Archive
SREBRENICA FACTS: MULTITUDE OF EVIDENCE FOR THE 1995 SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
Outreach Programme of the ICTY
(Credits/References at the bottom)
In June 2005, during cross-examination of a witness in the case against Slobodan Milošević (1) at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the court viewed video footage showing a Serbian paramilitary unit, calling itself the Scorpions, execute six Bosnian Muslim men and teenagers captured after the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. The images of Serbian soldiers tormenting and then shooting the Bosnian Muslim prisoners, whose hands were tied behind their backs and who offered no resistance before being shot, broke through the wall of silence and denial about the subject of Srebrenica in Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian Government condemned the killings, and the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor acted swiftly to detain a number of suspects allegedly complicit in the murders of these six men.
There is a multitude of evidence publicly available that proves that Bosnian Serb and other forces executed 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica in one week in July 1995. Despite this, there are still many people in Serbia and Montenegro who try to deny the full enormity of the crime that Bosnian Serb military, police and other forces (including, allegedly, forces from Serbia) committed. They argue that the actual number of dead is exaggerated, that ‘only’ around 2,000 died. They also argue that most of these 2,000 dead were casualties of war—Bosnian Muslim soldiers killed in battle. Some who are even bolder, claim that it was a ‘crime of passion’—revenge for all those Serbs killed in the villages around Srebrenica. Still others claim that what happened at Srebrenica was not genocide. The Tribunal has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each of these claims is wrong.
The massacre that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995 was the single worst atrocity committed in the former Yugoslavia during the wars of the 1990s and the worst massacre that occurred in Europe since the months after World War II. This is why the ICTY, which was established in 1993 to try those most responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991,(2) has invested a great deal of time and effort in investigating what happened in Srebrenica and bringing those responsible to justice. The ICTY has issued indictments against 19 individuals for crimes committed in Srebrenica, all but one of which are against high-level perpetrators—those who planned and ordered the killing operation. So far, the Tribunal has completed trials and appeals against three accused:
General Radislav Krstić, commander of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) Drina Corps, Dražen Erdemović, a VRS soldier with the 10th Sabotage Detachment and Dragan Obrenović, deputy commander of the VRS Zvornik Brigade. Erdemović and Obrenović admitted their participation in the Srebrenica killings. The facts about Srebrenica contained in the judgements against Krstić,(3) Erdemović(4) and Obrenović(5) have been established beyond a reasonable doubt.(6)
In particular, in its proceedings against these three accused, the Tribunal has found beyond a reasonable doubt that Bosnian Serb and other forces killed between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys between approximately 11 and 19 July 1995. The Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the vast majority of those killed were not killed in combat, but were victims of executions. The Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the killings did not occur in a moment of passion, but were the product of a well-planned and coordinated operation. Finally, the Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing of 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners was genocide.
In particular, in its proceedings against these three accused, the Tribunal has found beyond a reasonable doubt that Bosnian Serb and other forces killed between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys between approximately 11 and 19 July 1995. The Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the vast majority of those killed were not killed in combat, but were victims of executions. The Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the killings did not occur in a moment of passion, but were the product of a well-planned and coordinated operation. Finally, the Tribunal has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing of 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners was genocide.
The Number of Dead
The Tribunal has determined that the number of Bosnian men and boys killed in Srebrenica is between 7,000 and 8,000. In order to come to this conclusion, the Judges in the Krstić case accepted and reviewed a great deal of evidentiary material.
Exhumations
Among the evidence that the Judges used to establish the number of people the Bosnian Serbs killed was that from the mass graves where the victims were buried. The Chamber reviewed evidence from 21 mass graves that had been exhumed by the ICTY from 1996 to 2000.(7) Of these, 14 were “primary gravesites”, where the victims’ bodies had been buried immediately after they were killed. Bosnian Serb forces subsequently disturbed eight of these primary gravesites in an attempt to cover up their crimes: during a period of several weeks in September and October 1995, they removed bodies from the primary graves and reburied them in other locations that are referred to as “secondary gravesites.” Seven of the 21 mass graves were such “secondary” burial sites.
Determining the exact number of bodies in each of the mass graves was a very difficult task, which was complicated by the fact that Bosnian Serb forces mutilated and dismembered many of the remains when they used heavy machinery to exhume and rebury them.(8) Thus body parts from the same person could be found in two separate mass graves—a primary and a secondary one.
Demographic Expert
The Trial Chamber in the Krstić case heard evidence from a demographics expert whose task it was to determine the number of people who have been reported as missing from Srebrenica. The demographics expert cross-referenced the list of missing persons of the International Committee of the Red Cross with other sources, including lists of those who were missing or killed before July 1995, and other data that shows who was alive after. In this way, he was able to make sure that his figures could only refer to those who were missing as a result of the massacres at Srebrenica in July 1995. Based on this research, he testified that a conservative estimate of the number of people missing from Srebrenica is 7,475.(11)
Intercepts
The Trial Chamber in the Krstić case heard evidence of intercepted conversations between VRS soldiers, including the accused, which corroborates the fact that Bosnian Serb forces killed between 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners.
As has become standard practice in modern warfare, both the VRS and the Bosnian Army (ABiH) monitored enemy communications. The VRS had secure means of communication, but they did not always work and took longer to set up, so the officers often used unsecured lines because they were quicker. Intelligence officers from the ABiH intercepted conversations over such lines and transcribed them. These recordings were then submitted to the Tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor.(12)
Determining the authenticity and reliability of such intercepts is a long and detailed process:
- One intercepted telephone conversation from 1730 hours on 13 July 1995 shows that in that moment the Bosnian Serb forces had captured around 6,000 people.(14) Consistent with this, around 14 July Colonel Radislav Janković, from the VRS General Staff, told a Dutch battalion soldier that they had captured around 6,000 POWs.(15)
- On 18 July 1995, an unidentified Bosnian Serb stated in an intercepted conversation that of the 10,000 military aged men who were in Srebrenica, “4,000-5,000 have certainly kicked the bucket.”(16)
- The Trial Chamber also had an intercepted conversation between General Krstić and ICTY accused VRS Colonel Ljubiša Beara at 1000 hours on 15 July 1995, the middle of the killing operation. In it, Beara asks Krstić for more men. He states “I don’t know what to do. I mean it, Krle [Krstić’s nickname]. There are still 3,500 “parcels” that I have to distribute and I have no solution.” Krstić replies, “Fuck it, I’ll see what I can do.” From other intercepted telephone conversations, the Prosecution was able to show that the word “parcel” means Bosnian Muslim prisoner, and the word “distribute” means to kill them.(17)
The intercept evidence corroborates the findings of the demographic expert and the exhumation evidence that shows that Bosnian Serb forces took prisoner and killed many thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys, and not just 2,000 as some people in Serbia and Montenegro claim.
Insider Witnesses
Perhaps the most compelling evidence that the Tribunal has heard that proves that Bosnian Serb forces killed 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men comes from the people who actually participated in the killing operation. In the Krstić trial, the Trial Chamber heard from Dražen Erdemović, a VRS soldier with the 10th Sabotage Detachment, who participated in one of the largest executions, which took place at the Branjevo Military Farm on 16 July 1995. Erdemović pleaded guilty to participating in these executions and later testified in the case against General Krstić.(18) Dražen Erdemović’s description of how his unit killed their victims assists in getting an idea of how many people lost their lives during those five days in July.
In his testimony, Erdemović explained that his unit received orders on the morning of 16 July 1995 to go to the Branjevo Military farm. Shortly after they reached the farm, buses carrying Bosnian Muslim men began to arrive. Erdemović and the other members of his unit were given orders to shoot the prisoners. Erdemović testified that, in his estimate, they killed between 1,000 and 1,200 Bosnian Muslim men on that day alone.(19) And the Branjevo Military Farm was not the only site at which executions took place: the Trial Chamber examined evidence of mass executions at a total of nine sites, including the Branjevo Military Farm.
