BRIAN MASSE (MP) LAUNCHES SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY CAMPAIGN

Presents motion to be introduced in the House of Commons this fall

PHOTO: Canadian M.P., Brian Masse delivered a speech in Windsor, ON, in support of the Srebrenica Remembrance Day campaign on 29 August 2009.

Windsor, ON – Today Brian Masse M.P., NDP Industry, Automotive, and Border Critic along with Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, Emir Ramic, President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks-Canada, the Canadian Bosniak community and many supporters launched the campaign for a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada with the public presentation of a motion to be introduced in the House of Commons this upcoming fall session.

“The time is long past due for Canada to declare July 11 Srebrenica Remembrance Day. This anniversary raises awareness of the tragic suffering of the people of Bosnia and honours and remembers those who were killed as a result of the policies of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995,” Masse stated. “With this declaration, Canada acknowledges the importance of this event in helping to bring closure for the Bosnian people through truth and justice. The institutionalization of Srebrenica Remembrance Day every July 11 will help to inform future generations and assist all of us to work towards peaceful coexistence.”

After the fall of Srebrenica on July 11th 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic (an indicted war criminal), and paramilitary units rapidly executed more than 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men, boys, and elderly, who had sought safety in the area. Moreover, approximately 30,000 people were forcibly deported in an UN-assisted ethnic cleansing. The European Parliament resolution referred to the Srebrenica Massacre as "the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII."

PHOTO: Srebrenica Remembrance Day Campaign kick-off in Windsor, Ontario on 29 August 2009.

This atrocity has been declared an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in 2005 have passed resolutions on the Srebrenica Genocide and all the atrocities that occurred during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The European parliament passed its resolution on January 15, 2009 institutionalizing July 11 as the day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide.

Senad Alicehajic, President of the Bosnian Club of Windsor, stated “We are also here today to recognize the fact that individuals committed these terrible acts, but it is the ideology of ethnic cleansing, fascism, racial and cultural discriminations, Nazism, and hatred that allowed them to carryout these atrocities. While the perpetrators of these crimes need to be brought to justice it is equally important that these false ideologies be condemned. The Srebrenica Remembrance Day will provide just such an opportunity.”

“The US Congress, both the House and Senate have passed resolutions. The European Parliament has done the same earlier this year. The House of Commons needs to act. With this motion the opportunity presents itself for Canada to join other countries in doing something that should have been done long ago,” Masse stated.

PHOTO: Srebrenica Remembrance Day Campaign kick-off in Windsor, Ontario on 29 August 2009.

Also see (related): Canada's Srebrenica Remembrance Day Campaign Kick-off!

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

PRIJEDOR: LIVES FROM THE BOSNIAN GENOCIDE

BACKGROUND: We thank two honorable individuals, Mr. Amir Karadzic and Mr. Patrick McCarthy, for organizing this event in memory of the Bosnian genocide, which is a legally established case of genocide. Thousands perished in the concentration camps (VIEW PHOTOS). According to Jerusalem Post, "freedom of movement was strictly limited. Muslims and Croats had to wear white bands around their arms and to have white flags on the windows of their apartments." Let us not forget.

SOUTH COUNTY EDUCATION CENTER TO HOLD BOSNIAN HISTORICAL EXHIBIT

The South County Education and University Center of St. Louis Community College, 4115 Meramec Bottom Road, will host the multimedia, historical exhibit, Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide from Sept. 1 through Oct. 14.

An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 6:30 p.m., with a presentation by Mr. Amir Karadzic.

Mr. Karadzic is the director of the St. Louis-based Union of Citizens of the Municipality of Prijedor and heads the research delegation for the exhibit project. A guided exhibit tour and refreshments included.

In addition, special presentation and book signing by Mr. Patrick McCarthy will be held on Thursday, Sept. 3, 12:30 p.m.

Mr. McCarthy serves as the project advisor and has traveled to wartime Sarajevo to found the St. Louis Bosnian Student project, which located scholarship placements for Bosnian students fleeing war zones. He is co-author of the book, "After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis."

The exhibit focuses on the genocide that occurred during the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s, with special attention given to the Bosnian city of Prijedor.

A video documentary, interview transcriptions of Bosnians currently living in St. Louis and other exhibit content contribute to its powerful message.

Admission to the exhibit and special events is free. On Oct. 15, the exhibit will move to the Meramec campus for approximately one month.

For more information, call 984-6758.

SCORPIONS - PART OF SERBIAN STATE SECURITY SERVICE (DB)

SERBIA IS GUILTY OF GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA - THERE IS NOT A SHRED OF DOUBT ABOUT IT. HAS EVIDENCE COME TOO LATE?

PHOTO: Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic standing trial in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague.

Background: The major reason why Bosnia failed to prove Serbia's direct involvement in the Srebrenica genocide is because Serbia claimed in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Scorpions were paramilitary group and not under the control of the Serbian government. Scorpions participated in the Srebrenica massacre. They also confessed the crime and got convicted by the Belgrade court in 2007. To hide the fact that Scorpions were under direct control of the Serbian government and not merely a 'paramilitary group', Serbia blacked out hundreds of pages of incriminating evidence citing national security, and then submitted the same censored evidence to the ICJ.

NEW EVIDENCE: On the ongoing trial of former chief of Serbian State Security Service (DB) Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, Serbian MUP reserve officer Milomir Kovacevic has revealed that Scorpions were in fact under the control of Serbian State Security Service. According to SENSE TRIBUNAL:

"During his stay in Western Slavonia and Baranja in 1991 and 1992 the witness had several close encounters with members of the Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG) led by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, and with the ‘Scorpions’ unit. Kovacevic contends that both formations were controlled by the Serbian State Security Service, headed at that time by Jovica Stanisic. Franko Simatovic was Stanisic’s deputy. In September or October 1991, the witness attended a meeting where Raznatovic showed a blue ID card issued by the Serbian State Security Service and claimed that the Serbian government and the intelligence service were behind him. The ‘Scorpions’ were at that time guarding the oil fields in Djeletovci, the witness said, adding that a Serbian intelligence officer in the field told him that they operated there DB control."

Source: www.sense-agency.com/en/stream.php?sta=3&pid=14868&kat=3

The trial of former chief of Serbian State Security Service (DB) Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic continues...

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

CANADA'S SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF

JOIN US IN WINDSOR, ONTARIO

PHOTO: Campaign Poster (download in full-size)

Congress of North American Bosniaks - Canada Branch
Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada

Bosnian and Herzegovinian Community of Windsor

Public Event and News Conference:
Declaring Canada’s SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY - Campaign Kick-off

WINDSOR, ONTARIO

Event: News conference and media availability:

Brian Masse, MP (Windsor West), to announce his SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY Motion submitted to the House of Commons

When: Saturday, August 29, 2009.
Time: 12:00 NOON
Where: Charles Clark Square, City of Windsor 215 Chatam St. E. (Located between Chatham St. and University E; midway between Goyeau and McDougall streets)

In case of rain:
Union Hall, 1855 Turner Rd., Windsor, ON

Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) - Canada Branch, Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada, and Bosnian and Herzegovinian Community of Windsor are pleased to inform the public that they have, together with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Diaspora in Canada, intensified activities for the adoption in the Canadian Parliament of the “July 11 - Srebrenica Remembrance Day” commemorating genocide in Srebrenica (which 15th anniversary is next year) and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Honourable Brian Masse, Member of Parliament for Windsor West, responding to Bosnian and Herzegovinian Community of Windsor, has gratefully accepted to submit his SREBRENICA REMEMBRANCE DAY Motion into the House of Commons procedure and will publicly announce it at a news conference in Windsor on Saturday, August 29, 2009.

