Truth and Lies about the 1995 “Srebrenica Massacre” (2)

Part 1

What really happened and why in and around Srebrenica?

In this small eastern Bosnian town before the armed conflicts started in the spring of 1992, lived no more than 10.000 inhabitants. The city received international attention when up to 70.000 Muslim refugees (according to the United Nations) from the vicinity of Srebrenica allegedly fled to the town due to war operations between the Serbian Army of Republika Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske – VRS) and the Muslim Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is indisputable fact that a difficult humanitarian situation prevailed in the town of Srebrenica due to the lack of basic foodstuffs, housing, but also the terror of Muslim military and paramilitary formations under the command of Naser Oric. Muslim armed forces committed crimes equally against local Serbs and local Muslims (since September 1993, Bosniaks), regardless of whether they were natives or newly arrived refugees. There are statements, e.g. by two underage Muslim girls (from the villages of Glogova and Pobudje), who managed to escape from Srebrenica across the minefields to the surrounding territory under Serbian control about harassment by Muslim soldiers under the command of Naser Oric. According to their statements, they were subjected to rape and other forms of physical and mental abuse on a daily basis, so that one of them was in the ninth month of pregnancy when she managed to reach the territory under VRS control where she (like her friend) received all necessary care at the refugee center in Bratunac. Both girls gave a lot of information about the victims of rape by the soldiers of Naser Oric (officially members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina) in Srebrenica. Their testimonies were recorded on VHS tapes which can be found in the archives of the Committee for collecting data on crimes, in Belgrade, under number 158/94. Many international observers have been calling the so-called the “protected zone” in Srebrenica as an “open dungeon” or a “bad refugee camp” without enough doctors, water, and electricity.

It is difficult to say exactly how many refugees there were in Srebrenica before its fall (liberation) – the Serbian side claimed that there were about 40.000 of them. The fact is that there could not be 70.000 Muslim refugees in this town, because before 1992, according to the last pre-war census in the entire former Yugoslavia, the Srebrenica municipality numbered about 27.000, and the neighboring municipality of Bratunac about 22.000 Muslims (today Bosniaks). If we take into account the indisputable facts that the surrounding Muslims fled in all directions, not only to Srebrenica, that the area around Srebrenica was mostly Serb populated, that the people of Srebrenica also fled their town and that the population from other municipalities did not flee to Srebrenica, it is logical to conclude that too many refugees in Srebrenica (70.000) were repeatedly abused in order to show the suffering of the people (which was undeniably great) in the foreign media even greater, which was the case, for example, with the visit to Srebrenica by French General Philippe Morillon – UNPROFOR Commander in BiH in 1992 and 1993.

By the way, after visiting Srebrenica, General Ph. Morillon himself stated that there were no mass killings by Serbs in the town, denying the reports of the Bosniak and Western media on hunger and violence (recall that Ph. Morillon was detained by Muslims for ten days in the town).[i]

The essence of the Euro-phenomenon of Srebrenica, i.e., “Bosnian Argentina”, begins in the spring of 1993 when, according to Alija Izetbegovic, the wartime President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the (Muslim) Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo “at the last minute” managed to achieve the status of “protected zones” for Srebrenica and Zhepa, but also immediately “after that the army [of Bosnia-Herzegovina] tried as hard as it could to send weapons there [to Srebrenica].” All in all, based on relevant statements, “a total of eighty helicopters [with weapons] were sent to Srebrenica.”[ii]

So, what stings the eyes of every neutral observer is the fact that the so-called the “protected zone” of Srebrenica was supposed to be a zone without war, i.e., translated into the local language of the inhabitants of the “protected zone” – bezratna teritorija (non-war territory). This implies in spatial terms the dual obligations of the warring parties:

1. That those in the vicinity of Srebrenica (Army of Republika Srpska) will not use their weapons against those in the “zone”; nor will
2. Those who are in the “zone” (de facto the soldiers of Naser Oric) use their weapons against those who are in the vicinity of the “zone”.