(a) The Morning of 13 July 1995: Jadar River
(b) The Afternoon of 13 July 1995: Čerska Valley
(c) Late Afternoon of 13 July 1995: Kravica Warehouse
(d) 13-14 July 1995: Tišća
(e) 14 July 1995: Grbavci School Detention site and Orahovac Execution site
(f) 14-15 July 1995: Petkovci School Detention Site and Petkovci Dam Execution Site
(g) 14-16 July 1995: Pilica School Detention Site and Branjevo Military Farm Execution Site
(h) 16 July 1995: Pilica Cultural Dom
(i) 14-17 July 1995: Kozluk
All of this evidence points in no uncertain terms to the accuracy of the estimate that between 7,000 and 8,000 people were executed in Srebrenica in July 1995.
The Victims Were Not Battle Casualties
In Republika Srpska and Serbia one does not only hear that the number of dead was much lower than 7,000 to 8,000. One also hears that the victims were not civilians or prisoners of war, but rather soldiers who died in battle. Therefore, according to them, VRS forces were abiding by the laws of war and no crime was committed at Srebrenica.
Evidence from the exhumations that the Trial Chamber reviewed in the Krstić case paints quite a different picture. It shows that most of the victims were not killed in combat but in mass executions. In the mass graves that have been exhumed so far, Tribunal investigators found 448 blindfolds on or with the victims’ bodies as well as 423 pieces of cloth, string or wire that were used to tie the victims’ hands.(20) People who were blindfolded or had their hands tied behind their backs were obviously not killed in combat. The Trial Chamber also noted that some of the victims in the mass graves were handicapped, and therefore, very unlikely to have been combatants.(21)
Here, again, the testimony of the perpetrators is very important. Momir Nikolić, VRS Deputy commander for Security and Intelligence, said clearly that the VRS did not treat the prisoners they captured according to the Geneva Conventions:
Do you really think that in an operation where 7.000 people were set aside, captured, and killed that somebody was adhering to the Geneva Conventions? Do you really believe that somebody adhered to the law, rules and regulations in an operation where so many were killed? First of all, they were captured, killed, and then buried, exhumed once again, buried again. Can you conceive of that, that somebody in an operation of that kind adhered to the Geneva Conventions? Nobody … adhered to the Geneva Conventions or the rules and regulations. Because had they, then the consequences of that particular operation would not have been a total of 7.000 people dead.(22)
Dragan Obrenović, who was the commander of the VRS Zvornik Brigade at the time and who confessed to his participation in the massacres, stated clearly that on 13 July 1995 he became aware of the fact that Bosnian Serb forces captured thousands of Bosnian Muslim prisoners and that the prisoners were to be shot.(23)
Testifying about his role in the Branjevo Military Farm executions, Dražen Erdemović stated that buses carrying Bosnian Muslim prisoners began arriving there on the morning of 16 July 1995. He stated that all but one of the prisoners wore civilian clothes. He also testified that some of them were blindfolded and had their hands tied. He described how his unit shot the victims. He stated that, except for one prisoner who tried to escape, none resisted before being shot.(24)
Testimony from the few victims who survived the executions also clearly shows that VRS forces were callously killing civilians or prisoners of war, in serious violation of international humanitarian law. One of the survivors of the Branjevo Military Farm executions, described above, related the moment when he was confronted by the firing squad:
When they opened fire, I threw myself on the ground…. And one man fell on my head. I think that he was killed on the spot. And I could feel the hot blood pouring over me… I could hear one man crying for help. He was begging them to kill him. And they simply said “Let him suffer. We’ll kill him later.”(25)
Lastly, killing an enemy soldier in combat is not a war crime. If those buried in the mass graves had indeed been soldiers killed in battle, there would have been no need for Bosnian Serb forces to execute a massive cover-up campaign.(26) And there is much evidence that proves that is exactly what they did in September and October of 1995. In order to cover up their initial crimes of killing civilians and prisoners of war, the Bosnian Serb forces committed another crime—they attempted to relocate the bodies. They used bulldozers and other heavy machinery to exhume a number of the mass gravesites and move the bodies to other locations. The Prosecution conducted forensic analysis of the 21 mass graves that it exhumed and found that some of the primary and secondary sites were linked. Forensic experts analyzed the soil, bullets and other materials found in the sites they exhumed and found that 12 of them were linked to each other.(27) The Trial Chamber in the Krstić case found that this evidence demonstrates an extensive campaign to conceal the bodies of the men who the Bosnian Serb forces killed and buried in mass gravesites in July 1995. This cover-up attempt shows not only that Bosnian Serb forces committed horrible crimes, but also that they were well aware that what they had done was against the law.
A Planned Killing Operation
Perhaps the most perfidious claim that one hears in Republika Srpska and Serbia is that Bosnian Serb forces killed the Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica in revenge. It is claimed that Bosnian Serbs who perpetrated the massacre were upset by the crimes Bosnian Muslim forces committed against Serbs in the villages around Srebrenica,(28) and acted in the heat of passion, as if that would justify killing thousands of Bosnian Muslim prisoners. Revenge is not a defence under international law, which is clear to any army soldier and certainly experienced officers. It is a barbaric concept, and the law exists precisely to prevent it. Those who act out of revenge, or call on it in order to justify crimes, are dealing a blow to the rule of law, and thus to civilization itself. Nor can revenge morally justify killing 7,000 to 8,000 people simply because they share the same ethnicity as others who perpetrated crimes: one crime can never justify another.
Proceedings before the Tribunal have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Srebrenica was a planned killing operation, and not an act of revenge by emotionally agitated Bosnian Serb soldiers. It is impossible to kill 7,000 to 8,000 people in the space of one week without methodical planning and substantial resources. Soldiers have to be mobilized to guard the prisoners, to move them from holding locations to execution sites, and to shoot them. Multiple locations to hold the prisoners and to execute them need to be identified and secured. Thousands of rounds of ammunition to shoot the prisoners need to be supplied. Numerous vehicles and hundreds of litres of fuel need to be commandeered to move the prisoners. A number of bulldozers and excavators need to be commissioned to dig their graves. During a state of war mobilizing such resources cannot be done at the whim of a few crazy soldiers. It needs to be ordered and authorized by commanders at high-levels.
In the Krstić case, the Trial Chamber heard a lot of evidence that demonstrated clearly that the Bosnian Serb army mobilized resources between 11 and 19 July 1995 in order to kill Bosnian Muslim prisoners.
- Mobilizing men: In the intercepted telephone conversation between General Krstić and ICTY accused VRS Colonel Ljubiša Beara at 1000 hours on 15 July 1995, referred to above,(29) Beara asks Krstić for men to help with the executions. Krstić actually did what Beara asked him to do: the very next day, 16 July 1995, men from the VRS Bratunac Brigade arrived to assist members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment with the executions at the Branjevo Military Farm.(30)
- Mobilizing fuel: Another intercepted conversation shows that on 16 July 1995 VRS Colonel Popović made a request for 500 litres of diesel fuel. A VRS Zvornik Brigade document confirms that 500 litres of diesel fuel was in fact given to Colonel Popović on
16 July 1995.(31) - Mobilizing machinery: One victim of the Branjevo Military Farm executions on 16 July 1995 who survived testified that he heard heavy machinery in the killing field on 17 July.(32) Aerial photographs of the area taken on 17 July 1995 show a large number of bodies lying in the field near the farm, and an excavator digging a hole.(33) Corroborating the witness’ testimony and the aerial photographs, VRS Zvornik Brigade vehicle records show an ULT 220 bulldozer in operation at Branjevo for eight-and-a-half hours on 17 July 1995, and the Fuel Dispersal Log shows that 100 litres of diesel fuel was disbursed to a BGH-700 excavator on 17 July 1995.(34)
Most importantly, when referring to his own responsibility for the crimes, Dragan Obrenović acknowledged that the VRS had a plan to kill the Bosnian Muslim prisoners. He stated that he became aware of the fact that Bosnian Serb forces captured thousands of Bosnian Muslim prisoners and that they were to be killed on 13 July 1995 during a conversation with ICTY indictee Drago Nikolić, who was Chief of Security of the VRS First Light Infantry Brigade at the time. Nikolić told Obrenović that the prisoners were to be brought to Zvornik to be shot. Nikolić also told him that the order came from ICTY indictee Ratko Mladić, Chief of the VRS General Staff, and that everyone knew about it, including Obrenović’s commanding officer, ICTY indictee Vinko Pandurević, for whom he was standing in.(35) He also stated the following:
…I was in Command of the Zvornik Brigade during the absence of my Commander, Vinko Pandurević, until his return at about midday on 15th July. On hearing of this plan [emphasis added] to kill the prisoners I, as acting Commander, took responsibility for the plan and supported the implementation of this plan.(36)
As is clear from the above, the Tribunal’s proceedings in relation to Srebrenica have established beyond a reasonable doubt that the massacre there was a carefully planned and coordinated operation.
