BALKAN WITNESS
Articles on the Bosnia Conflict
Last modified February 27, 2008

Serbian denial of Serb war crimes in Bosnia continues, even after the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. This denial is endorsed and abetted by various Western commentators, even including some supposedly in the progressive community.

Here we examine some common misrepresentations of Serbian war crimes in Bosnia.

“The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past”.
                         --William Faulkner

Bosnian war killed 97,000 people -- study Bosnia's 1992-1995 war claimed some 97,000 lives. The non-governmental Research and Documentation Centre presented the results of the four-year study. Using hundreds of different sources, the organization created a huge database containing names and other information on each victim, including photographs of more than 55,000 of them. "The purpose of this research was to reduce space for manipulation with figures on war victims," said a representative, regarding the project financed mainly by the Norwegian foreign ministry. June 21, 2007

What do the figures for the Bosnian war-dead tell us? Analysis of the above study. By Marko Hoare, January 4, 2008

Below:
     Trnopolje  
     Srebrenica
         Controversy over the interview with Chomsky in the Guardian (UK), October 31, 2005
         Srebrenica Documentary Background
         Articles on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre


International Court of Justice Decision in the case of Bosnia v. Serbia
The Court finds that Serbia has violated its obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide in Srebrenica and that it has also violated its obligations under the Convention by having failed fully to co-operate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Press Release
Summary of the Judgment of 26 February 2007
Judgment of 26 February 2007
Opinion of the Court's Vice President - Dissent from the Court's decision not to find Serbia guilty of genocide.

Commentary: Peter Lippman    Marko Hoare    Martin Shaw  (And interview with Shaw)    Anthony Dworkin    Martin Shaw's reply to Anthony Dworkin

NEW How Belgrade Escaped Genocide Charge Belgrade has more than once invoked national security to stop the Hague tribunal from sharing with the International Court of Justice documents related to the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. It is widely believed that the transcripts, which record the meetings of top Serbian officials, contain evidence of Belgrade’s direct involvement in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s. Among the documents were files of the Bosnian Serb generals, including top fugitive General Ratko Mladic, who were on the Yugoslav army’s payroll during the war. By Slobodan Kostic, IWPR, February 15, 2008

Call for Serbia to Release Confidential Documents Academics say they want disclosure so that Serbia’s role in the Bosnian war can be assessed objectively. By Merdijana Sadovic, IWPR, November 23, 2007

New Light Shed on Belgrade Role in Bosnian War The International Court of Justice decided Serbia was not to blame for the genocide in Bosnia, but documents quietly published in Montenegro hint it may have been wrong. At the time, it seemed bizarre that the ICJ declined to demand minutes of Serbia’s Supreme Defence Council as evidence in the case, and a few glimpses of the transcripts in a new book make it look even more so. By Edina Becirevic, IWPR  November 16, 2007

Bosnia vs Serbia: The evidence scandal Redacted documents confirm that Bosnian Serb political and army structures were under direct control by the Serbian government, who also gave them financial and logistical support. Evidence would have made Serbia liable for the Srebrenica genocide, and whenever the agenda turned to discussion of the financing of the Bosnian Serb army and personnel matters, as well as to Croatian Serb activities, the documents were blacked out in places. During the war in Bosnia, up to 4,000 officers on the Yugoslav Army payroll were serving in the Bosnian Serb Army. ISN Security Watch, International Relations and Security Network, April 24, 2007

Srebrenica Massacre Verdicts Spark Outrage Among Survivors The Advocacy Project, April 12, 2007

Genocide Court Ruled for Serbia Without Seeing Full War Archive This article comes at a particularly awkward moment for Belgrade, as it tries to invoke international legality as the reason why it should be allowed to hang on to Kosovo, at least de jure if not de facto. By Marlise Simons, New York Times, April 9, 2007

 


Trnopolje

"Living Marxism": Poison in the well of history By Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian, March 15, 2000. Living Marxism magazine (LM), in denying reports on a Serbian-run concentration camp, accused a British TV station of distorting the truth about Bosnia. Mr. Vulliamy, who filed the first reports on the horrors of the Trnopolje camp, explains why these Serb apologists had to be defeated in court. For an index of coverage by The Guardian (U.K.), click here.

