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"Srebrenica story"
A journey through evidence and documents
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serbian forces seized control of another town near the Drina River in eastern Bosnia-Hercegovina Sunday... Washington recognized Bosnia-Hercegovina as an independent state on April 7, one day after the 12-member European Community announced its decision to acknowledge the state that is home to 1.9 million Muslims, 1.4 million Serbs and 750,000 Croats... Serbian [forces]... on Sunday [April 19, 1992] captured the town of Srebrenica after its Muslim population had surrendered weapons, state-run [i.e. Muslim controlled] Sarajevo Radio said. The above quote is from: "UPI" Sunday, 19 April 1992 (6:13:12 PDT) written by Jonathan S. Landay It is not the first time that the Serbs have "liberated" Srebrenica. In 1992, during the first weeks of the Bosnian war, they also took the town... Later, in blazing sunshine, Muslims and Serbs sat down in the middle of the road to hammer out a peace deal. The Serbs offered Srebrenica's Muslims autonomy within the Bosnian Serb republic, but that was rejected. Since then the war in eastern Bosnia has seen the most vicious fighting in the benighted republic... The above quote is from: "The Economist" "Call that safe?" 15-21 July 1995 |
It is important to note that the first fall of Srebrenica happened only days after the Western atrocious crime of recognizing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a separate country. Professor of International law, Dr. Raju G.C. Thomas rightly called this method of dismemberment of an internationally recognized country -- which Yugoslavia was -- "an aggression by diplomatic recognition." To compound the crime the West recognized the "new country" exactly on the anniversary of Hitler's attack on Yugoslav sovereignty 51 years earlier. It was April 6th, 1941 when German Luftwaffe made sudden and vicious attack on Yugoslavia by bombing Belgrade on Sunday morning. Hitler ordered that Belgrade should be "razed to the ground" and German bombers carpet-bombed the defenceless city in waves for three days and nights, killing 17,000 Belgrade Serbs. It was more than a hint that European Community, lead by Germany was to chop-off another part of Yugoslavia exactly on that day in 1992.
The above UPI report, as well as other Western media reports, show that Srebrenica Muslims surrendered (and surrendered their weapons too) to the Bosnian Serbs right at the first few days of the Bosnian civil war.
And that was the end of the story. Already vehemently anti-Serb Western media wrapped the news in typical anti-Serb propaganda - but they could not say anything more.
Srebrenica Muslims stayed in Srebrenica! They promised to the Serbs that they would stay peaceful and loyal to the country of their birth - Yugoslavia. The Serbs were proponents of the continued existence of the multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia. ("Yugo-Slavia" even in its name means: "The home of the South Slavs.")
Eastern Orthodox Serb centuries long experience of life on the very edge of biological existence at hands of merciless Serb converts to Islam as well as recent WWII holocaust the Orthodox Serbs suffered had to make them worry. Even more fresh experience of living with Muslims for 45 years (!) in peace under Tito's formula of "Brotherhood and Unity" gave the local Orthodox Serbs a false hope. Bosnian Serbs offered Srebrenica Muslims peace - and autonomy.
The Serbs will learn hard way that their Muslim neighbors -- who were always and in any possible way supported by the West -- are quick to revert to their old, Nazi ways.
Muslims of Srebrenica were soon to renege on their promise. Only days after they supposedly disarmed they attacked the neighboring Serb villages. Obviously they did not surrendered all their weapon. And obviously they did not care about peace offered. The first victims were almost exclusively Serbian civilians, young and old, caught by surprise while working in the fields, or inside their homes. Insisting on the Big, Simple Lie that Orthodox Christian Serbs are bad guys and converted to Islam Serbs (Bosnian Muslims) are good guys, the Western media was sure not to even mention what was happening to the Christian Serbs at hands of their Muslim neighbors. If we were to present the events but avoid the Serbian sources completely we would be forced here to quote no other than prime anti-Serb villain, David Rohde himself. Mr. Rohde got his Pulitzer Prize based on blunt lies he concocted in connection to Srebrenica events he did not witness. Still, in his anti-Serb propaganda book, Mr. David Rohde says:
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Entitled The Bloody Hands of Islam, it described atrocities carried out around Srebrenica by Muslim and Croat fascists allied with Hitler during World War II. ... The book had been banned by Tito's government. Forty Serbs had been executed in Zalazje, a village just outside Srebrenica. […] Roughly fifty years later, on July 12, 1992 - the Serb Orthodox holiday of St. Peter's Day - Naser Oric's men killed 120 people in the same town. Srebrenica's Muslims and [their leader] Naser Oric had played the United Nations beautifully in 1993. ... The safe area was a joke. For two years, the UN had fed the Muslims, sold them weapons and done nothing as Naser Oric launched raids from a town that was supposed to be "demilitarized." ... Serb villagers within thirty miles of Srebrenica lived in constant fear, waiting to hear the voices in the night and then constant smell smoke. Dozens of civilians had been burned alive in their homes by Oric's men. They had burned [Serb] village, Obadi, to the ground in June 1992. Bratunac [a town next to Srebrenica, but in Serbian hands] had the second highest casualty rate of any Serb-held community in Bosnia. Roughly 3,000 Serb soldiers and civilians had been killed around Srebrenica. Oric's men killed every prisoner they took so there would be no witnesses... Serb bodies had also been reportedly found with heads and ears cut off. Prisoners were allegedly skinned alive... The above quote is from: "End Game: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II" book by David Rohde Westview Press, 1998, page 14 |
Starting with May 1992, the story of Srebrenica unpunished atrocities against surrounding villages with Serbian majority and the Western persistent concern for and help to Muslims of Srebrenica - gets into its first cycle.
