On the 24th of May 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted the scandalous resolution on the “genocide in Srebrenica”:
84 countries voted in favour,
19 against,
68 abstained.
On our Telegram channel “Beorn and the Shieldmaiden”, we published a note of protest and translated two responses – one from the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Nebenzia, and one from Serbia:
Nebenzia said that the initiators of the adoption of the resolution on the “genocide in Srebrenica” are pushing Bosnia and Herzegovina to confrontation. The Russian Federation sees the resolution as a threat to peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region as a whole
🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
In response to the scandalous UN resolution on Srebrenica, Belgrade began displaying a running line on a high-rise building:
“We are not a genocidal people. We remember.The proud Serbia and Republika Srpska.”
This elicited a rather vehement reply in the chat from someone who claims to have lived through the events. The ensuing discussion did not result in any agreement. However, the discussion itself was very valuable and polite. In the discussion, we referenced fragments of one report that we now decided to present in full below.
Genocide is a term that needs the strictest caution when used. The discussion directed attention to several points as to whether the claim of genocide is substantiated. These points get omitted when emotional responses to the tragedy in 1995 stand alone. Here, we want to address and outline those points:
- Was what happened in Srebrenica a genocide? No! The very name, limiting the scope of the crime to one place, indicates this. In the discussion, Israel and the genocide of the Palestinians was argued as a parallel with a request that we abstain from using double standards.
Here, the case in point is: if some IDF officer bombed out one Palestinian village without the consent of the top command, then that would not be a genocide either, but a war crime, a massacre. What makes the killing in Gaza a genocide is precisely the fact that the IDF is acting systematically and methodically, exterminating all Palestinians with political consent of Netanyahu and the top Israeli military command.
Hence, Srebrenica can be classified as a war crime, a massacre – just like the massacre of the Serbs in the village of Sijekovac by the Croatian army in April of 1992. - In continuation, what the UN ruling on Srebrinica does is to dilute the definition of what “genocide” is, making it less meaningful in those cases when the genocide is really taking place.
- The resolution seeks to place guilt on the Serbs alone. This is done as a continuation of the fragmentation of the Serbian society into several enclaves and, where they can not be displaced, sucking the life force out of them as a nation. The same was done to Russia during the “Wild ’90s” when the constant imposition of guilt and the demand to apologise for all the achievements of the USSR was forced upon the Russians, singling out that one nationality.
- Who profits? The strong Serbian communists were the backbone of the Yugoslavian anti-fascist partisan forces during WWII, and the Serbian people to this day carry the collective memory of suffering from collaborators and horror.
The festering ripping off of old wounds and the push for disintegrating internalisation of blame into a feeling of guilt is intended to become for Serbia what the “Versailles Treaty” was to Germany. The two likely outcomes – either Serbia collapses directly and Serbs disappear, or Serbs fight back, causing the war to flare up again with chaos and countless victims, including as many Serbs as possible – are equally beneficial to US-NATO as they both serve the ultimate goal since the start of the breakup of Yugoslavia: To end the existence of a Serbian people. - The long-term goal of the “Srebrenica genocide” resolution is the real systematic genocide of the Serbs – just like the one that happened during WWII – and which won’t be treated as a genocide as the USA would say it’s OK, having pre-emptively labelled the Serbs as “sub-humans” with, among other things, this resolution.
Before going on, a highly-recommended documentary to watch is “The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Shadow of Dayton.” A Documentary by Alexei Denisov with English subtitles. The interview with Thierry Meyssan at VoltairNet, “Serbia was my textbook about lies”, is also of highest relevance.
Srebrenica, facts without propaganda
11.01.2022
While collecting material on the events in Srebrenica, I very often saw references to this article or quotes from it, but this is how I saw the entire article for the first time. I hope the reader will be interested to read it. Moreover, over the past few months, Srebrenica has once again become a very hot topic. This happened after the publication in July 2021 of the report of the Independent International Commission for the Study of Crimes against All Peoples in the Srebrenica region in 1992-1995. The chairman of this Commission, Gideon Greif, who himself survived all the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp in childhood, made a report to the Government of the Republika Srpska on June 11 last year [2021]. The need to create such a Commission is also mentioned in this article.
