Siege of Srebrenica: Back to 1992, Where it all Began

The following is a rare footage from the besieged Srebrenica that I unearthed from the court database of the Hague Tribunal. The footage was taken in August of 1992. It shows Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) civilians in the besieged enclave of Srebrenica hiding in the woods from Serb forces that destroyed surrounding Bosnian Muslim villages.

The above video is a good compliment to my Prelude to the Srebrenica Genocide: Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of the Bosnian War (April-June 1992). I also recommend Tony Birtley’s reporting from the besieged Srebrenica (1993), which I re-published (with author’s permission) in three segments:

1. Starvation in Pre-Genocide Srebrenica – Tony Birtley, part 1/3

2. Desperation and Resistance in Pre-Genocide Srebrenica – Tony Birtley, part 2/3

3. Scenes from Hell in Pre-Genocide Srebrenica – Tony Birtley, part 3/3

Judicial bullying pays off in Karadzic’s Bosnian genocide trial

“…to say that genocide took place ‘only’ in Srebrenica in July 1995 flies in the face of earlier judicial rulings. Four international judgments in the especially well-argued cases of Nikola Jorgic, Novislav Djajic, Djuradj Kusljic, and Maksim Sokolovic clearly confirm that genocide took place in several municipalities outside of Srebrenica in 1992. All four trials were conducted in Germany — at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) — to ease the caseload of ongoing trials at The Hague. All the relevant appeals have long been exhausted, so that judgments in these cases are final and binding.” – Daniel Toljaga

Radovan Karadzic in the courtroom. Screenshot from the video grab of the Hague Tribunal.

Author: Daniel Toljaga
Bosnian Institute, UK
[originally published on 30 July, 2012.]

Twelve years ago, the amended indictment against Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic charged the two key orchestrators of the ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaign with genocide, crimes against humanity, and other war crimes committed in at least 40 municipalities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The prosecutors alleged that in 18 of these municipalities, the ‘destruction, in whole or in part’ reached the scale of genocide.(1)

Over time, the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) exerted pressure upon prosecutors to reduce the charges against the accused. The notional aim was to achieve a fair and expeditious trial, even at the expense of justice for the victims.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier’s Keynote Speech at Srebrenica’s Genocide Memorial (must read)

A Holocaust survivor, New York Rabbi Arthur Schneier (2nd L), places flowers at a monument commemorating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, during a mass burial ceremony at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Cemetery in Potocari on July 11, 2012. (Photo by Elvis Barukcic)

From:     The Appeal of Conscience Foundation
Contact: Rubenstein Associates
                  Howard Cannon (212) 843 8072 hcannon@rubenstein.com
_____________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release

Rabbi Arthur Schneier Delivers Keynote Address at Seventeenth Annual Memorial Service Commemorating the Srebenica Genocide
Europe’s Largest Massacre Since World War II

*****The First Time that a Non-Muslim Has Ever Taken Part in the Commemoration*****

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, founder and President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and the Senior Rabbi at Park East Synagogue in New York delivered the keynote address at the seventeenth annual memorial at Bosnia’s Potocari Memorial Park to commemorate the Srebenica Genocide, Europe’s largest massacre since World War II. It was the first time that a non-Muslim has ever taken part in this annual memorial. 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed on July 11, 1995. The massacre is considered the most brutal chapter of the Bosnian War.

Rabbi Schneier, who also delivered a personal message from President Barack Obama, spoke at the request of Grand Mufti Ceric of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two have worked closely together for more than 20 years. In 1992 in Berne, Switzerland, The Appeal of Conscience Foundation led by Rabbi Schneier brought together for the first time top religious leaders of former Yugoslavia including Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo, formally of Zagreb, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church; Grand Mufti Jakub efendi Selimoski of Sarajevo calling for an end to the bloodshed and joined in “the Berne Declaration” proclaiming “a crime in the name of religion is the greatest crime against religion”.

Rabbi Schneier a Holocaust survivor told the more than 50,000 who attended the commemoration,

“My entire family was murdered in Auschwitz and in Terezin. I know the anguish and despair that you feel when those dearest to you are brutally murdered for no other reason than their religion or ethnicity. Although the devastating pain of this crime belongs uniquely to the people of Bosnia and Srebrenica, and most particularly to the family members of its victims, you are not alone. I grieve with you, I feel your anguish, I hear your cry and I feel your pain. The brutality of what took place here can never be forgotten. And the totality of this crime must be remembered, not denied. The testimony of those who survived cannot be refuted and the historical fact cannot be altered.”

The Rabbi read a message from President Obama a portion of which stated,

“The name Srebrenica will forever be associated with some of the darkest acts of the 20th century. A measure of justice is finally being served for the victims in courts in The Hague and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the perpetrators of this atrocity, including Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are now being called to account for their actions. We know that Srebrenica’s future, and that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will not be held back by its painful recent history. The United States rejects efforts to distort the scope of this atrocity, rationalize the motivations behind it, blame the victims, and deny the indisputable fact that it was genocide. The United States stands with the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and grieves again for the loss of so many loved ones. Our hearts and deepest sympathies are with them, and we pledge our enduring commitment to support their aspirations for a better tomorrow.” 

Prosecution’s Opening Statements in Ratko Mladic’s Bosnian Genocide Trial

Ratko Mladić in courtroom during prosecution’s opening statements in the Bosnian Genocide trial at the International Criminal Tribunal on May 16, 2012. (Source: screengrab from ICTY video.)

“Two decades ago this past month Bosnian Serb leaders commenced an attack on their fellow citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina… In some locations this attack arose to the level of genocide. The world watched in disbelief that in neighbourhoods and villages within Europe a genocide appeared to be in progress…. a campaign that included the crime of genocide in certain municipalities.” 