Srebrenica Was an Act of Genocide
Another objection that we hear frequently in Serbia and Montenegro is that what happened at Srebrenica is not genocide. General Krstić’s Defence made precisely this claim during his trial. But before discussing the Defence’s reasoning and why the Trial Chamber rejected it, it is first important to look at the legal definition of genocide, since the term is quite often misused. The Tribunal’s Statute defines genocide as:
– any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) killing members of the group;
(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole in part;
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
General Krstić’s Defence did not challenge the fact that Bosnian Serb forces killed a significant number of Bosnian Muslim men, but disagreed that it constitutes genocide. The Defence argued that killing up to 7,500 Bosnian Muslims does not constitute a substantial part of the Bosnian Muslim group, which numbers about 1.4 million people, or even a substantial part of the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica. The Defence also argued that Bosnian Serb forces did not kill the women, children and elderly, which it could have, unlike in other genocides in history. It further argued that had it intended to destroy the Bosnian Muslims as a group, it would also have killed the Bosnian Muslims of Žepa.(37)
The Trial Chamber found that the evidence disproved the Defence’s claims. Bosnian Serb forces systematically massacred between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica during a period of no more than seven days. At the same time, they forcibly transferred the rest of the Bosnian Muslim population from Srebrenica, some 25,000 people. The Trial Chamber stated that it could not have escaped the Bosnian Serb forces that killing two or three generations of men would have a lasting and devastating impact on the survival of the Bosnian Muslim community from Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb forces knew that killing the men, and forcibly transferring the women, children and elderly would inevitably result in the physical disappearance of the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica. The Trial Chamber pointed out that their intent to destroy the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica can also be seen in the fact that they destroyed Bosnian Muslim homes and the principal mosque in Srebrenica. In short, the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Bosnian Serb forces intended to kill the Bosnian Muslim men of military age in order to destroy the community of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.(38) The Tribunal’s Appeals Chamber confirmed the Trial Chamber’s findings on this point and affirmed that what happened at Srebrenica was an act of genocide.(39)
Conclusion
Evidence from exhumations, demographic experts, intercepted communications, documents, victim testimony and perpetrator testimony led the Trial Chamber to the following irrefutable conclusions: that Bosnian Serb forces killed between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in July 1995; that the victims were either civilians or prisoners of war; that the massacre and the subsequent cover-up operation were planned and well-organised; and that it was an act of genocide. It is worthy of note that since the Judgement against General Radislav Krstić was handed down in August 2001, more evidence has emerged that affirms the Tribunal’s findings. Among them is the Report of the Republika Srpska Commission to Investigate Events in and around Srebrenica from 10 to 19 July 1995. The Commission’s report, which identifies 32 new mass graves, found that “in the period between 10–19 July 1995 many thousands of Bosnians were liquidated, in a manner that constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”(40)
CREDITS: The above document, entitled Facts About Srebrenica, was originally published by the Outreach Programme of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
References:
(1) Slobodan Milošević has been charged under three indictments for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. The charges include responsibility for the massacre of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in
July 1995.
(2) The United Nations Security Council established the ICTY pursuant to its Resolution 827 (1993) on 25 May 1993.
(3) Judgement, Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić, Case No. IT-98-33-T, 2 August 2001, (hereinafter “Krstić Judgement”).
(4) Judgement, Prosecutor v. Erdemović, Case No.: IT-96-22-Tbis, Sentencing Judgement, 5 March 1998. Dražen Erdemović pleaded guilty to one count of crimes against humanity for participating in the Branjevo Military Farm executions, for which the Trial Chamber sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The Appeals Chamber revised his sentence to five years for violating the laws or customs of war.
(5) Judgement, Prosecutor v. Dragan Obrenović, Case No.: IT-02-60/2-S, 10 December 2003, (hereinafter “Obrenović Judgement”). The Trial Chamber sentenced Dragan Obrenović to 17 years in prison.
(6) The Tribunal has also completed first instance trials against Dragan Jokić and Vidoje Blagojević, both of whom the Trial Chamber convicted for participating in the Srebrenica killings. Facts that the Trial Chamber in their case found to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt are consistent with those that have been proven in the Krstić, Obrenović, and Erdemović cases. Also on appeal is the case against Momir Nikolić, who pleaded guilty to participating in the
Srebrenica killings.
(7) Krstić Judgement, para. 71.
(8) Krstić Judgement, para. 80.
(9) Krstić Judgement, paras. 73 and 80.
(10) Krstić Judgement, para. 80.
(11) Krstić Judgement, para. 81.
(12) Krstić Judgement, para. 105.
(13) Krstić Judgement, para. 106, 116.
(14) Krstić Judgement, para. 83, P 523.
(15) Krstić Judgement, para. 83, Testimony of Major Robert Franken, T. 2050
(16) Krstić Judgement, para. 83, P 684.
(17) Krstić Judgement, para. 83, 380–382, P 478. The Trial Chamber found the following two conversations clearly indicated that the word “parcel” refers to Bosnian Muslim prisoner. During an intercepted conversation on 14 July1995 at 2102 hours, a duty officer in the Zvornik Brigade, Major Jokić, spoke to Colonel Beara and said that there were “big problems with the people, I mean, with the parcel” (Krstić Judgement, para. 383, P 559). In another intercepted conversation on 2 August 1995 at 1240 hours between General Krstić and VRS Colonel Popović, Popović asked Krstić whether someone called “Čiča” was on his way towards him. Krstić stated that he was. Then Popović said, “(h)e went up there because we had some parcels, to check what they know.” Krstić replied “Good” (Krstić Judgement, para. 383, P 851). The Trial Chamber heard evidence that VRS forces were still taking Bosnian Muslim prisoners in August when Krstić and Popović had this conversation. In the proceedings against him, Dragan Obrenović confirmed that they often spoke to each other in code. Obrenović Judgement, Annex B.
(18) Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić, Case No.: IT-98-33, Testimony of Dražen Erdemović on 22 May 2000.
(19) Krstić Judgement, para. 234, 239 and 240.
(20) Krstić Judgement, para. 75.
(21) Krstić Judgement, para. 75.
(22) Prosecutor v. Vidoje Blagojević and Dragan Jokić, Case No.: IT-02-60, Testimony of Momir Nikolić on 25 September 2003, T 1959.
(23) Obrenović Judgement, Annex B.
(24) Krstić Judgement, para. 234.
(25) Krstić Judgement, para. 235.
(26) Krstić Judgement, para. 78.
(27) Krstić Judgement, para. 78.
(28) Crimes committed in the area around Srebrenica are the subject of proceedings against Naser Orić, the commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in Srebrenica. Orić is currently standing trial before the Tribunal. See Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Case No.: IT-03-68.
(29) Krstić Judgement, para. 380.
(30) Krstić Judgement, para. 240 and 386.
(31) Krstić Judgement, para. 116, P 620 and P 619.
(32) Krstić Judgement, para. 236.
(33) Krstić Judgement, para. 237, 241, P 24/2, P 24/3, P 24/4.
(34) Krstić Judgement, para. 241, P 646, P 645.
(35) Obrenović Judgement, Annex B.
(36) Obrenović Judgement, Annex B.
(37) Krstić Judgement, para. 593.
(38) Krstić Judgement, para. 594–599.
(39) Appeals Judgement, Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić, Case No.: IT-99-33, 19 April 2004.
(40) “Events in and around Srebrenica from 10 to 19 July 1995,” Commission for Investigating the Events in and around Srebrenica from 10 to 19 July 1995, Republika Srpska Government, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Banja Luka, June 2004, p.40.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS WERE USED AGAINST SREBRENICA & ZEPA CIVILIANS, ACCORDING TO EYEWITNESS TESTIMONIES
Those who survived Srebrenica genocide and vicious attacks against them “…described mortar shells that produced a strange smoke, one that spread out slowly.”