See also:

  • Living Marxism - Festering Fascism? by George Monbiot, Prospect Magazine, November 1998.

  • Dubious Sources, by David Walls, New Politics, summer 2002. (See the section "Weaving a Fabric of Deceit.")

  • Atrocity, memory, photography Imaging the concentration camps of Bosnia - the case of ITN versus Living Marxism. The article painstakingly demolishes LM's argument and reveals it to be a thin tissue of fabrications, distortions, and lies. Part 1 details the controversy surrounding the 1992 television image of Fikret Alic and others imprisoned at Trnopolje camp in Bosnia, demonstrating how doubts about its veracity were unsustainable. Part 2 explores the historical, political and visual context in which the particulars of the controversy are located. It explores what is involved in the concept of a 'concentration camp', as well as the nature of the Nazis' concentration camp system and the implications of this for the memory of the Holocaust and our understanding of contemporary atrocity. By David Campbell, Journal of Human Rights, March & June 2002.

  • Revisionism Will Cripple Bosnia's Future. By Nerma Jelacic, IWPR, October 1, 2004

  • Living Marxism (LM): a profile by LobbyWatch.

LM's lies about Bosnia have been picked up and redistributed by numerous supposedly reputable commentators, including Edward Herman.

Peter Brock: This advocate for Serbian nationalism is a favored source of Edward Herman and other war-crimes deniers. Brock's Foreign Policy article misrepresenting the Trnopolje camp and other Serbian atrocities is refuted in an article by Charles Lane and another by Michael Sells.

Empty Villages and Crowded Grave Yards Preserving Memory in “Ethnically Cleansed” Prijedor. By Patrick McCarthy, July 2007

Interview with Ed Vulliamy, the British reporter who reported on Serbian concentration camps in Northwest Bosnia. Radio KWMU, St. Louis, November 20, 2007 (audio)

 

Srebrenica

Edward Herman: The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Herman insults the survivors with denial of Serbian atrocities and apologetics for Serbian aggression. Several readers responded. July 2005
More on Edward Herman here.

Antiwar.com: While the perpetrators of the Bosnian Serb massacre of over 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica are starting to confess (see Bosnian Serbs finally admit truth of Srebrenica deaths), Serb nationalist apologists are still denying that the massacre happened. Antiwar.com is among the prominent deniers. For a good antidote, see The Independent, November 5, 2003. The article notes, "The Bosnian Serb government has admitted for the first time that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the mass slaughter of Muslims in Srebrenica in July, 1995, Europe's worst atrocity since the end of the Second World War." See also Remains of dozens found in Bosnia's largest grave. (The Independent, July 29, 2003)

Noam Chomsky:

Srebrenica and Honesty The writer criticizes Chomsky for soft-peddling the Serbian massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica. "I cannot believe you are ignorant of the facts about Srebrenica and the Yugoslavian wars. You've devoted your life to uncovering hypocrisy and dispelling ignorance. So how am I to understand your bias in this matter?"  By Julie Wornan, member of Americans Against the War, France, January 4, 2005

Chomsky bamboozles on the Balkans II In an interview with Radio-TV Serbia, Chomsky endorses the lies of LM  Magazine (see above). Oliver Kamm rebuts and rebukes Chomsky. June 2006

General Lewis MacKenzie: Paid Serbian Lobbyist and Srebrenica Genocide Denier

 

Controversy over the interview with Chomsky in the Guardian (UK), October 31, 2005

Though flawed, the Guardian article had some interesting observations on Chomsky's attitude toward the Srebrenica massacre. The interview has been pulled from the Guardian's website but is available elsewhere.

In an earlier interview, Chomsky stated,

Srebrenica was an enclave, lightly protected by UN forces, which was being used as a base for attacking nearby Serb villages. It was known that there’s going to be retaliation. When there was a retaliation, it was vicious. They trucked out all the women and children, they kept the men inside, and apparently slaughtered them. The estimates are thousands of people slaughtered.