Given:
- the early support we received from the individual MPs,
- the assurance received on July 23, 2009 from The Honourable Lawrence Cannon,

Minister of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government, of this being considered when Parliament resumes in the fall,

- that then Liberal MP The Honourable Jean Augustine was one who in June 2005 first raised on the floor of the House this initiative for the “Srebrenica Remembrance Day”,

we call upon all Parties and all Members of Parliament to extend their support for this Motion and work together toward its adoption.

We invite all Canadians of Bosnian and Herzegovinian origin, and all people of good faith who support the truth, justice, and a sovereign, democratic, prosperous Bosnia and Herzegovina to be actively involved in this process and to focus their efforts in campaigning for passing of this resolution in the Canadian Parliament.

BACKGROUNDER

The Srebrenica Massacre of July of 1995 is also a symbol of many horrible atrocities committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 1992 to November 1995 under the policies and acts of aggression and genocide as implemented by Serbian forces and among which the Srebrenica Massacre was the worst. More than 8,000 innocent Bosniak civilian men and boys from the United Nations-designated `safe area’ of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. under the protection of the international community, were summarily executed and 30,000 others were expelled from their homes by Serbian forces in the worst act of genocide in Europe since the Second World War and recognized as such by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and UN permanent International Court of Justice, while The European Court of Human Rights upheld (74613/01) genocide judgement for 1992 atrocities elsewhere.

There are many most serious aspects directly implicating, involving, and connecting Canada to the events and issues leading to, and in the aftermath of, Srebrenica and many other atrocities in the war aggression and genocide on the sovereign state and UN Member the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) and its People. In asking Canada to consider adopting a measure to recognize a Srebrenica Remembrance Day, let us stress one aspect which is less known to Canada’s public, and that is international responsibility and privilege from Canada being a member of the UN Security Council’s Chapter VII Executive Governing Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina - the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (SB PIC), sitting together with its closest allies and international partners, US and European Union, which have already adopted similar resolutions (European Parliament resolution of 15 January 2009 on Srebrenica; US S. RES. 134 and H.Res. 199).

We request Parliament of Canada and Canadian government to recognize that genocide took place in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Canadian recognition could have bestowed much deserved honour upon the victims and survivors of the genocide. It will assure the Canadian-Bosniak community (who still face overt and subtle threats and intimidation here in Canada without protection of the local authorities) and all communities that aggression, ethnic cleansing, genocide and all such evils will not be repeated and that Canada and Canadians stand ready to uphold democratic principles and the rule of law. It would significantly raise awareness of genocide and the understanding of what can happen when people are judged solely on their ethnicity, their religion, and their beliefs. Furthermore, it would stand as a reminder to re-uphold our commitment to “NEVER AGAIN” after it failed in the case of Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

KARADZIC TRIAL READY, 'KILL THEM ALL'

"All those who are down there, they should be killed. Kill all those you manage to kill." - Radovan Karadzic

The case against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is ready to begin in September. A months ago, U.N. Judges ordered Prosecutors to cut more charges against Radovan Karadzic for the purpose of speeding up the trial. The Office of the Prosecutor already reduced charges of Bosnian Genocide from 27 municipalities to only 11. Furthermore, "the prosecution announced it would not call eight crime base witnesses for Sarajevo, noting it was actively trying to cut down the number of witnesses for Srebrenica" according to the SENSE Tribunal. "The prosecution [also] asked that the transcripts of evidence given at other trials by deceased witnesses Milan Babic and Miroslav Deronjic be tendered into evidence."

WHY IS EVIDENCE GIVEN BY MIROSLAV DERONJIC IMPORTANT?

During his trial at the International Crimes Tribunal, Miroslav Deronjic had admitted ordering an attack on Glogova (a village just outside of Srebrenica) on 9 May 1992 in which 64 Bosniak villagers were massacred.

In his testimony Deronjic described former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic as being happy about the massacre and rewarding him with a round of an applause.

He implicated Serbian Army in the massacre and also testified that Karadzic ordered all Srebrenica refugees to be killed, quote:

A: [W]hat he [Radovan Karadzic] meant was that when our army entered Srebrenica and when the Muslim army in Srebrenica was defeated, that they would start pulling out. And I concluded that he thought that we should kill everybody we could get our hands on.

Q: So on this meeting of the 8th or 9th, did President Karadzic actually say, "Miroslav, they should be killed," referring to any potential Muslim prisoners?

A: Yes. And this is something I have told the Prosecution about. I mentioned this sentence to the Prosecution. I'm not sure about every word, but "kill," I remember this word being used. He said, "All those who are down there, they should be killed. Kill all those you manage to kill." That's what I can remember. [Court Transcript]

Yugoslav army and Bosnian Serb forces razed the village of Glogova to the ground, setting alight its mosque, homes, warehouses, fields and haystacks. After the Glogova Massacre, Deronjic went to Pale (war-time Bosnian Serb capital) to meet Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. When Deronjic walked in a large conference hall, Karadzic was sitting at a table with a map in front of him. With him were Bosnian Serb army commander-in-chief General Ratko Mladic and one of Karadzic's officials, Velibor Ostojic. Deronjic said that when he reported that the village of Glogova had been burnt down and its Bosniak population deported, the three men broke into applause. "Now we can colour Bratunac in blue," said Ostojic. Blue is a traditional Serb national colour.

During the war, Deronjic was chief of the Bratunac crisis staff, an ad hoc Bosnian Serb local government, during the time when forces under his control attacked the Bosniak village of Glogova in May 1992. Deronjic was the only person to be convicted for Bratunac related crimes in which over 600 Bosniaks died.

In a signed statement, which he gave to the International Crimes Tribunal, attached to his plea agreement was evidence implicating the Yugoslav army and Serbian police and paramilitaries in the massacre. In his statement, he said that, as a confidant of Karadzic and a central board member of the Serbian Democratic Party, he was aware that in the months leading up to the war both the Yugoslav army and Serbia's interior ministry were arming Bosnian Serbs.

In mid-April 1992, volunteers from Serbia poured into the town of Bratunac, on the river Drina. They came under an agreement between the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia itself, said Deronjic. The volunteers immediately killed some of the most prominent Bosniaks.

The war crimes tribunal in The Hague sentenced Deronjic in 2004 and rejected his appeal the following year after which he was moved to Sweden to serve his sentence where he died in 2007.

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

SERBS RAPED BOSNIAK WOMEN IN POTOCARI DURING SREBRENICA GENOCIDE

"Two took her legs and raised them up in the air, while the third began raping her. People were silent, no one moved. She was screaming and yelling and begging them to stop. They put her a rag into her mouth, and then we were just hearing silent sobs coming from her closed lips. When they finished, the woman was left there."