Of course, the events in Srebrenica were investigated before the work of this Commission, and many research papers were written. I would like to bring one of them to your attention. There are a lot of myths and various judgments around the events in Srebrenica. Let’s try to figure out the most common ones.
SREBRENICA 1995 – 2015
DRY FACTS WITHOUT PROPAGANDA AND EMBELLISHMENTS
Authors: Stefan Karganovich, Aleksandar Pavich
Consultants: Branko Pavlovic, Chaslav Mancic
Preparation: Miodrag Zharkovich
Editor: Mr. Anya Filimonova
Published by the Strategic Culture Foundation
Belgrade, June 2015
Introduction
The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995 is a very important event. We appeal to those who are primarily interested in the truth, not the politicization of events. The 20th anniversary is an occasion to draw a line. Enough time has passed to collect in one place everything that is reliably known, what can be assumed, what can only be guessed. This is an event whose consequences have shaken the entire former Yugoslavia and influenced global world politics in general. The purpose of this publication is to present both to an expert and a layman in this matter in a concise form everything that has been determined so far on the basis of the verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as what is still being disputed.
What motivated us to work on this publication?
– The truth is always needed by both victims as well as the accused and convicted, by historians who care about science, and politicians who care about the moral side of the case.
– When we do not know for sure what happened, we can confidently say that it did not happen, and the denial will be presented as the truth. The figures presented in the information space at the international level, on the territory of the former SFRY and for the Serbian public – about the “genocide” and the execution of 7-8 thousand Muslim prisoners of war from the Srebrenica enclave committed by “Serbian forces” do not stand up to any criticism. They simply do not correspond to the established facts;
– Arbitrary figures, virtually unsupported accusations, parliamentary and international “resolutions” and even sentences are used to poison the social, political, interreligious and interethnic atmosphere, sow discord, deepen disagreements and encourage extremism in the territory of the former SFRY. And this is definitely not in the interests of all countries and peoples. Except for those who are interested in constant destabilization, unrest and artificial separation of peoples;
– Srebrenica has been used many times and is still used as a convenient pretext for military aggression against sovereign states or interference in their internal affairs and for provoking internal conflicts (“we must prevent another Srebrenica” is a usual battle cry). That’s why it’s so important to establish the truth about what happened there, no matter how painful or cruel the truth may be for any party in that tragedy;
– After almost 20 years, the ICTY has failed to establish the truth, but only to label an event that has not yet been properly investigated, there is no reliable information about it. Therefore, in order to definitively establish the truth about the events in Srebrenica in July 1995, it is extremely important to create an international independent commission to determine exactly what happened in Srebrenica, so that this event ceases to have a political connotation and the mention of it ceases to be abused. This would finally bring peace to the victims, satisfy the families of the victims – and all normal people sympathize with these families, and it is not disputed anywhere that a crime occurred. The work of such a commission would open up an opportunity for truly facing up the past and for the reconciliation.
This publication is our contribution to the establishment of the truth about Srebrenica in the hope that it may encourage interested international forces, albeit with a huge delay, to take appropriate measures to finally determine its rightful place for this international problem. Without abuse, not to be used as a tool in politics, with no hidden intentions.
FACTS, ASSUMPTIONS, THE UNKNOWN
1. How many people died in Srebrenica in July 1995, according to the final decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the so-called Hague Tribunal?
The names of 8,372 victims are stamped on the stone slab of the Memorial Complex in Potochari. According to the “Bosnian Crime Atlas” of the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo, 6,886 people were killed in Srebrenica and the surrounding area in July 1995, the names of 4,256 dead and 2,673 missing Bosnian Muslims are listed on separate slabs in the Potochari. It is striking that the sum of those allegedly killed and missing is not consistent with the total number of 6,886.
