|
The Massacre of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Compiled by: Syed Muhammad Bokreta
Algiers, Algeria
The Serb War of Aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina
When Former US President Bill Clinton addressed the nation on November 27, 1995, he confirmed the figure of 250.000 Bosnians dead (90 % of them Muslims) during the Bosnian conflict which lasted more than three years (06.04.1992- 14.12.1995), this was indeed an acknowledgement of a total failure of the US and its satellite the UN during this conflict.
The Bosnian war in view of its peculiar composition ( Muslim majority population) has proven a difficult ground for collective security as the lack of compelling interests has spurred an ambiguous strategy on the part of the international community and the West especially , for the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina did not affect international economic and political equilibrium which would have justified a more traditional intervention for the simple reason that unlike Kuwait , Bosnia had no oil !!!!
It was crystal clear to everyone including the World Decision makers at that time that the true war-initiators were the Serbs who held the upper hand in the former Yugoslavia and bear the whole responsibility of all losses during this war as they were the first to employ a hyper nationalistic rhetoric and because their methods violated the most basic Humanitarian principles on which society rests.
Going back to this disastrous conflict of the early nineties where the Bosnian Muslims were surprisingly caught by firstly the Serb offensive as they lacked an army to repel such aggression as a result of this unbalanced power, Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered by the thousands and Sarajevo the capital was put under siege and thousands of Bosnians became forced refugees, secondly elements of the Croat army and Bosnian Croats attacked in central Bosnia in an attempt to win territory for Croatia who had just lost a third of its land during the 1991 war with Serbia.
So the gruesome and gloomy Bosnian landscape after such atrocities looked like: more than 250.000 Bosnian Muslims dead, about 18.000 Missing, more than 50.000 Muslim Women raped, thousands of Male Muslim Prisoners in Auschwitz like concentration camps and an equal number of injured people and more than one million Refugees and an unknown number of Muslim mass graves.
The above mentioned atrocities and crimes against Humanity and the new warfare version of “Ethnic-cleansing” and the deliberate artillery shell that landed in a crowded Sarajevo market place killing more than 70 Civilians in February 1995 made the headlines in the western media , the latter sad event struck a chord and the Americans finally decided to act by drawing a Nato bombing campaign against the Serb positions who by that time had completely surrounded Sarajevo and were picking off civilians in the streets.
After two months of tough negotiations between the three sides (Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims) sponsored by the United States at the USAF base in Dayton, Ohio “Peace” was finally reached on the21st of November 1995, as a result of this “Peace Plan” Bosnia-Herzegovina was to become a single state with international legal personality composed of two distinct entities with equal rights and endowed with large autonomy: the Muslim-Croat federation, in a clear bid to deter any Muslim initiative regarding the future shape of a Muslim state in Bosnia and the Republika of Sprska, links of these two entities with “outside” states Croatia for the federation and the Federal republic of Yugoslavia for the Serb republic were allowed short of secession, to the detriment of the orphan Bosnian Muslims who have no sponsor or parent state !!!
The essence of the “Dayton accords” was the 51% & 49% division agreed upon as the basis for “Peace”, so the territorial provisions of the agreement were kept as close as possible to the map on the ground at the end of fighting, Srebrenica and Zepa were to be retained by Bosnian Serbs while Goradze was linked to the bulk of the federation territory by a land corridor.
The great injustice of accepting the results of “ethic-cleansing” by the Serbs in all parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and especially its eastern region was balanced in view of the “peace” decision makers with the increased stability that the new arrangement would have in terms of the viability of the two entities.
It goes without saying that Divine Justice as it has always been will prevail at the end as the "two great criminals Mladic & Karadzic" of this savage war and the butchers of Srebrenica are longing in the Hague criminal court "pending their so called trial".
“How can there be such a league, seeing that if they get an advantage over you, they respect not in you the ties either in kinship or of a covenant” Holy-Quran 8-6.
Finally, an ever lasting Tribute and a Divine supplication to all Muslim Martyrs during this war and especially to the Late Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic the great Muslim Erudite who against all odds steadfastly held the green flag in the heart of Europe until his death on the 19th of October 2003.
The Massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica
* THE 11TH OF JULY 1995
* SREBRENICA- BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
What had occurred on the 11th of July, 1995 is surely to be considered the worst Genocidal atrocity in Europe since World War II, as Serbian troops led by indicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic massacred over 10,000 innocent Muslim Bosniaks in the Eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, despite its designation as a “UN safe haven area” which around 10,000 men and boys were meticulously and methodically separated from their daughters, mothers, sisters and wives and then killed by Serb forces, then buried in mass graves and then re-interred in secondary graves to cover-up the crimes. Srebrenica fell to invading Serb forces on July 11, 1995 and at the time was a UN "safe area" under the “protection” of the international community.
Hiding the Genocide of defenceless Muslim Bosnian Civilians, the global power of kufr had to re-name through a less hostile lexicon the big tragedy since World War II by “Ethnic-Cleansing”, as such the Srebrenica Massacre is simply the continuation of a policy well documented and painstakingly analysed by Justin Mac McCarthy in his relevant book: “Death & Exile” published in 1995 some excerpts need to be mentioned: “In each of the 19th -20th century wars, Muslims were driven from their homes and millions of Muslims died and millions were exiled, the compression of the Muslim land and the expulsions were continuing historical events, presenting a continuing historical picture.”
For this unforgettable crime against humanity, it needs to be recalled that the combined plot between the chetnik forces and the global power of kufr was aimed at reducing the Muslim Majority rule in Bosnia to minority status and therefore placing them under a three side mandate “ruling council” which could overrule the few “would be” taken decisions the Muslim Bosnians would be able to make.
It needs to be recalled that in June 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, pushing for a resolution to the ethnic "anomaly" of the Muslim enclaves, closed their noose around Srebrenica and the other "safe areas." In Srebrenica, mass panic took hold of the civilian population. Women and children gathered at the U.N. base of Potocari, together with about 1,700 men, while most of the “battle-age” males, mostly unarmed non-combatants took to the hills in a desperate attempt to flee to Muslim-held territory to the west.
At Potocari, Dutch troops allowed the Serbs access to the camps and the refugees they held. Then, the following day July 11 some 1700 men, disproportionately the elderly and infirm, were separated from women and children. The peacekeepers “stood inches away from the Serb soldiers, who were separating the Muslim men, one by one, from their families”, (Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance, p.306). At Serb command, the Dutch drew up a registry of 242 Bosnian men remaining in the camp, again mostly elderly and infirm. Then they handed the men over to the Serbs, not one of the 242 Men is known to have survived!!!!
A great many of the men who had sought to flee through the hills to Tuzla were doomed as well. The Bosnian Serb commander, Gen. Radivoj Krstic, in a radio transmission intercepted by western eavesdroppers, told his forces: “You must kill everyone. We don't need anyone alive”. (Mark Danner, "Bosnia: The Great Betrayal", New-york Review of Books, March 26, 1998.) Serb forces took special pleasure in isolating trees where men had sought to hide, and riddling them with shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns.
The United Nations must shoulder a large share of responsibility for allowing the massacre to take place under the noses of its troops and without the slightest doubt that the very sad events that took place in that fatidic date of the 11.July.1995 will haunt this would be “Human being protecting” organisation until the doomsday!!!
At earlier stages in Bosnia's war, when Muslim strongholds like Gorazde or Bihac had been on the verge of falling, America had worked (without the promise of ground troops) to galvanise its allies insisting that battle-plans be drawn up, and threats of bombing be issued, so as to warn off the Serbs. Yet in the final days and hours of the advance on Srebrenica, which American intelligence could monitor closely, Washington fell strangely silent. Srebrenica duly fell, with consequences which were unspeakable in human terms, but not inconvenient diplomatically.
Ms. Bianca Jagger reported in an article “The betrayal of Srebrenica” the details of the secret deal between General Janvier and General Mladic made in Zvornik on June 4, 1995, prior to the massacre; the June 9 conversation among Yasushi Akashi, Janvier, and General Rupert Smith, the intrigue and collaboration among Akashi, Mladic, and Milosevic as the massacre was occurring; the handing over by the Dutch Battalion of unarmed Muslims to Mladic as Dutch commanders drank champagne with General Mladic; the Dutch Battalion's supplying of fuel for General Mladic to drive away his captives for torture and execution, General van der Wind's debriefing of July 13 and the beginning of the attempted cover-up ,the article places the details of the complicity within a larger moral vision and exposes the stakes for all of us when genocide is appeased and facilitated.