A very rare article you're about to read was written by a Croatian journalist Snjezana Vukic and published by the Associated Press during the Srebrenica genocide on July 18, 1995. We were not able to locate this news article in Google's Search Engine, so we decided to re-publish it on our blog directly from Google News archive for 'fair use' purpose in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. From now on, it will be searchable in Google.

Atrocities Reported by Refugees
by SNJEZANA VUKIC

TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Zarfa Turkovic says she watched through half-closed eyes, pretending to sleep, hoping she would not be next, as four Bosnian Serb men raped a 28-year old Muslim woman.

Turkovic's testimony, terrifying in its graphic detail, is one more piece of the horrible mosaic forming in the aftermath of the Bosnian Serbs' capture of the "safe area" of Srebrenica.

Atrocities reported by many of the thousands of traumatized Muslims deported from Srebrenica can't be independently verified. But some of the horrors are repeated over and over: Serbs taking away young Muslim women - as well as young men who had not fled.

The Bosnian Serbs on Monday issued a strong denial of the atrocities reported by refugees in Tuzla. International media, "aided and abetted by the Muslim authorities, have indulged in an orgy of uncritical reporting," Bosnian Serb spokesman Jovan Zametica said in a statement.

Throughout the more than 3-year-old war, Muslims and international human rights organizations have repeatedly charged Serbs with systematic rape as part of a tactic of intimidation meant to drive other ethnic groups out of areas Serbs claim. The Serbs have long denied such allegations.

Refugees from Srebrenica thought the worst was over when they reached a U.N. based at Potocari, two miles north of the fallen safe haven.

But it was there, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeepers, that the Turkovic says Bosnian Serbs chose a young victim from among the sleeping refugees. "Two took her legs and raised them up in the air," Turkovic said, "while the third began raping her."

"People were silent, no one moved. She was screaming and yelling and begging them to stop. They put her a rag into her mouth, and then we were just hearing silent sobs coming from her closed lips. When they finished, the woman was left there," she said.

Turkovic said she and dozens of other women - some with children - lay only yards away, silently praying they would not be next.

"I pretended that I was sleeping, but I didn't dare because I was afraid that if I fell to sleep they would just kill me and my kids," she said.

Her sister, 19-year-old Fetima, gave the same account of the rape. She said she held one of her sister's four children in her arms, hoping the Serbs would be less likely to assault a mother.

The peacekeepers, who the refugees hoped would be their protectors, were themselves singled out for humiliation, Turkovic said.

On Wednesday, two Serbs approached the two U.N. guards posted to ensure the safety of a group of refugees and ordered them to put down their weapons and strip to their underwear, she said.

The peacekeepers, part of the United Nations Protection Force, did so without resistance. "We lost all our hope then. Then we understood what UNPROFOR is. Nothing."

Where to find this article? The original shortened version of this article appeared in Google News archive in The Register Guard. Substantially shorter version of the article appeared in Boca Raton News. Full (original) version of this article can be, however, purchased from The Independent here [Snjezana Vukic, “Refugees Tell of Women Singled Out for Rape,” The Independent (London), July 18, 1995.].

Continue your research:
1. Raped women were also victims of the Srebrenica genocide
2. Can genocide be committed by letting the women and children go?
3. Srebrenica ghetto: Life in hell, Enclave of "Safe Haven"
4. Srebrenica child: Raped, Hung
5. U.N. and Dutch Cowards on Trial
6. VIDEO - The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum published a testimony by ERIC DACHY. He also confirmed rapes of Bosniak women by Serb soldiers during the Srebrenica genocide. Watch his testimony here:
http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/dachy

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

TORTURE AND FORCED CONFESSIONS USED AS A METHOD FOR PROVING BOGUS CLAIMS ABOUT WAR CRIMES AGAINST SERBS

PHOTO: Srebrenica - ethnically cleansed Bosniak town in Podrinje (eastern Bosnia) where Bosnian Serb Army committed genocide in July 1995.

Samir Avdic, Nedzad Hasic, Ahmo Harbas and Behrudin Husic were severely tortured to sign bogus confessions about the crimes against Serb civilians around Srebrenica (see background). Here is an update of this case from Dnevni Avaz:

Damir Alagic, lawyer representing Samir Avdic who is currently in prison in Foca, stated that his client was forced into signing 102-page long statement about the alleged crimes of Bosniaks against the Bosnian Serb population around Srebrenica.

This bogus statement was drafted by the Serbian Radical Party "Dr. Vojislav Seselj" and "mechanically" signed.

"This shameful policy of equalization of crimes in the Srebrenica area is led by the Greater-Serbian political activists," said Alagic.

He added that in the presense of the lawyer Muhamed Susic, Avdic stated in front of the court in Banja Luka that Serbs who tortured him promised to let him go from prison in a matter of two months if he signs bogus statement implicating a number of Bosniaks in alleged crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica region.

"Therefore, we consider this statement irrelevant because it was forced, and we know well the degree of psychological abuse our client went through after being severely tortured by Serb authorities who arrested him in 1996."

The defence has a witness who confirms the alibi that the defendant Samir Avdic was not in the place where alleged murder too place. He was in a different location, said Susic.

Zulfo Salihovic, president of the organization of veterans (demobilized soldiers) who served in the Army of Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, also believes that Samir Avdic was forced to sign the statement.

"I know Saban Avdic who was not even a soldier, but a local Bosniak miller. As a civilians, he did not survive the fall of Srebrenica, but Serbs accused him of war crimes. Hakija Meholjic, Zulfo Tursunovic and Smajo Mandza had been questioned by Serb authorities, but there was no evidence to start the proceedings against them," said Salihovic.

Dnevni Avaz

[Bosnian language version]

Bolesnom Avdiću obećana sloboda i odlazak u Ameriku

Sramna je ova velikosrpska politika protiv mog branjenika, koja se vodi radi izjednačavanja zločina, kaže advokat Alagić...

Damir Alagić, advokat Samira Avdića, koji se trenutno nalazi u zatvoru u Foči, za kojeg Srpska radikalna stranka "Dr. Vojislav Šešelj" tvrdi je na 102 stranice dao izjavu o navodnim zločinima srebreničkih Bošnjaka nad srpskim stanovništvom, kaže da je riječ o psihičkom bolesniku, čija je izjava iznuđena i "mehanički" potpisana.

- Sramna je ova velikosrpska politika protiv mog branjenika, koja se vodi radi izjednačavanja zločina na srebreničkom području - kazao nam je Alagić.

On dodaje da je u njegovom prisustvu i u prisustvu Muhameda Sušića, također advokata, Avdić pred sudskim vijećem u Banjoj Luci rekao kako mu je obećano da će biti pušten na slobodu u roku od dva mjeseca i prebačen u Ameriku ako potpiše dokumente o navodnim zločinima Bošnjaka nad Srbima u Srebrenici iz ratnog perioda.

- Stoga ovaj iskaz smatramo irelevantnim i iznuđenim jer znamo u kakvom se psihičkom stanju nalazi naš klijent zbog torture koju je prošao 1996. godine kada je uhapšen.