Let’s turn to the documents. The decision in the Krstic case (ICTY) states: “… From 7000 to 8000 people” (court decision, paragraph 487). In the Popovic case (ICTY): “… The Court found that from July 12 to the end of the month, several thousand Bosnian Muslim men were executed” (court decision, paragraph 793). The court further states that “It has been established that at least 5,336 people, whose names have been identified, died after the capture of the enclave in Srebrenica by Serbian forces, but this figure may rise to 7,826” (court decision, footnote 2862). The Tolimir case (ICTY) refers to “4,970 victims” (Court of Appeal decision, paragraph 718).
After the publication of such different data on the number of dead, it comes to mind that the death lists include not only victims of military operations near Srebrenica, but also people who died for other reasons. And no matter how tragic the circumstances of their deaths, they most often represented legitimate military targets.
The conclusion is self-evident: neither the Hague Tribunal nor any other organization to this day, more than 25 years after the tragedy in Srebrenica, have the ability to accurately determine the number of executed prisoners of war. In addition, the number of missing and killed in combat with weapons in their hands is constantly being added to the number of victims of the executions. There is no evidence on the basis of which it is possible to determine the exact number of the executed Muslim prisoners of war.
2. Has the Hague Tribunal convicted anyone as a direct perpetrator or participant in the murders in the vicinity of Srebrenica in July 1995?
Until recently, the only person convicted as a direct perpetrator of crimes in Srebrenica was a Croat from Tuzla, Drazen Erdemovich, who made a deal with the prosecutor’s office and received the status of an ICTY witness. He was convicted in 1998 for participating in the “murder of more than a hundred Bosnian Muslim men from among the civilian population” in the town of Branjevo (sentence, paragraph 23). He received five years in prison. And this is for the alleged participation in the execution of more than a hundred people! The accusation is based on the confessions of Erdemovich himself, which he changed repeatedly during the investigation. The key point of the agreement with the prosecutor’s office was that he should testify against the Serbian defendants. Erdemovich is now presumably living in some Western country, he has changed his documents and appearance. By his own admission, Erdemovich fought for all three sides of the conflict in Bosnia: the Muslim ArBiG, the Croatian HVO, and the Serbian VRS. This raises additional doubts about Erdemovich’s testimony. Another interesting point is that on June 27, 1996, on the basis of the conclusion of a psychiatric examination, the ICTY declared it impossible for Erdemovich to continue participating in court hearings. However, already on July 5, 1996, Erdemovich, being in the status of the accused, acts as a witness for the prosecution in the trial against Karadzic and Mladic, and on the basis of his testimony, an international arrest warrant is issued for them. Erdemovich himself was arrested by the Yugoslav authorities and extradited to the ICTY in 1996.
Erdemovich gave contradictory testimony several times during the investigation, this is analysed in detail in the book “Crown Witness” by the Bulgarian journalist and correspondent of Deutche Welle at The Hague Tribunal, Germinal Civikov.
But the main point discrediting Erdemovich’s testimony is that at the place where, according to his own words, he participated in the execution of “about 1,200 prisoners of war,” the forensic experts of The Hague Tribunal found a total of 127 remains of the bodies of potential victims, 70 of which with bandages, which could mean that these people were shot. This, however, did not prevent the ICTY from continuing to use him as a “key witness”. In addition, Erdemovich could not name the exact date of the “massacre” in which he allegedly participated in the ICTY court hearing, he changed his testimony several times, the dates were from July 16 to July 20, 1995.
Erdemovich also gave incorrect testimony about the rank he had at that time, stating that he was a sergeant, although he had already been demoted. In addition, Erdemovich could not “remember” in any way who exactly gave the orders for the executions in which he took part. It was “some kind of lieutenant colonel”, who remains unknown to this day.
Erdemovich’s accomplices. Some, but not all, of Erdemovich’s accomplices were later convicted of war crimes, not by the ICTY, but by the courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Frank Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja were sentenced to various prison terms for the shootings in the town of Branevo. Interestingly and significantly, these people were not questioned by the ICTY, probably because of the danger that their testimony would not confirm the testimony of the “crown witness” Erdemovich and compromise them.