Simply put – a bilateral ceasefire. Moreover, General Ratko Mladic (VRS commander)[iii] and Safer Halilovic in the name of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina signed on April 17th, 1993 an eleven-point agreement that included: 1) A ceasefire and stopping of all combat operations in the Srebrenica region; 2) The deployment of one UNPROFOR’s detachment in the town; 3) The opening of the Tuzla-Srebrenica air-corridor (for evacuation of the wounded and sick persons); and 4) An agreement on demilitarization of the entire “zone” (i.e., all armed formations inside and around the town of Srebrenica). On the same day, the Security Council of the United Nations adopted Resolution 819, which obliged the VRS to cease hostilities and withdraw from the so-called “protected zone” which is now under the UNPROFOR control. The Serbian side respected both the agreement with S. Halilovic and the UN Security Council’s Resolution 819. Consequently, the Canadian “blue helmets” soon entered the town of Srebrenica.

After the UN Security Council’s Resolution 819

After the UN Security Council’s Resolution 819, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serb military Supreme Command definitely gave up an idea of entering (liberating) Srebrenica and of a direct confrontation with Muslim war criminals under the command of Naser Oric. At the same time, it accepted the evacuation of civilians from the town and delivered humanitarian aid to Srebrenica, but in return sought UNPROFOR’ cooperation regarding the evacuation of 15.000 Serbs from Muslim-controlled city of Tuzla who were under the unbearable torture of local Muslim paramilitary formations dying of starvation. As a result of all these talks and negotiations, about 5.000 Bosniaks were taken out of Srebrenica by UN vehicles, but only 80 Serbs left Tuzla. General Ratko Mladic himself later testified that “UNPROFOR did everything to protect the Muslim population and provide them with comprehensive support. But they did nothing to get the Serbs out of Tuzla, as they pledged.”[iv] In the end, it turned out that the Tuzla Bosniak authorities (both legal and illegal) systematically prevented the exit of Serb citizens from the city of Tuzla (in Serbian Soli, in English salt), explaining that their evacuation from the city could be misunderstood in the world media as ethnic cleansing.

What happened after the proclamation of Srebrenica as a “protected zone” is known to all those who followed the trial in The Hague against Naser Oric (born on March 3rd, 1967 in Potochari, a former professional member of the Yugoslav People’s Army (Jugoslovenska narodna armija – JNA), a police officer trained in Zemun and Belgrade (both in Serbia), a policeman who served in Kosovo, a member of the personal security of Serbian President Slobodan Miloshevic, and a man who participated in the arrest of Serbia’s opposition leader Vuk Drashkovic after the mass demonstations in Belgrade on March 9th, 1991 – “Srebrenica Butcher”. Nonetheless, series of the bloody excursions of his soldiers from the “protected zone” of Srebrenica to the surrounding Serbian villages (Kravica, Siljkovici, Bjelovac, Fakovici, and Sikiric) left an indelible page of the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992‒1995.

It is not far from the mind that the Dutch “blue helmets”, after who knows how many warnings to the soldiers of Naser Oric to stop the fire from the town and not to attack Serbian villages around Srebrenica, finally allowed General Ratko Mladic to enter the town with direct support and tacit approval by NATO pact, and according to the testimony of the then mayor of Srebrenica, as part of the American strategy to kill about 5.000 Muslims so that the NATO alliance would have an alibi for direct military interference in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian civil war on the side against the Serbs.[v] In other words, it is clear to anyone who has so far followed the trials in The Hague regarding Srebrenica that the Dutch peace-keepers simply allowed the Army of the Republika Srpska to enter Srebrenica, rather than fled away in front of its offensive (which would not have happened without the green light of both the “blue helmets” and NATO).[vi] It should be reminded that one Dutch Government has already fallen because of this permit, and a large number of Dutch members of UNPROFOR testified in The Hague in favor of Ratko Mladic and the VRS.

