Srebrenica July 1995
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Milivoje Ivanišević SREBRENICA JULY 1995 IN SEARCH OF TRUTH Since 11 July 1995, when the Serbs came back to Srebrenica by force of arms, the same way they were driven away, there have been rumors about a large number of the killed Moslems, primarily innocent Moslem civilians, elderly men, women and children. Over time, the figures were being multiplied to finally become incredible in size making it nowadays possible not only for the Hague Tribunal, Moslem religious and civil authorities, as expected and perhaps logical, but for the officials of other countries as well to talk about genocide. The list contains numerous non-governmental organizations, especially from Sarajevo and Belgrade, financed mostly by Soros, who have been rehashing, multiplying and constantly keeping the issue in the limelight. The dead Moslem fighters of Srebrenica are, now with no blame whatsoever, parts of various combinations of those who have never known them and who nowadays constantly and without any emotional ties laid claim to them and “defend” them. The imposed Srebrenica cult seems to be still keeping watch over our conscience and becoming a metaphor of almost unbelievable and, above all, even genocidal crime of the Serbian people against the innocent citizens of that Bosnian town misplaced in gorges and wilderness. Is it all true? Moslem campaigns until April 1993 In one of the seized documents of the Bosnian Army, to be mentioned again, we can literally read the following: “In late January and early in February 1993, in controlled zone 8, this year has seen a large integrated free territory with the centre in Srebrenica, which includes 95% of Srebrenica commune territory, 90% of Bratunac commune, 60% of Vlasenica commune and 50% of Zvornik commune territory. Direct physical communication has been established with the commune centre of Zepa region.1 At the same time, the Moslems occupied, according to the same source of information, over 850km2 of the territory in the given communes. Only the communes of Srebrenica and Bratunac, out of 93 settlements in which the Serbs were also 1 Command 8. Srebrenica. 07.03.1994. Defense of the Republic, Military secret. In strict confidence to Morale Sector of the Second Corps, Item for the Chronicle Guidebook A BH. Ref. Conf. No. 04-1-364-2“ 1 living, 82 of them were destroyed (except for the villages of Crvica, Lijesce, Petric and Skelani in the commune of Srebrenica; in the commune of Bratunac the preserved, apart from the town itself, were the villages of Dubravuice, Jelah, Krasanovici, Pobrdje, Polom, Rekovac, Repovac and Slapasnica)2. Another 20 destroyed Serbian villages and hamlets in the communes of Vlasenica and Zvornik should be added to that number.3 Out of 9390 Serbs in the same region of Srebrenica commune after the Moslem campaign there remained in their houses 860 of them or 9%, and in Bratunac, out of 11500 ethnic Serb citizens, only 5391 or 47% mostly helped by the Serbs settled in the commune centre itself (3021 persons). Moslem campaign success was largely due to illegal, but in time well organized paramilitary units supplied by the weapons from the storehouse of the reserve police forces and home reserve. Besides, a large number of them, estimated at about 10000 from BH, was sent for military training to the Educational Centre of the Republic of Croatia. Nearly one thousand young men illegally left this region for Croatia. The letter sent to Executive Boards of SDA contains the instructions for sending the candidates to the given training. It was said that everybody was to have a “recommendation of the party, etc.” It was the indication that a military party unit had already been made. 4 In February 1992, they took from the storehouse of the home reserve factory even a three-barreled 22mm surface-to-air gun. A part of infantry weapons were bought by the bond issues floated in BH for employment purposes. Indeed, it was done secretly and only in the companies in which the managers were Moslems. Explosives were stolen from Sase mine on regular basis. Since the withdrawal of JNA troops from BH on 19 May 1992 until the establishment of Drina Corps of Republika Srpska Army on 1 November the same year the defense of Serbian villages was left to citizens themselves unable to efficiently fight against incomparably stronger Moslem units. Numerical superiority of Moslem military units over the Serbian ones, made at that time, remained evident throughout the war. As the Moslems took the weapons from the storehouses of the police and home reserve units, the Serbs took, sometimes by force, a lot of weapons, vehicles, ammunition, medical supplies, engineering equipment, radio stations from JNA which was withdrawing towards Yugoslavia. Moslem campaign against Serbian villages was a kind of national movement. After the soldiers the occupied villages were flooded by their relatives, neighbors and friends, as