The letter of Owen Beith to the University of British Columbia

Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: February 24, 2011  

The letter of Owen Beith to the University of British Columbia

Hello Professor Toope

Read Srdja Trifkovic’s testimony to the Popovic et al trial at the International Criminal Trial for the Former Yugoslavia. He drove right through the area where a concerted military effort was under way to destroy the column escaping Srebrenica and yet saw nothing. He met with Karadzic and his advisers to discuss how to handle the Western press’s enquiries about Srebrenica while Karadzic and his aides were receiving information about the progress of the plan to murder the men of Srebrenica but remembers hearing nothing specific. Read through the testimony. This man is not telling the truth. Free speech is not about being given the opportunity to tell lies about murder and genocide and foster a climate of hatred.

A former UBC student, Boris Malagurski, founder of the Vancouver-based Serbian Youth Alliance, is a very active campaigner and propagandist for the Serbian view of events during the Yugoslav wars. He has recently completed a film “The Weight of Chains” which features Srdja Trifkovic and his views. It may not be mere coincidence that the UBC Serbian Students Association’s invitation to Trifkovic has created controversy and attracted public attention to the subject at this particular moment.
I hope you can reassure me that the activities of the UBC Serbian Students Association are intended to benefit the UBC student community rather than to serve wider and less overt politicasl interests.

Thank you.

Owen Beith