The key words here are "retaliation," "apparently," and "estimates"; the slaughter "apparently" took place; the thousands killed were mere "estimates"; they were, in any case, simply "retaliation" for earlier Muslim crimes. While Chomsky raises doubts about the fact and scale of the killings, he is absolutely categorical that they were retribution for earlier Muslim crimes - the slaughter apparently took place, but if it did, then it was definitely retaliation. See Marko Attila Hoare's discussion of the Guardian interview and Chomsky's position on Srebrenica, Chomsky’s Srebrenica Shame - and The Guardian’s... , November 21, 2005

Protest to the Guardian Over “Correction” to Noam Chomsky Interview By a group of Bosnian genocide survivors, academics, journalists, and others with a specialization on the subject of the Bosnian war. December 8, 2005

The Guardian, Noam Chomsky and the Milosevic Lobby The Guardian interview exposed Chomsky's position on  the Srebrenica massacre, which Chomsky described as "probably overstated" and which he has minimized at various times and in various ways. The interview also cited him as saying that reports of Serb concentration-camps were "probably not true," and that claims that these camps had been deliberately invented by the Western media to demonize the Serbs were "probably correct." By Marko Attila Hoare, February 4, 2006

An overview of the whole affair
 

 

 


Srebrenica Documentary Background

NEW The Work of the International Commission on Missing Persons  ICMP provides forensic expertise to locate and identify victims of the wars in the Former Yugoslavia, including the Srebrenica massacre. To date the ICMP has positively identified about 3000 bodies of Srebrenica victims and has partial remains of about 1000 more. The ICMP still predicts that about 8000 were killed in the massacre.  By Adam Boys, ICMP, in The Scotsman, March 14, 2007

On the Western role in the Srebrenica massacre:
> Srebrenica: a genocide foretold
, by Sylvie Matton, 2005. Reviewed in Dani, March 3, 2006
> Interview with ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, by Sylvie Matton, Paris-Match, November 2, 2006 (PDF, in French). Page 1   Pages 2-4 Ms. del Ponte claims that international observers and politicians knew of plans for mass murder in Srebrenica in advance.
> Holbrooke: 'I was under initial instructions to sacrifice Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde' Reference to Paris-Match article, November 2, 2006
>
Del Ponte: Srebrenica plan was known to Internationals, by Caroline Fletscher, Der Tagesspiegel, November 2, 2006
> Report on Bosnian Murders Fuels Debate, by Mark Perelman, Jewish Daily Forward, November 10, 2006

Srebrenica Suspects Revealed 28,000 people, according to the Republika Srpska authorities, were directly or indirectly involved in the massacre.

Srebrenica’s search for justice
The discovery of a mass grave in August 2006 near Zvornik in eastern Bosnia containing the remains of 1,150 Bosnian victims of the Srebrenica massacre is only the most recent evidence of the scale of the atrocity perpetrated in and around the town in the days after 11 July 1995. By Peter Lippman, August 24, 2006

Focus on Srebrenica Suspects Profiles of defendants in largest joint trial ever seen at the Hague court. IWPR, July 7, 2006

Depositions given with the guilty pleas of two high-ranking Bosnian Serb officers who admitted to their participation in the planning and implementation of the Srebrenica massacre, and the subsequent burial and reburial of the victims' bodies:
Momir Nikolic, Chief of Intelligence and Security of the Bratunac Brigade during the Srebrenica executions in July 1995. May 6, 2003.
Dragan Obrenovic, acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade. May 20, 2003

The Interim Report (June 11, 2004, Word document) of the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb) government Commission for Investigation of the Events In and Around Srebrenica Between 10th and 19th July 1995; and the Final Report (Addendum) (October 15, 2004, PDF file).
     "The report itself admits and provides details of the plan and deliberate liquidation of thousands of Bosniaks [Muslims] by the Bosnian Serb forces," said Bernard Fassier, deputy to Bosnia's top international administrator. (As quoted by the Associated Press, Nov. 8, 2004.)

