The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0A2
Telephone Number (613) 992-4211
Fax Number (613) 941-6900
Email Address [email protected]

The Honourable Bill Graham
Minister, Foreign Affairs
Government of Canada
The House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Fax Number 613-996-9607
Email Address [email protected]



Dear The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada

Dear The Right Honourable Bill Graham
Minister, Foreign Affairs

For almost 12 years, allegations of sexual misconduct against Canadian Gen. Lewis MacKenzie (Ret) have been circulating widely in domestic Bosnian circles. Major General Lewis MacKenzie was the Canadian commander of UN troops in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. Some time after he steped down from his assignment (August 01, 1992) he was charged in a bill of indictment by chief military prosecutor Mustafa Bisic with sexually molesting four Bosniak women held by Serbian forces in a concentration camp Sonya in northern Sarajevo. During the last twelve years, the Canadian government and the military kept a low profile on the allegations and - to our knowledge - never investigated them.

So, is there any evidence to support allegations of sexual misconduct against Gen. MacKenzie? Let\'s go back to 1992. In a letter to the Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic dated December 3rd same year, Mr. Bisic cited the eyewitness testimony of a Serbian guard who had worked at the camp. The guard claimed he saw Gen. MacKenzie and several escorts arrive in a military transport vehicle with the UN insignia; Serbian guards were then ordered to release four female Bosniak prisoners to MacKenzie. According to the Mr. Bisic\'s complaint, the women were later murdered by camp guards under orders to \"erase evidence\" of this \"unusual gift.\"

The eyewitness testimony of a Serbian guard was just part of the evidence against Gen. MacKenzie. On February 23, 1993 Helsinki Watch for Congressional staffers conducted the briefing. A Bosnian nurse who spent ten months helping war victims at a frontline hospital in Sarajevo testified she had been shown the videotape placing Gen. MacKenzie at the Sonya\'s camp. New evidence helped refocus attention to the charges, but was largely ignored by the Canadian media.

\"I looked at the tape and saw General MacKenzie, whom we always saw on TV news, with Serb chetniks. There were three or four girls on both sides of him...MacKenzie was hugging them.\"

In his article: \"Answers needed to charges of UN misconduct in Bosnia\" dated 06/04/1993, Dennis Bernstein (investigative reporter for Pacific News Service) reported that in a telephone interview with PNS Mrs. Ovcina said she recognized some of the young women as formely involved in a hair cutting business.

\"They didn\'t laugh, they didn\'t cry, they just sat there...The feeling I had is that they were surrounded by a bunch of drunken people, and they were very unhappy,\" she recalled. Mrs. Ovcina said she was told by her neighbours that the women were later killed and buried in a grave on the outskirts of Sarajevo.

The then US Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) expressed her concern about the charges. She was reported as being especially troubled to learn that twice when Gen. MacKenzie visited Washington in May 1993, he was represented by the public relations firm of Craig Shirley and Associates which was closely identified with the Serbian government and Serbian-American organizations who worked to counter the negative media images about Serbia.

Another eyewitness who testified against Gen. MacKenzie was Serbian soldier Boris Herak who was captured by Bosnian forces in early November 1992 (three months after Gen. MacKenzie left Bosnia). Herak testified he was at the camp when Gen. MacKenzie arrived in a white UN vehicle and met with the Serbian camp warden Miro Vukovic. According to the testimony, Gen. MacKenzie was then taken to a room \"for big shots\" where he was served whiskey and food. Herak also testified he saw Gen. MacKenzie and several other UN soldiers \"taking four or five girls in this vehicle to have fun.\" Asked if he were certain it was Gen. MacKenzie, Herak replied, \"Yes, I am sure. I saw him on television.\"

Interesting thing about Gen. MacKenzie is that he completely ignored the evidence against him and denounced the prosecutor\'s charges as a propaganda tactic. While I do not want to prejudge the allegations against Gen. MacKenzie, we consider them serious enough to warrant investigation by the Canadian government and the military.

Sincerely Yours;

Emir Ramic, Professor of Political Science
President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks
Branch of Canada