DID YOU KNOW?  -- Three years before the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, Serbs torched Bosniak villages and killed at least 3,166 Bosniaks around Srebrenica. In 1993, the UN described the besieged situation in Srebrenica as a "slow-motion process of genocide." In July 1995, Serbs forcibly expelled 25,000 Bosniaks, brutally raped many women and girls, and systematically killed 8,000+ men and boys (DNA confirmed).

28 February, 2010

THE TRIAL OF RADOVAN KARADZIC RESUMES MARCH 1, OVERVIEW

Radovan Karadzic said: "They will disappear, these people will disappear from the face of the earth.... all of them need to be killed -- whatever you can lay your hands on... Create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica."

The trial of Radovan Karadzic is scheduled to resume on Monday, 1 March 2010 at 9:00, in Courtroom I, with the Accused’s opening statement. To watch his trial LIVE from the Hague, click here.

Radovan Karadzic wanted to wipe-out the Bosnian Muslims from the face of earth. The campaign of ethnic cleansing and massacres against the Bosniak population culminated to genocide in July of 1995. The Srebrenica Genocide resulted in the forcible removal of 30,000 and execution-style massacres of 8,100 Bosniaks. Karadzic, however, never kept his genocidal intentions private.

Here are some of Radovan Karadzic's statements:

On October 12th 1991 he stated: "They [Bosnian Muslims] will disappear, these people will disappear from the face of the earth"

A mere day later, on 13 October 1991, Karadzic, talking to Momcilo Mandic, said: "Within a few days there will be no Sarajevo, and there will be over 500,000 dead; within a month the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina will be destroyed!"

Again, on 15 October 1991, Karadzic foresees the extermination of the Muslims in the event of war. Talking to Miodrag Davidovic and his own brother Luka, Karadzic said: "In the first instance, none of their leaders will remain alive, they will be killed within 3 or 4 hours. They will have no chance of surviving."

Miroslav Deronjic, a former Bosnian Serb politician who was in charge of campaign of ethnic cleansing and massacres of the Bosniak population of Bratunac and Srebrenica, testified in a Krstic pre-appeal hearing - how he met Radovan Karadzic in early July 1995, shortly before Serbs attacked the United Nations-declared ''safe area'' of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.

''At one moment, he said the following sentence to me, "Miroslav, all of them need to be killed -- whatever you can lay your hands on."

In March 1995, Radovan Karadzic issued a directive to the Bosnian Serb Army - known as “Directive 7” - which specified that the Bosnian Serb Army was to:

"Complete the physical separation of Srebrenica from Zepa as soon as possible, preventing even communication between individuals in the two enclaves. By planned and well-thought out combat operations, create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica."

In 2000, Radovan Karadzic was ordered by a U.S. jury to pay $4.5 billion in damages for atrocities committed by his soldiers. The U.S. Government placed $5 million bounty on his head. Karadzic's victims did not get a "penny."

On 3 December 2009, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) addressed the
United Nations Security Council:

"The President reiterated his call for a claims commission by which the victims of crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia could seek compensation for their injuries: 'Justice is not only about punishing perpetrators, but also about restoring dignity to victims by ensuring that they have concrete means to rebuild their lives,' he said.


Indictment and Charges:
1.
Radovan Karadzic Case Information Sheet
2.
Indictment Against Radovan Karadzic

Background:
1.
Radovan Karadzic is arrested!Bold
2. Karadzic: Heartless mass murderer
3. Secret Life of the Srebrenica Genocide Mastermind
4. Hague Tribunal Reduces Charges Against Karadzic to Speed Up the Trial
5. Two Separate Counts of Genocide for Radovan Karadzic
6. SCANDALOUS: Judge Slutter Advisor of Radovan Karadzic
7. Holocaust Survivor Ellie Wiesel Remembers Radovan Karadzic
8. Will Karadzic's Family Face Charges for Protecting him?
9. Karadzic Offered False Safety Guarantees
10. Unclassified Files Refute Karadzic's "Holbrooke" claims
11. For more, use our Google Custom Search, click here!

27 February, 2010

JUDGE FLUGGE - THE WORST CHOICE FOR GENOCIDE TRIAL

UPDATE @ 12/12/2012: We welcome Judge Christoph Flugge's acknowledgement that genocide took place in Srebrenica. Dear Judge, thank you for aligning your opinion with the facts. You have our respect!



PHOTO: If the Hague Tribunal had any standards, they would not let genocide denier, Judge Christoph Flügge, to preside over genocide trial in the case of Zdravko Tolimir.
With the start of Zdravko Tolimir trial, it has come to our attention that Judge Christoph Flügge is "presiding judge" of this landmark genocide trial. Let us remind the public that German Judge Christoph Flügge is a despicable genocide denier, and if the Hague Tribunal had any standards, they would have removed him from the bench.