Military Analyst Richard Butler testified extensively at The Hague on Bosnian Serb military preparations for the Srebrenica massacre. His testimony (November 10-26, 2003) is indexed at http://www.un.org/icty/transe60/transe60.htm.
His written reports are in PDF files too large to post here, but they will be provided on request. They include:
     "Srebrenica Military Narrative, Operation Krijava 95" November 1, 2002, 138 pages (8 MB)
     Supporting documentation, 344 files, 85 MB
     " VRS Brigade Command Responsibility Report" October 31, 2002, 40 pages (2.4 MB)
     Supporting documentation, 37 files, 43 MB

Preliminary list of dead of the genocide at Srebrenica in 1995. Bosnia Federal Commission for Missing Persons, June 5, 2005

Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a documentary film produced by SENSE, examines evidence adduced from the judicial process. The film presents the testimony of victims, forensic experts and the confessions of several of the massacre’s perpetrators, side-by-side with the denials and revisionist interpretations that seek to minimize the scale of atrocity. Requires high-speed connection. 2005

NPR report June 3, 2005 (click on "listen")

Belgrade’s Srebrenica Connection, by Aleksandar Mitic, Transitions Online, June 6, 2005

SREBRENICA INVESTIGATION: Summary of Forensic Evidence – Execution Points and Mass Graves. May 16, 2000

Dean Manning witness statement on Srebrenica in Milosevic trial November 24, 2003

Srebrenica: Reconstruction, background, consequences, and analysis of the fall of a safe area - an extensive survey of the massacre, carried out by Dutch experts. -- Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, April 10, 2002

Bridges of Bone and Blood - identifying victims in Bosnia Scientists with the International Committee for Missing Persons (ICMP) identify remains of those killed at Srebrenica. This article discusses how they work, and provides explicit discussion of the Serbian practice of digging up mass graves and hiding the bodies elsewhere.
In downplaying the massacre, the war-crimes denier Edward Herman has written that he finds evidence of body removal and reburial "unconvincing." Radio Netherlands, July 11, 2005

All That Remains: Identifying the Victims of the Srebrenica Massacre A succinct summary of the Srebrenica massacre and the process of body identification. By Laurie Vollen, Human Rights Center, U.C. Berkeley, 2002

Some articles on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre:

Srebrenica: Anatomy of a Massacre Ten years after the Srebrenica atrocity, tribunal investigators have been able to piece together a detailed picture of the planning and execution of the worst massacre on European soil since World War Two. By Michael Farquhar, IWPR, July 9, 2005

Dead and Missing from Srebrenica War-crimes deniers try to cast doubt on the 8,000 killed at Srebrenica. This article documents the validity of the official lists. By Andras Riedlmayer, July 19, 2005

Srebrenica: ten years on The Bosnian Serb massacre of around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995 has left deep wounds. Ed Vulliamy revisits the scenes of a terrible crime, meets families and survivors, and reports on the search for human remains and justice. July 6, 2005

Belgrade: war crimes in daily life A day’s walk in Serbia’s capital brings Dusan Velickovic closer to the emotional heart of a country still struggling to face the truth of its past. June 28, 2005

There was genocide in Srebrenica. And it continues to win Michael Thieren expected a health emergency and found himself in a genocide zone. A decade on, the memory and the anger burn. July 11, 2005

The Village of the Widows The bereaved of Srebrenica are trying to rebuild their lives.  But the massacre of their men and boys has doomed them demographically, economically and socially. Newsweek, July 12, 2005

IWPR coverage, July 6, 2005:

A Survivor’s Story Former prisoner tells how he escaped death at the hands of a Serb execution squad.

Most Victims Still Nameless Local forensic investigation teams attempt to return victims’ bodies to grieving relatives.

The Wall of Denial Despite mountains of evidence, many Serbs refuse to accept that a massacre took place.

A Painful Return A few thousand have courageously gone back to the Srebrenica area to rebuild their shattered lives.

- - - - - - - - - -

Books on Bosnia: From Srebrenica to the Middle Ages
A small British publisher teams up with the London-based Bosnian Institute to produce four valuable books on Bosnia. By Tim Judah, July 14, 2005

 


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