Muhamed Sušić kaže da još čekaju odgovor od Suda na njihov zahtjev za uvjetno puštanje na slobodu i ponavljanje postupka protiv njihovog klijenta.

- Odbrana ima svjedoka koji potvrđuje da se Avdić nije nalazio na mjestu gdje je počinjeno ubistvo koje mu se stavlja na teret već da je bio na suprotnoj lokaciji - kazao je Sušić.

Optužili i mlinara koji nije preživio pad Srebrenice

I Zulfo Salihović, predsjednik Organizacije demobilisanih boraca Armije RBiH općine Srebrenica, smatra da je Samir Avdić prisiljen na potpisivanje dokumenta.

- Poznajem Šabana Avdića kojeg sumnjiče. Taj čovjek uopće nije bio vojnik, već milinar te nije uspio preživjeti pad Srebrenice. Hakija Meholjić, Zulfo Tursunović i Smajo Mandža ispitivani su i nema materijalnih dokaza za pokretanje procesa - kaže Salihović.

Dnevni Avaz

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: LEGALLY ESTABLISHED CASE OF GENOCIDE

Last updated: August 10, 2010.

Read what the leading scholar of the Holocaust, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton,
thinks about the Bosnian genocide.

LIST OF BOSNIAN GENOCIDE JUDGEMENTS

Photo credits: RON HAVIV, Blood and Honey

DID YOU KNOW?

1. NOVISLAV DJAJIC was FOUND GUILTY for participating in the FOCA GENOCIDE. Foca is a municipality in eastern Bosnia. On 23 May 1997, German court found that acts of genocide were committed in Foca in June 1992. This case was cited in the judgement handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against Radislav Krstic when considering whether the Srebrenica massacre met the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide requirement.

2. NIKOLA JORGIC was FOUND GUILTY for participating in the BOSNIAN GENOCIDE. In September 1997, German court sentenced him to four terms of life imprisonment. In 2007, European Court of Human Rights upheld the genocide judgement against Jorgic. This case was also cited in the judgement handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against Radislav Krstic when considering whether the Srebrenica massacre met the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide requirement.

3. MAKSIM SOKOLOVIC was FOUND GUILTY for aiding and abetting the BOSNIAN GENOCIDE. On 29 November 1999, German court sentenced him to 9 years in prison.

4. DJURADJ KUSLJIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the BOSNIAN GENOCIDE. On December 15 1999, German court sentenced Kusljic to life in prison for genocide in conjunction with six counts of murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

5. RADISLAV KRSTIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on August 2, 2001. He was sentenced to 46 years in prison. On appeal, he was convicted as an aider and abetter to genocide and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

6. VIDOJE BLAGOJEVIC was FOUND GUILTY for his complicity in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in January 2005. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Four months later, his conviction for complicity in the genocide was OVERTURNED. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for other crimes.

7. MILOS STUPAR was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges) in July 2008. He was sentence to 40 years in prison. He was later ACQUITTED.

8. MILENKO TRIFUNOVIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges) in July 2008. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison.

9. BRANO DZINIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges). He was sentenced to 42 years in prison in July 2008.

10. SLOBODAN JAKOVLJEVIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges). He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in July 2008.

11. BRANISLAV MEDAN was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges). He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in July 2008.

12. PETAR MITROVIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges). He was sentenced to 38 years in prison in July 2008.

13. ALEKSANDAR RADOVANOVIC was FOUND GUILTY for his involvement in the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (in front of the international judges). He was sentenced to 42 years in prison in July 2008.

14. The Trial Chamber found in the MOMCILO KRAJISNIK case that although the crimes that took place "constituted the actus reus of genocide", the evidence "does not show that the crime of genocide formed part of the common objective of the joint criminal enterprise in which Mr Krajišnik is shown on the evidence to have participated, nor that Mr Krajišnik had the specific intent necessary for genocide." Thus far, the judgement stated that the Bosnian Genocide did took place, but that Mr. Krajisnik - as an individual - did not have intent to commit it.

15. SERBIA was FOUND GUILTY by the International Court of Justice for not taking "measures within its power to prevent genocide in Srebrenica." However, because the case dealt "exclusively with genocide in a limited legal sense and not in the broader sense sometimes given to this term", Serbia was found NOT GUILTY for the direct involvement in the genocide and the court did not hand down a judgement in the favor of the Bosnian Genocide. Other reason why Serbia was not found directly liable for the genocide may lay in the fact that "Serbia's Darkest Pages [were] Hidden from Genocide Court."

16. Default Judgement against RADOVAN KARADZIC amounting to $745 million was entered in 2000 by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Bosniak and Croat victims filed a lawsuit against Karadzic in 1994. The court of appeals ruled that "Karadžić may be found liable for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in his private capacity and for other violations in his capacity as a state actor, and that he is not immune from service of process." Karadzic actively participated in the defence of Doe v. Karadžić and Kadić v. Karadžić until he went into hiding in late 90s. Now he stands trial at the ICTY in relation to the Bosnian Genocide (including the municipality of Srebrenica), and other crimes against humanity.

17. UNITED STATES SENATE RESOLUTION S. RES. 134 recognized the BOSNIAN GENOCIDE on 22 June 2005. "The policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, done at Paris December 9, 1948, and entered into force January 12, 1951."

18. UNITED STATES CONGRESS recognized BOSNIAN GENOCIDE on 27 June 2005, during the 109th Congress. The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution (H. Res. 199 sponsored by Congressman Christopher Smith with 39 cosponsors) with an overwhelming majority of 370 - YES votes, 1 - NO vote, and 62 - ABSENT.

19. STATE OF MICHIGAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES recognized the SREBRENICA GENOCIDE in a House Resolution No. 111 on July 11, 2009.

20. BOROUGH OF HIGHLAND PARK RESOLUTION acknowledged the US Congress Resolution (H. Res. 199) and recognized the BOSNIAN GENOCIDE and SREBRENICA GENOCIDE on July 7 2009.

21. MILORAD TRBIC was FOUND GUILTY for the Srebrenica genocide on October 16 2009 and sentenced to 30 years in jail by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

22. RADOMIR VUKOVIC was FOUND GUILTY for the Srebrenica genocide on 22 April 2010 and sentenced to 31 years in jail by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

23. ZORAN TOMIC was found guilty of the Srebrenica genocide on 22 April 2010 and sentenced to 31 years in jail by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

24. VUJADIN POPOVIC was FOUND GUILTY for the Srebrenica genocide on 10 June 2010 and sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

25. LJUBISA BEARA was was FOUND GUILTY for the Srebrenica genocide on 10 June 2010 and sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

26. DRAGO NIKOLIC was FOUND GUILTY for aiding and abetting Srebrenica genocide on 10 June 2010 and sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

GENOCIDE TRIALS CONTINUE:

1. RADOVAN KARADZIC is in custody of the ICTY awaiting his genocide trial in relation to the Bosnian Genocide and Srebrenica Genocide.

2. ZDRAVKO TOLIMIR (aka: 'Chemical Tolimir') is in custody of the ICTY awaiting his genocide trial. He requested Bosniak refugee columns from Zepa/Srebrenica to be gassed with chemical weapons (see Prosecutor's statement).