Last year, Judge Christoph Flügge gave an interview to the German weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” in which he openly questioned the Srebrenica genocide. According to the article, Judge Flügge stated that “the term genocide to define these crimes is unnecessary” instead preferring to refer to it as “mass murder”. He claimed that there is no reason to differentiate between “a group that is murdered for their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or race, as is regulated by the Hague Statute” and a group that “happens to be gathered at a specific location”.
For more info about the controversial Judge Christoph Flügge, read our past analysis:
1. Controversial judge made a shameful statement to Der Spiegel
2.
Action-alert to remove Judge Christoph Flügge from Genocide Trial
3.
Genocide denier, Judge Christoph Flügge, removed from Radovan Karadzic case
4.
Congress of North American Bosniaks Pleased with Removal of Judge Christoph Flügge

26 February, 2010

SIPA ARRESTS 3 GENOCIDE SUSPECTS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE EXECUTION-STYLE KILLINGS OF SREBRENICA VICTIMS


PHOTO: The third suspect is Stanko Savanovic (aka: Stanko Kojic) who participated in the execution-style killings of more than 1000 victims of 1995 Srebrenica genocide. The massacre of Bosniak victims occurred on Branjevo and Pilica, two mass grave locations see photos. Photo is courtesy of Bosnian daily Oslobodjenje.
Three Bosnian Serbs have been arrested by the Bosnia-Herzegovina's State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in connection to their direct involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

Vlastimir Golijan, Zoran Goronja and Stanko Savanovic were arrested on Friday on suspicion that they actively participated in the genocide. The three were members of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad with the Bosnian Serb Army (Republika Srpska Army or VRS). After the Srebrenica massacre, the third suspect - Stanko Savanovic - changed his name to Stanko Kojic to avoid arrest. The fourth suspect, Franc Kos, somehow avoided the capture.

The Prosecutor alleges that Golijan, Goronja, and Savanovic "were direct executors of the shooting and killing of Bosniak men and boys." They are suspected of directly participating in the murder of more than 1,000 victims after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Srebrenica 1992-95, how it all started?


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.

DR. LJUBISA SIMIC, GENOCIDE DENIER & SERBIAN PROPAGANDIST

Serbian propagandist Dr. Ljubiša Simić is a member of discredited "Srebrenica Historical Project" - a genocide denial NGO founded and headed by Stephen Karganovich (aka: Stefan Karganovic). Karganovic, on the other hand, worked as a former "interpreter" for the defence of a convicted Serbian war criminal Momcilo Krajisnik. The so called "doctor" Ljubiša Simić is also dubbed in the Serbian media as an 'expert member' of the defense teams for the Serb war criminals at the Hague. He is biased, incompetent, and without any training in DNA science.

For example, discredited distortionist Dr. Simić claimed that "the total number of victims in all thirteen Srebrenica mass graves is well under 2,000".

Little did he know: There are at least 80 known mass graves belonging to the Srebrenica Genocide victims, and not only "13" as he claims. All mass graves are scattered throughout Podrinje region - the River Drina valley in eastern Bosnia. If less than 2,000 victims come from "13" mass graves that Serbian propagandist Ljubiša Simić is referring to, then it is plausible that more than 8,000 victims come from all 80 mass graves.

This supposed Serbian 'expert' also claimed that "around half of the total number of the Hague’s Srebrenica post-mortem reports are based on only few bones — in many cases just a single bone or bone fragment — which, simply put, 'does not allow for any meaningful forensic conclusions to be drawn.'"

In fact, Bosnian Serbs first buried the bodies near the execution sites but then dug out many of them with bulldozers and reburied remains in secondary mass graves in an attempt to hide the crime. That's why multiple bone fragments belonging to one victims could be found in multiple mass graves. However, DNA evidence confirms that Serb forces slaughtered 8,100 Bosniaks during the Srebrenica Genocide. Although 6,186 victims of the Srebrenica Genocide have been identified through DNA analysis, they can be reburied only after 70 percent of the bodily remains have been identified.

With the help of a world-class forensic system and DNA testing that conforms to the highest scientific standards, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has already proven - well beyond reasonable doubt - that 8,100 Bosniaks died in the Srebrenica genocide. End of story!

Through the use of DNA identity testing, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has revealed the identity of 6,186 persons missing from the July 1995 fall of Srebrenica, by analyzing DNA profiles extracted from bone samples of exhumed mortal remains and matching them to the DNA profiles obtained from blood samples donated by relatives of the missing.The overall high matching rate between DNA extracted from these bone and blood samples leads ICMP to support an estimate of close to 8,100 individuals missing from the fall of Srebrenica.

The ICMP has made to date a total of 12,520 accurate, DNA-led identifications of individuals from all of Bosnia-Herzegovina since ICMP’s DNA system went online in 2001. In the case of BiH, ICMP has DNA profiles from more than 69,051 blood samples collected from relatives and 25,033 bone samples from human remains on its database. The number of subsequent identifications made is much lower than this figure as more than one family member’s blood sample is needed for a positive match, and often several bone samples from a victim’s remains are needed for a positive DNA match.