About the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serb Drina Corps quick entering Potochari on the morning of July 12^th, 1995, full of Srebrenica’s Muslim refugees who tried to get a shelter by the Dutch peace-keepers, there is a testimony by a journalist who wrote:

“Serb soldiers began arriving in the field at about noon, just five or six at first, then dozens more. They were mostly clean-shaven men, middle-aged or younger. They wore army and police uniforms. Dutch troops formed a cordon around the Muslims, but after Serb soldiers threatened to use force, the gates to the UN base were opened and the Dutch troops allowed the Serbs to take their weapons and roam freely. … Women cried. Soldiers drunk on plum brandy belched out songs with crude lyrics. They fired bullets into the air and began leading the menfolk away”.[vii]

From the testimony above, it is quite clear that the Dutch soldiers who, in fact, had to protect the Muslim refugees from Srebrenica, actually, worked side by side with the army of General Ratko Mladic.[viii] On their leaving the Potochari UN base, the Duch peace-keepers received gifts by General Ratko Mladic and have been dancing and singing with Serb soldiers what is recorded on the cameras.

Here we came to the crux of the matter. The UN had designed the region of Srebrenica to be “safe area” in April 1993, meaning its civilian population had to be ostensibly protected by the presence of a contingent of UN troops – in the case of July 1995, from the Netherlands, the “Dutchbat” or Dutch Battalion, of only 570 lightly armed soldiers under the flag of UNPROFOR (the UN Protection Force). However, the focal guarantee of the inviolability of Srebrenica “safe area” was, in fact, NATO but not Dutch Battalion. The real possibility and menace of taking Srebrenica by the VRS was in the air some year before July 1995 and it was clear that 570 lightly armed Dutch soldiers are not going to be able to protect the town without direct assistance of NATO what in reality did not happen as NATO simply did nothing to prevent Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serb Army from the taking town. The inability of UN troops to stand up to the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serb military, given the general lack of air support by NATO or serious reinforcement, was manifest on the ground. Several days before July 11^th, 1995, it was known for both UN and NATO what is going to happen soon but both did simply nothing. In fact, the Dutch troops showed remarkable indifference and lack of courage in the face of the initial incursions of the Drina Corps of the Army of the Republika Srpska.[ix]

A high court in the Netherlands ruled in September 2013 that the Dutch troops and the Dutch Government have been legally responsible for having turned over the Muslim refugees to the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serbs and were liable for their deaths.[x] A month later in the Security Council, the US ambassador to the UN, a Clinton’s hawk Madeline Albright, announced the alleged mass killing of Srebrenica Muslims by waving photographs of alleged mass graves taken by US intelligence satellites and calling at the same time for UN intervention against Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serbs. No doubt, the “Srebrenica case” served as a turning point in US/NATO’s readiness to intervene in the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, after three years of diplomatic and other preparations giving at the same time a clear message to EU to be incompetent in solving the conflicts in the Old Continent. The same is going to be repeated in 1999 during the Kosovo War when the “Rachak case” played the role of Kosovo Srebrenica. However, who have been lying about Rachak, did the same with Srebrenica too.

Nevertheless, both the ICTY and the ICC ruled that in Srebrenica happened massacre and, moreover, it has to be labelled as a genocide for the reason that Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serbs had allegedly attempted to eliminate the Muslim population in Srebrenica by driving off and killing a substantial part.[xi] With the military hierarchy of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serbs directly implicated in the chain of events that led to alleged genocide, and Slobodan Miloshevic and Radovan Karadzic apparently in the know about the murders, the courts concluded, however, that Srebrenica constituted the purposeful killing of a designated group of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims, thus genocide, and not a random massacre.[xii] Nonetheless, according to such definition and understanding of genocide, for instance, all US Presidents since WWII up today are war criminals.

End of the article.

Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic

Ex-University Professor

Research Fellow at Centre for Geostrategic Studies

Belgrade, Serbia

www.geostrategy.rs

vsotirovic@yahoo.com

References:

[i] Watch the British documentary (BBC) “Death of Yugoslavia”, a section on protected areas.

[ii] Alija Izetbegović, Govori, pisma, intervjui ’95, Sarajevo: TKP „Šahinpašić“, 1996, pages 86−87.