3. UN AND THE STATE OF THE NETHERLANDS are accused of breaching their obligation to prevent genocide in Srebrenica. The case is still ongoing. The Plantif in this case: Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa.

4. DUSKO JEVIC, aka Staljin, born on June 21, 1957 in the municipality of Bosanski Petrovac, residing in Bijeljina, a citizen of BiH, on Genocide Trial in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

5. MENDELJEV DJURIC, aka Mane, born on October 15, 1960 in Olovo, residing in Bijeljina, a citizen of Bosnia, on Genocide Trial in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

6. GORAN MARKOVIC, born on November 8, 1964 in Sarajevo, residing in Bijeljina, a citizen of BiH, on Genocide Trial in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

7. NEDJO IKONIC, extradited from the United States to Bosnia to face Genocide Trial.

8. FRANC KOS, extradited from Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina to face Genocide Trial.

9. STANKO KOJIC charged with Genocide by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

10. VLASTIMIR GOLIJANIN charged with Genocide by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

11. ZORAN GORONJA charged with Genocide by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

*Note: Earlier case that involved different plaintiffs, namely Hasan Nuhanovic and Rizo Mustafic, was dismissed and the plaintiffs have indicated they would appeal.

MANY AVOIDED GENOCIDE CONVICTION:

Many suspects that took part in the genocide accepted PLEA BARGAINS to avoid genocide conviction. For example, BILJANA PLAVSIC was charged on two counts of genocide by the ICTY. On 16 December 2002, she accepted a plea bargain with the ICTY to enter a guilty plea to only one count of crimes against humanity.

Some genocide suspects died before they could be convicted of genocide. For example, SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC was charged with 66 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. He died on 11 March 2006 during his trial.

RATKO MLADIC, former Bosnian Serb General, is still at large. He was charged with genocide by the ICTY.

MARKO BOSKIC signed a plea agreement (on 19 July 2010) and received only a 10 year sentence for "Crimes Against Humanity", thus far avoiding being indicted for genocide. He admitted killing hundreds of unarmed Bosniak men and underage boys.

40,000 MUSLIMS TARGETED FOR EXTINCTION IN SREBRENICA, JUDGE T. MERON

[Reading Time: 5 minutes. Highly Recommended]

"By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica... " - Judge Theodor Meron [Polish-American Jew]

In 2004, Presiding U.N. Judge Theodor Meron - who is Polish-American of Jewish descent - delivered a historic speech at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial located in Potocari (near Srebrenica). His speech was both moving and inspiring, but also educational. We hope you read it carefully and learn from it.

ADDRESS BY PRESIDING JUDGE THEODOR MERON

It is with honour and humility that I stand today at the Potocari Memorial Cemetery. This place is a daily reminder of the horrors that visited the town of Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The crimes committed there have been well documented and have been recognized – and roundly and appropriately condemned – by the United Nations, the international community in general, and by the people of the region of former Yugoslavia. These crimes have also been described in detail and consigned to infamy in the decisions rendered by the court over which I preside, the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia.

I have had a special wish to visit the Potocari Memorial Cemetery because earlier this year I had the privilege of sitting as the Presiding Judge in the appeal which, for the first time, judicially recognized the crimes committed against the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 as genocide. In that case, named Prosecutor versus Radislav Krstic, the Appeals Chamber of our Tribunal convicted one of the leaders of the Bosnian Serb assault on Srebrenica, General Radislav Krstic, for aiding and abetting genocide. The Appeals Chamber also found that some members of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army harboured genocidal intent against the Bosnian Muslim people who sought safety in the enclave of Srebrenica, and that these officials acted upon that intent to carry out a deliberate and massive massacre of the Muslims in Srebrenica.

The judgment which the Appeals Chamber has pronounced will be of importance not only in acknowledging the crime committed in Srebrenica for what it is, but also in developing and enhancing the international criminal law’s understanding of genocide. By discussing and elaborating the legal requirement of genocide, and by explaining how they applied it in the circumstances of Srebrenica, the Appeals Chamber has facilitated the recognition – and, I hope, the prevention – of this horrible crime.

Many victims of this crime lie here, in this cemetery. In honour of their memory, I would like to read a brief passage from the judgment in Krstic, the passage which discusses the gravity and the horrific nature of the crime of genocide, and states unhesitantly that its perpetrators will unfailingly face justice.

"Among the grievous crimes this Tribunal has the duty to punish, the crime of genocide is singled out for special condemnation and opprobrium. The crime is horrific in its scope; its perpetrators identify entire human groups for extinction. Those who devise and implement genocide seek to deprive humanity of the manifold richness its nationalities, races, ethnicities and religions provide. This is a crime against all of humankind, its harm being felt not only by the group targeted for destruction, but by all of humanity.

The gravity of genocide is reflected in the stringent requirements which must be satisfied before this conviction is imposed. These requirements – the demanding proof of specific intent and the showing that the group was targeted for destruction in its entirety or in substantial part – guard against a danger that convictions for this crime will be imposed lightly. Where these requirements are satisfied, however, the law must not shy away from referring to the crime committed by its proper name. By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity. The Bosnian Serb forces were aware, when they embarked on this genocidal venture, that the harm they caused would continue to plague the Bosnian Muslims. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act."

Those who drafted, on the heels of the Second World War and the Holocaust, the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of genocide, were animated by the desire to ensure that the horror of a state-organized deliberate and massive murder of a group of people purely because of their identity will never recur in the history of humankind. The authors of the Convention hoped that by encapsulating the crime of genocide, by declaring unambiguously that it will not go unpunished, and by requiring the international community to do the utmost to prevent it, they will forestall forever attempts to annihilate any national, ethnic or religious group in the world. As the graves in this cemetery testify, the struggle to make the world free of genocide is not easy and is not one of uninterrupted victories. But I would like to think that by recognizing the crimes committed here as genocide, and by condemning them with the utmost force at our command, we have helped to make the hope of those who drafted the Genocide Convention into an expectation and perhaps even a reality. As I stand here today, I can do little better than to repeat the solemn warning sounded by the Appeals Chamber of our Tribunal that those who commit this inhumane crime will not escape justice before the courts of law and the court of history.

Finally, I take this opportunity to call, once again, for the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet their obligations under international law to cooperate fully with the ICTY. It is simply unacceptable that the authorities in the Republika Srpska have yet to arrest and transfer any individual on their territory who has been indicted by the Tribunal. This situation cannot be allowed to continue and I would like to see a dramatic change in the Republika Srpska's level of compliance with its legal obligations. It is hightime that the RS break with its tradition of non-cooperation and obstruction of the Rule of Law.

In this regard, I take note of the findings in the Republika Srpska Srebrenica Commission's preliminary report, which I see as a step in the right direction. It indicates a new readiness to come to terms with painful events of the past and to constrain revisionist tendencies. However, the process is far from complete.

SOURCE: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague, Netherlands http://www.icty.org/sid/8409.

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

GENOCIDE UNDER THE UN FLAG - SREBRENICA 1995-2009

"HELP ME, MOTHER! THE CHETNIKS ARE BUTCHERING ME."