Erdemovich and his accomplices were fighters of the so-called 10th sabotage squad, a multinational unit in which Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Slovenes served. This unit has never had a precisely defined position in the structure of the Army of Republic Srpska. Some of his fighters later fought in Africa as mercenaries for Western private military companies.
According to the not very reliable testimony of Erdemovich, the fighters of this detachment fought for money or gold, received rewards for executions, and did things impossible within the framework of an ordinary army.
3. What sentences have been handed down by the ICTY to other people for crimes in Srebrenica?
Dragan Obrenovich, for the persecution of the Muslim population of Srebrenica, sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Vidoe Blagojevich, for complicity in murder, persecution and inhumane acts, was sentenced to 15 years.
Dragan Jokic was sentenced to 9 years in prison for complicity in extermination and crimes against humanity.
Vuyadin Popovich, for genocide and crimes against humanity, sentenced to life imprisonment.
Lyubisha Beara, for genocide and crimes against humanity, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Drago Nikolic, for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Radivo Miletich, for crimes against humanity and violation of the laws of war, was sentenced to 18 years.
But none of these people are accused or convicted of the direct murder of prisoners of war.
4. After years of litigation at the ICTY, has the person who gave the orders to shoot prisoners of war been identified?
No. In a separate opinion in the decision on appeal in the Tolimir case in April 2015, a member of the Appeals Chamber, Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, stated that if the relatives of the victims asked who and why ordered the execution, he would not know how to answer this question (decision of the Court of Appeal, p. 400). And none of the ICTY judges refuted his statement.
And there is a fact that should never be overlooked when talking about the masterminds of the Srebrenica murders. These are the words of a member of the Srebrenica Military Council, Hakija Meholjic, they were distributed in many media outlets, and also included in the Norwegian film “Srebrenica: the city that could be sacrificed” (at 29:10). Meholjic quotes Alija Izetbegovic from a meeting in Sarajevo in 1993, when Izetbegovic, in front of several witnesses, told him: “Yes, Clinton proposes to let the Chetniks into Srebrenica so that they kill five thousand Muslims, after which NATO will bomb Serb positions in Bosnia.”
(Translator note: The more accurate translation would be “Clinton offers me that Chetniks enter Srebrenica and slaughter five thousand Muslims, and then NATO will launch military intervention on all Serb positions throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.” – “Nudi mi Clinton da uđu četnici u Srebrenicu i izvrše pokolj pet hiljada muslimana i bit će vojna intervencija NATO snaga na srpske položaje u cijeloj Bosni i Hercegovini”. Chetniks are a paramilitary extremist/terrorist group of Serbs with agenda different to that of the Yugoslavian authorities. More about the topic in our Telegram post at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”)
5. How many bodies of the dead have already been buried at the Memorial Center in Potochari?
By 2015, about 6,300 “names” were buried in the Memorial Center in Potochari (in total, 8,372 surnames were imprinted on the monument). The burial procedure was carried out under the supervision of the Institute for Missing Persons in BiH, based in Sarajevo, and the Muslim religious authorities, who, referring to religious traditions, did not allow anyone to see what was in the coffin (tabut), nor to take biological material for independent genetic examination.
For example, Hasa Omerovich, who lost her husband, father and brother in July 1995. She denies that her husband is buried at the Memorial Center in Potochari and speaks thus about the manipulations associated with this place:
“There are other families who do not say anything out loud, but quietly and at their own expense buried their loved ones in other places outside of Potochar. There are also people who are buried in Potochary, but were killed earlier, these are several ordinary soldiers and commanders. There are also those in this burial who died in battle and in other internal conflicts. It was the dirtiest war, and that war was waged by bandits, it was not waged by normal people”.
