MASSACRE OF WOMEN & CHILDREN IN SREBRENICA (1993)

"The pictures were worse than in horror films -- piles of mutilated and shattered human corpses, spilled brains, scattered arms and legs, heads blown off. One scene: a mother with her two dead children, one headless, the other with half a body, next to a pile of mutilated corpses. This is a bitter denunciation of international inertia. People were identified only by their clothes."

Massacre of Women and Children in Srebrenica (1993)

REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

SREBRENICA MUNICIPALITY WAR PRESIDENCY

PRESS CENTRE

NO: 281/93, Srebrenica, 13 April [1993], at 1530 hours.

Republic of BH Presidency / UNPROFOR

RBH Government / UNHCR

RBH Armed Forces Main Staff / PUblic

US President Bill Clinton

Radio amateur in Srebrenica: Ibrahim Zukic

Report received in Sarajevo by: Ilijaz Omerovic

1. Srebrenica shelled

2. Humanitarian aid delivered under Operation Promise to the following locations: Srebrenica

Aircraft no. ____ triad _____ tons

Airfract no. ____ cds _____ tons

3. Post/packages/ent

4. Road convoy with humanitarian aid: number of vehicles 5 tons 40

5. Population evacuated: number 600 / means of transport: trucks

6. Report from the defence lines:

Number killed: _____ wounded: ____ died of starvation and illness: 7

Srebrenica is still in the night circle of hell. The aggressor offensive continues and is threatening to completely annihilate the population. The only help coming from outside is food, and that is insufficient. Yesterday's tragedy, without precedent anywhere, shows that we are threatened with collective extinction and have been completely forgotten and left to our own devices.

At about 1400 hours yesterday, 12 July 1993 [this is a misprint; it should read 12 April 1993], the enemy shelled Srebrenica with all available artillery weapons. The streets were filled with smoke, blood, groans and crying. A centre in which refugees were housed was hit. Because there is no accommodation anywhere, a large number of refugees were in the open in front of the refugee centre. About 10 shells hit the school and the area around it, killing 36 on the spot and wounding 86, while 16 of the wounded died of their wounds in the next few hours. Altogether 52 were killed. The pictures were worse than in horror films -- piles of mutilated and shattered human corpses, spilled brains, scattered arms and legs, heads blown off. One scene: a mother with her two dead children, one headless, the other with half a body, next to a pile of mutilated corpses. This is a bitter denunciation of international inertia. People were identified only by their clothes.

We repeat: 52 dead and 84 wounded -- a crime rarely seen in world history. The dead were of all ages, but mostly women and children. The already crowded hospital could not receive all the wounded and so they were put up in sheds and laundry rooms. Civilisation cannot recall such scenes. Will the world again observe the tragedy of the people of Srebrenica without saying anything? Will this appeal meet the fate of its predecessors?

We seek help for this area, help for the victims through evacuation of the most endangered, deliveries of food, clothing and footwear to Srebrenica, the sending of peacekeeping forces to this area and the opening of air and road corridors.

So please put an end to procrastination, because Srebrenica pays for every day of delay with human lives.

/ signed /