Survivors testified that some people then began to hallucinate and act irrationally, killing themselves or their friends. Human Rights Watch believed the chemical used was B-Z, a non-lethal agent that incapacitates people.
B-Z is a chemical the army of the former Yugoslavia possessed. (Source: Federation of American Scientists) At that time, the evidence remained “inconclusive” due to inability of Human Rights Watch to properly test the samples.
However, in 1995, a team of the U.S. Defense Department experts interviewed a number of Srebrenica survivors in the summer of 1996, and concluded that their accounts supported allegations of the use of chemical incapacitants. The conclusion was deemed highly significant by the department. This information was sent up the chain of command. In late 1996, the U.S. intelligence community had information that chemical weapons may have been used in Srebrenica. A large investigation, which included physical sampling, was undertaken in late 1996 or early 1997 by the U.S. Government. The results of this investigation are not known to us.
In 2006 opening statements, the U.N. Prosecutor McCloskey stated that “criminal orders in war are as a rule issued verbally”, and that a few exceptions existed to the rule. One of the most striking ones is a report sent on 21 July 1995 by Serb General Zdravko Tolimir from Zepa to General Radomir Miletic, acting Chief of General Staff of the VRS (Bosnian Serb Army). Tolimir is asking for help to crush some Bosnian Army strongholds, expressing his view that “the best way to do it would be to use chemical weapons”. In the same report, Chemical Tolimir goes even further,proposing strikes against refugee columns leaving Zepa, because that would “force the Muslim fighters to surrender quickly”, in his opinion. (Source: SENSE Tribunal, 2006.)The total Yugoslav chemical weapons arsenal contained sarin, mustard gas, BZ, and the tear gases CN and CS (all in large quantities), together with quite traditional products such as phosgene, chlorine picric acid, cyanogen chloride, adamsite, lewisite, and other materials, often only in laboratory quantities. (Source: Federation of American Scientists)
NASER ORIC ACQUITTED OF WAR CRIMES, UN APPEALS COURT
Updated Version / Expanded Edition
Additional reporting includes reactions from Naser Oric
“I am sorry that, as you put it, Serbs feel unhappy and angry. However, I don’t think like that. To me, there is other side, political side who thinks like that,” said Naser Oric to ATV, as reported by Serbia’s B92.
The former commander of Bosnian defence forces in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, was cleared by a UN Court Thursday of war crimes against Serbs – a decision he hailed as vindicating his men.
Serbian government propaganda has been particularly active in justifying Srebrenica genocide by claiming that over ‘3,000 Serb civilians’ were murdered around Srebrenica. This type of propaganda has long been discredited by the International Criminal Tribunal, Serbia’s Human Right Watch, and Bosnia’s State-level Research and Documentation Center. About 151 Serbs died around Srebrenica, compared to more than 8,400 Bosniaks. The figure of “3,000 Serb civilians,” which Srebrenica genocide justifiers constantly cite, was originally propagated by another Srebrenica genocide denier, Milivoje Ivanisevic from Belgrade. Ivanisevic himself contributed to the horrific massacres by supplying Serb Army with bogus lists of the so called “war criminals from Srebrenica” in 1995.
In 1992, Srebrenica was flooded by thousands of Bosniak refugees. It was a UN-protected enclave until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces who then forcibly expelled tens of thousands of refugees, and killed more than 8,000 men, children, and elderly.
In 2006, Oric was initially found guilty of failing to prevent his subordinates killing 6 Bosnian Serb prisoners and maltreating others held in Srebrenica in 1992 and 1993 – a period of war when Serb forces were committing massacres and ethnic cleansing against the predominantly Bosniak population of Podrinje and Eastern Bosnia. At that time, he was freed upon sentencing, having spent more than three years in custody awaiting trial. Both Oric and the prosecution appealed the sentence.
Smiling broadly on Thursday, Oric told journalists: “Of course, I am very happy.” “We expected this, everyone who followed the trial expected the outcome,” he said through his English-speaking legal representative Vasvija Vidovic. Spending three years in detention was “part of my destiny,” said Oric, adding: “Life goes on.”
“I am sorry that, as you put it, Serbs feel unhappy and angry. However, I don’t think like that. To me, there is other side, political side who thinks like that,” said Naser Oric to ATV, as reported by Serbia’s B92.
“And since I am a soldier, I know that Serbs… true Serbs who are also soldiers, know well that I fought them fair and square on a battlefield. Therefore, I don’t think they are jelaous because of my acquittal; they knew for a long that I was never a war criminal, and that I was a soldier fighting on a battlefield for survival, and nothing else,” – said Oric.
Asked whether the judgment vindicated the Bosniak defence of Srebrenica, he said, “I don’t think the Bosniak defenders of Srebrenica committed real crimes. We were just fighting to survive, fighting for our lives.”
Schomburg said the prosecution had failed to prove a link between Oric and the crimes allegedly committed by soldiers under his command. “Criminal proceedings require evidence establishing beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is individually responsible for a crime before a conviction can be entered,” said Schomburg.
The families of more than 8,000 Srebrenica genocide victims welcomed the ruling.
“The evidence that Naser Oric is innocent have always existed and I think it is inequitable that he spent almost four years in jail,”said for Fena on Thursday the president of the Association of Mothers from the enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa, Munira Subasic.
“How could someone … question the one who defended himself at the site of genocide?” asked Munira Subasic.
Abduraham Malkic, Srebrenica Municipality mayor, on the occasion of the acquitting verdict for Naser Oric, gave announcement saying that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Hague (ICTY) showed the character of the conflicts on the territory of Srebrenica.
Commenting on the decision, Srebrenica Mayor Abdurahman Malkic said the judgment proved that the Bosnian Army was never involved in the systematic and organized crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica area.
Associations of demobilized soldiers from the Bosnian Army also welcomed the chamber’s decision and called for the urgent arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects still at large.
JAMES BISSETT – SREBRENICA GENOCIDE DENIER
Updated Version: July 2nd, 2008.
Rebuttal to James Bissett’s Denial of Srebrenica genocide…
PHOTO CAPTION: James Bissett, Canadian conspiracy theorist and discredited Srebrenica genocide denier. He is a former Canadian ambassador to Belgrade, close friend of a late Serbian dictator Slobodan Miloseivc, and a long time pro-Serbian war crimes apologist…
James Bissett doesn’t seem to realize that Srebrenica genocide is a judicial fact recognized by the two highest U.N. World Courts.
Srebrenica genocide is not a matter of his opinion or anybody’s opinion. Opinion is cheap, everybody has it. Srebrenica genocide is a fact.Many of these so called ‘Serb’ villages were pre-war Muslim villages, from which Muslims were ethnically cleansed. Serbs from surrounding villages blocked humanitarian convoys and bombarded Srebrenica civilians. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica never demilitarized. Instead, Serb military and paramilitary troops continued using surrounding Serb villages as a base for attacks on (and brutal siege of) Srebrenica. The genocide justifiers have consistently ignored the strong VRS (Serb) military presence in Bosnian Serb villages around Srebrenica. For example, the village of Fakovici was used as a military outpost through which Bosnian Serb forces launched massive attacks on Srebrenica civilians.
James Bissett Plagiarizing Other Srebrenica Genocide Denial Sources… Here are some facts about Srebrenica Genocide victims that he doesn’t want to know…
James Bissett uses outdated Red Cross data of 7,079 Bosniak victims of genocide. In fact, on June 5, 2005 Federal Commission for Missing Persons issued a list of the names, parents’ names, dates of birth, and unique citizen’s registration numbers of 8,106 Bosniak Muslim individuals who have been reliably established, from multiple independent sources, to have been killed in and around Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. Here is a copy of this list in PDF format. Two years later, on June 21 2007, the Research and Documentation Center released the results of the three year study compiling the largest database on Bosnian war victims in existence – the Bosnia’s Book of the Dead (covering period 1992-95). An international team of experts evaluated the findings before they were released. The team worked for three years with thousands of sources, collecting 21 facts about each victim, including names, nationality, time and place of birth and death, circumstances of death and other data. The commission established that 8,460 Bosniaks died in Srebrenica.