Ibran Mustafic, one of the founders of the SDA and a member of the organizing committee for perpetuating the events in Srebrenica, says:
“Srebrenica has long been the object of manipulation, and the main manipulator (head of the Missing Persons Commission of the Federation of BiH) Amor Mashovich plans to speculate on the victims of Srebrenica for the next 500 years. However, there are many others from Izetbegovic’s entourage who have been implementing a project since the summer of 1992, the sole purpose of which is to show as many victims among Bosnians as possible”.
6. Are all those buried in Potochari – “victims of Srebrenica”?
No, except for the criminologists of the ICTY and the International Commission on Missing Persons in Tuzla, under the control of the American government, no one has access to the remains for the purpose of research.
Nowhere in the official documents or decisions of the ICTY does it mention the number of people killed during the breakthrough of the 28th Division of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Army in the direction of Tuzla in mid-July 1995. The United Nations (UN) and other competent sources estimate the number of victims at an average of about 3,000 people. Mirsad Tokacha from the Sarajevo Information and Documentation Center in 2010 stated that “about 500 residents of Srebrenica” who were missing, were found alive, as well as there were identified names of “70 people who are buried in the Memorial Center in Potocari, but who were not killed in Srebrenica”. Ibran Mustafic, a civil administration official in the enclave in Srebrenica, claimed that up to 1,000 people died in internal clashes between the Muslims during the retreat from Srebrenica.
Naser Oric, in his book “Srebrenica is Testifying and Accusing” (1994), gives the names of 1,333 men from the enclave who died in the fighting before the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 during an attacks on the Serbian villages over the greater area. The director of the Potocar Memorial Center, Mercedes Smilovic, and the director of the Center for Missing Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Amor Mazovich say that about 50 people were buried in Potocar back in 1992 and had “close kinship” with those killed in 1995.
Hakija Meholjic, the wartime police chief in Srebrenica, said he was “angry at everyone” who buried 75 people at the Memorial Center who were not killed in July 1995.
The American Philip Corwin, a senior UN civilian official in Bosnia, has never denied the claim that in July of 1995, “700-800” people were executed in the vicinity of Srebrenica.
Josef Bodansky, former head of the U.S. Congressional Special Commission on Terrorism and War Crimes, argued that “all independent forensic evidence points to several hundred Muslim victims, or perhaps less than a hundred.”
7. How many people died during the fighting near Srebrenica in July 1995?
ICTY expert Richard Butler believes that about 2,000 Bosnia and Herzegovina Army soldiers were killed; Portuguese officer and UN observer Carlos Martins Branco also calls the figure of about 2,000; American intelligence officer John Schindler – about 5,000; Carl Bildt – about 4,000; the UN – about 3,000. According to these estimates, a significant number of those considered missing on the Muslim side died in battle as soldiers, rather than being shot after capture.
8. According to the ICTY forensic medical examination, how many people have been executed?
The exhumation of remains from various graves, which may probably, but not necessarily, be related to the events in Srebrenica in July 1995, was under the control of the ICTY only between 1996 and 2001. During this period, 3,568 “cases” were documented and described, with the caveat that one “case” does not necessarily mean one body – only a part of the body might have been exhumed. The forensic medical examination gives the following results:
– only 442 exhumed people can be irrefutably recognized as victims of executions, their hands were tied or they were blindfolded;
– 627 people were injured by shell fragments or bullets, which may be the result of either executions or participation in hostilities;
– 505 bodies have bullet wounds, which may also be the result of executions or death in battle;
– the cause of death has not been established for 411 people;
– in 1,583 cases, only fragments of bodies are presented, while the ICTY forensic experts stated that the cause of death could not be determined for 92.4% of them.
Thus, the initial reports of the forensic medical examination, compiled under the supervision and control of the ICTY, show that all mass graves were accounted for and recorded between 1996 and 2001. Just under 2,000 people were buried in them. Meanwhile, after the examination of the discovered bodies, it is clear that even among these 2,000 people, only a small number can be counted as victims of any crime, many more died in battle or died of diseases, or for an unknown reason.