Yet despite ICMP’s world-class forensic system, and despite having built the forensic facilities at Lukavac and at the Podrinje Identification Project in Tuzla specifically for the identification of victims of Srebrenica, their identification remains an extremely difficult, complex and time-consuming process. To expedite this process, more information is needed on the locations of burial and mass grave sites.

“The fact that ICMP has made nearly 6,200 identifications of Srebrenica victims is a remarkable success, and something that many people had said from the beginning would be impossible to accomplish,” said ICMP’s Director-General Ms. Kathryne Bomberger.

“However, it is a success of science that has sprung out of immense human tragedy: more than 520 bodies are being buried at Potocari this week, in addition to the 3,127 already buried here. Many families of Srebrenica victims are still waiting for information on their missing relatives. Many families who have identified their relatives are waiting for more remains to be exhumed from secondary mass grave sites before they bury their loved ones. So what we desperately need is for individuals with more information about the location of grave and burial sites to come forward.”

In many cases the perpetrators of Srebrenica removed mortal remains from one ‘primary’ mass grave and hid them in multiple sites in an attempt to conceal evidence of war crimes, thus leaving a trail of disarticulated skeletal remains, whereby body-parts of the same person can be found in different sites. In one case, ICMP identified a man missing from the fall of Srebrenica whose remains were found in four different mass graves two of which were 20 km from the other two locations.

The introduction of DNA by the ICMP as the basis for identifying large numbers of missing persons from the 1990’s conflicts in the Western Balkans enabled accurate identifications of persons that would never otherwise have been identified. The first DNA match, for a 15 year-old boy from Srebrenica, was made on November 16, 2001.

Source:
International Commission on Missing Persons.

25 February, 2010

THE TRIAL OF CHEMICAL ZDRAVKO TOLIMIR BEGINS FRIDAY

NEW SREBRENICA GENOCIDE TRIAL BEGINS FRIDAY

The trial of Zdravko Tolimir (aka: Chemical Tolimir) - former high ranking official of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) who proposed gassing Srebrenica women and children with chemical poison - is scheduled to begin Friday at 14:15 in Courtroom III.

Photo of Chemical Tolimir (Zdravko Tolimir) in custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Chemical Tolimir is charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war committed between July and November 1995 against Bosniaks in Srebrenica and Žepa, two former enclaves in eastern Bosnia. To watch the trial LIVE from the Hague, follow this link (pay attention to the different time zones).

According to Prosecutor Peter McCloskey, criminal orders in war are as a rule issued verbally, but a few exceptions exist to the rule. On 21 July 1995, General Zdravko Tolimir sent a confidential report from Zepa to General Radomir Miletic, acting Chief of General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS). Chemical Tolimir was requesting help to crush some Bosnian military strongholds, expressing his view that "the best way to do it would be to use chemical weapons". In the same report, Chemical Tolimir went even further, proposing chemical strikes against refugee columns of women, children and elderly leaving Zepa, because that would "force the Muslim fighters to surrender quickly", in his opinion.

The indictment against Zdravko Tolimir can be found atthis link. The trial can be followed live on the Tribunal’s website at www.icty.org.

24 February, 2010

RADOVAN KARADZIC, AL JAZEERA INTERVIEW

THE ARCHITECT OF GENOCIDE DENIES EXISTENCE OF BOSNIAK PEOPLE

Radovan Karadzic is largely known for issuing public threats and denying the existence of Bosniak people.

In a recent interview given to Al Jazeera, Radovan Karadzic has done it again - this time using a mobile phone from his prison cell at the Hague. Asked about how he felt about his role during the Bosnian war, he stated the following historical lie:

"It was a war among Serbs, since the Bosnian Muslims are Serbs who adopted Islam under Turkish rule."

THE FACTS: Bosniaks are NOT Serbs, have NEVER been Serbs, and will NEVER be Serbs. As an alternative to Radovan Karadzic's lies and distortions, here are some facts about the 1300+ year old history of the Bosniak people (in few words):

Bosniaks (also spelled: Bosniacs; sometimes incorrectly refered to as Bosnian Muslims) are autochtone Slavic peoples of Bosnia. Bosniak people speak the Bosnian language. The first dictionary of Bosnian language is 1
97 years older than the first dictionary of Serbian language. From the 7th - and up until the mid 19th - century, all people who lived in Bosnia, regardless of their faith, identified themselves as Bosniaks (Bosnjani / Bosnjaci).

Serbian historiography - known for habitual lying and ultra-nationalist agenda - considered all people of Bosnia to be "Serbs." This historical lie has been endlessly propagated by the so called 'intelligentsia' gathered around the "Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts" (SANU) and their proxies/sympathizers. The purpose of this racist Serbian propaganda was to assimilate large groups of non-Serbs into the Serbian national identity, steal their land and resources, and complete a failed project of the so called "Greater Serbia" (Velika Srbija).