James Bissett’s Diatribe About Naser Oric and One of Favorite Serbian Propaganda Quotes
James Bissett claims that Naser Oric
“proudly displayed to western journalists videos of his forces decapitating Serb civilians.” First of all, those were not Serb civilians, and second of all, Bill Schiller – the Toronto Star journalist who allegedly met Srebrenica defender in 1994 – hadn’t even referred to them as “civilians” in his ’95 Toronto Star story.As Schiller claimed in 1995, “There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads, and people fleeing.” Nothing unusual for a war zone.
So we have dead Serb soldiers and severed heads from grenade shrapnels, but no word that many of those so called ‘Serb villages’ were filled with Muslim mass graves; and many of those so called ‘Serb villages’ where in fact villages from which Muslims were ethnically cleansed earlier in 1992? It seems to us that ‘the West,’ and journalists like Schiller, as well as pro-Serbian propagandists such as James Bisset, hoped that the Bosniaks in Srebrenica would sit silent without responding to deadly Serb attacks. So according to this reasoning, Serbs were okay to bombard Srebrenica enclave and cut off humanitarian aid, but Bosniaks were wrong to defend themselves? Naser Oric had every right to attack and recapture those ‘Serb villages,” which were used as a base for attacks on Srebrenica. Schiller failed to focus on a bigger picture, and write a story or two about the human catastrophe facing starving Bosniak population of Srebrenica. Needles to say, in 1992, Serbs expelled Bosniaks from their villages around Srebrenica, and used those villages to set up military bases from which they launched brutal attacks on Srebrenica enclave. It would be beneficial for James Bissett to focus on Serb war criminals, Gen Ratko Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. They are charged with genocide, and still on the run from justice. But of course, James Bissett doesn’t care about them, because he is one of the most pathetic Srebrenica genocide deniers and pro-Serb oriented war crimes apologists in Canada.DUTCH GRAFFITI IN SREBRENICA: SICKENING LEGACY OF THE UNITED NATIONS IN SREBRENICA
Intro: This is the mountain road south of town where Dutch UN troops maintained observation posts. Facing the Bosnian Serb offensive in July 1995, the Dutch retreated without firing a shot. The town was taken, and the genocide of over 8,000 Bosniaks began. The forcible transfer (ethnic cleansing) of tens of thousands of people was assisted by the United Nations.
(can click on images for higher resolution photos)
Almost 13 years after the worst European genocide since World War II, the Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica still serve as a reminder of a shameful Dutch incompetence and a sickening arrogance they had towards their UN mission and people they ought to protect.
PHOTO: XXX-rated Dutch graffiti (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari) in Srebrenica, see right side wall drawing. Man in the photo is Abdulah, one of few who survived the four-day-long march through the forests around Srebrenica while the Serb Chetniks were shelling them with artillery and committing genocide in and around Srebrenica.
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica read “My ass is like a local. It’s got the smell same. Bosnia ’94” (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari). 
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica read “I’m your best friend. I kill you for nothing. Bosnie 94.” (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari). 
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: XXX-rated Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica read “No Teeth…! A Mustache…? Smel Like Shit…? Bosnian Girl!” (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica read “UN, United Nothing.” (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: XXX-rated Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: XXX-rated Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: ” Lick my Ass.” Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: “Nema Problema” translates as “No Problems” in Bosnian language. Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari). 
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
PHOTO: Dutch graffiti in Srebrenica read “No Teeth…! A Mustache…? Smel Like Shit…? Bosnian Girl!” (Dutchbat Camp in Potocari).
CHILD VICTIMS IN ZAKLOPACA MASS GRAVE: THE YOUNGEST CHILD VICTIM 5 YEAR OLD NAIDA HODZIC (FUNERAL PHOTOS)
Quick Intro: The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina started in 1992 when the Serb forces, supported by Belgrade, started attacking Bosniak villages around Srebrenica, in Eastern Bosnia, and summarily executing Bosniak women and children. Zaklopaca village is located just outside of Srebrenica, in Vlasenica area… It’s a place where Bosniak women, children and elderly men were brutally massacred… continue reading:
In May 2004, forensic experts have exhumed remains of 72 Bosniak victims, including 16 children and 10 women, summarily executed by the Bosnian Serb forces in the village of Zaklopaca in Vlasenica area – just outside of Srebrenica – at the outbreak of the 1992-95 war. The bodies were first buried in Zaklopaca, but later dug up, moved about two kilometers away and covered by heavy stone blocks to cover up the crime.
PHOTO CAPTION #1: Bosnian Muslim woman weeps near the coffins of victims exhumed from mass graves during a funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca in Vlasenica area, just outside of Srebrenica, on Saturday, June 21, 2008. Some 5,000 Bosniaks gathered for the funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992.
PHOTO CAPTION #2: Bosnian Muslim woman is comforted as she cries by a grave of her loved one during a mass funeral in Zaklopaca June 21, 2008. Thousands of Bosniaks gathered for a mass funeral for 55 people killed in their village by Serb forces in 1992, whose bodies were then found in different mass graves more than a decade after the end of the country’s war.
PHOTO CAPTION #3: Bosniak men carry the coffin of one of victims exhumed from a mass grave during funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca, on Saturday, June 21, 2008. Five thousand Bosniaks gathered at the funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992. All of the bodies were found and exhumed from mass grave sites.
PHOTO CAPTION #4: Bosniak men carry the coffin of one of victims exhumed from a mass grave during funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca, on Saturday, June 21, 2008. Five thousand Bosniaks gathered at the funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992. All of the bodies were found and exhumed from mass grave sites.
PHOTO CAPTION #5: Bosnian Muslim women watch men bury their relatives during a mass funeral in Zaklopaca June 21, 2008. Thousands of Bosniaks gathered for a mass funeral for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed in their village by Serb forces in 1992, whose bodies were then found in different mass graves more than a decade after the end of the country’s war.
PHOTO CAPTION #6: Bosnian Muslims pray near fresh graves during a mass funeral in Zaklopaca June 21, 2008. Thousands of Bosniaks gathered for a mass funeral for 55 Bosniak women, children,and men killed in their village by Serb forces in 1992, whose bodies were then found in different mass graves more than a decade after the end of the country’s war.
PHOTO CAPTION #7: Bosnian Muslims pray near fresh graves during a mass funeral in Zaklopaca June 21, 2008. Thousands of Bosniaks gathered for a mass funeral for 55 Bosniak women, children,and men killed in their village by Serb forces in 1992, whose bodies were then found in different mass graves more than a decade after the end of the country’s war.
PHOTO CAPTION #8: A Bosnian Muslim priest adjusts one of 55 coffins prepared for a mass funeral in Zaklopaca June 21, 2008. Thousands of Bosniaks gathered for a mass funeral for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed in their village by Serb forces in 1992, whose bodies were then found in different mass graves more than a decade after the end of the country’s war.
PHOTO CAPTION #9: Bosniak men carry the coffin of one of victims exhumed from a mass grave during funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca, on Saturday, June 21, 2008. Five thousand Bosniaks gathered at the funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992. All of the bodies were found and exhumed from mass grave sites.
PHOTO CAPTION #10: Bosnian Muslim woman weeps near the coffins of Bosniak victims exhumed from mass grave sites, during a funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca on Saturday June 21, 2008. Five thousand Bosniaks gathered at funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992. All of the bodies were found and exhumed from mass grave sites.
PHOTO CAPTION #11: Bosniak women weep near the coffins of victims exhumed from a mass grave, during a funeral ceremony in the village of Zaklopaca on Saturday, June 21, 2008. Five thousand Bosniaks gathered at funeral ceremony for 55 Bosniak women, children, and men killed by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of Bosnian war in May 1992. All of the bodies were found and exhumed from mass grave sites.