Not informing Western public about constant atrocities the Srebrenica Muslims committed was only one - but important - service the West provided to their Bosnian Muslim proxies. All the time until the moment when Srebrenica fell to the Serb control for the third and final time in July 1995, the Western media and their politicians insisted that U.N. convoys, supposedly with humanitarian help, should regularly reach "besieged and hungry" Srebrenica Muslims. The Serbs smelled the rat and were opposing, as much as they could, this aid to their enemy. The Western media would then gladly use the occasion to portray Serbs as "inhumane."
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SERBS BLOCK UN AID CONVOY. Western agencies reported on 5 November that Serbian civilians in Bratunac had blocked a UN convoy heading from Serbia into Bosnia to the mainly Muslim town of Srebrenica, whose 30,000 inhabitants have been under siege for about six months. Both towns are just inside Bosnia's border with Serbia. This is not the first incident in which apparently well-organized Serb civilians have prevented UN convoys from reaching besieged Muslims. Milan Panic, the prime minister of Serbia-Montenegro, has repeatedly promised that UN convoys could use Serbia and Serbian-held territory in Bosnia to transport relief supplies, and has also promised to provide the trucks The above quote is from: "RFE/RL" (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) 06 November 1992 written by Patrick Moore BAJINA BASTA, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Some 300 stick- and ax-wielding Serbs Friday blocked passage to a U.N. convoy trying for a third day to bring relief supplies to the besieged Muslim Slav town of Srebrenica. The U.N. commander refused to push through, declaring, "I will not fight women and children." The crowd cheered and shouted as the 20-truck convoy approached the bridge over the Drina river linking Bajina Basta, a town in Serbia, with the Serb-held Bosnian town of Skelani. "My son of 20 was killed in fighting by the enemy," cried one of a dozen women in the crowd. "... We are not going to let them through to help our enemies." The commander of the Ukranian security escort declined suggestions by other U.N. officers to clear a pass by firing in the air and inching forward with one of his three armored personnel carriers. "Not one commander will order me to move through a crowd of women and children," said Ukranian Lt. Col. Nikola Triasak of the U.N. Protection Force. "I am providing security against a possible military attack. I will not fight woman and children." The approximately 300 people, most of them children and war widows dressed in black, waved large sticks, and one wielded an ax, angrily refusing to clear the way... The convoy tried to reach Srebrenica through Skelani after Serbs for two days blocked the route further north through the Drina river town of Bratunac. The standoff was the focus of negotiations Thursday in Sarajevo between the commander of UNPROFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina, French Gen. Phillipe Morillon, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the commander of Serbian forces... Morillon set out Friday to the Serbian stronghold of Pale near Sarajevo for another round of negotiations with Mladic and the "president" of self-proclaimed Serbian "state" in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Radovan Karadzic. In Skelani, Serbian militiamen looked with amusement from nearby buildings. "Karadzic and Mladic can come here and I will tell them the same: 'No passaran,'" said Ivan Djukic, 25, who buried his brother Thursday... Two previous attempts by UNPROFOR and the U.N. High Commision for Refugees to deliver aid to Srebrenica also were unsuccesful due to the refusal of local Serbs to let the relief-carrying trucks reach the Muslim Slavs. U.N. officials decided... to stop delivering aid to Serbian communities in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina because of their refusal to cooperate with the world organization. The above quote is from: "UPI" 27 November 1992 Bratunac, Bosnia, December 1, 2002 - As an Orthodox church priest on the front line of the war between Serbs and Muslims. Nedeljko Mitrovic offers a special prayer at each service in his small whitewashed church. "I ask God to reason with our enemy", he said. Bratunac is a Serb town in eastern Bosnia entwined in a vicious conflict with its Muslim neighbour Srebrenica. Local people on Saturday reluctantly lifted their blockade of a U.N. relief convoy which took the first outside help that Srebreinca has received since fighting began in April. When Mitrovic preached on Sunday, they were still angry at having been forced by their political leaders to let the aid across their town. "Of course the convoy had to go, that is natural," Mitrovic said. "but it is difficult to convince people who have lost sons and seen their corpses mutilated". Bratunac cemetery, a bleak muddy mound from which the hilltop front line is clearly visible a kilometre away, contains 360 war dead. Among them are people alleged [sic!] to have been tortured and others whose bodies were said to have been set on fire or beheaded by Muslim fighters. Mitrovic's religious duties include viewing each body to decide whether it is fit to be seen by the bereaved family. It is this harrowing experience, he says, which has prompted his prayer. "I have been a witness to every atrocity here, he said. I think there is nothing human in our enemy. I say that from what I have seen of the state of the corpses". ... U.N. officials decided... to stop delivering aid to Serbian communities in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina because of their refusal to cooperate with the world organization. The above quote is from: "Reuters" 01 December 1992 |
Those Serbs allege atrocious things so easily... But why was the pretend-neutral West not more interested to learn the truth?
