Scenes from an arrest (or two)

The big news  of course is the arrest of Ratko Mladic  on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. The Lede takes a look back at the general-cum-war-criminal’s life and crimes captured on video. With the arrest of Mladic, Europe’s most wanted war criminal is now Goran Hadzic.  A raid on a friend’s house this past fall did not uncover Hadzic’s whereabouts, but it did uncover a 1.3 million dollar art collection, allegedly used to help fund Hadzic’s life on the run. Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo another indicted genocidaire, former Hutu militia leader Bernard Munyagishari, was arrested on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. With the death of bin Laden and the arrests of Mladic and Munyagishari who is the world’s most wanted fugitive? While that dubious honor has many contenders for the title, certainly chief among them is Joseph Kony.

Ahmici

Abdulah Ahmic is one of the few survivors of the Ahmici massacre, he is also gravely ill and in need of a kidney.

In 1993 one of the worst massacres of the entire Bosnian war took place in the village of Ahmici, where at least 103 Bosniak residents were killed by HVO soldiers. The massacre was not simply the case of renegade soldiers run-amok, but part of the larger organized pattern of ethnic cleansing by ultra-nationalist Bosnian-Croat politicians with support from Zagreb. If there was any doubt as to the late Franjo Tudjman’s role in the carve up of Bosnia, “secret” audio tapes released in 2000 show Tudjman even as late as 1999 vocalizing support for partitioning Bosnia between the Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. Furthermore, the tapes reveal Tudjman’s role in actively covering up and protecting the perpetrators of the Ahmici massacre.

The killings at Ahmici killed a great deal of Ahmic’s relatives, that today he does not have any intermediate relatives that can serve as a kidney donor. Today he receives dialysis at a hospital in Travnik, while he is collecting money for an operation.

Saide marched on

Arguably, one of the most effective post-1697 Ottoman rulers in Bosnia was Omer Pasha Latas. While Latas is one of the best known figures in 19th century Bosnia, his wife, Saide (Ida) is less well known. This is unfortunate, because for what it is worth, I find his wife a more interesting figure.

From “The London Musical Gazette” December 5th, 1857:

Several French journals having announced the presence in Paris of the divorced wife of Omer Pacha, the following details of her career are given by the Patrie: – ‘She was born at Reps, in Transylvania, and  was sent at the age of eleven to one of the best boarding schools in Bucharest. Some lessons on the piano developed wonderful musical powers, and at the age of fifteen she possessed a remarkable talent on mat instrument. It was at that period that Omer Pacha, who was then the military commandant of Wallachia, met the young lady at a soiree, and being very fond of music, fell in love with her, and subsequently married her. She was then compelled to submit to Mussulman habits; the Christian became quite a Khanoum (Turkish woman), never left the house except veiled and attended, but, contrary to Oriental habits, accompanied her husband in his warlike expeditions. She was greatly delighted with the glory of his arms, and composed triumphal marches, which were played oy the Turkish regiments when in battle. The only child bom from this marriage having died from an accident, Omer Pacha hoped by a new union to have an heir, and perhaps also to attach himself to the old Turkish party, and he therefore demanded in marriage the daughter of Hafız Pacha, its chief. ‘Remain in the harem he said to his wife, but she was too proud to accept a condition so unworthy of her, and demanded a divorce, which was granted, and she has come to seek an honourable asylum in France. This lady is only about 23 years of age.”

(as quoted from Haqqani Multimedia)

It was as a musician that Saide achieved her greatest claim to fame. Against the backdrop of political, social and cultural reforms in the Ottoman Empire, the 19th century also saw an increase influence of Western European music in the Ottoman court. In 1847, Franz Liszt paid a visit to Istanbul, less than ten years later, the Sultan’s harem featured a talented all female classical orchestra.

Not surprising, considering her personal life as a wife of a military official assigned to a border-region that was no stranger to military uprisings or rebellions, she composed quite a few military marches. Below is one of her compositions from 1850.

*It should also be noted that musical influence did not run in one direction, the music of the Janissaries, heavily reliant of percussion instrument had an influence on some of the biggest names in the 18th and 19th century, most notably Mozart and Beethoven.

 Sources: European Music at the Ottoman Court, Turkish music (style)

Remembering Bobbi Campbell

Street fighter extraordinare, Bobbi Campbell. Photo by Roger Ressmeyer

January 28th marked what would have been Bobbi Campbell’s birthday.  In the fall of 1981, Bobbi became the 16^th person in San Francisco diagnosed what would eventually be known as AIDS. I say eventually, because at the time of his diagnosis the term AIDS did not even exist. The first medical report in the United States about what would eventually become known as AIDS occurred in a report by MMWR on July 4^th, 1981, “Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Pnemocystis Pneumonia Among Homosexual Men-New York City and California.”

After being diagnosed with Kaposi’s Sarcoma, Bobbi, a public health nurse, started a campaign to inform others  about the disease. He wrote an column in the Sentinel about his experiences, gave presentation and speeches, and became the self-declared “poster boy” for the new disease.

He was also the first person in the United States to come out as a person with AIDS.

Here, some context is needed. For those of us who are too young to remember, it is perhaps hard to come to grips with the full extent of the fear, prejudice and misinformation that surrounded the disease in the early years. As this study shows, even well into the 1990s, phobia against those with AIDS, along with false beliefs on how AIDS is transmitted were prevalent.

In the 1980s, prominent televangelist were spewing the belief that AIDS was “God’s punishment” against homosexuality, some people with AIDS faced ostracism from family and friends, discrimination in housing and employment. To compound the issue, it wasn’t until 1985 that the President of the United States first even mentioned the word AIDS, after thousands of Americans already died. Today, at least for most people in the Western world, it is possible to manage the disease and to live a full life. When Bobbi started to write his columns, a diagnosis of AIDS was essentially a  death sentence.

So it is that climate that Bobbi first began to advocate on behalf of himself and all people with AIDS. As a drag queen, under the name “Sister Florence Nightmare” and member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence he helped create one the first safer sex pamphlet. In August of 1983, Bobbi and his boyfriend appeared on the cover of Newsweek (although the magazine identified his lover as his ‘friend.’) In 1982 he helped formed the People With AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement. Perhaps his best known contribution was being one of the architects of the watershed ”Denver Principles.

On July 15th 1984, Bobbi gave a speech at the National March for Lesbian and Gay rights at the Democratic National Convention: . One month later, he succumbed to his illness.

LGBT Activists in Turkey Launch Ground-Breaking Publication

Activists march in support of Hevjin, a Kurdish LGBT magazine

From Alexander Christie-Miller of Eurasianet.org

For all their fear, however, the pair embarked on a radical experiment, launching the first-ever magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) Kurds this July. Called ‘Hevjin’, meaning ‘intercommunity’ in Kurdish, the first issue of the free publication is available online and in a few bookshops and cafés in Diyarbakir, a city with a large Kurdish population.

It took three years of patient work before Koya and Solin, both gay Kurds themselves, were ready to bring out the first issue. “There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey, and one in 10 people is gay, but where are the Kurdish gay people?” asked Solin. “That is the question that led to this. We wanted to find out how people express their sexuality in this culture.”

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Photo credit: Hevjin