The fact is that in medieval Bosnia, Bosniaks were largely members of an indigenous Bosnian Church that had its own set of beliefs and teachings - completely separate and different from the official Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The 'official' Churches saw Bosniak 'heresy' as a 'threat.' Those accused of "heresy" would be burned at the stake. Pressured to give up its "heretic" character / teachings, some Bosniaks were forced to convert to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox faiths. Then, during the Ottoman period (Turkish occupation of Bosnia) mostly heretic Bosniaks in large numbers converted to Islam. However, all people continued to identify themselves as Bosniaks. This would soon change...

In the 19th century, the neighbouring Serbia started opening "Serb schools" in Bosnia and sending teachers to brainwash Orthodox pupils into believing they are Serbs (simply because they shared the same religion). All teachers were trained in Serbia and paid by Serbia. Additionally, Serbia kept organizing and sending
political activists to spread the idea of the so called "Serbhood" in remote Bosnian villages, and convincing people of Eastern Orthodox faith they belonged to Serbia. As a result, during the 19th century (Austro-Hungarian period), the Bosniaks of Eastern Orthodox faith acquired Serbian national identity and came to be known as Bosnian Serbs. So, contrary to Radovan Karadzic's lies, it was Orthodox Christians who sold their identity to Serbia and became known as the so called Bosnian Serbs.

Note:
Radovan Karadzic's Al Jazeera interview is available at the
following link.

22 February, 2010

SREBRENICA, THE BIGGEST DEATH CAMP IN THE WORLD

Documentary "Srebrenica, The Untold Story", aired by the Television of Bosnia-Herzegovina on the 14th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.

PHOTO: By Winter 1992/93, approximatley 80,000 Bosnian Muslims found themselves trapped in Srebrenica. They fled to Srebrenica from other municipalities to seek refuge from Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacres, and rapes. Serb troops stationed in militarized Serb villages around Srebrenica constantly attacked Srebrenica and neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. There was no safety. Surrounded by and attacked from all sides by genocidal Serb troops, largely unarmed Bosniaks in Srebrenica felt they were trapped in the biggest death camp in the world in which they waited a moment of their execution.


WATCH BHT DOCUMENTARY

The following is a documentary commemorating the 14th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide. The 1995 Srebrenica Genocide was comprised of a massive ethnic cleansing campaign in which approximately 30,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees were forcibly expelled from their homes, while at least another 8,100 Bosniaks were lined up, summarily executed, dumped into mass graves, and then dug out and relocated to secondary mass graves in an attempt to hide the crime.

[Courtesy: Television of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BHT)]

PART I / XVII:




PART II / XVII:



PART III / XVII:



PART IV / XVII:



PART V / XVII:



PART VI / XVII:



PART VII / XVII:



PART VIII / XVII:



PART IX / XVII:



PART X / XVII:



PART XI / XVII:



PART XII / XVII:



PART XIII / XVII:



PART XIV / XVII:



PART XV / XVII:



PART XVI / XVII:



PART XVII / XVII:

19 February, 2010

SERBIAN THUG MARKO VASIC FROM BAJINA BASTA

You are looking at a face of a disturbed 23-year old Serbian ultranationalist thug, Marko Vasic from Bajina Basta (Serbia) who posted death threats on the Srebrenica Genocide Blog.


The information from his poorly designed personal web site (www. markovasic .co.nr) indicates that he was born on 21. decembar 1986. in Bajina Bašta - a town located in Serbia and bordering with the municipality of Srebrenica. Two municipalities are separated by the River Drina. Marko Vasic's blog, entitled "Markove Mudrosti" ['Marko's Wisdom'] , features only one article republished from a discredited genocide denier Emil Vlajki. We debunked all Srebrenica Genocide denial claims on our blog (see here, here and here), so there is no point wasting time to address Marko Vasic's and Emil Vlajki's lies again.

We rejected the following comments / death threats posted by an extremist thug and genocide denier Marko Vasic:

The first comment / death threat by Marko Vasic was posted on 17 February 2010 @ 12:59:58 PM. The original comment follows:

Good muslim is a dead one!!! You stupid idiots. You know nothing about war in Bosnia.... Fukcin idiots. I hope your children will have same destiny.... I will kill a Muslim in Srebrenica!

The second comment / death threat by Marko Vasic was posted on 19 February 2010 @ 2:59:33 AM in Serbian language. Here is the original comment:

mamu ti jebem muslimansku...Malo smo vas pobili trebali smo vam poklati svu decu...i silovati sve zene hahaha

The translation of the second comment / death threat posted by Marko Vasic is as follows:

Fuck your Muslim mother... we should have killed more of you and slaughter all your children.... and rape all your women hahahaha

Our response re Marko Vasic:

Now that we have exposed the name of this moron from Bajina Basta, we would like to thank him for being so stupid and revealing his full identity on his poorly designed personal web site. Marko Vasic's complete lack of intelligence shows how sick majority of Serbian society really is. For example, recent survey conducted by the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal shows that an overwhelming majority of Serbian people deny the Srebrenica genocide. Marko Vasic is just another sad case of a home grown extremist who will now forever be known as a thug who denied genocide and posted death threats on the Internet.