The Sunday Times in its edition of the 3rd of November 1996 through an article by Jon Swain wondered about how the investigators recovered far fewer bodies than they had expected, of the thousands of men and boys from the UN safe area who were executed by Bosnian Serbs in July 1995, only a few hundred less than 10% of the 10 000 Muslims missing have been dug up, the empty graves speak volumes about the conspiracy by Bosnian Serbs to cover up the massacre at Srebrenica. Their leadership claims that few bodies have been found because the stories of atrocities there were exaggerated.
The more plausible theory is that bodies have been made to “disappear”. As long as a year ago, American spy satellites first revealed evidence of tampering at several grave sites which, when later exhumed, yielded fewer corpses than expected, one such grave site is at Pilica. This is where 1,200 Muslims were shot on July 16 last year, according to testimony by Drazen Erdemovic, a 25-year-old Serbian soldier and self-confessed executioner. However, UN grave-diggers found only 200 bodies there.
One explanation for the empty graves is that the bodies may have been dug up and taken to an aluminium factory at Zvornik to be chemically dissolved, American satellite images from between September 27 and October 2 last year show unusual activity both at the aluminium plant, which officially was shut down, and at the grave site itself.
The aluminium factory had the capability to dissolve human flesh because it was using sodium hydroxide to convert bauxite ore into aluminium. Sodium hydroxide is highly toxic and, according to Abdullah Sacerbegovic, a Muslim and the plant's former manager, it easily dissolves human flesh, leaving virtually no trace except sludge.
Sacerbegovic believes the factory may have been involved in the disposal of bodies in 1992, when Zvornik was being “ethnically cleansed” of Muslims, the tampering with graves complicates efforts to bring prosecutions at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague against those responsible. It also means that relatives may never find their loved ones' remains.
Manfred Novak, the UN expert on missing people in Bosnia, is calling for all 10 known mass grave sites around Srebrenica to be excavated next year without fail, “If this whole question of the disappearance is not solved to the satisfaction of the families and the politicians, " he said, “I think it will be a major obstacle to peace”.
What else can one give as irrefutable evidence of the savage and inhuman atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims than the recent release of a video by the Hague war crimes tribunal on the 01st of June 2005, showing Serbian paramilitary unit “the scorpions” executing six Teenage Bosnian Muslims in cold blood !!!
It is such a hypocritical stance and a meaningless theory to declare that the Srebrenica Massacre has been a “shame” on Europe while letting the two criminals “Mladic & Karadzic” the first one at large for more than 15 years after the slaughter, so the very high sounding principles of justice has exposed the West’s true values and its double-standard policy, nevertheless our Holy Book warns us of such case:
 ÈÓã Çááå ÇáÑÍãä ÇáÑÍíã
ßóíúÝó æóÅöä íóÙúåóÑõæÇ Úóáóíúßõãú áóÇ íóÑúÞõÈõæÇ Ýöíßõãú ÅöáøðÇ æóáóÇ ÐöãøóÉð íõÑúÖõæäóßõã ÈöÃóÝúæóÇåöåöãú æóÊóÃúÈóìٰ ÞõáõæÈõåõãú æóÃóßúËóÑõåõãú ÝóÇÓöÞõæäó ﴿ÇáÊæÈÉ: 8  ﴾
How (can there be such a league), seeing that if they get an advantage over you, they respect not in you the ties either of kinship or of covenant? With (fair words from) their mouths they entice you, but their hearts are averse from you; and most of them are rebellious and wicked.(8)
The Dayton “Peace Accords”
The Dayton negotiations took place at a U.S. Air Force Base in Dayton , Ohio, from 1 November to 21 November 1995, the “Peace “negotiations were led by chief U.S. Negotiator Richard Holbrooke and included the “Three Lates” Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and the Croatian President Franco Tudjman.
The accords, formally signed in Paris on the 14th of December, 1995 recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina as a sovereign state within its existing borders, but the accords created two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51 percent of the territory) and the Republika Srpska “ a Serb entity” (49 percent). The Entities have largely autonomous powers under a “national” government in charge of foreign and fiscal policy.
According to these accords which set timetables for holding elections and gave refugees the right to vote in their original place of residence, these measures along with war crimes trials and large-scale European financial aid were intended to help stabilize a fractured country and set the stage for its later transition to a fully unified multiethnic and democratic state.
