SERBS PLANNED TO FAKE EVIDENCE BLAMING THE UNITED STATES FOR DELIVERING ARMS TO BOSNIAKS IN SREBRENICA

Here is a news report detailing how the Serbs planned to produce fake evidence and blame the United States of delivering weapons to the Bosniak population in Srebrenica and other besieged enclaves...

Bosnian Serbs Accused of Plot

U.S. officer says plans are afoot to fake evidence of arms airdrop

By John Pomfret
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p.A10
10 February 1994.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A senior U.S. military officer charged yesterday that Bosnian Serb authorities, seeking to deflect international attention from the killing of 68 people in a mortar attack on Sarajevo, have developed a plan to produce fake evidence that the United States is airdropping weapons to the Bosnian government’s mostly Muslim [Bosniak] forces.

Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Jim Jones said that soon after the 120mm mortar round hit the city’s central market Saturday, U.S. officers monitoring Bosnian Serb military communications picked up “highly credible information stating that Serb authorities were planning to stage a recovery of “airdropped” weapons, and to blame the United States.

Jones charged that, in coming days, Serbs plan to depict finding some guns at an airdrop site, and are patching together a U.S. parachute and the remnants of a pallet — both used in the U.S.-led operation to airdrop food to besieged Muslim areas.

Jones is chief of staff of Operation Provide Comfort, which airdrops humanitarian aid to millions of people in Bosnia. The general’s comments, made during a visit to Sarajevo, illustrate the high-stakes media manipulation in the conflict and also reflect recent reports that the mostly Bosniak army is now obtaining more weapons — although Jones said it is not from the American-led airlift.

“I have been warned there may be an attempt to portray the airdrop in other than humanitarian light to suggest that we drop arms sometimes,” Jones said. “It is not out of the realm of possibility of having an orchestrated event” by the Serbs.

The general said such charges would be “ludicrous,” amounting to an “absolute travesty.”

Jones said one rumor — circulated by some U.N. officials in Bosnia — concerned the methods allegedly used by the Americans to drop weapons to the Muslim [Bosniak] forces. Before the Bosnia-bound cargo planes leave Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, they are checked for weapons by liaison officers from the Serb, Croat and Muslim [Bosniak] factions fighting in the war.

The rumor has it that following takeoff, one of the U.S. planes carrying food drops out of the flight pattern and is replaced by another plane, with similar markings, that is carrying weapons. Jones said he was concerned Bosnian Serbs might use the rumor as the basis for an allegation that the United States was airdropping weapons to the Muslims [Bosniaks].

The general said his biggest worry is that the Serbs might create an incident in an attempt to justify slowing down or stopping the airdrop operation, which is the only way to deliver food to numerous places in Bosnia without passing through a Serb checkpoint.

The U.S.-led operation began last February and involves 12 U.S., three German and one French aircraft. Since Jan. 30, the planes have dropped 14,252 tons of food and 192 tons of medical supplies.

Reprinted by the Bosnian Genocide Blog