18 February, 2010

INTERVIEW WITH NIHADA HODZIC, SURVIVOR OF THE ZAKLOPACA MASSACRE

(Posted with permission from the Canadian Institute for the Research of Genocide)

PHOTO: Hair braids and the remains of a Bosniak child in the Zaklopaca mass grave.

Interviewer: Daniel Toljaga

Srebrenica region, three years before the Genocide
From April to June 1992, Serb forces plundered and torched hundreds of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) villages and hamlets in the municipality (district) of Srebrenica and the neighboring municipalities of Bratunac, Vlasenica, Rogatica, and Visegrad. According to the UN war crimes tribunal’s judgment in the Naser Orić case, “Srebrenica town and the villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire, as well as occasional bombing from aircrafts. Each onslaught followed a similar pattern. Serb soldiers and paramilitaries surrounded a Bosnian Muslim village or hamlet, called upon the population to surrender their weapons, and then began with indiscriminate shelling and shooting. In most cases, they then entered the village or hamlet, expelled or killed the population, who offered no significant resistance, and destroyed their homes.” One of these villages was Zaklopača, a small place formerly in the Vlasenica municipality near the border with Srebrenica. On 16 May 1992, Serb forces approached the village and demanded Bosniak residents to hand over their weapons. Except few hunting rifles, Bosniak residents did not have any combat weapons to defend themselves. When the Serbs learned that the residents were effectively unarmed, they blocked all exists of the village and massacred at least 63 Bosniak men, women and children.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Nihada, thank you for agreeing to take part in this interview. I am truly honored to have this opportunity. When you think of Zaklopača, do bad memories overshadow good ones?

NIHADA HODZIC: First of all, I would like to sincerely thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences and broader knowledge about the events of May 16, 1992, that would befall Zaklopača and much of eastern Bosnia as the Serb aggression progressed into the heartland of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I feel extremely fortunate to be in the position of talking to you about what exactly happened on that dreadful day, instead of being among the forgotten statistics that will never be able to demand justice for what has been done to them, and to us who were lucky enough to survive. I feel fortunate to have lived; however, I feel that much of the life my family and I knew died together with our loved ones. So to answer your question, yes, I believe that the bad events will inevitably overshadow the good memories until proper justice has been served. Though we survived, we live with the legacy and pain of this gruesome event and its memories will haunt us as long as we are alive. We would like to think of our relatives in more ‘happy’ terms, but whenever we remember how unjustly and brutally their lives were cut short, it brings us back to this sad reality we have to deal with — as we have still not seen those who committed the heinous murders brought to proper justice.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: A similar crime also took place in Zaklopača in the fall of 1941, when Serb Chetniks under the command of Nazi collaborator Jezdimir Dangić barricaded 81 Bosniak men, women and children in the local mekteb (Muslim religious school) and then burned them alive. Did you ever imagine that Serbs would repeat the Zaklopača massacre in 1992 – some three years before the Srebrenica Genocide and 50 years after World War II?

NIHADA HODZIC: Generally people were assured that nothing would ever happen to us – when we heard automatic weapons being fired in the distance, we were told that it was only routine ‘training’ by the armed forces. My grandfather was not as gullible however. He knew the picture looked very bleak and that something terrible was surely coming our way. You see, my grandfather Ibro Hodžić, was a survivor. He survived a line up shooting at the hands of his Serb neighbor where upon around a dozen other Muslims form the village were killed, my great grandfather included – he was killed by another Serb neighbor. My grandfather was only fifteen years old then in 1941 and you could say his quick thinking saved his life. As the intoxicated Četnik was loading another bullet to shoot, my grandfather fell to the ground just before he had pulled the trigger on his very old model shot gun. He lay there motionless for quite some time, during which more Serbs came and drilled a few more bullets into the heads of those still moaning with signs of life. My fifteen year old grandfather survived this ordeal in the 1940s just to be killed by the same people in 1992 on the steps of his own home, along with the rest of his five sons and grandson who was only sixteen at the time. But, no one could really understand my grandfather’s fears as we had a well trusted Serb neighbor Milenko Đurić (Gorčin) reassuring our safety time and time again, telling us “not even a hair will be missing from your bodies.” Unfortunately, we had trusted our Serb neighbors; we believed their deceitful lies to keep us grounded in the village. Prior to the massacre we had attempted to flee to a safe haven in Zivinice, however we were sent back with the same type of reasoning by the Serb neighbor. There is apt reasons to believe that he was directly or indirectly involved in the entire plot of the incident in Zaklopača. Gorčin played as a middleman who manipulated our fears and our trust in him as a long term neighbor and whom some even considered a great ‘friend’ in order to set the stage for a more effective premeditated “military” operation by the Serbs. We were certainly sensing the changing atmosphere and the deepening angst which was growing within our community – but we could have never imagined being betrayed in such a cruel way.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: What were the first signs that the massacre was about to happen?