"There was a body nailed to the block. Its throat had been cut. The head was still attached. They had not quite cut through. He was nailed alive... On the second night the Chetniks got among the people at the UNPROFOR camp... They kicked, stamped, dragged out girls to rape them, killed the men... While one of the Chetniks held them, another would thrust his knife into their necks, from the side. The one who was holding them would then cut across their throat and throw down the body. I screamed when I saw my son among them: ‘My son!’ He saw me. He opened his arms towards me. A Chetnik grabbed him, stuck his knife into his neck, the other cut his throat. The blood spurted out..."

By: Dženana Karup-Druško

In July 1995, after the fall of Srebrenica, I left besieged Sarajevo for Tuzla, where a tent camp had been set up for the surviving people of Srebrenica. I left the city with a tunnel pass signed by the then security officer of the 1st Corps of the Bosnian Army, Sead Čudić, and wearing an army uniform to facilitate travel. After several transfers and a journey that lasted nearly two days, I finally arrived at Dubrava. The airport was under UNPROFOR control and it was they who decided who could come in. Looking ironically at my uniform and the proffered press card, they told me curtly: ‘Local journalists are not allowed in.’

As I waited hoping that the soldiers might change their mind, a group of foreign journalists turned up and were welcomed in by the UNPROFOR men with a smile and no questions asked. I found myself afterwards in many even more delicate situations, but don’t recall ever feeling quite so humiliated. I retreated, my head bowed and with tears in my eyes. Revolted by what they saw, my friends from Tuzla, who had brought me to the airport, told me they would find a way for me to enter the airport. We circled around by car until we saw a hole in the fence. I squeezed through. I will never forget the picture I saw next: though it was daylight, all the searchlights at the airport were lit up. UNPROFOR soldiers and officers were marching up and down the concrete paths in spick-and-span uniforms and shining boots. I was reminded for a moment of SS troops in American movies. Only a few steps away from them, stuck in deep mud, were white tents made out of synthetic fibre, full of mothers, sisters, wives... They told me about their missing relatives, about the killings, about the hell through which they had passed. I watched them with my eyes full of tears as I listened to their talk of the horrible deaths they had witnessed.

Losing three sons

A mother with two small children sat in a flooded tent that I found hard to reach even with my army boots, wading through the deep mud.

"We were in Potočari. On the second day, around ten in the morning, I was sitting with the children, having laid out some food. Five of them turned up. They pointed to my son and asked him to go with them for questioning. I told them he was not yet fifteen. He was still at school. They took him away. I followed them. One of the soldiers looked back and asked me if I would like them to take my son to Kladanj. Of course, I said, I’d give my eye for it. He told me that everything was fine, and I went back. Soon after a woman came up and said that ‘they are butchering people further along, in the wheat field’. Five or six of them rushed off to see if one of their relatives was involved. There was a block laid out among the wheat, a metre or two wide. A dozen heads that had been cut off were laid out on it. Around it were bodies in their last throes. Blood. Blood everywhere. A Chetnik [member of the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS] ordered it to be washed down. The others took cans and began to pour water. The blood spilt across the ripening wheat. There was a body nailed to the block. Its throat had been cut. The head was still attached. They had not quite cut through. He was nailed alive. They had slaughtered my son. I was screaming. They tried to shoo me away. But I could not leave. Nothing mattered to me any longer, they could kill me too."

That evening her second son was taken away. He was twenty.

"I entered the house as they were taking him away. The Chetniks were pushing me away. I wouldn’t leave. There were seven or eight of our people there. They lined them up for the slaughter. While one of the Chetniks held them, another would thrust his knife into their necks, from the side. The one who was holding them would then cut across their throat and throw down the body. I screamed when I saw my son among them: ‘My son!’ He saw me. He opened his arms towards me. A Chetnik grabbed him, stuck his knife into his neck, the other cut his throat. The blood spurted out."

She was crying as she spoke. She was unable to continue. She sighed and talked to herself. At some point I realised she was talking to her dead son. Her eyes were open but she did not see me. She started to sob, which appeared to soothe her a little. She next looked at me and said: "I drank more of his blood than of water at Potočari."

This unhappy mother lost yet another son, her third. She had no idea where he was. Nor her husband who was kept back at Potočari. They took him away, crowding them into the buses. The youngest son, who was then three years old, was in his father’s arms. He was crying, not wishing to leave his father. A Chetnik seized him and threw him on the asphalt. Another kicked him with his foot. This unhappy woman wouldn’t tell me her name, out of fear, she said, that it might harm the son and husband for whom she was waiting. They never came.

I have no one left

The entry of Serb tanks and soldiers dressed in UN uniforms on 10 July 1995 from the direction of Zeleni Jadro into the Srebrenica hamlet of Petrič broke the agreement of 8 May 1993 according to which the UN had promised the Bosnian government to protect this enclave on the Drina. Within 48 hours all of the Bosniak population was driven out of the area. Around 30,000 people from Srebrenica were driven out of their homes. Some places disappeared, as have the people. Some families were totally destroyed. Around 8,000 people went missing. What happened to them is testified to by the Potočari Memorial Centre and the thousands of graves in a cemetery where the discovered remains of the victims of this horrific crime have kept being buried each year. There were 534 funerals this year alone.

I make my way to Srebrenica for the first time, on 10 July 2009. We enter Potočari. I gaze at the former factories: Cinkara, Akumulatorka, Ekspres Transport. Thousands of people were imprisoned in them in 1995. Most of them were murdered. The sun shines in Potočari, but I feel chilled, remembering what the Srebrenica survivors told me:

"On the second night the Chetniks got among the people at the UNPROFOR camp. Panic ensued. People were fleeing, leaping over each other, children were crying, women screaming for help. As if the devil himself had turned up among us. They kicked, stamped, dragged out girls to rape them, killed the men."

Ratko Mladić came to Srebrenica and said that everything would be fine. Mensura Osmović said she heard him herself. He brought chocolate. As the children extended their hands, he would give it to them. On the following they he brought television, distributed chocolate again. Mensura spent that night under a burnt-out bus watching people being led away. They were driven off in the direction of Bratunac. I heard a young man call out: "Help me, mother! The Chetniks are butchering me."

At around seven o’clock in the evening on 10 July 2009, 543 coffins are brought from the Memorial Centre basement and taken to the cemetery where they will be buried the next day. The coffins passed from one man to the next, for over an hour. A four-year-old girl stands by a coffin saying Al-Fâtiha. When she finishes she asks her mother as she points to the next coffin: "Mother, shall I say it also for this uncle?" Her mother answers her in tears: "Do, my child, they are all our dead." The girl’s mother is called Dževada Mašić. She whispers to me as she sobs: "They murdered the whole of my family. I have no one left." I look at her and cry. I recall my own dead, who were killed a little further along the Drina, in Goražde and Foča, and think about what she tells me in her firm voice: "May they be damned! Let them have no peace in this world or the next." As a small girl, she was holding her father by the hand as the Chetniks wrenched him away. For ever. "They took him away at this very place. They killed my grandfather and his five sons. My father’s bones have not been found, so I can’t bury him. I have buried only one uncle. Tomorrow I will bury my grandfather."

