gaza atrocities Many of us thought the genocidal situation in Gaza could not get much worse. On July 25, I listened to Professor Nick Maynard speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on his latest experiences working as a surgeon in Gaza. Even the word 'genocide', or any words, fail to adequately describe the barbarism being inflicted by Israel and its supportive allies on the Palestinian people. Prof Maynard's first-hand eyewitness accounts cannot be ignored. The deliberate starvation of children and adults while thousands of truckloads of food are being prevented from crossing the border into Gaza, combined with bombing, shooting and destruction of all vital life-saving facilities, amount to crimes against humanity. Yet the so-called international community, including the Irish Government, continues to fail to act to end these atrocities. Many have been actively supporting this genocide by providing weapons and other military, financial and political support to Israel. The French government belatedly promising to recognise the state of Palestine, the Irish Government still failing to enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the failure of the UN, EU, US and others to effectively sanction Israel are just some examples of double standards, or no standards at all. Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick It's the Israeli forces who are the main perpetrators of 'terror' in horrific war Spokespersons for Israel's government excuse the actions in Gaza as a 'war' on terrorism. The only terror seen in Gaza is that inflicted on unarmed civilians by the Israel Defence Forces – on children in particular. It's time for the world to speak the truth in relation to Israeli activities in Gaza. Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork Cork fans could take a leaf out of Geneva of Ulster's book on modest mourning Frank Coughlan's lament on Cork's loss in the All-Ireland final deserves sympathy and perhaps a cold compress, but I must gently remind him that some of us are not inclined to such theatrical mourning ('A Tipp of the hat, as a proud Cork man is put in his place', Irish Independent, July 25). Here in Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – if anyone's asking – we go about our GAA heartbreaks, triumphs and theological responsibilities with the quiet assurance of a place that knows its worth. We've had more than our share of heartbreaks, but prefer to carry them with a degree of decorum. We're less the Venice of the North and more the Geneva of Ulster: small, significant and quietly influential. Even in defeat, modesty can be its own kind of statement. Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh 'Nothing to see here' is US government response, so what's in the Epstein files? While campaigning for the US presidency last year, Donald Trump promised to release all files about the well-connected sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump's MAGA supporters have since grown frustrated with the administration's handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured Epstein 'client list'. In a memo earlier this month, the US Justice Department and FBI said there was no such list. Riddle me this: How is it that Trump and his Republican colleagues appear to be blocking the release of these files when there is supposedly no list? John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary Kudos to Ringrose for the honesty concerning his health after Lions pick I commend Garry Ringrose. Having been selected for the British and Irish Lions for the second test, he opted out of the team for the sake of his health and success of his fellow players. Having been team doctor to Ulster, Ireland and Barbarians rugby union over many years, I can assure you this would never have happened in the amateur and early professional era, as players would try to pull the wool over the team doctor's eyes to get their feet on the pitch. His decision shows honesty. Well done, Garry, and hopefully you will be fit for the final test game.
