...
Bruce Lee.
New Bosnia icon: Bruce Lee
Monday, September 12, 2005 Posted: 1344 GMT (2144 HKT)
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Reuters) -- The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has agreed to erect a new symbol of unity -- a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, worshipped by Muslims, Serbs and Croats.
A group of enthusiasts came up with the idea of honoring the childhood hero of the city's ethnic groups in 2003, on the 30th anniversary of his death. They launched the project, found donors and waited a year for the city's approval.
"We plan to erect the statue in November in the center of the city," Veselin Gatalo, a member of the Urban Movement organization, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.
"This will be a monument to universal justice that Mostar needs more than any other city I know."
He said Mostar, scene of fighting between Muslims and Croats in 1993-1994, needed a symbol of justice, mastery and honesty -- virtues upheld by the late Chinese-American actor.
Born in San Francisco, Lee starred in several kung fu movies, including 1973's "Enter the Dragon". He died at the age of 32 from swelling on the brain.
A German organization agreed last year to sponsor the project with a 5,000 euro ($6,162) grant.
The statue, cast in bronze and showing the martial arts master in a typical fighting pose, will be designed by a local sculptor and put up in central Mostar.
Lee's widow Linda will be invited to attend the ceremony.
For years, reconciliation in post-war Mo star was slower than anywhere else in Bosnia. But the reconstruction of the city's Old Bridge last year has helped reunite Muslim and Croat communities separated by the river.
Copyright 2005 Reuters.
― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)
four years pass...
So, a retired NATO general thinks the Bosnian genocide was because of Gay Dutch soldiers:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_on_go_co/us_military_gays_dutch
Retired general: Gays made Dutch weak in Bosnia
AP
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer – Thu Mar 18, 7:46 pm ET
WASHINGTON – A retired U.S. general says Dutch troops failed to defend against the 1995 genocide in the Bosnian war because the army was weakened, partly because it included openly gay soldiers.
The comment by John Sheehan, a former NATO commander who retired from the military in 1997, shocked some at a Senate Armed Services Committee, where Sheehan spoke in opposition to a proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. military. Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin told Sheehan he was "totally off-target."
A Dutch defense ministry spokesman dismissed Sheehan's remarks as nonsense. Britain, Canada, Australia and Israel as well as the Netherlands allow gays to serve openly.
Sheehan said European militaries deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and focused on peacekeeping because "they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back."
Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other nations believed there was no longer a need for an active combat capability in the militaries, he said. "They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialize their military — that includes the unionization of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality."
Dutch troops serving as U.N. peacekeepers and tasked with defending the town of Srebrenica in 1995 were an example of a force that became ill-equipped for war.
"The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them," Sheehan said.
"That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II," he said of the killing of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men after Serbian forces captured the town.
Levin, D-Mich., appeared incredulous. "Did the Dutch leaders tell you it (the fall of Srebrenica) was because there were gay soldiers there?" he asked.
"Yes," Sheehan said. "They included that as part of the problem." He said the former chief of staff of the Dutch army had told him.
Levin said it may be the case that some militaries have focused on peacekeeping to the detriment of their war-fighting skills.
"But I think that any effort to connect that failure on the part of the Dutch to the fact that they have homosexuals, or did allow homosexuals, I think is totally off-target," said Levin, a proponent of ending restrictions on gays serving in the U.S. armed forces.
"The Dutch military, as you point out, were peacekeepers and not peace-enforcers. I agree with that," said Levin. "But what the heck that has to do with the issue before us is what mystifies me."
Dutch defense ministry spokesman Roger Van de Wetering said in a telephone interview that he finds it "unbelievable that a man of this rank is stating this nonsense."
"The whole operation in Srebrenica and the drama that took place over there was thoroughly investigated by Dutch and international authorities and none of these investigations has ever concluded or suggested a link between homosexual military personnel and the things that happened over there. I do not know on what facts this is based, but for us it is total nonsense," Van de Wetering said.
On the Dutch attitude to gays in the military, he said: "For us it is very simple. Every man or woman that meets the criteria physically and mentally is welcome to serve in our armed forces regardless of (religious) belief, sexual preference or whatever."
What a striking analysis!
― Tuomas, Friday, 19 March 2010 13:18 (fifteen years ago)