An old man wearing a French beret is sitting by a coffin. I ask him quietly: "Grandpa, whom are you burying?" "My son", he whispers. He was born in 1961. I have no wish to question him further, and sit next to him in silence. The old man, Behadil Čardaković, tells me: ‘"hey found him in Zvornik. His wife has re-married and has gone to America. I haven’t seen either son or grandson since 1993. I have asked my grandson to come back ..."

Five years for shooting one thousand

A woman, her head covered, sits a little further away. They tell me she is burying her third son. She says nothing, only wipes her weeping eyes with a handkerchief. I crouch next to her and squeeze her hand, saying nothing. What can one ask a mother who has lost three sons? She looks at me and says: "My child, there is nothing I can tell you. I know how I feel..."

The women sitting next to her count their dead: one lost her husband and two brothers, another her mother-in-law and brothers-in-law, a third brothers and nephews, a fourth a son and a husband, a fifth uncles, a child... One of them says: "Let Allah punish them for this!"

Dražen Erdemović, soldier of the 10th commando unit of the Bosnian Serb Army was sentenced by the Hague tribunal to five years in prison, after confessing that he had taken part in the murder of 1,200 men and himself killed seventy. This was the first Hague verdict on the crimes committed in Srebrenica. Erdemović pathetically declared in the courthouse: "I feel sorry for all the victims, not only those who were killed on the farm." Because of his confession and his readiness to cooperate, Erdemović’s sentence was scandalously low. Should the victims be happy with this justice? After serving his sentence in Norway, Erdemović was released in 2000.

Erdemović testified at the trial of Momčilo Perišić, chief of staff of the Army of Yugoslavia at the time of the Srebrenica massacre, who was charged with aiding and abetting the crime. Erdemović told the court: "On 16 July, five days after the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) had taken Srebrenica, at the farm of Branjevo near Zvornik we shot the Bosniaks who had been brought in, on the orders of officer Brane Gojković. The unit’s commander was lance-corporal Milorad Pelemiš, who took orders from Petar Salapura, intelligence chief of the main staff of the VRS. Some of the soldiers of the 10th commando platoon had been trained in late 1994 at the [Serbian] Army of Yugoslavia’s barracks in Pančevo. The victims were men between 15 and 60 years of age and were all wearing civilian clothes. They were taken under military police guard in groups of 10 from 15 or 20 buses and shot in the back on a field outside the farm, only one of them offering resistance. My unit was firing from 10.00 until 14.00 or 15.00, when the killing was continued by another unit from Bratunac."

Erdemović testified also at the trial of General Radislav Krstić, former commander of the Drina Corps. The Hague tribunal sentenced Krstić to 35 years in prison. Krstić was the highest ranking officer found guilty for taking part in genocide. The intelligence chief of the VRS, Zdravko Tolimir, was also charged. The tribunal in The Hague has found guilty also four VRS commanders for the crime in Srebrenica: Momir Nikolić, Dragan Obrenović, Vidoje Blagojević and Dragan Jokić who were sentenced respectively to 20, 17, 15 and 9 years in prison. The latest indictment against Radovan Karadžić accuses him of committing the gravest of crimes, including genocide, deportations, killings and other acts against humanicty committed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 27 municipalities including that of Srebrenica.

Questions that remain unanswered

Ten years after Srebrenica, the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina confirmed its first charge for genocide. The indictment charged Miloš Stupar, Milenko Trifunović, Petar Mitrović, Aleksandar Radovanović, Miladin Stevanović, Brano Džinić, Slobodan Jakovljević, Branislav Medan, Dragoša Živanović, Velibor Maksimović and Milovan Matić with crimes committed in the Peasant Association building in Kravice. They were sentenced to 284 years in prison, but four of them were found not guilty. Last year the Bosnia-Herzegovina Court issued another verdict for the crimes in Srebrenica: Mladen Blagojević was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Zdravko Božić, Željko Zarić and Zoran Živanović were set free. The charge was that as members of the military police of the Bratunac VRS light infantry brigade they took part in deportations, killings, and guarding the premises in which Bosniaks from Srebrenica were kept after 11 July 1995. As for those set free, the court argued that "the Bosnia-Herzegovina prosecution did not prove their presence" at the place where the victims were imprisoned, and the court did not "quite believe" its witnesses.

Last year the Bosnia-Herzegovina Court confirmed the indictment charging Zoran Tomić, a former member of the second battalion of the Š eković special police, with participation in the Srebrenica genocide. It charged Tomić also that on 13 July 1995 he took part in an attack on a column of Bosniaks, forcing them to surrender, and with capturing several thousand of the men from Srebrenica, of whom around one thousand were taken away and shot in the Peasant Association depot at Kravice. The Bosnia-Herzegovina Court filed a charge of genocide committed in Srebrenica against Željko Ivanović, called Arkan, a former member of the second battalion of the Republika Srpska special police, for participating on 13 July 1995 in the arrest and killing of more than one thousand of the men and boys from Srebrenica at the Peasant Association premises in Kravice.

The mothers of Srebrenica have initiated proceedings against the UN troops for the genocide that took place in Srebrenica, stating among other things: ‘Around 10,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically killed in only a few days by the army of the Bosnian Serbs commanded by Slobodan Milošević, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. At this time the indicted UN representatives and officials refused deliberately and treacherously to take any measure to prevent the genocide in the Srebrenica "safe area".’

Are the people of Srebrenica happy with the verdicts handed down and the current legal initiatives? Naturally they are not, for, as they say: "Thousands of people were killed and this could not be committed by the few dozen who have been imprisoned. What about the others? Will they ever be called to account, or will it all end with the shameless sentencing of the immediate executors? What about their superiors? When will it be finally acknowledged that Serbia was involved in it all?" There is no sign that the victims’ questions will be answered any time soon.

Where are my children?

On 11 July 2009 Fatima Halilović buried her second brother. Two places were left next to them for the two that have not yet been found. Two of those who were found lay close to the surface in the area of Cerska. On 11 July 1995 Fatima set off with her daughters to seek the protection of UNPROFOR. She stopped one of them: "He was black - I don’t know if he was Dutch. Not knowing English, I told the older girl to ask where we should go. The soldier said: "Where the big chief directs." I don’t know who the big chief was. It might have been Milošević or Mladić. They drove us at this time to Potočari, many people having died on the way to the place. We walked over dead bodies. Shells were exploding, troop carriers were passing. We were next bussed to liberated territory, but the men had been separated and killed."

The Serb forces moved the dead around several times over. The body of one of the dead at the funeral was made up of parts found at eleven different locations. In 1992 Suada Mujić left Srebrenica with two of her children and two of her brothers-in-law. But she was caught in Serbia, after which she was sent to the Palić camp at Subotica, which she left, she says, thanks to Fadil Banjović. She left behind in Srebrenica her husband, three brothers-in-law, three sisters-in-law, and her mother-in-law. One of her brothers-in-law, Mevludin Mujić, was killed in 1994, while another, Muharem, fled and ended up in the United States. Her husband and the third, Smajo, disappeared. Her father’s remains were found in Kamenica. "It is one graveyard after another. One searches through the bones and material in the hope of recognising something. I turned everything over last year and found my father. I recognised him from his clothes. His skull had been crushed. In his pocket I found a watch, a metal tobacco box, a lighter and his glasses with one of the lenses missing - we found it later in his pocket. I found my husband in Čančare near Zvornik. That was just a bit of his legs. The rest was found in Kamenica, albeit not the neck and the head. Last Friday, on the 11th, they found in Kamenica also his head. There was no sign of a bullet, but his right teeth had been smashed."