NIHADA HODZIC: One week prior to the massacre two of my uncles and my father were arrested and brought for questioning to the Police Station in Milići. At the time my father was working in Boksit Transport, in Milići, where upon one day he along with his relative, on their way home, were taken by the reserve police and brought to the Milići police station. First however, they had asked for their identification cards, and made sure they were Muslim. Who ever had a Muslim name, they told them to form a line and to follow them to the station. When they finally reached their destination, for hours they interrogated them with petty questions. Question regarding personal family backgrounds to some other questions to which no one could give any answers to. For example they would point to a machine gun and ask whose it was – obviously no one could have known – when my father answered “I don’t know” the interrogator said “you will know” and shoved him off. At the police station my father along with hundreds of other Muslim men were shoved into a small room where he witnessed some very gruesome acts being performed on these defenseless civilian men. They were beaten beyond recognition, some defecated out of fear and it was simply a gruesome and frightening atmosphere. Shortly there after, though it seemed much longer to my father, our long time neighbor Gorčin, whom I have mentioned before, came to his ‘rescue’. Gorčin was responsible for my father’s release from the police station, and he was brought back home that same day, however my father, witnessing what he had, anticipated something far worse was brewing then we might have thought. Gorčin, again, reassured us that this would never happen again, that my father should continue to go to work, though my father had refused to go after this incident. Of course, other men where not so lucky, they were left behind at the station, and we are not sure what happened to them.

There are however other smaller indicators of the massacre coming our way. About the same number of days prior, Serbs were adamantly cruising through our village in search for weapons, and demanded that everyone who had any type of weapon even “hunting guns” – that they should hand them over. In other words, they were demilitarizing our village days before the actual massacre, making sure we had no way of defending ourselves, even though no one had claims to any type of lethal weapons anyway.

Also, just about when the massacre was to occur, my mother (Najla Hodžić) was in her vegetable garden just outside of our home, when Police jeeps and cars came flooding into our small town. It was noon, on a very beautiful and sunny Spring day on May 16, 1992. There were a few cars (she could not recall the exact number as they were driving back and forth through the village), in front of them a police car and following them a white jeep with the slogan “pokolj” (slaughter) written in Cyrillic across the vehicle. Our house was located right next to the main road, so my mother saw everything in clear view as they were rolling into the village, coming from the main road leading from the town Milići. She recalls that the vehicles had been packed with Četniks, with long beards, some with nylon socks covering their heads, and loaded Kalashnikovs across their broad chests. Upon seeing this, my mother hurriedly motioned my oldest uncle Bećir Hodžić (who was helping my mother around the garden) to run, yet his last words to my mother were “don’t worry Sister-in-law everything is going to be alright – don’t be afraid” when he was spotted by the Četniks and taken away, not to be seen alive again.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: At this point, you and your mother were also in immediate danger of being killed. Can you tell us what happened next?

NIHADA HODZIC: Once the vehicles moved further into town, my mother ran into the house and franticly began to pack the bare essentials (some clean clothes, food and a few family pictures) and get my sisters and I ready for the worse possible situation. I was only a small child then, but I remember, in the midst of this frightful situation I was so obnoxious as to whine about which clothes I was going to wear – obviously I was not fully aware of the seriousness of what was about to happen. At this time, we had no idea where my father was, and thus we would remain clueless of his whereabouts until almost one year later, when we finally found out that he was alive. But back to the massacre. My mother, my two older sisters and I ran across the yard to one of my other uncle’s homes (Haso Hodžić), at which time almost all my other aunts and their kids were gathered. Just as we, along with my other five aunts and their children and few other neighbors gathered inside, the lightning bolts began to fly, and the sound of thundering bullets began to ring on all sides. My mother was with me all the time – cuddling me inside her lap and shielding me from all the harm. The bullets whizzed through the house, creating big cratered holes as they made a full impact with the concrete walls. At one point, a bullet pierced through my mothers light denim jacket, as I was still cuddling in her lap. The bullet missed us both by a hair. For another fifteen to twenty minutes, the showers of deadly bullets filled the suffocating air, killing anything that was moving – anything that was alive would have met its final death. As it calmed down, we heard my second uncle (whose house we were all in) calling upon my aunt to come out. We all did, and form the porch we saw my uncle standing at gunpoint. A Serb, was aiming at him, ready to pull the trigger any time. My dear uncle looked pale, and afraid. He asked for a cigarette, and as he reached for the lighter in his pocket, the ringing sound of Kalashnikovs went off once more, and as we were all standing on the porch, we all saw my beloved uncle murdered in front of our very own eyes. His body was thrown up into the air at least a few feet from detonation and came back crashing onto the hot asphalt, motionless and lifeless. My grandmother saw her son mercilessly killed in front of her sorrowful, teary eyes. As she frantically yelled out “My son is Dead,” the Serb (Četnik) opened fire again, chasing us back into the house, shocked, dismayed and still in disbelief of what we had seen. But my grandmother ran out, bewildered, lost and deeply hurt into the streets – suffering a mental breakdown.

