SREBRENICA MASSACRE
The horror of the Bosnian war reached a peak in Srebrenica, a town of 20,000 inhabitants, mostly Muslim.
Between the 7th and the 13th of July 1995, Srebrenica was captured by Serbian troops who finally slaughtered thousands of men and boys.
WHAT HAPPENED ?
Since the beginning of the war, Srebrenica suffered from a lot of attacks on both sides. In order to ensure the civil security, the United Nations sent from 400 to 600 Dutch peacekeepers around the town.
At the end of May 1995, the Serbian troops increased pressure on the town. The UN general in ex-Yugoslavia considerate that there were no possible defence in Srebrenica. He wished the peacekeepers to leave town but Serbian troops took them hostage and threatened them. UN representatives negotiated their freedom in exchange of the stop of UN air strikes on July the 4th 1995.
On July, the 7th 1995, the Serbian troops, headed by Ratko Mladic, took Srebrenica. The Dutch peacekeepers, released and reduced to an observer status, claimed for the resumption of air strikes.
Tips: roll-over the photos !
The Serbian troops gathered the Srebrenica population and put aside men over 15. Women and children were evacuated on buses or on foot to Muslim majority areas.
Men and adolescents were driven to a forest with the same pretext of evacuation. During days, the Serbian troops slaughtered them, with heavy weapons, next to mass graves.
Later, it had been estimated around 8,000 deaths. NATO saw the massacre thanks to its various observation flights over Srebrenica but the organization did not react.
UN Dutch peacekeepers are evacuated on July the 13th 1995. They also knew what was happening in Srebrenica.
NOWADAYS
In Bosnia, the « Federal Commission for missing persons » tries to look for people missing from the Srebrenica Massacre.
On the memorial in Potocari, the number of 8372 victims is engraved.
However, less than 6000 bodies were found…Every year, dead bodies are discovered in the region of Srebrenica. A lot of families still do not know what happened to their son, father or husband.
Examples:
RECOGNITION OF A GENOCIDE
Today, the case of Srebrenica Massacre is not closed.
In 1993, the United Nations created “The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia”, thanks to the Security Council resolution 827, in response to the threat to international peace and security represented by serious violations of international humanitarian laws committed in Ex-Yugoslavia since 1991. In 1995, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia recognized the Srebrenica Massacre as a Genocide.
In 2007, The International Court of Justice, which judges State and not individuals, had also admitted that what happened in Srebrenica was a genocide.
Into the International Community, a lot of countries recognized the term of Genocide (expect Russia for example).
But more than 20 years after, Serbia still refuses the word “genocide” whereas it has been admitted by the international justice.
The country wants to move on and to enter the European Union. It already apologized for the crime committed in Srebrenica but never recognized it as a genocide.
A POSSIBLE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN SERBS AND BOSNIAKS ?
Srebrenica, situated in Republika Srpska, is nowadays mostly inhabited by Serbs. Naturally, there are not all criminals, but have difficulties to recognize and condemn the crimes committed in their name.
Refugees’s come back has already begun but the memory of events, the hostility of the neighbourhood, the possibility to meet old acquaintances, and all kinds of psychological barriers, such as economic conditions, do not foster this come back.
A reconciliation between Bosnian and Serbs would be possible only if the Serbs recognize their crimes and the qualification of the Srebrenica GENOCIDE.