Since 2002, exhumation from graves and identification of the dead have been the exclusive competence of ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons) and the Bosnia and Herzegovina Commission on Missing Persons. No member of the public, media or professional organizations has ever had proper access to their main forensic laboratory in Tuzla, where data is “processed”, their work is not transparent and is not subject to international verification.
Since 2002, representatives of these organizations have radically expanded the scope of their work, exhuming all remains in the wider Srebrenica area, without even trying to figure out whether the victims of the shootings were buried there or whether they were the graves of soldiers located along the route of the breakthrough of the 28th Division of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Army, where mostly those killed in the battles with the Army of Republic Srpska are located.
Finally, with a lot of noise made in the media, a new method of calculating the “famous” figure of 8000 people was presented. The essence of the method is to compare DNA samples of exhumed soldiers and their family members. Graves with the remains of the dead, which have nothing to do with war crimes, now serve as an inexhaustible “gold mine” for “genocide victims”, whose remains are solemnly buried by the hundreds at the Potochari Memorial Center on July 11 each year.
However, a DNA match will not help determine the time, cause and manner of death, but only determine the identity of the deceased, which was confirmed by ICMP Director Thomas Parsons during cross-examination at Karadzic’s trial on March 22, 2012.
“The International Commission on Missing Persons does not deal with the question of how these people died, and whether their death was violent and lawful or not. I am submitting a report on the identification of remains exhumed from mass graves” (transcript of Karadzic’s trial, p. 26633).
If it is known that fierce fighting took place in the immediate vicinity of the 60-kilometer route between Srebrenica and Tuzla, it is obvious that simply identifying the deceased person is completely useless as evidence in a criminal trial, not to mention the legal qualification of the crime.
The figure is about 6,600, which, according to ICMP, represents the total number of missing persons, whose identities were allegedly established by comparing DNA samples, and which the ICTY, based on a simple statement, implicitly accepts as a nominal list of allegedly executed people. If such a list really exists, then no one has seen it or determined its origin. The lawyers of the defendants are deprived of the opportunity to use the identification number of the identity card and other information to independently verify whether these people really existed, and if so, whether they are alive or really dead.
Despite all this, the media has quite unreasonably established the equation: DNA identification = “victim of genocide”. And this simply does not correspond to reality.
9. How many Serbs from the vicinity of Srebrenica were killed by Muslim forces from 1992 to July 1995?
According to the results of the “Srebrenica Historical Project” study, the number of victims among the Serbs of Srebrenica in 1992-1995 amounted to 705 killed Serb civilians. This number is preliminary and may be increased as new data becomes available.
“The Institute for the Study of the Suffering of the Serbian People in the twentieth Century” listed the names of more than 3,200 victims from the Birac district, in which Naser Oric units operated between 1992-1995, this area includes the territories of the municipalities of Zvornik, Osmachi, Shekovici, Vlasenica, Milici, Bratunac and Srebrenica.
10. Has anyone been convicted by the ICTY for these crimes against Serbs?
No one has been prosecuted for crimes committed between 1992 and 1995 against the Serbian civilian population in the Srebrenica area. At that time, about 50 Serbian villages and settlements were attacked and destroyed. The commander of the Muslim forces in the Srebrenica enclave, Nasser Oric, was charged at the ICTY in The Hague, but he was acquitted “for lack of evidence”, despite the fact that his confessions about the murder of Serb civilians were published in the Western media in 1995. Perhaps the most vivid evidence of Orich’s crimes was given in a report by Washington Post journalist John Pomfret, who interviewed Orich in Srebrenica itself on February 16, 1994, at a time when Srebrenica was allegedly “demilitarized” as a “zone, protected by UN troops”.
“The war trophies of Nasser Orich were not hanging on the wall of his cosy apartment. They are recorded on video: burned Serbian houses and decapitated Serbian men with convulsively distorted bodies. “We had to use cold steel that night,” Orich explains, as scenes of people being killed with knives alternate on his Sony TV. Lying on a comfortable sofa, dressed from head to toe in a camouflage uniform, with the emblem of the US Army embroidered in front of the heart… Commander Orich is the most violent guy in this Muslim city, which the UN Security Council calls a protected “security zone”.