Daily Mirror
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Assassin Milorad Ulemek's chilling nickname and disturbing link to TV star's murder
Milorad Ulemek, who was given a chilling nickname, played a leading role in some of the most violent acts in Serbia's recent history and made millions through organised crime Eleven days before Jill Dando was shot dead, Milorad Ulemek made himself available for a "special operation" after being asked to carry out an assissination. The ruthless soldier claimed he was fighting in Kosovo on April 15 1999 when he called his spymaster Radomir Markovic to offer his services. Ulemek, 57, later told a Belgrade court that Makovic had previously asked him to "remove one person who is currently seriously threatening the security of the state". Markovic and Ulemek are serving 40 years in jail for plotting two assassinations for brutal dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes. In 2016, Serbian Ulemek, 56, gave evidence at the trial of four former intelligence officers charged with the murder of newspaper owner Slavko Curuvija. Mr Curuvija was shot dead outside his Belgrade home on April 11, 1999. Jill was killed on April 26. Mr Curuvija had upset Milosevic and the president's powerful wife Mira, a former friend. Like Jill, he was going home when he was ambushed from behind, forced to the ground and shot at close range in the head. Ulemek said he declined the request because he was needed in Kosovo before calling Markovic twenty days into the bombing to say he was available. Nicknamed the Legionnaire, after serving in the French Foreign Legion, Ulemek has played a leading role in some of Serbia's most violent acts. He is reported to have made millions running one of Serbia's top crime gangs and was kingmaker for the first democratic leader, only to plot his murder. Ulemek shot up two nightclubs and was suspected of contact with Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, who was inspired by "Serb nationalists". Ulemek was born in Belgrade on March 15, 1968, to father Milan, an officer in Josip Tito's Yugoslav People's Army, and Croatian mother Natalija. The school dropout, who hung out with young criminals, reportedly fled Serbia in the 1980s while on the run for a raid on a sports shop in Belgrade. He is said to have lived in London learning English, and then France. Reportedly cleared of murder in Paris after accidentally killing a man in a fight, and under threat of deportation, he joined France's Foreign Legion in 1986. He is believed to have served in Chad and the Middle East. Ulemek was said to have been based in Corsica, and was a sergeant specialising in sniper combat and sabotage. He "deserted" around 1991 to join the Serbian Volunteer Guard, or Tigers, who were fighting in the Yugoslav wars. The paramilitary outfit was set up by warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan. Ulemek is said to have become close to the alleged war criminal who was killed in 2000 - even acting as his best man when he wed pop singer Ceca in 1995. Milosevic's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal heard Ulemek trained volunteers at a base in Croatia. In 1994 he briefly married and took his wife's name of Lukovic. Like Arkan, Ulemek mixed business with war and in the mid-90s he took over Belgrade's Zombi club. But he was said to have infuriated Arkan in 1996 when he became deputy chief of the Jedinica za specijalne operacije (JSO) - a 500-man unit of the Serbian Intelligence Service which acted as Milosevic's guard. A witness described murders carried out by his JSO squad chief in Kosovo in 1999, claiming he killed two unarmed young Albanians in civilian clothes and saw four prisoners forced into a house before it was blown up with grenades. He also said he saw Ulemek in Kosovo twice. McMafia author and Balkans expert Misha Glenny called the JSO a "critical node" where the state partnered organised crime. Ulemek teamed up with mafia boss Dusan Spasojevic who led the Zemun Clan, a major player in the heroin trade. The Legionnaire is said to have earned £8.6million from kidnappings the Clan carried out. By 1999 Ulemek was under the command of head of Serbian security services Radomir Markovic and had become the JSO's de facto commander. He was later convicted of the attempted murder of Vuk Draskovic, injured when a truck smashed into his motorcade in 1999, killing four officials. And in 2000, he plotted the murder of Ivan Stambolic, the ex-Yugoslav president who helped Milosevic rise up the ranks of Tito's communist party. But the dictator turned on his ex-mentor, ordering his murder when Stambolic revealed he planned to run against him. Stambolic was found in a shallow grave in 2003 - shot in the back of the neck. As Serbia rose up against Milosevic after the disappearance of his rival in 2000, Ulemek and the Zemun Clan switched sides to join opposition leader Zoran Djindjic . Ulemek vowed to back Milosevic's democratic opponent in exchange for keeping his job. But the relationship with Djindjic, who sent Milosevic to The Hague, soured a year later when he tried to free Serbia from organised crime. Ulemek was suspended in 2001 for torching a disco and opening up with automatic gunfire. A month later he opened fire in a nightclub. Djindjic was killed by a sniper as he got out of his car in 2003. Ulemek surrendered in 2004 at a Belgrade house shared with his second wife, Aleksandra Ivanovic, mum of three of his four daughters, after apparently hiding in the former Yugoslavia and Canada. In 2007 he and ex-deputy, Zvezdan Jovanovic, were convicted of conspiring with 10 others, most Zemun members, to kill Djindjic. Both got 40 years. It was reported that Ulemek has had three escape bids foiled at Zabela high-security jail and he can request early release in 2030.
