SITUATION IN SREBRENICA ON 12 JULY 1995
The following article was published by Eugene Register-Guardon on 12 July 1995, a day after the fall of Srebrenica. This news report was located, scanned, re-typed from newspapers and then sent to us by the Bosniak and Jewish Solidarity. Thank you for your contribution.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Shredding the West's ragged lines of peacekeeping, Bosnian Serb rebels overran a U.N.-designated "safe area" Tuesday.
They shrugged off a desperate NATO attempts to stop them with air-strikes and sent peacekeepers and thousands of refugees fleeing.
The capture of the eastern town of Srebrenica represented a direct assault on a cornerstone of the United Nations' tottering peace efforts. Preserving the safe areas, which include Sarajevo, has been U.N. peace-keepers' principal mission since they were established in 1993 as enclaves where civilians were to be spared from attack.
As Serb forces rolled in, Dutch peacekeepers abandoned a defensive line on the mostly Muslim [Bosniak] city's southern limits and were trying to take up a blocking position at Potocari, about two miles north of Srebrenica. Potocari is the main base for the area's 400 peacekeepers.
U.N. officials estimated 27,000 of the town's 30,000 inhabitants fled north with the Dutch soldiers. They said they were trying to make emergency preparations for the refugees in Tuzla, another "safe area" to the northwest.
"The Bosnian Serb army is now in control of Srebrenica," said Alexander Ivanko, a U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, the capital.
"What we are seeing now is the most unfortunate scenario; massive uncontrolled exodus of the people of Srebrenica," said U.N. aid spokesman Kris Janowski.
Thousands surrounded the Potocari camp.
A U.N. official in Sarajevo told The Associated Press that the Serbs threatened to shell the compound if NATO warplanes didn't leave the area.
Dutch and American jets had struck at least two Bosnian Serb tanks south of the town Tuesday in an attempt to protect the Dutch U.N. troops and the town's civilians, Ivanko said.
Dutch Defense Minister Joris Voorhoeve said he had asked the United Nations to call off a planned third NATO airstrike "due to the terroristic threats" from Bosnian Serb rebels to kill 30 Dutch peacekeepers they had seized in their six-day advance on the town.
The NATO planes were prepared to carry out several waves of strikes, but didn't do so "because the situation fell apart so quickly," a senior defense official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.
"I think this is too little and too late," Haris Silajdzic, the premier of Bosnia's Muslim-led government, said of the air attacks. "They (the United Nations) waited actually until the Serb terrorists started entering the town. I don't know what is the use of it now."
In Pale, the Bosnian Serb rebel headquarters east of Sarajevo, [Serbian propagandist] Jovan Zametica, an adviser to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said that the "international community seems to have learned nothing from its past mistakes. The more they bomb us, the more entrenched we shall become."
Lt. Col. Gary Coward, a U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, confirmed that Muslim-led government troops had used the "safe area" to make attacks on Serbs surrounding the enclave, but said the raids were not large-scale. [Tip: See UN Report: Role of Bosniak Forces on the Ground]
Srebrenica, the most easterly of the "safe areas," is about 10 miles from the border with Serbia.
Both the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serb television said another "safe area," Zepa, was under attack nine miles southwest of Srebrenica, where almost 90 Ukrainian U.N. troops were stationed.
The Netherlands aided Serb attack on Srebrenica by urging NATO to cancel airstrikesSerbs Capture U.N. 'safe area'
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Shredding the West's ragged lines of peacekeeping, Bosnian Serb rebels overran a U.N.-designated "safe area" Tuesday.They shrugged off a desperate NATO attempts to stop them with air-strikes and sent peacekeepers and thousands of refugees fleeing.
The capture of the eastern town of Srebrenica represented a direct assault on a cornerstone of the United Nations' tottering peace efforts. Preserving the safe areas, which include Sarajevo, has been U.N. peace-keepers' principal mission since they were established in 1993 as enclaves where civilians were to be spared from attack.
As Serb forces rolled in, Dutch peacekeepers abandoned a defensive line on the mostly Muslim [Bosniak] city's southern limits and were trying to take up a blocking position at Potocari, about two miles north of Srebrenica. Potocari is the main base for the area's 400 peacekeepers.
U.N. officials estimated 27,000 of the town's 30,000 inhabitants fled north with the Dutch soldiers. They said they were trying to make emergency preparations for the refugees in Tuzla, another "safe area" to the northwest.
"The Bosnian Serb army is now in control of Srebrenica," said Alexander Ivanko, a U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, the capital.
"What we are seeing now is the most unfortunate scenario; massive uncontrolled exodus of the people of Srebrenica," said U.N. aid spokesman Kris Janowski.
Thousands surrounded the Potocari camp.
A U.N. official in Sarajevo told The Associated Press that the Serbs threatened to shell the compound if NATO warplanes didn't leave the area.
Dutch and American jets had struck at least two Bosnian Serb tanks south of the town Tuesday in an attempt to protect the Dutch U.N. troops and the town's civilians, Ivanko said.
Dutch Defense Minister Joris Voorhoeve said he had asked the United Nations to call off a planned third NATO airstrike "due to the terroristic threats" from Bosnian Serb rebels to kill 30 Dutch peacekeepers they had seized in their six-day advance on the town.
The NATO planes were prepared to carry out several waves of strikes, but didn't do so "because the situation fell apart so quickly," a senior defense official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.
"I think this is too little and too late," Haris Silajdzic, the premier of Bosnia's Muslim-led government, said of the air attacks. "They (the United Nations) waited actually until the Serb terrorists started entering the town. I don't know what is the use of it now."
In Pale, the Bosnian Serb rebel headquarters east of Sarajevo, [Serbian propagandist] Jovan Zametica, an adviser to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said that the "international community seems to have learned nothing from its past mistakes. The more they bomb us, the more entrenched we shall become."
Lt. Col. Gary Coward, a U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, confirmed that Muslim-led government troops had used the "safe area" to make attacks on Serbs surrounding the enclave, but said the raids were not large-scale. [Tip: See UN Report: Role of Bosniak Forces on the Ground]
Srebrenica, the most easterly of the "safe areas," is about 10 miles from the border with Serbia.
Both the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serb television said another "safe area," Zepa, was under attack nine miles southwest of Srebrenica, where almost 90 Ukrainian U.N. troops were stationed.
posted by Srebrenica Genocide at 6:48 PM
<< Home