Fanatical,
narrow minded and many times politically motivated debate is blind
alley; many-sided picture about Srebrenica can be illustrated by
applying more facts than feelings to discussion. Maybe the best and
anyway the most comprehensive source to find not only details and facts
but also scientific analysis about them is in my opinion so called
NIOD-report.
NIOD Report on Srebrenica
In November 1996, the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (then: Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie / Netherlands Institute for War Documentation
) was instructed by the Dutch Government to carry out a study of 'the
events prior to, during and after the fall of Srebrenica'. For the
purposes of this independent historical analytical research, the
Government undertook to do everything in its power to grant the NIOD
researchers access to the source material at its disposal.
The NIOD Report
on Srebrenica tragedy was published in 2002. So far the Report is the
most comprehensive academic research and documentation about what really
happened in Srebrenica not only in July of 1995 but also before
tragedy. The Report describes on its some four thousand pages (yes,
4.000) also wider historical and political context around Srebrenica.
The NIOD-report is generally regarded as a first-rate scientific work.
After
this long introduction here below finally are links to different parts
(in English) of this fundamental independent academic research –
The NIOD-report:
Criticism
Critics
especially from Bosnian Muslim side are complaining that Dutch NIOD
Report is not as objective as they have expected it to be. Critics of
the NIOD Report allege it was the Netherland’s attempt to wash their
hands of direct involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. Also the Report
is said to be full of inaccuracies e.g with names and that report is too
big, idex is poorly organised etc. There was nine NIOD-researchers and
some found information unreliable sources while other found it reliable.
There
is also suspicion that the report is made to order by the Dutch
government. The background for this is the fact that the government were
facing the prospect of a politically motivated parliamentary inquiry
into the role and conduct of Dutch military personnel during their
presence in the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in 1994 and 1995.
The
supporters - e.g. Noam Chomsky, Ed Herman and Diana Johnstone - of
Niod-conclusions have also been labeled as genocide denials,
revisionists or representatives of "leftist apologist wing" who pride
themselves on being always on the opposite side of the mainstream media.
(See e.g Srebrenica Genocide Blog)
An Excerpt: Media manipulation of Srebrenica
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Former
BBC journalist Jonathan Rooper, who has researched the events in
Srebrenica since 1995, says that the region was a graveyard for Serbs as
well as Muslims. He observed closely media manipulation during Bosnian
War. Instead of acknowledging that there was no support for the original
figures, Rooper says a various means were used to prop up the official
story.
- Spokesmen
for the Clinton Administration suggested that Serbs might have moved
the bodies to other locations. Rooper points out that excavating,
transporting and reburying 7,000 bodies was “not only beyond the
capabilities of the thinly-stretched, petrol-starved Bosnian Serb Army,
but would have been easily detected under intense surveillance from
satellites and geostationary drones”.
- By
1998, thousands of bodies excavated from all across Bosnia were stored
at the Tuzla airport. Despite state-of-the-art DNA testing, only 200
bodies have been linked to Srebrenica.
- Around
3,000 names on a list of Srebrenica victims compiled by the Red Cross
matched voters in the Bosnian election in 1996. “I pointed out to the
OSCE that there had either been massive election fraud or almost half
the people on the ICRC missing list were still alive,” says Rooper. “The
OSCE finally responded that the voting lists had been locked away in
warehouses and it would not be possible for them to investigate.”
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The Bottom Line
"What
happened in Srebrenica was not a single large massacre of Muslims by
Serbs, but rather a series of very bloody attacks and counterattacks
over a three year period.”
(Phillip Corwin, former UN Civilian Affairs Coordinator in Bosnia)
The
the tragic events in Srebrenica in July of 1995 are actual and in
headlines today and probably during coming years too. The cause from my
perspective may be related to four aspects
1st
the ICTY process is focusing now to main political figures – Karadzig
and Mladic – of Bosnian War and evidences from sides of prosecutor and
defence are the core content of trial
2nd every year Srebrenica will be remaind as theatrical funerals of Bosnian Muslims – presumable victims - are taking place.
3rd
Bosnia-Herzegovina as an artifical creature is searching some national
identity, however ethnic tensions are rather increasing than opposite
and politics is more going towards dissolution than unity.
4th
Srebrenica is an example of intervention, or R2P context as well modern
media war used more or less successfully in conflicts around the world
during last decades.
Further reading
To go deeper to Srebrenica problemacy I would recommend besides mentioned NIOD-report also following material:
Stephen Karganovic, Ed., Deconstruction of a Virtual Genocide: An Intelligent Person's Guide To Srebrenica
United Nations Report on Srebrenica 15 November 1999.(note:
to access the report, click on the LINK immediately below. You will be
directed to a page where you can click on "CLICK HERE TO GET THE FULL
TEXT OF THE REPORT". You will be directed to another page where you can
click on your languaqe preference, and the full report should download) LINK )
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An excerpt from project's mission statement:
Our
broad purpose is to collect information on Srebrenica during the last
conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, defined not as July 1995, but more
broadly as 1992 to 1995. That means that we shall be creating a
comprehensive and contextual, as opposed to a selective, record of the
violence between the communities in that area during the conflict. We
shall focus also on crimes committed against the Serb civilians not
because we favor them but because so far they have been ignored. We wish
to redress that balance, but we will not work under any ideological
limitations. A corollary goal will be to launch something along the
lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission, with
emphasis on truth as logically coming before and as a precondition to
reconciliation. That is another reason we wish to do a great deal of
empirical work on the neglected crimes against the Serbian population.
We shall then proceed to explore reconciliations strategies. The
fundamental objective of our project is to rise above politics and
propaganda and to create a contextual record of the Srebrenica tragedy
of July 1995 which can serve as a corrective to the distortions of the
last decade and a half and as a genuine contribution to future peace.
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The
operation “Storm” successfully finalized the ethnic cleansing of the
Republic of Serbian Krajina. Croat president Franjo Tudjman cynically
described the pogrom of Croatia Serbs at the opening of the Military
school Ban Josip Jelacic in Zagreb, on December 14 1998: “We have,
therefore, resolved the Serbian question! There will no longer be 12
percent of Serbs, nor 9 percent of Yugoslavs, as before. One may find
some equivalence between terms of Serbian question and Jewish question
and not by coincidence as Mr.Tjudman is a widely acclaimed Holocaust denier and international hero to Neo-Nazis.
