Serbs did not commit genocide

  Interview with Dr. Milan Bulajic
  done by Petar Pasic
  Glas Javnosti
  May 20, 2005

Dr. Milan Bulajic, president of the Foundation for the Research of Genocide, speaks about the suffering of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica and about Serbian victims.

For fair use only
Published under the provision of
U.S. Code, Title 17, section 107.

Muslims deliberately sacrificed their own

After years of thorough research, Dr. Bulajic summarises the situation as follows: The General Staff of the Muslim Army issued an order to the 28th Muslim division in Srebrenica to carry out raids outside the demilitarized zone in order to ease the theater of operation around Sarajevo. Even though the war presidency of Srebrenica was very much against such provocations, right on the eve of the attack on Srebrnica in 1995, many raids were carried out in Serbian areas, completely destroying the Serbian village of Visnjica. The army of the Serb Republic was drawn into a trap.

Through UNPROFOR, General Ratko Mladic called on the Muslim soldiers in the demilitarized zone to lay down their arms and guaranteed they would be treated as prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention and under the control of the UN. The Muslim General Staff rejected that offer but sent women and children to the Serbs at the UNPROFOR base in Potocani. At the same time, an armed column of men set off from Susnjar through Serbian territory in the direction of Tuzla. In a firefight, the greatest number of Muslims soldiers were killed in action there. The Second Corp from Tuzla did not offer them any support whatsoever in that perilous action.

Another fact shows that the Muslims from Srebrenica were deliberately sacrificed. Right before the attack by the Serbian Army that was provoked by raids on Serbian villages, the commander of the 28th Muslim Division Naser Oric and approximately 20 other chief officers were withdrawn from Srebrenica. Documents show that the Muslim army did not have any plan for defending Srebrenica and that the army of the Serb Republic captured the town with a very small force-200 soldiers and three tanks.

The real objective of the Muslim authorities was not only to create a situation that would allow NATO to bomb the Serbian positions without the approval of the UN Security Council but also to hide from the world the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Serb Republic of Krajina, carried out with direct help from the USA and NATO at the beginning of August 1995.

No desire to reveal the truth

According to Dr. Bulajic, it still has not been established how many Muslims were killed. “Had the Muslim authorities really wanted to establish the number of victims, they could have organized a census and compared the numbers with those of the 1991 census. With this, the exact number of victims would have been established, but that has not been done. The census was not carried out even in 2001 even though a census is obligatory every 10 years. Had a census been carried out, it would have also shown how many Serbs have been killed in Srebrenica and Sarajevo. Bosnia and Herzegovina remained the only country in the region not to have a census in 2001. Perhaps they did not want the truth to be known since it would have shown that, in fact, Serbs were the victims of ethnic cleansing and revealed the number killed in massacres committed against 192 Serbian villages in the region of Srebrenica. It also would have shown that the number of Serbs killed and missing in Sarajevo exceeded the number of Muslims killed in Srebrenica. That is why I claim that there was no genocide in Srebrenica. There were war crimes on both sides. It is necessary to establish exactly who committed them as well as the number of victims of all nationalities and religions with names and surnames,” claims Bulajic.

Dr. Bulajic further said that one year ago he suggested that an international conference on this topic be organized in our country to which Paddy Ashdown, Dr. Cekic and other international officials should be invited. However, the State Commission of the Serb Republic for Srebrenica responded that it forwarded the proposal to the government of the Serb Republic but that all ended with that.

The charges withdrawn after October 5, 2000.

“I want in particular to point out the following disturbing fact,” said Dr. Bulajic. “The Muslim government of Bosnia and Herzegovina brought charges against Serbia to the International Court of Justice for genocide in Bosnia, demanding damages in the amount of $200 to $300 billion. After that accusation, with the help of a group of international lawyers, we produced solid counter charges for the crimes against the Serbs. However, one of the first things that the government of the FRY did after October 2, 2000, was to withdraw the accusation even though the charges of Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina remained. Croatia also brought charges against Serbia for genocide in their country while our country did not bring charges against Croatia for Jasenovac or for Operations ‘Flash’ or ‘Storm,’” says Bulajic.

According to Bulajic, the government of the Serb Republic has a very strange role in this matter. Dr. Smail Cekic is a member of the Serb Republic State Commision for Srebrenica but not Dr. Bulajic and/or the well known experts he recommended-Prof. Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic (London) and George Bogdanic and Philip Corwin (New York). On behalf of the Commission, Dr. Cekic signed the preliminary report-the indictment of April 12, 2004, regarding the alleged refusal of the General Staff of the army of the Serb Republic and the Ministry of Interior to reveal the truth about Srebrenica.

“The October 15, 2004, final report of the Commission was not revealed to the public,” Bulajic said. “When Carla del Ponte, before the UN Security Council and Council of NATO, claimed that the Serbs admitted that their army killed 7,800 Muslims but that the number is not included in the report because the Commission was not after the number of the victims but only wanted to establish the number of missing and when the Muslims confirmed that the report was not published in its entirety, I concluded that the ‘genocide against Muslims’ in Srebrenica should be considered as one more in a series of untrue accusations.”

Srebrenica was a centar of jihad

“The army of the Serb Republic did not have an operative plan to conquer the UN protected zone of Srebrenica in July 1995. Operation “Krivaja 95” was distorted (??). Srebrenica was not demilitarized as stipulated by the Resolution of the Security Council (819/93) and by the Agreement of Demilitarization of April 17, 1993 between generals Ratko Mladic and Safet Halilovic under the sponsorship of General Erik Vah'grene. Srebrenica became a centar of terrorist activities-jihad-carried out by the 28th Muslim Division under the command of Naser Oric and with the participation of Arab mujahideen. (There are documents and videos to prove that). One hundred, forty-two Serbian villages were destroyed, the inhabitants expelled and their houses burned. Many instances of decapitation were recorded as well as circumcision of newborn boys. Generally, the attacks were carried out during Orthodox holidays such as St. Peter's Day and Christmas of 1993,” notes Dr. Bulajic.

Petar Pasic  

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