Letters to dr. Persson

Dear Katherine Persson,

 

I am concerned that you may be giving Mr. Parenti a forum for his harmful and erroneous views, i.e. that there was no genocide in Srebrenica, and his support of Slobodan Milosevic.

 

While I strongly support freedom of speech, I wonder if you would feature a Holocaust denier. As with the Holocaust, it is wrong and misleading to promote the concept that there are two legitimate points of view on whether genocide occurred in Srebrenica.

 

Parenti's position is not honest. It is an abject endorsement of war crimes and war criminals by a mouthpiece for Milosevic. I hope Parenti's position on Milosevic's crimes will cause you, as it has caused me, to question Parenti's broader politics.

People such as Mr. Parenti and others failed to understand the cause of the breakup of Yugoslavia: an extreme nationalist movement, led by Serbian expansionists and then answered by similar nationalists in Croatia. The conflict that tore Yugoslavia apart, displaced at least three million people, and resulted in the deaths of around 100 000 in Bosnia-Herzegovina alone, was not simply a “civil war.” It was, to a large extent, planned by power-hungry demagogues such as Slobodan Milosevic.

No institution of higher education should even consider inviting someone who is so intentionally divisive and intent on destroying the reputation of those who refuse to deny well-documented atrocities.

 

However more than 350 000 North American Bosniaks, victims of aggression and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, don't buy into this idea of entitlement to free speech  involving wilful lies that are implicitly vehicles for antagonism and hatred.

 

Soon you will be receiving the official response of the organizations for the protection of human rights and freedoms.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Dear Dr. Persson,

 

We acknowledge the importance of freedom of speech, however, falsifying facts and denying genocide is unacceptable and deeply traumatic for the survivors and their families who continue to suffer due to the physical and emotional trauma they underwent. The ideas and stories that Mr. Parenti is spreading are not factual therefore can only hurt and promote antagonism and hatred.  Hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks who survived the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina have made the United States and Canada their second home; most of them having lost someone as a result of genocide and aggression. Dr. Parenti uses his writing to purposely hurt those who have survived genocide, and having him attend this event will send the wrong message to all genocide survivors.

 

We understand that you do not endorse the opinions of many of the guest speakers that you invite to the Lone Star College.  While I again agree with you efforts to allow freedom of speech, I must object to having Dr. Perenti attend your college and speak on it’s behalf.  To be clear, having him attend this event will insult and outrage the genocide survivors.

I guess a perfect example for me to provide would be of you allowing a speaker to “Deny the Holocaust”?  Although my example may be extreme, I’m confident that you can see how something like that could highly damage the reputation of your institution. Although my main concerns are focused on the negative affect of such a speech on the many survivors and family members, I think you can see how Bosnian genocide is no different from that of the Holocaust! Allowing something like that would highly damage the reputation of your institution, but more importantly affect negatively survivors who have been subjected to the unimaginable terror. 

Your willingness to allow Dr. Parenti to participate as a guest speaker and deny genocide and the mas-killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in direct contradiction with the decisions and verdicts made by International Court for War Crimes in Hague. There have multiple convictions for many Serbian military and civil officials for their role, participation and direct involvement in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Your permission to allow Dr. Parenti to speak on this matter as an expert is an act of denying justice and the truth about the horrific atrocities that happen in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. To this day, his outrageous claims have not been supported by internationally accepted evidence but only by other genocide deniers. His conspiracy theories are in direct conflict with the official rulings by the International Court for War Crimes in Hague, the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, as well as various declarations from the United States Congress, Canadian Parliament and the European Parliament.

As a final reminder, the “San Jose Center for Peace” canceled Dr. Parenti’s appearance last year based on the fact that his claims have never been supported or accepted by international community or any other relevant subjects or organizations. 

We hope that you will agree that having Dr. Parenti speak would be highly inappropriate and contrary to the mission of your organization which strives to promote peace and justice. 

 

All genocide deniers directly undermine peace and justice because the only way to peace and reconciliation is to acknowledge the truth and punish those responsible. Dr. Parenti's work and constant expression of denial is damaging to the healing process of the survivors of the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and we urge you to stand up for justice and truth and reject all affiliation with Dr. Parenti and his work.

 

Sincerely,

 

Professor Emir Ramic

President of the Congress of North American Bosniak, Canadians Branch

Director of the Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada

http://instituteforgenocide.org/

 

Enver Spahalic

President, Bosniak Association Lily – Dallas / Fort Worth

 

Sabina Mujanovic

Board Member, Institute for Research Genocide, Canada

 

Elvis Ahmis

President BIC – DFW

 

Faruk Zulcic

President Bosniak Association Austin TX

 

Sacir Silic

President Bosniak Cultural Center Houston TX

 

Anne Marie Weiss

 

February 01, 2013

To:

Kingwood, Texas

Lone Star College

 Dr. Katherine Persson, President

 

Dear Dr. Persson,

Thank you for your response. As human rights organizations we also believe in freedom of expression however there are times when freedom of expression can deeply offend and impede on the rights of other individuals. Our statement seems to reflect Lone Star’s policy on freedom of speech. According to Lone Star’s policy regarding freedom of speech: II.D.1.09 - Use of College or System Space for Speech Activity indicates that “Any acts that are disruptive to the normal operations of the System or college sites including but not limited to classes and college business, or invades the rights of others will not be permitted.” In this case we would like to draw your attention to the last part of this quote. According to the Lone Star policy, speech that invades the rights of others should not be permitted on campus grounds. Hosting Michael Parenti at Lone Star College is offensive to Bosniak victims and family of victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing and systematic rape that have made America their new home.

Mr. Parenti is a self proclaimed “Balkan Revisionist” and author of “To Kill a Nation: An attack on Yugoslavia.” His work explicitly denies that genocide, systematic rapes and ethnic cleansing ever took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreover, he places the blame on Bosniaks for the Genocide in Srebrenica and other massacres that took place throughout the conflict. As a result of his denial he has publicly disregarded that 20,000 to 50,000 Bosniak women were raped during the three year aggression which was used as an official Serb policy for ethnic cleansing. To this day his accusations have not been corroborated with any internationally accepted evidence but only by other genocide deniers. Allowing hate speech and defamation of Bosniaks in an academic institution presents a statement of support for Parenti by Lone Star College.

Although we acknowledge the importance of freedom of speech, falsifying facts and denying the genocide in general is despicable and deeply traumatic for the survivors and families as well as students attending Lone Star College. What is worse is the support for hate speech by Lone Star College. Parenti uses his writing to purposely hurt those who survived the genocide and having him attend this event demonstrates to Lone Star students that hate speech is acceptable since it can be passed off as “free speech”.

As institutions of higher learning hosting Mr. Parenti’s lecture is counter-productive to academic learning. His work and constant expression of denial is very damaging to the healing process for the survivors of the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We hope that Lone Star College will stand up against hate speech and cancel Michael Parenti’s lecture, as San Jose Peace and Justice Center did last year.

Sincerely,

Professor Emir Ramic
Director, Institute for Research Genocide, Canada

Haris Alibasic, MPA
President, Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB)

Ajla Delkic, M.A.
Executive Director, Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH)

Sanja Seferovic-Drnovsek, J.D., MEd
Director, Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center