Η "πρωτοφανής" μήνυση κατά του δημοσιογράφου Τάκη Μίχα - Η συνέντευξη στον Daniel Toljaga

Dear friends and colleagues.

The Greek judiciary has decided to go ahead and proceed with the trial against me for revealing to the world the presence of Greek paramilitaries in the massacre of Srebrenica. The trial has been set for the 29th of September. The libel suit was filed by Mr Stavros Vitalis a spokesman for the party Panhellenic Macedonian  Front  whose leader is former PASOK minister Stavros Papathemelis. In his deposition Mr.Vitalis claims that he was a colonel in the Serb Army,that he took part in the planning for the “battle” of Srbrenica and that the Greek volunteers who went to Bosnia to fight under the command of war crimlnals  Karadzic and Mladic did so with the support of all Greek politicians and especially with the support of Andreas Papandreou.

There are two points I would like to bring into your attention

Α)When a few years ago the former Greek minister Andreas Andrianopoulos asked the Greek authorities to investigate the issue of the presence of Greek citizens in the war in Bosnia, the  judge who conducted  the preliminary investigations decided, for unknown reasons , not to proceed with the case .Here I would like to mention that Greece is perhaps the only country in the world where one will not find a single  official communiqué where the event in Srbrenica is described as “genocide” or even as a “massacre”.

b)Although nominally  the judges act  independently from the government ,one  can be sure that the decision to bring the case to a trial was taken with the full approval of the Greek”deep-state”.Having worked in the Greek media for over 30 years I can say with certainty that  in Greece the “deep-state” exercises near total control over  what appears in the media on the “national issues” and one can be sure that such a decision on such a “nationally sensitive “ matter  could not have been reached without its full approval.

You will find additional material on the case in the attached  interview I gave last year  to      Daniel Toljaga from the  Congress of North American Bosniaks  which was published in the Sarajevo weekly DANI.

Best regards

Takis Michas

Διαβάστε τη συνέντευξη στον Daniel Toljaga, που δημοσιεύθηκε στην εφημερίδα DANI 

INTERVIEW: Greek journalist sued for writing about the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia

Interviewer: Daniel Toljaga

Member of the Board of Directors, Congress of North American Bosniaks

On 27 July 2009 Stavros Vitalis, representing the Greek ultranationalist organization Panhellenic Macedonian Front, filed a libel suit against the highly respected journalist Takis Michas, best known for his authorship of the book “Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic's Serbia.” Mr. Vitalis is one of the leading Greek volunteers who have admitted taking part in the Srebrenica genocide. He is suing the journalist for stating in the Greek daily "Eleftherotypia" that Greek volunteers fought on the side of the Serbs during the war in Bosnia as “paramilitaries who took part in the slaughter in Srebrenica.” In a statement distributed to the  media Mr.Vitalis claimed that the Greek volunteers who fought in Bosnia under the command of General Mladic were there in order "to help a people [i.e. the Serbs] who were being slaughtered by international gangs who were also stealing their houses, their country and their dignity".

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Mr. Michas, thank you for agreeing to take part in this interview. To begin with, what is the Panhellenic Macedonian Front that has filed this suit against you through its representative Mr. Vitalis?

TAKIS MICHAS: It is a Greek nationalist political organization which also includes socialists and conservative former politicians. Up until now its central campaign theme has been its advocacy of the view that Macedonia along with everything related to it (history, symbols, etc) is exclusively Greek. Judging from the law suit they have filed against me, I guess that from now on they will also be making the glorification of the Serb war effort in Bosnia one of their campaign themes.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Do you have any comments about the lawsuit and the press statements Mr Vitalis has made?

TAKIS MICHAS: Yes. First of all Mr.Vitalis explicitly admits that Greeks (i.e. himself) took part in the planning and execution of the Serb “re-occupation”(as he calls it) of Srebrenica. As he  says in his press statement “I was present with a group of senior Serb officers in  all the operations for the re-occupation of Srebrenica by the Serbs”.

