FEUD BETWEEN SMAIL CEKIC & MIRSAD TOKACA

At the heart of the dispute is the number of people killed in the Bosnian war. According to Smail Cekic 200,000 people were killed in the war. According to Mirsad Tokaca, between 100,000 and 110,000 died in the past war. Cekic accuses Tokaca of conducting "unscientific" research, but fails to provide any alternative.

PHOTO: Prof. Smail Cekic - head of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and the International Law of the Sarajevu University.

INTRODUCTION: The following is a translated version of the article that appeared in Sarajevo daily "Dnevni Avaz" on October 19, 2009. (The article should not be viewed as an endorsement of either side.) First, you may wish to consult our analysis on the figures of killed in the Bosnian war ("How Many People Died in the Bosnian War?")

Cekic accuses Tokaca of turning Serbian agression into a civil war

[NOTE: The Hague Tribunal's Prosecution has proven an international armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina no less than five times. For a multitude of facts about the Srebrenica genocide, you may wish to consult ICTY Outreach facts, our own in-depth research, and latest evidence of Serbian involvement in the genocide.] ↓

By: A. Hodzic (Dnevni Avaz)

Professor Smail Cekic, director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, has publicly dismissed the results of the research conducted by the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (RDC) as 'unscientific.' RDC concluded that at least 100,000 people died during the Bosnian war. Cekic challenged RDC and its director Mirsad Tokaca during a promotion of the newly released book titled "Rat u Brojkama" (War in Numbers) on Saturday. The book was published by the Helsinki Committee of Serbia.

'Unscientific Research'

"RDC's data on the number of 'killed and missing' comes from other social subjects. RDC used the data to make a basic comparison and uncritical analysis and ended up producing a substiantial error. We are talking about dilettantish, manipulating and pseudo-research which has nothing to do with the science and reality," said Smail Cekic to Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz.

Cekic questioned RDC's tactics and particularly Tokaca for using the term "soldier" in its research. Cekic feels that "the use of this term implies that the largest number of victims came voluntary military confrontations. Such theories threaten to quickly turn the reality of aggression on Bosnia-Herzegovina into 'a civil war,' which already gives the perpetrators an alibi to continue denying even a larger number of crimes in Bosnia."

Ahmed Grahić, president of the missing people from Zvornik (town in Podrinje where Srebrenica is also located), questioned Tokaca's integrity in Dnevni Avaz:

"Mirsad Tokaca boasted how he directly contacted all the victims, and I maintain that this is not true. Some of his people visited me and asked me to give them information about the victims from Zvornik. Then I learned that they visit local cemeteries, photograph graves of buried victims as an evidence and then show this as results of their research."

No Answer

The results of Mirsad Tokaca's research face growing criticism. Although we attempted to reach Tokaca by phone in order to hear his side of the story, unfortunately he never returned our calls.

Concerns of Srebrenica Women Ignored

Nura Begović from NGO "Women of Srebrenica" also criticized Tokaca's research in Dnevni Avaz:

"Tokaca cannot portray Srebrenica victims as soldiers in his research, for they were hunted like lambs in the forests around Srebrenica, then tied behind their backs and led to execution sites."

She claims that "Nobody from his centre ever came to visit any grieving mother from Srebrenica, let alone ask her what happened to her son, whether her son was civilian or soldier, and whether she know anything about the circumstance of his death..."

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In Bosnian language: ↓

Tokača agresiju na BiH pretvara u građanski rat

Autor: A. Hadzic (Dnevni Avaz)

Univerzitetski profesor Smail Čekić, direktor Instituta za istraživanje ratnih zločina u BiH, na subotnjoj promociji knjige „Rat u brojkama", koju je izdao Helsinški komitet Srbije, javno je osporio podatke o broju stradalih u proteklom ratu koje je uradio Istraživačko-dokumentacioni centar (IDC) iz Sarajeva s Mirsadom Tokačom na čelu.

Nenaučna istraživanja

- Svoje podatke o broju „ubijenih i nestalih" IDC je preuzeo od drugih društvenih subjekata i prostom komparacijom i nekritičkom analizom proizveo suštinsku grešku. Ovdje je riječ o diletantskom, manipulativnom i kvaziistraživanju koje s naukom i stvarnošću nema nikakve veze - kazao je za naš list Čekić.

Ono što Čekić IDC-u, odnosno Mirsadu Tokači posebno osporava, jeste upotreba termina „vojnik" u njegovim istraživanjima, koje sugerira da je najveći broj stradalih ubijen u međusobnim vojnim obračunima. Takve teze prijete da agresiju na BiH vrlo brzo pretvore u „građanski rat", što već sada agresorima daje alibi za negiranje velikog broja zločina na području BiH.

- Tokača se hvali da je direktno kontaktirao žrtve, a ja tvrdim da to nije istina. Neki njegovi ljudi su bili kod mene i tražili da im dam podatke o stradalim Zvorničanima. Tad sam saznao da oni idu po mezarjima, fotografiraju nišane ukopanih žrtava i to prikazuju kao istraživanje - kazao nam je jučer Ahmet Grahić, predsjednik Udruženja nestalih Zvorničana.

Bez odgovora

U namjeri da čujemo i mišljenje Mirsada Tokače vezano za oporavanje rezultata njegovog istraživanja o broju ubijenih u proteklom ratu u BiH jučer nismo uspjeli. Ni na jedan naš telefonski poziv Tokača, jednostavno, nije odgovarao.

Srebreničanke niko ne pita

- Ne može Tokača prikazivati u svojim spiskovima ubijene Srebreničane kao borce, a oni kao janjad skupljani po šumama i vezani odvođeni na strijeljanje. Nikad niko iz tog njegovog centra nije došao ni jednoj srebreničkoj majci da je pita šta je bio njen sin, da li je čula kako je stradao - ističe Nura Begović iz Udruženja „Žene Srebrenice"