Through out this time, we were quite unaware of the whereabouts of my father (Ekrem Hodžić). From his perspective of the story, things followed in a different fashion from ours. While we were still inside the house, my father observed everything from the woods just above my grandfather’s house. As he saw the cars rolling into town, driving in the direction of the village ‘Gornji Zalkovik’ full of Četniks and returning empty. Curiously, my father went north into the woods to observe where they had gone while two of my uncles went down to see what was happening in town. Just as he reached into the woods the shorts began to fly. He remained in a state of shock as he began running deeper into the woods, however, unaware of where he was going he returned to the outskirts of the woods in dismay – unable to comprehend what was going on.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: When the shooting stopped, I can only imagine the shock and horror you and your family had to endure. Would you mind telling us what happened immediately after the massacre?

NIHADA HODZIC: As the thunder of bullets finally stopped, our small town was gasping for air – it was gasping for life. The Serbs left, the same way they came in, completing their heinous job with blood on their hands. The blood of innocence – the blood of Zaklopača. We dared to step out again, to witness that inferno, the death and destruction of this inevitable storm which plundered our town and raped it of its virtues and good life. We saw dead bodies everywhere. The smell of death permeated the entire town. Dead children, women, men. Bodies everywhere. We were in shock. The tears seemed to have almost dried up, nothing was coming out. It was like a nightmare! A terrible nightmare you desperately wished to wake up from, but never did. We covered my uncle with a blanket, and proceeded to go further into town – hoping to find survivors. We saw my eldest uncle (Bećir Hodžić) again – in a kneeling position with a cigarette still burning in between his index and middle fingers, his head bowed to the ground, and a puddle of blood next to him – he was dead too. We saw small children with their mothers lying side by side on the ground, motionless, very still – in an eternal sleep. We were told that my father was among the dead too. We couldn’t go on. My family and I decided to give our selves in (to “surrender” to the Serbs) – we thought we had no one left alive, in this highly emotional moment we were ready to die too.

My father, on the other hand, was met by other men who survived and fled into the woods. Among them was my uncle Bećir’s son Amir (seventeen at the time), who told my father, that everyone in town was dead — that they were the only survivors. My father also witnessed during this time, after the massacre, Serbs came back to the village to burry their crimes into yet another mass grave. My father saw everything.

From this point onward, my father’s path diverged from my mother’s, sisters’ and my own. It is a long story… We later learned that my father was indeed alive, in March of 1993 we were re-united in Zagreb, Croatia.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: It is my understanding that remains of eight members of your family were located in the Zaklopača mass grave. Can you tell us more about them?

NIHADA HODZIC: I have actually lost many more relatives, as our small village was very closely knit and most of us were related in some way or another. It was a relatively small village, where over 200 people were ethnic Muslim Bosniaks. Around sixty percent of the entire population of Zaklopača – somewhere around forty percent were killed and the remaining Muslim population was ethnically cleansed from the area. My grandfather was Ibro Hodžić. He was killed along with my five uncles; Becir Hodžić, Huso Hodžić with his sixteen year old son Mersudin Hodžić, also, Haso Hodžić, Hamdija Hodžić, and Safet Hodžić. The entire ten member family of Ibis Hodžić which included my cousin Naida Hodžić who was only four years old at the time she was killed. Also, members from the family Hamidović who were our extended relatives. My father, and my two first cousins, Amir and Samir Hodžić were the only male survivors from my immediate family. But it is hard to separate the pain we feel for our close relatives from the pain we feel for our neighbors and good friends. We hurt for them all!

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Forensic reports indicate that the bodies of the Zaklopača massacre victims were first buried in the village, but were later dug up and relocated in order to cover up the crime – just as your father saw it happen. This looks like a well-planned operation, yet none of people involved in this ghastly crime have ever been prosecuted. In your opinion, what should be done to put pressure on the authorities of Bosnia-Herzegovina to finally prosecute suspects for this massacre?