Secondly, Mr Vitalis admits that the recruitment of Greeks volunteers for the war against the legitimate government of  Bosnia took place  with the implicit approval of the leading Greek politicians Andreas Papandreou and (to a lesser extent) Constantine Mitsotakis. As he puts it:

“The whole of Greece knows that the Greek volunteers had the broad support of Greek society as a whole as well as the support of politicians, mainly belonging to PASOK, because of the warm friendship between Andreas Papandreou and Radovan Karadzic. They also enjoyed the support of New Democracy, through the friendly diplomatic initiatives of Constantine Mitsotakis.”

This reinforces the point I have repeatedly made, namely that Greek support for the Serb war effort was not only moral, economic, diplomatic and political but also military.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Why has Mr.Vitalis waited so many years since the publication of your  book - which revealed for the first time the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia - to file a suit?

TAKIS MICHAS: This is an interesting question. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that as I have hinted in other articles I am now in possession of confidential diplomatic documents that show the Greek authorities for the first time admitting the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia. Possibly they think that by putting pressure on me now they will prevent me publishing these documents. But this of course is only one explanation. There may be others.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Are you worried about the forthcoming trial?

TAKIS MICHAS: In any other European country this lawsuit would have been thrown out of court. But as I have said repeatedly Greece is not a normal European country. Given the spirit of extreme nationalism that permeates the country and the fact that Messrs. Karadzic and Mladic are venerated as saints by the majority of the public and the political class, I have every reason to feel worried.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: What does Mr. Vitalis hope to achieve with this lawsuit?

TAKIS MICHAS: Bearing in mind that Karadzic’s trial will also be taking place next year, what they will be hoping is to create an alternative debate in which the substance of what happened at Srebrenica will be called into question.  In other words, while the world is trying the war crimes perpetrated at Srebrenica, in Greece they will be putting the critics of the war crimes at Srebrenica  on trial!

DANIEL TOLJAGA: It is interesting that Mr Vitalis has publicly admitted being present himself "in all the military operations" related to the (Serb) "re-occupation" of Srebrenica. Do you have any idea why Mr Vitalis has not been investigated for possible war crimes?

TAKIS MICHAS: Because, as I have shown in my book, in Greece  Serb actions during the war in Bosnia are not regarded as “crimes” but as “heroic deeds”.  This applies to  Srebrenica as well.  No Greek government has made any statement at any time during the last 15 years explicitly condemning the killings at Srebrenica - this is a unique state of affairs for a European country.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Mr Vitalis has claimed that the operations of the Greek volunteers "were widely endorsed by Greek society because of the warm friendship that existed between Andreas Papandreou and Radovan Karadzic." To what extent did this friendship suggest that the government was involved?

TAKIS MICHAS: Obviously it involves government involment in the sense of knowing
,tolerating and endorsing the open recruitment of Greek citizens with the
aim of fighting against the legally recognized government of Bosnia .

DANIEL TOLJAGA: I remember, and you also referred to this in your book, that leading Greek judges had publicly refused to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  Considering that your right to a fair trial may be seriously impaired by the extreme ultranationalist atmosphere in Greece and the fact that Mr Vitalis has announced that he plans to call leading Greek nationalist politicians as witnesses,  I would like to know whether you intend to seek support from prominent international organizations that specialize in the protection of journalistic freedom?

TAKIS MICHAS: I will certainly be trying to spread the word.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: In the words of U.N. Judge Theodor Meron, Serbs - and I quote - “targeted for extinction the forty thousand Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica.”  In your opinion, is Mr. Vitalis fully aware that the military operations he took part in resulted in the summary killings of more than 8,000 and the ethnic cleansing of approximately 30,000 people in July 1995? Is he aware that he took part in genocide?

TAKIS MICHAS: According to his own admissions, yes. However, just like Holocaust deniers, these people refuse to accept that mass killings took place in Srebrenica.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Mr. Michas, thank you for taking part in this interview. We will be keeping a close eye on the progress of your case.