Editor,


I would like to use this opportunity to reply to the letter [Comment] " US saved Serbia from tyranny [2]" written by Mr. M.T. Tuaileva.

First: I would like to ask you Mr. Tuaileva or someone in the South Pacific to find one or two Tongan American Officer(s) of the US military who went into Serbia (Yugoslavia) during World War II, fought on the ground and saved Serbia from Nazi Germany.

Second: Mr. Tuaileva, when, where and how did the US military forces fight on the ground in Serbia during World War II and save Serbia from Nazi Germany?

On April 6, 1941 Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Hungary attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the bombing operation called Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht). Operation Punishment was the code name for the German bombing of Belgrade during the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Luftwaffe (Air Force) bombed Belgrade on April 6 without a declaration of war, and continued bombing until April 10.The bombing of Belgrade was the last stand the Kingdom of Yugoslavia took against the Axis Powers.

After the Tehran Conference in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee Joseph Stalin decided to support the Partisans (resistance movement engaged in the fight against Axis forces). The United Kingdom joined a month later, and stopped supplying the Chetniks (nationalist/royalist paramilitary organization). The first Soviet mission arrived at Partisan headquarters, shortly thereafter. The United States kept a military supplies to Colonel Draza Mihajlovic (leader of the Chetnik movement) to encourage continued Chetnik aid for downed American airmen.

In 1944, with Allied air support and air and ground assistance from the Soviet Red Army, the Yugoslav Partisans were able to expel the Axis Powers from Serbia and the rest of Yugoslavia in 1945. The Soviet Red Army and Bulgarian army provided air and ground assistance with the liberation of Belgrade (the Belgrade Offensive from September 14, 1944 - November 24, 1944) and withdrew after the war was over. In May 1945, the Partisans met with Allied Forces outside (not inside) former Yugoslav borders, after taking over Trieste and parts of Austrian southern provinces Styria and Carinthia.

US Easter bombing

Please note that Belgrade was bombed for the second time by Anglo-American air forces on April 16 and 17, 1944, which was Orthodox Easter Day. The most important unit that took part was American 15th Air Force Unit, based in the south of Italy. This so called carpet bombing raid was executed by 600 bombers flying at high altitude. Yugoslav civilian casualties were around 1,160, while German military losses were around 18.

The US military forces did not fight like the Soviet Union did on the ground in Serbia against Germans! Perhaps, Mr. Tuaileva, you were thinking about these members of the US military: agents of the western intelligence infiltrated into the Partisans and the Chetniks to collect information from the ground. However, those agents were mainly from the UK sent by Churchill, including Brigadier General Fitzroy Maclean who was signed to the Marshal Josip Broz Tito's headquarters near Drvar to serve as a permanent- formal liaison to the Partisans and Sir F.W.D. Deakin.

In addition, perhaps you were thinking about these ones: between January 1 and October 15, 1944 according to statistics compiled by the United States Air Force- Air Crew Rescue Unit; 1,152 American airmen were airlifted from Yugoslavia, 795 with Partisan assistance and 356 with the help of the Chetniks. The Partisans rescued 303 Americans and 30 British airmen from crashed B-17 Flying Fortresses. Also, the Partisans assisted hundreds of Allied soldiers who succeeded in escaping from Nazi's POW camps (mostly in southern Austria) throughout the war, but especially from 1943-45. A total of 132 Allied prisoners were rescued by the Partisans in a single operation in August 1944 in what is known as the raid at St Lorenzen.

The United States really contributed to World War II, but do not credit the US for everything that happed then. Do not forget the UK, France, China, Russia-Soviet Union and other participants

.

Third: what is the World Court and what did The Hague have to do with the prosecution of crimes committed during World War II?

Mr. Tuaileva, you are misleading readers. The World Court does not exist, there is, however, the International Court of Justice (IJC) in The Hague, which is sometimes called the World Court. However, the ICJ does not prosecute individuals. The IJC main functions are to settle legal disputes submitted to it by member states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by appropriate authorized international organs, agencies and the UN General Assembly.

The ICJ should not be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is in The Hague, established in 2002, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) established in 1899 and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which is also in The Hague, established by the UN Security Council resolution in 1993.

If you were thinking about the ICC, which is also called the World Court; you made a mistake: the ICC only prosecutes crimes committed on or after July 1, 2002. If you were thinking about the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), well . . . the PCA only provides services for the resolution of disputes involving various combinations of states, state entities, intergovernmental organizations, and private parties.

There was one Court from 1921-1946, The Permanent Court of International Justice, sometimes called the World Court, also in The Hague. However, it was replaced in 1946 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the United Nations was formed. This Court, like the ICJ did not prosecute individuals.

The last one, the ICTY was established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia from 1991.

Who are they?

Now, Mr. Tuaileva, please tell us, who are "Tyranny Leaders" and how did the US save Serbia from them?

If you were thinking about leadership of Nazi Germany, let me inform you that the prominent leadership of Nazi Germany was trialed at the Palace of Justice, in a series of trials called "the Nuremberg Trials", in city of Nuremberg in Germany, not The Hague. The second set of trials of smaller war criminals was conducted at the US Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), also in Nuremberg.

It looks like that you Mr. Tuaileva have some information that the rest of the world is not aware of?

Fourth: Mr.Tuaileva, the new elected US President Mr. Barack Hussein Obama II, will become the President of the United States of America not the President of the whole world. But, we can talk about him with the first results of his presidency, not before.



Ivan Simic