NIHADA HODZIC: Well, I am certainly no expert in this matter. All I can say is that my family has tried various means to identify those responsible and push for some sort of justice. My family, as well as other survivors form the village, have given numerous testimonies to different sources in an attempt to find any persons responsible, who were directly involved in the massacre. Our big obstacle is that most of the people who could have or might have known these Serbs were killed. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my father was not close enough to identify any potential suspects, but we do know for certain that the Milići police force was directly involved in the Zaklopača massacre. Of course there were some attempts at questioning certain individuals, however nothing was ever established. The process has been extremely slow and exhausting, and thus far no one has been convicted nor held responsible for the crimes committed in Zaklopača in May of 1992.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: The ICTY court transcripts suggest Milenko Đurić was directly involved in the events leading to the Zaklopača massacre, including demands that Bosniak villagers hand over their weapons. I find it interesting that in the chain of command, he was directly under Milomir Stanić – former mayor in charge of all civil and military authorities. Stanić’s authority also stretched to Sušica camp where Serb forces subjected 2,500 Bosniak civilians to horrific conditions, torture, rapes, and murders. Do you think that Đurić and Stanić will ever be brought to justice to face justice?

NIHADA HODZIC: Unfortunately I am very pessimistic in this regard. I do not see any proper justice being served. As we have clearly seen from previous trials of Serb war criminals and their subsequent verdicts, that their given sentences are simply a superficial number, and are not completely enforced, for the most part. We do not wish to speculate on the levels of involvement ‘Gorčin’ had in the Zaklopača massacre, but we believe that he will walk free either way. We do have grounds to doubt that he may have indirectly been involved, as he did advise my uncle Haso in particular (because of their pre-war dislikes of each other) that he should give up his “weapon” insisting that my uncle had a gun and that he should hand it over to the Serbs. He also, as I said before, kept reassuring us safety and that we should all stay firm in our village as he said there was no need for us to go anywhere. No one, to this date, has been convicted of the war crimes in Zaklopača, and the current pattern in convictions do not indicate that there ever will be justice for the victims of the massacre.

DANIEL TOLJAGA: Thank you for taking part in this interview. Do you have any final words?

NIHADA HODZIC: Although I was very young, at the time of the Zaklopača massacre, I do live with its legacy to this day. My father still wakes up in nightmares from the haunting memories of that day, and my mother is still suffering from the side effects of shock and traumatic stress. Today, I am fighting to raise awareness in any way I can about what happened in Zaklopača on May 16, 1992, because I feel it is important to note that genocide was not limited to Srebrenica – it extended far and beyond – across all of eastern Bosnia. These were premeditated and cold blooded, calculated massacres, which targeted one particular group of people for extermination – the Muslim population – and we have to keep voicing these tragic events so that they may not be absorbed and forgotten in the pretext of larger massacres such as that of Srebrenica in 1995. I am currently in my last year of University studies, majoring in International Studies, and I wish to continue my fight on a larger political playing field, where I can demand proper justice for each and every death – each and every forgotten statistic. I wish to put a face to the number and have people remember what happened from 1992-1995 across Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that we do not repeat the same mistakes in the future. Peace still remains very elusive in Bosnia, and some of the rhetoric coming from politicians does not indicate a very optimistic future.

THE POWER OF TRUTH & STUDY OF THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE, RESEARCH OUR ARCHIVE

Last Updated: March 27th, 2013.
List of all articles published by the Srebrenica Genocide Blog

(in chronological order from newest to oldest = 1226 total)

Three years before the Srebrenica Genocide, Serbs burned hundreds of Bosniak villages around Srebrenica, forcibly expelled 100,000 Bosniaks from the Podrinje region, and killed thousands of Bosniaks in and around Srebrenica enclave. Then, in July 1995, Serb campaign of massacres and ethnic cleansing culminated to Genocide. The Srebrenica Genocide involved ethnic cleansing of at least 20,000 and summary executions of at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.

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(+) Mild sentences for Serb war criminals (Zupljanin/Stanisic case)
(+) 
OČUVAJMO SVOJU NACIJU I IME BOŠNJAK
(+) Djecak sa Fotografije
(+)
International Tribunal: 8,000 Killed in Srebrenica, Facts and Evidence
(+) Serb Darling Dutch 'Peacekeeper' Thomas Karremans Won't Be Prosecuted
(+) Judge Daqun: I Disagree with Perisic's Acquittal
(+) Ugrozena Sigurnost Bosnjaka u Srebrenici
(+) Sretan Dan Nezavisnosti Bosne i Hercegovine
(+) Zrtve Ogorcene Oslobadjanjem Perisica
(+) Presuda za Bezdusne Srbijanske Zlocine u Zvorniku
(+) Siege of Srebrenica: Witness Statement by Philipp von Recklinghausen

(+) Cetnici Otimali i Krstili Bosnjacku Djecu Tijekom Genocida u Bosni
(+) 101,040 Bosnians Killed During Serbian Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing
(+) Serbia to Manipulate UN Document in April 2013
(+) BOSNJACI SE KRSTE I ASIMILIRAJU U SRBE
(+) Naser Oric Interview: Siege of Srebrenica (1992-1995)

(+) SREBRENICA GENOCIDE: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (as of July 9th, 2007)