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LJUBOVIJA, Serbia, Dec 18, 2002 Reuters - ...[M]ore than 4,000 homeless women and children... fled from neighbouring Bosnia after a Moslem attack on Serb villages left at least 58 dead... Families, accompanied by some old people, came from the Bosnian Serb town of Bratunac and the surrounding villages just across the Drina river frontier. They left on Wednesday in the midst of funeral ceremonies(!) for the Serbs killed when Moslem fighters swooped on three villages on Monday. Their departure was prompted by fears of an attack on Bratunac itself from the besieged Moslem town of Srebrenica only kilometres (miles) away. It was so sudden that most crossed the iron bridge between Bosnia and Serbia with only the clothes they were wearing when the funeral was interrupted. "No-one knew they were coming," said Ljubovija's mayor Zivorad Pantic. "Suddenly they appeared among us and we were completely unprepared." The latest influx means the market town's population of 4,000 is now sheltering almost 9,000 refugees from the eight- month war in Bosnia, where Serbs are fighting Moslems and Croats who declared independence from Yugoslavia. Refugees who can see their homes 1,000 metres (yards) away on the other bank of the Drina said they would return once their men, who stayed to fight, made Bratunac secure from Moslem attack. At one school in Ljubovija, the refugees have spent two nights without bedding. Children, including infants, were put to sleep in rows on school desks pushed together under dim lights in crowded classrooms. Many of their mothers, fearful for the safety of their husbands in fighting that echoes in the surrounding hills, are bitter about the Moslems. "We fed them and now they have done this to us," one woman said, referring to a U.N. food convoy that was allowed to cross Bratunac to Srebrenica recently... They are angry that international aid organizations did not go to Bratunac to verify the state of the bodies of those killed this week. "Nobody came to see what those people looked like when they were brought in," a woman said. The bodies of 58 victims were brought to the medical centre in Bratunac before being buried. An amateur video film showed that all had been mutilated after death [!?], some gruesomely, in an act of deliberate provocation towards Serbs, who revere their dead almost obsessively. The above quote is from: "Reuters" 18 December 1992 written by Donald Forbes BRATUNAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dec 18, Reuter - Before he was buried in a cemetery that bristles with fresh wooden crosses the remains of Dusan Pradunovic were filmed by medical authorities. The amateur video, shown to reporters by doctors who identified him, show that most of the upper part of his corpse and head were missing and that his hands had been chopped off. The mutilation of Pradunovic and other victims of a Moslem attack occurred after they were shot dead. Near him lay the corpse of a man whose penis had been sliced off and a boy whose eyes were gouged from his face. An elderly woman had been disembowelled. Pradunovic, a man of almost 60, and the others were among more than 50 Bosnian Serb villagers killed in an attack by Moslem forces near Bratunac this week. Their mutilation after they were killed was apparently an act of contempt by the Moslems for their Serb foes in the vicious war over Bosnian independence. According to the video made as a record by the Bratunac medical centre, the body of each victim was desecrated in some way calculated to provoke fury. Doctors at the medical centre vouched for the authenticity of the film, shown to Reuters and seen by many residents of Bratunac who helped identify the victims. Their Moslem foes, 10 km (six miles) away across the frontlines, could not be contacted for comment... Officials at the Bratunac medical centre said they were ready to show the video, lasting more than half an hour, to anyone who wanted to see it -- including, eventually, the Yugoslav War Crimes Commission set up in Geneva... "Naser [Oric]," the 25-year-old commander of Moslem forces in Srebrenica, admitted recently: "This is a dirty war, fought without mercy." Serbs said the Moslems attacked on Monday without warning as dawn broke, targeting the villages of Bjelovac, Sikirici and Voljevica. Rodoje Rankovic, one of three brothers who escaped from Bjelovac, said: "The Moslems suddenly appeared in the centre of the village. There was an explosion and people ran from their homes into gunfire." "They tried to run for the banks of the (river) Drina, but the Moslems had already occupied it to stop them escaping. People who tried to get across