Suada’s mother-in-law died on 29 May of this year. She did not witness the discovery of her son’s remains. Suada says: ‘During the old [World War II] war, her immediate family was killed in Višegrad. She fled as an orphan to Srebrenica, where she was adopted by some people who did not have children of their own. She got married there and lived to see a war during which her whole family perished again. Many members of our family perished in Višegrad too. Mijesira Memišević, my mother-in-law’s cousin, lost both of her children, 17-year-old Meliha and 12-year-old Edin. She testified at the court in The Hague, and faced the criminal who had murdered her children. She told him: ‘I will not proclaim you guilty, but only tell me where my children are so that I can bury them.’ Eleven members of the immediate family of Suada’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law died in Srebrenica.

Why was it necessary for so many people to die on 11 July 1995? Many of the people of Srebrenica are asking this question. One of our interlocutors says that it would have been better if Srebrenica had fallen in 1992 to Arkan’s men. "Two or three thousand of us would perhaps have perished then, but the rest would have survived." Could more have been done from the military point of view? Not wishing to speak about what he did after 1995, some refer to the departure of Naser Orić, the commander who was an unchallenged authority in Srebrenica and who also dared to undertake forays at the head of his soldiers. His departure on the eve of Srebrenica’s fall many consider catastrophic - they are sure that everything would have been different had he been there. The fact is, however, that Srebrenica had many brave fighters.

Our hero

Ejub Golić was a battalion commander in Srebrenica. He led the convoy of soldiers and civilians who moved towards Tuzla after the fall of Srebrenica. The column was over two kilometres long. It marched at night. The people held onto each other’s sleeves in order not to get lost. Shells fell all round them. The dead were left by the road, and the wounded carried on. On the entry to Koljević Polje, someone from the column moved a desiccated old trunk leaning against another. There was much noise: those on whom the trees fell began to scream. A shell fell at this moment in the nearest vicinity. Chaos and panic ensued. The people fled in all directions. This was the first break-down of the column. One of the few who tried to organise and collect the people, say the survivors, was Commander Golić. At Konjević Polje he managed to put the column back together. He said then that no wounded would be left behind. And they weren’t. He would go back for the people. Entreated them to endure, not to surrender. The people trusted him. They followed behind him. He got killed in the last ambush. When his soldiers heard of his death, several of them threw themselves at the tanks. And they succeeded. They broke through the Serb line. The path was open for several thousand people from Srebrenica, but not for Commander Golić. His fighters and compatriots say, however, that they remember him. They insist: "He will always be our hero." And not only theirs.

Those who went with the army through the forest came to the base in Potočari. Hasan Nuhanovićspoke later about the role of the Dutch battalion in the Srebrenica massacre: "The UNPROFOR base was enormous and could receive the whole of the population that sought protection. They let in five or six thousand, while the rest was left to the mercy of the Serb forces which arrived at Potočari. Years later various excuses are being cited for this decision. One of them is that the base could not accommodate 25,000 people. I have filed a charge against Holland because of this decision, for it was possible to save the people. It is complicity in crime, in my view. They drove people out of the base into the murderous arms of the Serbs. They were taken to the stadium in Bratunac, where most of them were killed. As they left they were frisked by Dutch soldiers in full battle dress, who insisted they should leave behind anything that could be considered as potential weapons. The women too surrendered nail scissors, pencils...’ Nuhanović said in conclusion: ‘This is the only genocide in history that occurred under the UN flag."

Not even half of those missing have been buried at Potočari. They are still being sought. [Editorial update: DNA results of the International Commission on Missing Persons support an estimate of 8,100 Srebrenica genocide victims. So far, the identities of 6,186 genocide victims have been revealed by the DNA analysis. For more information and a source link, read here]

On my return from Potočari, I walked through a police line. A Serb police line. Wearing Serb uniforms. Carrying Serb insignia. I recall the words of Zijad Bećirović, one of the participants at the conference "Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Consequences of the International Court of Justice Verdict" held in Srebrenica, who in his paper "Are we cohabiting with war criminals?" asked: "How many of those who are policing this meeting took part in the Srebrenica genocide?"


Translated by the Bosnian Institute in the United Kingdom from the independent weekly Dani. (Sarajevo), 17 July 2009 .

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. 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 separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.

TAKIS MICHAS HARASSED BY GREEK VOLUNTEERS

Respected Greek journalist, Mr Takis Michas, is under attack by former Greek volunteers who participated in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. Official reaction of the Chicago-based Congress of North American Bosniaks follows:

PHOTO: Takis Michas, author of the book "Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milošević's Serbia."

The Congress of North American Bosniaks, umbrella organization representing approximately 350,000 American and Canadian Bosniaks, strongly condemns a lawsuit against a respectful Greek journalist, Takis Michas for his writing about the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia supporting the Serbian aggression.

The lawsuit was launched by Stavros Vitalis, a former self-admitted Greek participant in the Srebrenica genocide who claims that the Greek volunteers were there in order to help the Serbs whom he characterizes as the “real victims”.

This is of course a false assessment that is being perpetrated with the intent of distorting the truth and contradicts all the historical facts that have already been established by the international courts, including the decision in which Serbia was found responsible for violating its obligation to prevent genocide in Srebrenica. The facts are that more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were slaughtered by Serbian forces, including Greek volunteers, simply because they belonged to a different ethnic and religious group.

The Congress of North American Bosniaks believes it is incomprehensible that participants in the genocide are not only allowed to walk free, unpunished for their crimes, but they are able to harass highly respected journalists for telling the truth. This is a further insult to injury to all the victims of the Srebrenica genocide and their families.

This is simply a case of trying to intimidate journalists, like Takis Michas, from telling the truth and publicly criticizing the Greek involvement and public attitudes towards the Srebrenica genocide. This is not only an attack on free speech but a repulsive attempt at distorting the truth and spreading of hate propaganda that somehow tries to justify war crimes. This also comes at a time when Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, is about to face trial for his role in leading and orchestrating the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is important that journalists are allowed to express their views on all aspects of the events that took place in the region, so that we can prevent them from occurring in the future.

Unfortunately Greek government has not prosecuted those who took part in war crimes in Bosnia and operations that resulted in tragic death of Bosnian civilians, namely around Srebrenica where 8,000 Bosniaks were summarily executed by Serbian forces. As evidenced by the statement from Stavros Vitalis actions of the volunteers “were widely endorsed by Greek society because of the warm friendship that connected Andreas Papandreou with Radovan Karadzic”.

Greek government should take steps to apologize to the families of those who were killed, for their role in not doing anything to prevent the spread of hatred towards Bosniaks and for allowing the Greek volunteers to operate freely without fear of being prosecuted for their crimes. Furthermore, we ask of the Greek justice system to throw out the frivolous charges against Takis Michas, and ensure that freedom of the press is upheld according to the standards of the European Union.

Semir Đulić

Spokesperson

Source: Congress of North American Bosniaks