The accords went into effect when the leaders Alijia Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia formally signed the pact in Paris on December 14.1995, NATO troops known as the Implementation Force, or IFOR, took over from United Nations troops in Bosnia on Dec. 20, known as “D-day” starting the clock on a series of deadlines running for a year and bringing some 60,000 NATO troops, nearly 20,000 of them American, to keep the “peace” in Bosnia.
But according to many Analysts the Dayton system has its critics, both at home and abroad, they charge that some of the structures set in place 17 years ago have proven dysfunctional and led to the consolidation of gains by mostly the Serbs, the Croats and to a lesser degree the Muslims on a nationalistic line basis since the first post communist elections that took place in November and December 1990.
Adding to the misery of the majority Muslim Inhabitants of Bosnia lies the area partition taken between Serbia and Croatia while the Muslims were left with a rump mini-state or the impossible “option “of joining one of the neighbours, as such critics have rightly pointed out that Dayton set up two Para-states, or entities, namely the Republika Srpska and the Croat-Muslim Federation, the Serbs in particular have been adamant defenders of the entity system knowing for sure it is working for their benefits.
The Muslims are the largest single ethnic group and, unlike the Serbs and Croats, have no nation-state outside Bosnia that they might aspire to join or look to for protection and the institution by the “World decision makers”of the Muslim-Croat federation, was a clear bid to deter any “Muslim initiative” regarding the future shape of a Muslim state in Bosnia and the links of these two entities with “outside” states Croatia for the federation and the Federal republic of Yugoslavia for the Serb republic were allowed short of secession, to the detriment of the orphan Bosnian Muslims who have no sponsor or parent state!!!
Knowing for sure that it was crystal clear to everyone including the World Decision makers at that time that the true war-initiators were the Serbs who held the upper hand in the former Yugoslavia and bear the whole responsibility of all losses during this war as they were the first to employ a hyper nationalistic rhetoric and because their methods violated the most basic Humanitarian principles on which society rests.
So the gruesome and gloomy Bosnian landscape after such atrocities that lasted from the 06th of April 1992 to the 21st of November 1995 looked like: more than 250.000 Bosnian Muslims dead, about 18.000 Missing, more than 50.000 Muslim Women raped, thousands of Male Muslim Prisoners in Auschwitz like concentration camps and an equal number of injured people and more than one million Refugees and an unknown number of Muslim mass graves.
The essence of the “Dayton accords” was the 51% & 49% division agreed upon as the basis for “Peace”, so the territorial provisions of the agreement were kept as close as possible to the map on the ground at the end of fighting in another terms rewarding the Serb aggressors for their territorial gains, as such Srebrenica and Zepa were to be retained by Bosnian Serbs while Goradze was linked to the bulk of the federation territory by a land corridor.
It ‘s been 17 years since the Dayton Peace Accords were signed, and truly the international community bears a good deal of the responsibility for the present dysfunctional constitutional system and the continuation of ethnically-based politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and yet the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is still little more than an United Nations protectorate although the number of UN peacekeepers has been reduced from a post-war high of 60,000 to the current level of about 6,000 and political reforms have progressed very slowly.
In fact, Bosnia is more of a patchwork than a genuine modern state, the two so-called entities the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbian Republika Srpska remain practically irreconcilable adversaries, to this day, and this Balkan republic is a highly fragmented country, with its 10 cantons, 14 governments and 145 ministers; the administration consumes 70% of the state budget. Social services and pensions must be paid from the remainder and this in a country with an official unemployment rate of more than 40%.
That is the bitter result and the very sad plight of Muslim Bosnians victims of the great injustice imposed upon them through very unfair results of “ethnic-cleansing” by the Serbs in all parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and especially its eastern region, balanced in view of the “peace” decision makers, with the increased stability that the new arrangement would have in terms of the viability of the two entities.
But much to the great Bosnian Muslim’s chagrin justice has not been done yet, as the main criminals responsible for the whole tragedy in Bosnia although captured are still not condemned for their evil acts , the two war-criminals such as (Mladic & Karadzic) the butchers of Srebrenica, one of the six “so called” UN safe areas Where on the 11th of July 1995, more than 8000 Muslim male were hacked to death in horrible circumstances, are still well looked after in their "jails" and surely they are enjoying protection and shelter until further notice.
|