SREBRENICA PHOTO STORY: ZELENI JADAR, AREA WHERE MANY CHILDREN WERE SHOT TO DEATH
ZELENI JADAR AREA YIELDS 5TH MASS GRAVE, MORE AWAITING TO BE EXCAVATED
INTRO: Zeleni Jadar is the area where many child victim remains were found. Children were shot to death, dumped into mass graves, and later relocated to secondary mass graves to cover the crime. As reported by the ICMP, children were aged between 7 and 11 years old. What you are about to see is yet another mass grave containing bodies of Srebrenica genocide victims that were summarily executed during Srebrenica massacre…
PHOTO CAPTION #1: A forensic expert from the ICMP (International Commission for Missing Persons) works at a mass grave with the remains of Bosniaks June 16, 2008, discovered in the former UN safe-zone of Srebrenica. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
PHOTO CAPTION #2: EUFOR peacekeepers in Bosnia visit Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari June 16, 2008. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
PHOTO CAPTION #3: EUFOR peacekeepers in Bosnia watch forensic experts from the ICMP (International Commission for Missing Persons) work in a mass grave with the remains of Bosnian Muslims June 16, 2008, discovered in the former UN safe-zone of Srebrenica. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
PHOTO CAPTION #4: Forensic investigator Admir Jugo of Bosnia, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspects body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #5: British forensic investigator Sharna Daly, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspects body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #6: Forensic investigator Admir Jugo of Bosnia, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspects body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #7: British forensic investigator Sharna Daly, left, and Canadian Laurie Shead, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspect body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #8: A forensic expert from the ICMP (International Commission for Missing Persons) explains his work to EUFOR peacekeepers visiting a mass grave with the remains of Bosniaks June 16, 2008, discovered in the former UN safe-zone of Srebrenica. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
PHOTO CAPTION #9: British forensic investigator Sharna Daly, foreground, and Canadian Laurie Shead, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspects body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #10: Bosnian workers, and forensic investigator Sharna Daly, from Britain, foreground, and Canadian Laurie Shead, centre right, of the International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, inspect body remains at a mass-grave site in the village of Zeleni Jadar near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 70 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be secondary mass-grave of Srebrenica genocide victims, where bodies initially buried elsewhere were dumped.
PHOTO CAPTION #12: EUFOR peacekeepers in Bosnia take pictures of forensic experts from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) work in a mass grave with the remains of Bosniaks discovered in the former UN safe-zone of Srebrenica June 16, 2008. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
PHOTO CAPTION #13: EUFOR peacekeepers in Bosnia watch forensic experts from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) work in a mass grave with the remains of Bosnian Muslims discovered in the former UN safe-zone of Srebrenica June 16, 2008. A Dutch court on Monday began hearing from a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who says Dutch troops guarding the Bosnian town as part of a U.N. force allowed Bosnian Serbs to murder his family during genocide in Srebrenica.
NETHERLANDS: SREBRENICA GENOCIDE SURVIVORS ATTEND COURT HEARING AGAINST THE DUTCH STATE
PHOTO: Hasan Nuhanovic, Srebrenica genocide survivor.
(Republished for fair use only, as defined by the Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107)
Hasan Nuhanovic and the family of another Srebrenica victim are suing the Dutch state for negligence over its troops’ role in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The court will hear a separate civil suit on Wednesday filed by about 6,000 relatives of Srebrenica massacre victims against the Dutch state and the United Nations.
More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) men and boys were killed at Srebrenica, a U.N. safe haven guarded by a Dutch army unit serving as part of a United Nations force, after Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic overran it on July 11, 1995.
Nuhanovic, a U.N. interpreter who launched his case in 2002, says his father, mother and younger brother were killed after they were expelled from the town’s Dutch military base. He says he was allowed to stay because he had a U.N. identity card.
“If I had not done this, I would not be able to go on with my life. I am seeking justice,” Nuhanovic told Reuters ahead of the court hearing in The Hague.
Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, representing Nuhanovic and the family of Rizo Mustafic, an electrician in the U.N. force ‘s Dutch battalion who also died in the massacre, told judges the Dutch state had been grossly negligent and violated human rights through the actions of its soldiers in Srebrenica.
“One life could have been saved, my dad,” Mustafic’s daughter, Alma, told the court. “He was entitled to Dutch protection, this was confirmed to us, but he was not given it. He fell into Serbian hands, since then we have not heard anything about him.”
At a vigil outside the court earlier on Monday, about 50 relatives and Srebrenica survivors held up a long banner inscribed with the names of the 8,106 victims.
Government lawyers said Mustafic was not evacuated because he was a temporary worker and not a U.N. employee.
“The acts of the Dutch battalion are attributable to the U.N. and not to the Dutch state,” the lawyers told the court. “The Dutch state made available soldiers for the peacekeeping mission, to keep apart fighting parties. The fact they didn’t succeed does not mean they are liable for the atrocities.”
The Netherlands has said its troops were abandoned by the U.N., which gave them no air support. The families’ lawyers have said public documents show a network of Dutch military officials within the U.N. blocked air support because they feared their soldiers could be hit by “friendly fire”.
Judges said they would issue their ruling on September 10.
Munira Subasic, head of an association of mothers bereaved by the massacre, and who will be a witness for the suit to be heard on Wednesday, said she hoped for justice for Nuhanovic “and all others who experienced genocide under the protection of the U.N. and before the eyes of the whole world”.
The Dutch government led by Wim Kok resigned in 2002 after a report on the massacre blamed politicians for sending the Dutch U.N. troops on an impossible mission. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Mladic, both indicated for genocide over Srebrenica, are still at large.
WERE MEN AND BOYS ONLY VICTIMS OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE?
According to the Association of rape victims in Sarajevo, Zene – Zrtve Rata (Women – Victims of War), hundreds of women and underage girls were documented to be raped during Srebrenica massacre. The Serb troops abused women and even children who they had herded into makeshift enclosures. Due to cultural stigma attached to rape, many women refused to testify against the rapists.
There were also reports of babies being taken away from their mothers and killed. Sabaheta Fejzic’s testimony is a sad one [click here to read testimony re-published from German Der Spiegel]. She witnessed Serb soldiers indiscriminately taking girls, boys, and men out of camp. They also took her husband and son. She never saw either one of them again.
According to the Secretary-General’s Report, A/54/549, quote:
“389. The same day, one of the Dutchbat soldiers, during his brief stay in Zagreb upon return from Serb-held territory, was quoted as telling a member of the press that ‘hunting season [is] in full swing’… it is not only men supposedly belonging to the Bosnian Government who are targeted… women, including pregnant ones, children and old people aren’t spared. Some are shot and wounded, others have had their ears cut off and some women have been raped.” (source: The United Nations)
“[W]e saw two Serb soldiers, one of them was standing guard and the other one was lying on the girl, with his pants off. And we saw a girl lying on the ground, on some kind of mattress. There was blood on the mattress, even she was covered with blood. She had bruises on her legs. There was even blood coming down her legs. She was in total shock. She went totally crazy.” (source: Prosecutor vs. Krstic Judgement)
As a result of exhaustive UN negotiations with Serb troops, roughly 20,000 women were forcibly deported (ethnically cleansed) from Srebrenica. Had UN negotiations with Serb troops failed, most Srebrenica women would likely meet the fate of Srebrenica men and boys. Some busses never reached the safety. For example, according to the witness accounts given by Srebrenica Massacre survivor – Kadir Habibovic – who hid himself on one of the first buses taking women and children from the Dutch United Nations base in Potocari to government-held territory in Kladanj, “Habibovic saw at least one vehicle full of Muslim women being driven away from Bosnian government-held territory.” [source: David Rohde, eyewitness]
One of his captors at one point complained that they were not getting a good choice of the Muslim women from Srebrenica. Habibovic’s account corroborates reports from refugees that many Srebrenica women were raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers. Habibovic said the men were taken to a remote location near Rasica Gai late in the evening. When the first group was taken from the truck and shot, he said he leapt from the truck and tumbled down a nearby slope.
Gunfire from the soldiers missed him and he escaped. He later heard a large amount of gunfire, which he believes were the other prisoners being killed. He reached government-held territory on Aug 20, with his wounds still fresh. Hague officials say that the tribunal’s progress in dealing with rape has come from three factors – the courage of the victims and witnesses who testified, the tenacity of the prosecuting lawyers, and the years of tireless lobbying by pressure groups. The breakthrough came when prosecutors established that these rapes were entirely foreseeable.
