Srebrenica and Other Atrocities
Herman has written about the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in articles such as "The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre", Herman writes: "the evidence for a massacre, certainly of one in which 8,000 men and boys were executed, has always been problematic, to say the least" and "the 'Srebrenica massacre' is the greatest triumph of propaganda to emerge from the Balkan wars... the link of this propaganda triumph to truth and justice is non-existent". He criticized the validity of the term genocide in the case of Srebrenica, pointing out inconsistencies for the case of organized extermination such as the Bosnian Serb Army bussing of Muslim woman and children out of Srebrenica. Herman has established the Srebrenica Research Group, in the words of historian Marko Attila Hoare, "to propagate the view that the Srebrenica massacre never happened".
In The Politics of Genocide, (co-authored with David Peterson, 2010) Herman argues that some genocides such as Kosovo and Rwanda in 1994 have been heavily publicized in the West to advance a specific economic agenda, eventually leading to a minority controlled government of pro-Western and pro-business Tutsi, while other genocides, such as in East Timor, have been largely ignored for the same reason. The book was commended on the cover by the Australian journalist John Pilger, who wrote: "In this brilliant exposé of great power's lethal industry of lies, defend the right of us all to a truthful historical memory." The academic Martin Shaw has written: "For scholars of genocide studies, this book is rich source-material. It is not a serious contribution to analysis in the interest of 'truthful historical memory'".
Herman's position on the Srebrenica massacre has been criticized, in addition to Shaw and Marko Attila Hoare, by John Feffer. and George Monbiot. Herman and Peterson's position on the Rwandan genocide was found "deplorable" by James Wizeye, first secretary at the Rwandan High Commission in London. Herman's position, though, has been defended by the editors of Media Lens, the British media analysis website.
Read more about this topic: Edward S. Herman
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