This, as well as other similar evidence, was not enough for The Hague Tribunal to convict Orich.
11. Was Srebrenica really a demilitarized zone under UN protection?
Despite the agreement reached in May 1993, according to which the Srebrenica enclave was declared a zone under UN protection, it was never demilitarized, as evidenced by reports from representatives of the highest authorities.
UN Secretary-General’s report dated May 30, 1995:
“In recent months, (Bosnian) government forces have significantly increased military activity in and around most protected areas, including Sarajevo, Tuzla and Bihac, military detachments have participated in broader government military campaigns… The Government also keeps a significant number of soldiers in Srebrenica (which in this case is a violation of the demilitarization agreement).”
Yasushi Akasi, former head of the UN mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an article in the Washington Times, dated November 1, 1995:
“The situaton was such, that Bosnian government forces used “protected areas” not only in Srebrenica, but also in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac and Gorazde for training, recreation and replenishment of their troops.”
A report by the Dutch Institute of Military Documentation, April 2002:
“The alleged demilitarization of the enclave was practically on paper only. The Bosnian Army followed a deliberate strategy of limited military attacks in order to tie up a relatively large part of the Bosnian Republic Srpska Army in order to prevent its transfer in full force to the main combat zone around Sarajevo. Similar attacks were carried out from the Srebrenica enclave. Bosnian Army forces did not hold back from breaking all the rules in clashes with the Republic Srpska Army. They provoked fire from the Bosnian Serbs, and then retreated to the protection of the detachment of the Dutch battalion, which risked being caught between two fires.”
12. What was the quantitative ratio between the forces of the Army of the Republic Srpska and the units of the Army of Bosnia and Herzagovina in the “demilitarized zone” of Srebrenica in early July 1995?
The Norwegian film “Srebrenica: the city that could be sacrificed” mentions 400 Republic Srpska soldiers and about 1,600 local militia residents. London Times war correspondent Michael Evans reports: “There are reports that up to 1,500 Serbs took part in the attack on Srebrenica, but according to intelligence sources, about 200 people carried out the main attack with the support of five tanks.”
On the other hand, the Norwegian film says that the Muslim forces numbered “about 5,500 soldiers.”
BBC journalist Jonathan Ruper writes:
“According to the evidence, there were at least 5,000 armed soldiers of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Army in Srebrenica, and possibly many more. According to the UN forces in the protected area, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Army in Srebrenica was well armed, moreover, representatives of the Dutch peacekeeping battalion noticed the influx of modern weapons and communications equipment to Srebrenica in 1995.”
John Schindler, former chief Bosnia and Herzegovina analyst at the US National Security Agency (NSA), claims that the “demilitarized enclave” of Srebrenica has been armed from the air since the end of 1994 through the so-called “black pilots”, and that NATO, which controlled the airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina, “turned a blind eye to them.”
Thus, with the permission of NATO, not only was the Srebrenica enclave not demilitarized, but was additionally armed.
It is clear that the Republic Srpska forces, inferior both numerically and technically, could not really develop any plan of “mass destruction”, as confirmed by the report of the Dutch Institute of Military Documentation:
“Looking back, there is no indication that the intensification of Republic Srpska Army activities in eastern Bosnia in early July 1995 was aimed at anything other than blocking the protective zone in Srebrenica and blocking the main road to Zepa. The campaign plan was drawn up on July 2. The attack began on July 6. But unexpectedly, the Republic Srpska Army achieved such success and met such weak resistance that on the evening of July 9, it was decided to move on and see if it was possible to occupy the entire enclave.”
13. What is the reasoning behind the recognition of the events in Serebrenica as genocide?
The first notable verdict handed down by the tribunal, which further contributed to the construction of the “official version” that a “genocide” took place in Srebrenica in July 1995, was the verdict handed down to General of the Army of the Republic Srpska, Radislav Krstic in August. 2001
According to British professor Tara McCormack:
“At Krstic’s trial, it was established that Krstic knew nothing about any murders that had been committed, and that he was not involved in anything. Moreover, the Tribunal recognized the fact that Krstic personally gave orders to spare Bosnian Muslim civilians. His sentence is based on his participation in the “criminal act” of seizing Srebrenica.”
