Gregory R. Copley
President ISSA
Washington, DC,
January 18, 2013: The International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA) today
sent a letter to UN Secretary-General ban Ki-moon insisting that unless a
retraction of a formal UN “apology” was published, the UN would lose all support
from the Association and from many others around the world. The issue stemmed
from the issuance of a formal apology by the Secretary-General’s spokesman
regarding the singing of a Serbian World War I patriotic march at a UN General
Assembly session. The letter reads as follows:
Your
Excellency:
It was with some
outrage that we witnessed your spokesman, Martin Nesirky, on January 18, 2013,
acquiescing to the demands of extremist protestors by issuing an apology to
those “who may have found offensive” a song by a Serbian vocal group at the
United Nations General Assembly earlier in the week. Almost any national
expression at the United Nations could be said to be found offensive by at least
some group, and yet no such regret — as was expressed over the Serbian tune — is
issued on these occasions. To have issued the statement on this occasion was
specifically a concession to extremist pressures.
The allegation
that the tune, March to the Drina, was “not listed in the official
program”, and tacitly accepting the specious allegation that the march was “sung
by Serb forces during the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica in
which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered”, was subjective in
its context, absolutely incorrect (indeed, it was a lie), and patently a bow to
the extremist, racist elements who raised the protest against this tune, which
celebrates a legitimate and heroic defense of a nation during World War I.
Your Excellency,
you highlight on the UN Website, your words: “Terrorism festers where conflicts
are endemic ... and where human rights, human dignity and human life are not
protected and impunity prevails ...We have to drown out shrill appeals to
intolerance and extremism with sound calls for compassion and
moderation.”
Excellency, the
apology issued on your behalf shows that your own office has fallen under the
sway of the “shrill appeals to intolerance and extremism”. It is fair to say
that unless this “apology” by Mr Nesirky is more sincerely rescinded, then you
and the UN will lose the respect of this organization and, indeed, many people
around the world.
Yours sincerely,
Gregory R. Copley, AM,
FRGCS, President.
*****
If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at heroesofserbia@yahoo.com
*****
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