Judges agreed that the generals in charge should have reasonably predicted that, under these conditions, the sexual assaults were likely. It was concluded that any rapes that took place in Srebrenica were therefore the fault of the commanders. Hague officials say that the tribunal’s progress in dealing with rape has come from three factors – the courage of the victims and witnesses who testified, the tenacity of the prosecuting lawyers, and the years of tireless lobbying by pressure groups.
Here are some excerpts from the ICTY’s (International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia) 260 page-rulling in the case of Prosecutor vs. Krstic which resulted in Srebrenica genocide verdict:
43. Killings occurred. In the late morning of 12 July 1995, a witness saw a pile of 20 to 30 bodies heaped up behind the Transport Building in Potocari, alongside atractor-like machine. Another testified that, at around 1200 hours on 12 July, he saw a soldier slay a child with a knife in the middle of a crowd of expellees. He also said that he saw Serb soldiers execute more than a hundred Bosnian Muslim men in the area behind the Zinc Factory and then load their bodies onto a truck, although the number and methodical nature of the murders attested to by this witness stand in contrast to other evidence on the Trial Record that indicates that the killings in Potocari were sporadic in nature.
44. As evening fell, the terror deepened.Screams, gunshots and other frightening noises were audible throughout the night and no one could sleep. Soldiers were picking people out of the crowd and taking them away: some returned; others did not. Witness T recounted how three brothers – one merely a child and the others in their teens – were taken out in the night. When the boys’ mother went looking for them, she found them with their throats slit.
46. Bosnian Muslim refugees nearby could see the rape, but could do nothing about it because of Serb soldiers standing nearby. Other people heard women screaming, or saw women being dragged away. Several individuals were so terrified that they committed suicide by hanging themselves. Throughout the night and early the next morning, stories about the rapes and killings spread through the crowd and the terror in the camp escalated.
150. On 12 and 13 July 1995, upon the arrival of Serb forces in Potocari, the Bosnian Muslim refugees taking shelter in and around the compound were subjected to a terror campaign comprised of threats, insults, looting and burning of nearby houses, beatings, rapes, and murders.
517. More significantly, rapes and killings were reported by credible witnesses and some committed suicide out of terror. The entire situation in Potocari has been depicted as a campaign of terror. As an ultimate suffering, some women about to board the buses had their young sons dragged away from them, never to be seen again.
For more Questions and Answers click here.
STOJAN ZUPLJANIN IDENTITY CONFIRMED, LIED TO POLICE
As a Bosnian Serb police commander in the city of Banja Luka, a former centre of brutal ethnic cleansing, Stojan Zupljanin controlled the Serb-run concentration camps.
Images from the camps in northern Bosnia shocked the world, when television footage of starving Bosniak prisoners evoked memories of Nazi atrocities.
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Zupljanin was a prominent member of Radovan Karadzic’s Bosnian Serb authorities which had organized the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica in which at least 8,000 Bosniaks died.
Zupljanin is charged with crimes against the humanity, including torture and extermination of the Bosniak and Croat population of Bosnian Krajina.
B92 understands that this was his assumed identity, and that Vukadin has been dead for some time. The Hague fugitive’s fingerprints, B92 understands, were filed under the name of Branislav Vukadin, which was why a DNA analysis was necessary. His personal ID card with his assumed identity was issued in Backa Palanka. One other fugitive, Vlastimir Đorđević, was also carrying the identity card of a dead man when he was arrested in 2007.
The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Zupljanin’s arrest or conviction. The Hague Tribunal is still on the hunt for the remaining Serb political and military leaders from Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Goran Hadzic.
STOJAN ZUPLJANIN ARRESTED!
Stojan Zupljanin is charged with crimes against the humanity, including torture and extermination of the Bosniak and Croat population of Bosnian Krajina….
Serbian authorities on Wednesday arrested Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Stojan Zupljanin, an official at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said. The U.S. government offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Zupljanin’s arrest or conviction.
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Zupljanin was a prominent member of Radovan Karadzic’s Bosnian Serb authorities which had organized the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica in which at least 8,000 Bosniaks died.The indictment also alleges that Zupljanin ordered the unlawful detention of people in prison camps which lacked adequate shelter, food, water, or medical care, and he is also charged with torture.
“Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs were confined in inhumane conditions and subjected to intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering by beatings, torture, sexual assaults, humiliation, harassment, and psychological abuse in camps, police stations, military barracks, and other detention facilities,” according to the 2004 indictment against Zupljanin.
He and his forces destroyed villages and religious buildings, including Roman Catholic sacred sites, and plundered property, according to the indictment.
Zupljanin was born in Maslovare, a village in the Kotor Varos municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As commander of the Bosnian Serb police during the Bosnian war, Zupljanin had operational control over the police forces responsible for the detention camps where thousands of prisoners were held in horrific conditions and many were murdered.
The United States welcomed the news of Zupljanin’s arrest. “His arrest is another positive step in ensuring that those responsible for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia are held responsible,” U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said.
Hague Tribunal spokeswoman Olga Kavran expressed similar views. “We have been informed by the Serbian authorities that Stojan Zupljanin has been arrested,” said Olga Kavran, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office at the ICTY (the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia). “The office of the prosecutor welcomes this arrest and the fact that this brings the number of remaining fugitives from four to three.”
She said that she did not know the exact date of Zupljanin’s extradition to the Tribunal, but she expected it to be very soon. At the same time, Kavran said that the fact that Zupljanin had been arrested near Belgrade indicated that the Serbian authorities had known his whereabouts, as Brammertz himself asserted recently.
EU Common Foreign and Security Policy Chief Javier Solana said in Brussels that Zupljanin’s arrest was good news.
Solana said that it was not up to him to say whether the arrest could lead to a positive appraisal at the EU Council of Ministers on Serbia’s cooperation with the Hague, but depended rather on Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz.
“It’s up to him to give the first reaction, but the news is very good,” Solana said. “The arrest of fugitives and bringing them to justice is good for everyone. It is one of the forms of cooperation Serbia has committed to, so this is good news.”
“Zupljanin’s arrest is an important step towards Serbia’s full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, which is the key to lasting reconciliation in the Balkans,” said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Slovenian media report.
The remaining fugitives are Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Goran Hadzic, Kavran said. All are wanted by the ICTY for war crimes related to the Balkan wars of the 1990s. A fourth man, Radovan Stankovic, was convicted in Bosnia in November 2006 for crimes against humanity but escaped from a Bosnian Serb prison with the help of Serb prison guards in May 2007, and remains on the run.
SERB VICTIMS OF SERBIAN GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
PHOTO CAPTION: These innocent victims of Serbian terrorism, Predrag (7) and Danka (4) Sekulovic, where killed on Sep. 13, 1992 when their parent’s truck came on an anti-tank mine, which was placed by the Bosnian Serb Army in the village of Bakic on the road to Foca to block communication between largely Muslim villages in the area. These innocent children were conveniently branded as the victims of “Muslim terror,” and their photos were repeatedly featured on Srebrenica genocide denial web sites to justify genocide against the Bosniaks. It is important to note that these children are not even from Srebrenica. It is equally important to note that in Sarajevo alone, over 1,500 children of all ethnicities were killed by the Bosnian Serb Army that used air-modified bombs to bombard Sarajevo citizens.
These types of propagandists will do anything to prove their point, even if that means misusing the photos of slaughtered Bosniak Muslim civilians. Recently, we reported the case of a Serbian nationalist newspaper misusing the photos of Bosniak Muslim victims by presenting them as photos of Serb victims of the so called “Muslim-Croat terror” (
more info). But, they not only misusing photos of Bosniak victims of genocide – they also misuse photos of individual war crimes against the Bosnian Serb civilians. The saddest example of such marketing practice includes photos of two Bosnian Serb children, Predrag (7) and Danka Sekulovic (4) who were killed on Sep. 13, 1992 when their parent’s truck came on an anti-tank mine, which was placed by the Bosnian Serb Army in the village of Bakic on the road to Foca to block communication between largely Muslim villages in the area.The image you see on top of this article was reproduced from the book titled: “The Eradication of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina” and sold by anti-Semitic
Serbian Defense League web site which claims that Jews committed crimes against the Serbs by “…using ‘holocaust’ analogy to deceive countries in which they live into letting them use their resources in commission of crimes world-wide.” No comment needed to such offensive anti-Semitic allegations.The indicted Serb war criminals and masterminds of genocide, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are still on the run and widely believed to be protected by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
SURVIVORS OF GENOCIDE AT SREBRENICA: MEMORIAL NOT UNDER SERB JURISDICTION
Survivors Condemn Serb Police Presence at Srebrenica Genocide Memorial
Last year, the international administrator for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Christian Schwarz Schilling ruled that the Srebrenica-Potocari Genocide Memorial Foundation, a graveyard where victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide are buried, should be under the direct jurisdiction of the state authorities of Bosnia-Herzegovina (B&H), and not under the jurisdiction of the Serb entity of Republika Srpska (RS) (read here). The State Agency for Investigations and Security (SIPA) should handle security at the the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, and not the Bosnian Serb (RS) police.