in dinghies were shot at." Rankovic and Simic said that the battle for the village of about 200 people lasted all day. At the end of the afternoon, 40 of its inhabitants were dead and others are still missing. A [Serb] woman identified as Mira Filipovic, panicking in her desperation, threw herself into the fast-flowing Drina with her small daughter and infant son, local people said. The three are assumed to have drowned. The victims were taken to the Bratunac medical centre where they were filmed and their injuries indexed. Some had been hacked and stabbed at random. Others, like Pradunovic, had obviously undergone methodical mutilation. "They were just villagers, they weren't army," Simic said. "They were just defending themselves. This is a fight for our survival. If Serbs lose this war, they will disappear from this territory." ... Ten km (six miles) west is Srebrenica, built in a natural mountain fortress. Moslems starved by the siege feel as abandoned and desperate as their Serb enemies. Local Serbs feel particularly betrayed because twice in recent weeks they allowed U.N. aid convoys for the Moslems to cross the no man's land between them at Srebrenica. "It is difficult to contain the people when things like this happen," Simic said. "If the U.N. wants to take another convoy, I am going to take them to the people (of Bratunac) and they can tell them what they think." The above quote is from: "Reuters" 18 December 1992 written by Donald Forbes |
Do these atrocities sound familiar? To Americans only now (in 2004!) they do. Did mujahedin chop off heads of caught enemy in Iraq after death? Why was the Reuters' author insisting that the "corpses" were mutilated after death? How does he know that? Is he a forensic expert? Or was it said so in order to dilute the unbearably horrible crime.
Well, for the Serbs there was no dilema. They knew all of these atrocities too well. Many Bosnian Serbs barely survived them then, during WWII, when Bosnian Muslims joined en masse Croat Nazis in their joined task to ethnically cleanse (i.e. annihilate) Bosnian and Krajina Serbs.
Bosnian Serbs knew too damn well what was happening to them. The Westerners knew it too but did not care to know. Their task was to lie, manipulate, to cover up both mass presence of Mujahedin (local and imported Arab ones) in Bosnia as well as the types of atrocities they were committing.
At the end we will say that the Serbs insisted many times and many different ways that their suffering be presented to the Western public. To this day the Big Lie that Bosnian Serbs were bad guys and Bosnian Muslims were good guys is live and well.
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Oric himself provided the self-incriminating evidence by videotaping his atrocities. The Bosnian Muslim forces chose Orthodox festivals and holidays to launch their attacks on Serbian villages. On May 6, 1992, on the Orthodox religious feast of St. George (Djurdjevdan), the village of Bljeceva in the Bratunac municipality was attacked by Muslim forces under Hasib Ibrahimovic. The Gniona attack was led by Naser Oric himself. An elderly Bosnian Serb woman, Kosana Zekic, “whose throat was slit inside her house,” was one of the civilians killed. In Gniona, an ailing and half-blind man, Radojko Milosevic (born 1928) was burned to death in his own house and the village was destroyed and burned. In this attack, Oric used loudspeakers to announce himself: “This is Naser Oric speaking…” He demanded that Serbs surrender or they would be killed. Gniona was the first Serbian village completely burned and destroyed in eastern Bosnia. On May 7, 1992, in an attack on the village of Osmace in the Srebrenica municipality, seven Serbs were killed. Naser Oric organized and ordered this attack. On May 21, a truck taking eleven Serbian civilians from Podravanje to Milici was attacked and eight Serbs were killed. On June 21, in an attack on Ratkovici, 18 Serbs were killed. Radenko Stanojevic had his throat cut while Desanka Stanojevic was burned in her house. On August 8, 1992, Jezestica was attacked. Andjelko Bogicevic, born in 1965, had his head cut off and taken away by Muslim forces. On June 30, Brezani was attacked and 19 [Serb] residents killed. Milos Novkovic was beheaded while Vido Lazic was crucified and set on fire. Kristina Lazic was set on fire in her house. On July 5, 1992, Krnjici and Oricevi were attacked and 16 [Serbs] killed. The throat of elderly Bosnian Serb Vaso Paraca, born in 1912 [i.e. 80 years old!!!], was slit. The above quote is from: "Srebrenica: The Untold Story" written by [Serbian-American] historian Carl Savic |
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