Michael Mandel, Professor of International Law at York University in Toronto:
“If the case of General Krstic symbolizes anything, it is the fact that the genocide did not take place in Srebrenica … The Tribunal’s claims that genocide took place in Srebrenica are not supported by the facts to which it referred, the tribunal has not established the fact of genocide. Even the conclusion of the Tribunal’s Trial Chamber that “Bosnian Serb forces shot dead several thousand Bosnian Muslims with a total number of victims … probably from 7 to 8000” is not supported by any explicit conclusions of the tribunal. The number of exhumed bodies amounted to only 2,028 people, and the Chamber had to admit that some of them were killed in the fighting, moreover, it was stated that the evidence only “indicates” that “most” of the exhumed did not die in the fighting.”
Efraim Zurof, one of the undisputed authorities in the field of genocide research, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, described the events in Srebrenica in June 2015 as follows:
“As far as I know, what happened has no signs of genocide. I think the decision to call what happened a genocide was made for political reasons.”
14. Did the Commission of the Parliament of the Republic Srpska really “recognize the genocide” in its 2004 report?
No. In the report, the Commission used the word “genocide” only quoting the verdict of the ICTY to General Radislav Krstic. The Commission did not accept the figure of “8000 executed”, but concluded that there was a list of 7,108 names of persons missing from July 10 to July 19, 1995. It also did not indicate that all the missing persons were killed or died, but among those listed there are people who died in hostilities before 1995, as well as those who later died of natural causes, while it was discovered that some changed their documents and live elsewhere, while others deserved their sentences for criminal offences.
Incidentally, the report was compiled under difficult conditions and under pressure from the then High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, as American Professor Edward Herman from the University of Pennsylvania wrote:
“The Bosnian Serbs actually released a report on Srebrenica in September 2002, but it was rejected by Paddy Ashdown because the report did not draw the required conclusions. Then he prepared a new report, refusing to cooperate with many of Republic Srpska politicians and analysts, put pressure on Parliament of Republic Srpska so that they in the end received a report prepared by people ready to come to officially approved conclusions.”
Recall that according to international law, an act committed under duress cannot be considered legitimate.
Conclusion
After 20 years, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that practically nothing reliable has been established in relation to Srebrenica! The only way to do this is to approach the problem impartially in order to establish the truth, and not for political or geopolitical benefits. This is a job for an independent mixed international commission. It’s time to create such a commission.
According to what we know today:
– there is no connection between the execution of prisoners and the official authorities of the Republic Srpska or Serbia;
– the shootings took place, but were carried out by a very small number of people belonging to different nationalities, so even on this basis it is impossible to establish the “guilt of the Serbs”;
– the number of victims who can be considered shot with a high degree of confidence is ten times less than the number of victims who are constantly repeated in public. If the number is not important, as they usually say, then why is it increased tenfold? Why do they talk about real victims only in order to create a presumption of some kind of “Serbian guilt” and thus justify repressive measures against Republic Srpska and the Republic of Serbia?
– Many have received sentences from courts of different instances for the execution of prisoners. And the number of those shot is less than the number of Serbian civilians killed in the vicinity of Srebrenica, for which no one was responsible, and this does not impose a sense of collective guilt on Muslims.
In addition, Serbia, Republic Srpska and the Serbian people have no reason to apologize to anyone for the still unsolved crime in Srebrenica. Of course, it is necessary to express condolences to the families of the victims, to condemn the crime, but it is also necessary to insist that, finally, a criminal case should be opened and prosecution of persons who have committed crimes against the Serbian people was started. For the sake of the Serbian families whose close relatives were criminally murdered and whose pain we sympathize with, as well as the pain of all other families of innocent victims of the wars since the collapse of the SFRY.