the second and third echelons, so called civilians: women, children, elderly people, carrying various implements and tools and taking away to their homes everything they could. According to the livestock statistics and the statements of the refugee citizens, the Moslems looted during their campaigns 7200 heads of cattle, 16200 heads of sheep and 38000 heads of poultry. Although the quantity of grains, particularly wheat and corn, is not known, it is safe to say that it was enough not only for winter needs but also for another season. After all, it 2 Standing mission SRY with ОUN, 2. June 1993. “Memorandum on war crimes and crimes genocide in Еastern Bosnia (communes of Bratunac, Skelani, and Srebrenica ) committed against the Serbian population from April 1992. to April 1993, p. 8. 3 Among 82 already mentioned and destroyed villages in the communes of Srebrenica and Bratunac, we shall note only those in which there was the largest number of the killed Serbs. They are as follows: Medje, Oparci, Obadi and Spat, Ratkovici, Loznocka Rijeka, Brezani, Zagoni, Krnjici, Sase i Zapayje, Magasici, Hranca, Podravanje, Fakovici, Boljevici, Sikiric, Bjelovac, Brana Bacici, Jezestica, Kravica, Siljkovici, Skelani… 4 Ref.: SDA, No. 1258-3-91, date: 11.07.1991. Signed by Acting Secretary Hasan Cengic. The address of the centre was already given: Strosmajerova St. 80, Zagreb, together with a note that “they have to come on Wednesday, 17.07.1991 at 6 p.m” The document is filed with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Tribunal. 2 was evident in the spring of 1993 when looking at the cultivated fields.5 If we spoke about starvation, it could have hit only the looted Serbian villages and the Serbian population in exile. The worst experience was suffered by the captured Serbs. These were mostly the elderly or the sick, psychically and physically handicapped, bed-ridden person, sometimes even the wounded, but their fate was, without exception, the same. They would be put out of their pains by the Moslem “civilians” who used tools (axes, metal and wooden bars…) carried for breaking into other people’s houses. Some of the victims lost their lives in fire together with the houses used for shelter. In spite of all this and the suffering they were exposed to, the Serbs in Srebrenica region were even at that time under the strong pressure of propaganda that helped hide their sufferings and Moslem crimes. Srebrenica Moslems near defeat Following the formation and consolidation of commands and units of the Drina Corps, ealy in 1993 there began the Serbian counteroffensive that changed the military situation and led to a series of Moslem defeats. In fact, it was a forced Serbian reaction aiming at liberation of the lost villages and enabling the refugees to get back to their homes. The action was successful, in spite of small number of soldiers in the Corps and nearly in all the Brigades, due to educated commanding staff who helped in efficient use of available weapons and perfectly planned operations.6 In April 1993, there was a threat that the Moslem military forces would be defeated and finally crushed. It was an immediate cause to put Srebrenica, on the pretext of protecting civilians, under the protection of UN. The Moslem and their protectors found hard the defeat and expulsion from a larger part of earlier occupied territories. When the Serbs got back to their villages, the size of the destruction and suffering could be seen more clearly. Between April 1992 and April 1993, more than one thousand ethnic Serbs were killed, and out of that number more than a third ended their lives wounded by cold steel, or being burned down or massacred. This was reported by the Yugoslav government in a special Memorandum, transmitted on 2 June 1993 by Ambassador Dragomir Djokic, to the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations.7 However, the Memorandum referred only to two communes (Bratunac and Srebrenica and the village of Skelani in Srebrenica region) and the number of over one thousand killed persons together with 2800-3200 wounded people in that region. The text does not mention the sufferings of the Serbs in the outskirts of Vlasenica and Zvornik regions, where the same Moslem forces conducted their military operations as in the town of Srebrenica. The shocking insights were arrived at when the mass graves were disinterred on the hill of 8 Glodjani and other sites in the commune of Zvornik. The Moslems cruelly, ritually and in the 5 Milivoje Ivanisevic: “The Chronicle of Our Graveyard”, Committee for Data Collection on Crimes against Humanity and International Law, Belgrade-Bratunac, 1994, pp. 106-107. 6 Commanding officer of the Moslem forces, Naser Oric, was educated in the police school while the units of the Drina Corps were commanded by General Milenko Zivkovic, born in the village of Ratkovici, Srebrenica region, and a few tens of senior officers, also born in BH, members of the armed forces of former JNA.