[iii] He was born in 1942 (or in 1943) in the village of Bozhanovici near Kalinovik in East Herzegovina. His father was killed in Josip Broz Tito’s Partisans during the attack on the village where Ustashi leader Ante Pavelic was born, which was defended by the Croat-Bosniak Ustashi, ​​that is, before General Ratko Mladic turned two. Nevertheless, this episode from World War II speaks best of its character and the role of Serbs from Ante Pavelic’s Independent (Genocidal) State of Croatia: Some Serbs who survived the massacres by Ustashi Croats and Bosniaks and went to Communist-led Partisans have been sent to attack well-established positions of Ustashi detachments simply to be killed there. General Dragoljub Drazha Mihailovic was completely right when he said that during the war Titoist Communists were in Serbia in alliance with the Germans (for example, 400 communist criminals were released from German prisons and sent to Serbia in 1941), in Montenegro (Crna Gora) with Montenegrin separatists Greens, in A. Pavelic’s Independent State of Croatia in alliance with the Ustashi, ​​and that the Communists will give Kosovo-Metochia to the Albanians in order to attract them to their side against the Serbs and Serbia, which eventually happened [Архив Југославије, Београд, 103-61; Војни Архив, Београд, „Четничка архива“, 56-3/30)].

[iv] Јањић Ј., Српски генерал Ратко Младић, Нови Сад: Матица српска, 1996, page 111.

[v] See a British documentary (BBC Four) entitled A Cry from the Grave. In this film, before the VRS entered Srebrenica, General Ratko Mladic asked the mayor of Srebrenica at a meeting in the presence of Dutch “blue helmets” for only one thing – to disarm Srebrenica and hand over weapons to the VRS, in which case all those who were in Srebrenica have the right to leave it with a message to the Srebrenica Bosniaks: “Allah cannot help you, but General Mladic can!” The largest number of so-called the “Srebrenica victims” were, in fact, Naser Oric’s soldiers who tried to break through from Srebrenica to Tuzla at any cost with weapons and died during that breakthrough, thus sacrificing innocent Bosniaks in Srebrenica for their salvation and escape from deserved punishment and revenge by Serbs. As a matter of fact, a few days before the VRS entered Srebrenica, Naser Orić was deliberately invited to Sarajevo for talks with Alija Izetbegović, where he was detained so that he did not participate in the defense of Srebrenica. Therefore, the town was not defended at all as according to the Clinton-Izetbegovic’s agreement, it was not necessary. Of course,  Naser Oric was called to visit Sarajevo for the crucial personal reason that he would not be arrested by the Serbian authorities and liquidated for crimes committed against Serb civilians in the vicinity of Srebrenica. By the way, this American plan with Srebrenica was designed in advance for political success because the VRS had no choice but to enter Srebrenica, and the alleged number of Bosniaks killed after that depended exclusively on Washington’s political marketing launching an „official“ figure of 8.000 for the Western media and politicians, based on a “relevant” source in the person of Alija Izetbegović (who in WWII served in Bosniak Muslim „SS Hanjar Division“ created by Heinrich Himmler).

[vi] At the beginning of the VRS offensive on Srebrenica, the Dutch „blue helmets“ formally demanded that the NATO alliance bomb the VRS in order to prevent the offensive and the entry of the Serbian army into Srebrenica. However, a message arrived from the NATO base in Aviano (Italy) that their planes could not intervene due to bad weather conditions, which was a notorious lie, considering that on July 11th, 1995 it was a typical summer day with a crystal clear sky. On the politicization of the “Srebrenica massacre”, see in [Edward S. Herman (ed.), The Srebrenica Massacre: Evidence, Context, Politics].

[vii] Chunk Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance: One Family‘s Story of a War in Bosnia, New York: W. W. Norton, 1998, pages 292‒293.

[viii] „Dutch Peacekeepers are Found Responsible for Deaths“, The New York Times, September 6th, 2013.

[ix] Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001, pages 164‒165.

[x] „Dutch Peacekeepers are Found Responsible for Deaths“, The New York Times, September 6th, 2013.

[xi] Norman M. Naimark, „Srebrenica in the History of Genocide: A Prologue“, Nanci Adler, Selma Leydesdorff, et al. (eds.), Memories of Mass Repression: Narrating Life Stories in the Aftermath of Atrocity, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2009, pages 13‒14.

[xii] Norman M. Naimark, Genocide: A World History, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, pages 130‒131.