ATLAS OF WAR CRIMES ON GOOGLE MAPS

BOSNIAN ATLAS OF WAR CRIMES (1991-1995)
LAUNCHED ON GOOGLE MAPS

SCREENSHOT: Atlas of War Crimes shows locations of mass killings of Bosnian civilians in/around Srebrenica in 1992-95.

Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo (RDC), led by Mirsad Tokaca, has launched "Bosnian Atlas of War Crimes" on GOOGLE MAPS allowing readers to find sites of mass executions, mass graves, individual graves, locations of imprisonment, concentration camps, medical objects, religious objects (destruction of mosques, churches, and synagoges), incidents of human shields, sniper attacks, rapes, etc, along with the names of the victims, as well as available court documentation. The project shows crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1991-1995.

The atlas contains 50,000 geographic sites where war atrocities took place, accompanied with photos and video-clips of the events. Tokaca said that the atlas will be updated with more facts as they come.

"The Bosnian war crimes atlas is a comprehensive depository of facts about war events," said Mirsad Tokaca. "It is needed to help us face the past, a process which until now has been under the monopoly of various elites for their own purposes... We do not suggest to anyone what they should think. We offer the facts about events -- what we call a geography of the crimes."

"With this atlas, we are striking a deadly blow to those who are playing with numbers. We have not ignored anyone's ethnic or religious affiliation but we have ignored the divisions along ethnic or religious lines," said Tokaca.

Preliminary critique:

#1. Re: 1993 Srebrenica Children Massacre ( @ Wikipedia):

While the project acknowledges that on April 12 1993 Serbs slaughtered around 60 people (mostly children) and wounded 70 in front of Srebrenica's Elementary School "Mihajlo Bjelakovic", the project lists names of only 16 victims. Furthermore, the U.N. transcripts [12-year old Sead Bekric testimony (photo) (link) (video)] show 62 Bosniak children killed and 152 wounded. It is obvious that something is wrong with Tokaca's number, especially when he uses rhetoric that he is "striking a deadly blow to those who are playing with numbers." We hope RDC updates its Atlas with complete information.

#2. Re: 1992 Bosniak Women and Children Burned Alive ( @ Wikipedia):
While the project acknowledges that more than 70 Bosnian Muslim women and children were burned alive in the house of Meho Aljic in Bikavac (Visegrad municipality borders with the Srebrenica municipality), the project only lists 12 names of the victims - even though the names of the victims are publicly available from the web site of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). We hope RDC updates its database will complete information.

Before you start using RDC's Atlas of War Crimes, follow these steps to better understand the "numbers of killed":

STEP 1: Read our quick introduction How Many People Died in the Bosnian War 1992-1995?

STEP 2: How Many People Died in the Srebrenica Genocide in July 1995?
STEP 3: (Optional) Download Google Maps (if you don't have it installed on your computer)

STEP 4: Download the latest version of RDC's Atlas of War Crimes at this link. If the link is broken, visit www.idc.org.ba and then look for "Bosanski atlas ratnih zločina." Their site is currently being 're-designed' and the English language version is temporarily unavailable.

DO NOT FORGET: Srebrenica - how it all started (1992-95)?

In April 1992 (more than three years before the Srebrenica massacre), Serb forces -- with logistical and military help from Serbia -- began a widespread campaign of brutal "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] population of Eastern Bosnia. Thousands of Bosniak refugees flocked to Srebrenica. They were forced to live in the besieged enclave with little or no means of survival and under brutal Serb attacks. Many starved to death. 

Serb Army stationed around Srebrenica never demilitarized, even though they were required to do so under the 1993 demilitarization agreement. In 1992 alone, approximately 100,000 Bosniaks had been expelled from their homes and at least 11,391 Bosniaks were killed by Serb forces in eastern Bosnia (source: Research & Documentation Centre in Sarajevo), while hundreds of Bosnian Muslim villages were destroyed around Srebrenica.
Serb forces stationed around Srebrenica constantly attacked neighbouring Bosniak villages and Srebrenica itself. They also bombarded Srebrenica from air with Serbian airplanes.

In July 1995 the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of Srebrenica and its surrounding area, where they proceeded to perpetrate genocide. Bosnian Serb soldiers -- with military and logistical help from Serbia -- separated families, committed brutal rapes of many women and girls, and then forcibly expelled at least 20,000, while summarily executing 8,372 Bosniak men and teenage boys. Srebrenica genocide is remembered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.