BALKAN WITNESS
Articles on the Bosnia Conflict
Last modified June 14, 2009Serbian 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
Below:
Numbers of Bosnian War Dead
International Court of Justice Decision in the case of Bosnia v. Serbia
Srebrenica
Srebrenica - war crimes deniers
Controversy over the interview with Chomsky in the Guardian (UK), Oct 31, 2005
Srebrenica Documentary Background
Srebrenica Survivors Lawsuits
Articles on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre
Photos:
The Betrayal of Srebrenica: A Commemoration by Paula Allen and Lisa DiCaprio, 2005
Srebrenica Memorial Photos by Peter Lippman, September-October 2008Trnopolje
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
Srebrenica victims body identification 5781 identifications, as of December 2008. International Commission on Missing Persons
Srebrenica victim count Number of Srebrenica genocide victims stands at 8372, as of December 2008
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 (PDF)
Judgment of 26 February 2007 (PDF)
Opinion of the Court's Vice President - Dissent from the Court's decision not to find Serbia guilty of genocide. (PDF)Commentary: Peter Lippman Marko Hoare Martin Shaw (And interview with Shaw) Anthony Dworkin Martin Shaw's reply to Anthony Dworkin
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
Vital Genocide Documents Concealed The former official spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia's chief prosecutor provides a systematic review of the way in which minutes of Serbia’s Supreme Defence Council, that might provide evidence against Serbia for genocide at Srebrenica, have been concealed by that same tribunal. As a result of her revelation, she has been charged with contempt of court by a trial chamber of the Tribunal. By Florence Hartmann, January 21, 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, 2007Genocide 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
Srebrenica: War-crimes deniersEdward 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 below). Oliver Kamm rebuts and rebukes Chomsky. June 2006
Chomsky misrepresents the Dutch investigation of Srebrenica. June 2006
General Lewis MacKenzie: Paid Serbian Lobbyist and Srebrenica Genocide Denier James Bissett: Former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia denies Srebrenica genocide.
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,
T he 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, 2005Protest 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 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 |
Srebrenica Documentary Background 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 Suspects Revealed 28,000 people, according to the Republika Srpska authorities, were directly or indirectly involved in the massacre. Srebrenica’s
search for justice 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: 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). 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
here.
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
Dutch Reports:
Dutch Parliamentary Report January 27, 2003 France criticises UN on Srebrenica French Parliamentary inquiry. BBC News, November 29, 2001
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. 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 |
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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, 2005Dead 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 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, 2005Belgrade: 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, 2005There 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 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, 2005IWPR coverage, July 6, 2005: Former prisoner tells how he escaped death at the hands of a Serb execution squad. Local forensic investigation teams attempt to return victims’ bodies to grieving relatives. Despite mountains of evidence, many Serbs refuse to accept that a massacre took place. A few thousand have courageously gone back to the Srebrenica area to rebuild their shattered lives.- - - - - - - - - - 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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Mujahedin in Bosnia A more realistic treatment of the subject than that provided by the hysterical propaganda tracts that have unfortunately clouded our understanding. By Marko Hoare, Bosnia Report, July 2007.
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