This year, the Republika Srpska (RS) police are due to handle security at the 13th anniversary commemorations of the Srebrenica genocide and the Srebrenica genocide survivors are not happy with it.
They also express their dissatisfaction over Bosnia-Herzegovina Investigation and Protection Agency Director Mirko Lujic’s claims that his Agency does not have the jurisdiction to handle security at the event.
“We are angry because of the numerous injustices imposed on us, Srebrenica survivors,” the statement reads.
Members of the organization claim that such attitudes could be interpreted as encouraging those “who, because of jurisdiction and laws in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will once again laugh in the face of the international media, and set another precedent in the history of human kind—the killer ‘protecting’ its victim.”
The memorial was opened by the United States President, Bill Clinton, on September 20, 2003, when he told thousands of relatives of the Srebrenica massacre genocide victims:
Bad people who lusted for power killed these good people simply because of who they were. They sought power through genocide. But Srebrenica was the beginning of the end of genocide in Europe…. We remember this terrible crime because we dare not forget, because we must pay tribute to the innocent lives, many of them children, snuffed out in what must be called genocidal madness…. I hope the very mention of the name “Srebrenica” will remind every child in the world that pride in our own religious and ethnic heritage does not require or permit us to dehumanize or kill those who are different. I hope and pray that Srebrenica will be for all the world a sober reminder of our common humanity…. May God bless the men and boys of Srebrenica and this sacred land their remains grace.
The annual Srebrenica genocide memorial commemoration is going to be held on July 11th.
TWO SREBRENICA GENOCIDE SUSPECTS IN BOSNIAN CUSTODY
In Custody: Vaso Todorovic (40) and Zoran Tomic (37).
PHOTO: The Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Courtroom 6, back view (1st photo, up) and and front view (2nd photo, down).
In his capacity as police officer of the Sekovici 2nd Detachment (of Bosnian Serb) Special Police Unit during the period from July 10 to 19, 1995, Todorovic is suspected together with others of participating “in the criminal action of extermination of Bosniak civilians within the UN protected zone of Srebrenica,” the statement said.Indictment in the Vaso Todorović case confirmedOn 3 June 2008, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) confirmed the Indictment against Vaso Todorović. Vaso Todorović is charged with the criminal offense of Genocide.As alleged in the Indictment, there is grounded suspicion that the accused Vaso Todorović as a member of the Special Police of the 2nd Šekovići Detachment during the period from 10 July to 19 July 1995, with an intention to partially exterminate a group of Bosniak people, participated in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at forcible relocation of around 40 thousand civilians from the UN Protection Zone Srebrenica.According to the Indictment, on 12 July 1995 the accused Todorović participated in the search of Bosniak villages around Potočari aiming to expel and force them to move to the territories controlled by the Army of RBiH. On 13 July 1995, as furtheralleged in the Indictment, the accused Todorović participated in capturing several thousand of Bosniak men who tried to escape from the UN Protection Zone and also participated in escorting a column of several hundred of captured Bosniaks from the village of Sandići to the warehouse of the Farming Cooperative in Kravica.
Having incarcerated the Bosniaks in the warehouse, members of the 2nd Detachment were killing them by firing from automatic weapons and throwing bombs. On that day the accused Todorović was on guard so that no detainees under attack would escape. [
Source]
Zoran Tomić ordered into custodyOn 3 June 2008, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) issued a decision ordering suspect Zoran Tomić into one-month custody. Pursuant to the Decision, custody may last until 2 July 2008. Zoran Tomić is suspected of the criminal offense of Genocide.Based on evidence submitted with the motion to order custody, the Court concluded that there is grounded suspicion that the suspect Tomić, on 12 and 13 July 1995, as a member of the Special Police of the 2nd Šekovići Detachment, together with other members of the aforementioned Unit, participated in the capturing and killing of Bosniaks. The suspect Tomić, together with other members of the 2nd Detachment, with the intention to exterminate a group of Bosniaks, fired on them from his automatic rifle, while other members of the 2nd Detachment also shot from firearms and threw bombs at the captured civilians.Having reviewed the evidence submitted, the Court concluded that there was grounded suspicion that the suspect had committed the criminal offence in question. Further, the Court ordered custody having found the circumstances indicating the risk of flight on the part of the Suspect. In addition, the Court ordered custody considering that the Suspect, if released, might hinder the criminal proceedings by influencing witnesses and possible accomplices.The Court specifically underlines the existence of reasonable fear that the Suspect might destroy or conceal pieces of documentary evidence or traces of the crime, particularly in view of the fact that mass graves where the bodies of the murdered persons were buried, have still not been located.
Mindful of the above, as well as the fact that the Suspect knows where the bodies were hidden, the Court concludes that there is reasonable fear that the accused, if at liberty, might make the locating of the aforementioned mass graves more difficult for the purpose of his own defense.
Given the severity of the crime in question and its grave consequences in relation to the victims and their families, ordering Suspect Tomić into custody was necessary also for the reasons of public safety. [Source]
THE DUTCH STATE FAILED IN ITS DUTY TO PROTECT CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE AT SREBRENICA
Amsterdam, 3 June 2008:
Civil action due to be heard at 10 a.m. on 16 June 2008 in the District Court at The Hague (Prins Clauslaan 60, The Hague, Netherlands).
Hasan Nuhanovic, a U.N. interpreter who lost his father, mother and younger brother, and the family of Rizo Mustafic, an electrician employed by the Dutch battalion of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), claim that the Dutch government failed to protect the lives of their relatives after the safe area established by U.N. Security Council Resolution around the town of Srebrenica in Eastern Bosnia was allowed to fall into the hands of the Bosnian Serb Army.
The Nuhanovic and Mustafic families were among thousands of refugees who sought protection inside the compound of the U.N. base at Potocari but were then delivered by the Dutch UNPROFOR forces into the hands of Serb General Ratko Mladic. Dutch soldiers in U.N. blue helmets are alleged to have watched on as women and young girls were taken away and raped and men and boys separated before being taken away for summary execution.
In a tort action against the Dutch state in which much of the legal debate revolves around the division of responsibility between the United Nations and national states, the plaintiffs’ lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld will argue that the Dutch government and the Dutch command within UNPROFOR were responsible for the gross negligence shown by Dutch troops, were primarily concerned for the safety of their national contingent and showed scant regard for the safety of the civilian population entrusted to their care.
The families are concerned above all to establish the truth about why Ibro, Nasiha and Muhamed Nuhanovic and Rizo Mustafic were allowed to go to their deaths in brutal circumstances when the United Nations had promised to ensure their safety.
Contact person:
Prof. Dr Liesbeth Zegveld, Böhler Franken Koppe Wijngaarden (BFKW) , Attorneys, Keizersgracht 560-562, Amsterdam 1017 EM, Tel.: +31 20 – 344 62 00, Fax: +31 20 – 344 62 01, e-mail:
Prof. Dr. Liesbeth Zegveld studied law at Utrecht. She obtained her doctorate with distinction in 2000 and was sworn in as an attorney in Amsterdam the same year. In 2005 she became a partner at Böhler Franken Koppe Wijngaarden, where she is a member of the international law & human rights department. She has written many articles on issues in the field of international humanitarian law. She is a guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and a member of the International Law Association’s Committee for Compensation for War Victims. In September 2006 she was appointed professor of International Humanitarian Law, in particular the Rights of Women and Children, at Leiden University.
Srebrenica Genocide Resource Center 