– Prosecutor Dermot Groome

Edited by: Daniel Toljaga

Prosecution’s opening statements in the Bosnian Genocide trial of Ratko Mladic took place on 16 and 17 of May, 2012, at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal. The criminal charges contained in the current version of the indictment against Ratko Mladic cover a very limited range of individual war crimes and locations. In order to expedite the trial the scope of the indictment has been substantially reduced from that of the initial indictment. The ‘Fourth Amended Indictment‘ charges the Accused with:

Count 1: Genocide.
– Municipalities: Bratunac, Foča, Ključ, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica and Zvornik.
Count 2: Genocide.
– Municipality: Srebrenica.
Count 3: Persecutions on Political, Racial and Religious Grounds, a Crime Against Humanity.
– Municipalities: Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Bosanska Krupa, Bosanski Novi, Bratunac, Brčko, Foča, Hadžići, Ilidža, Kalinovik, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Pale, Prijedor, Rogatica, Sanski Most, Sokolac, Trnovo, Vlasenica, Vogošca, Zvornik and Srebrenica.
Count 4: Extermination, a Crime Against Humanity.
Count 5: Murder, a Crime Against Humanity.
Count 6: Murder, a Violation of the Laws or Customs of War.
Count 7: Deportation, a Crime Against Humanity.
Count 8: Inhumane Acts (forcible transfer), a Crime Against Humanity.
Count 9: Acts of Violence the Primary Purpose of which is to Spread Terror among the Civilian Population, a Violation of the Laws or Customs of War.
Count 10: Unlawful Attacks on Civilians, a Violation of the Laws or Customs of War.
Count 11: Taking of Hostages, a Violation of the Laws or Customs of War.

For easier reading, I removed numbered lines and double-spaced sentences that appear in the published court transcripts. Alternatively you can watch videos of Ratko Mladic’s trial.

 * * * * *

[Prosecution Opening Statement, Day 1. / May 16, 2012.]

MR. DERMOT GROOME: Your Honours, two decades ago

Calculating Srebrenica Dead: 8262 v. 8372 Killed in Genocide

Author: Daniel Toljaga

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is charged with two counts of Genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague.

The first count of genocide covers the period from 31 March to 31 December 1992 in the territory of ten Bosnian municipalities: “Bratunac, Brcko, Foca, Kljuc, Kotor Varos, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Visegrad, Vlasenica and Zvornik.” The second count of genocide refers to the period from July to November 1995 and the “killing over

Hague Judgments Provide Incomplete Background on Srebrenica

The International Criminal Tribunal focused its attention almost entirely on the case of the fall of Srebrenica and the systematic execution of thousands prisoners of war. But it ignored the Serb war crimes at Srebrenica that preceded the fall of this ‘UN-protected’ enclave…. Where other Srebrenica-related judgments fail to provide a broader perspective of events leading to the Srebrenica massacre, Orić’s judgment succeeds…

Author: Daniel Toljaga
| BOSANSKI | 

No serious researcher will ever be able to find all-encompassing information, in the Srebrenica-related judgments, about the serious human rights violations that preceded the first genocide on European soil since the Second World War. The world’s attention, then and later, concentrated on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre – the last act of a long-drawn out tragedy written by the Army of the Republika Srpska under direction of the Bosnian Serb leadership, with military, financial and logistical help from their brethren in Serbia.

The siege of Srebrenica itself lasted for more than three years (May 1992 – July 1995) before General Mladić’s forces and volunteers from Serbia hunted down and systematically killed, in an organized and planned manner, around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys. The killings, fueled by Islamophobia, were accompanied by terror, humiliation, rape, torture, and ethnic cleansing.

20 Years Since the Start of the Bosnian War (31 March 2012)

BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: Bijeljina Massacre, 31 March 1992 (Credit: Ron Haviv, Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal). Caption for this photograph (www.ronhaviv.com) reads: Arkan’s Tigers kill and kick Bosnian Muslim civilians during the first battle for Bosnia in Bijeljina, Bosnia, March 31, 1992. The Serbian paramilitary unit was responsible for killing thousands of people during the Bosnian war, and Arkan was later indicted for war crimes. (Photograph used with Ron Haviv’s permission)

Author: Daniel Toljaga
| BOSANSKI |

It is 20 years since the beginning of the war that unleashed a wave of unspeakable brutality against the targeted group – the ethnic Bosniak population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thousands of survivors continue to bear the scars of trauma that started on this day, twenty years ago.

The unspeakable brutality, accompanied by more than just cold ‘numbers of dead’, was characterized by:

Letter to the ICTY: Factual Errors on Hague Tribunal’s Interactive Map of Cases

To the ICTY Press Office
To the Office of the Prosecutor

An oath is written in different languages and left on the witness chair in the courtroom at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) during its open day for public in Hague.

The judicial findings of the Hague Tribunal are not definite and not all-encompassing. A large number of war crimes committed against the Bosniak population of the Srebrenica region — especially in a period between April 1992 and April 1993 — were never prosecuted by your office.

For example,

(a) the First Srebrenica Massacre (18 April–8 May 1992) — after the first fall of Srebrenica, Serb forces killed a total of 74 Bosniak women, children and elderly;

(b) the Sase detention camp (1992/93) — hundreds of Bosniak women, children and elderly were detained in this camp and subjected to rape and cruel treatment by Serb forces controlling this part of the war-time municipality;

In Memoriam: Judge Cassese (and Bosnian Genocide Case)

“Would it make any sense to ask Jewish victims to produce a document in which Nazi Germany explicitly ordered the Holocaust? Of course not. And yet, the International Court of Justice expected Bosnia to do the impossible — to produce a document in which Serbia explicitly ordered the Genocide. Does this make any sense?” – Daniel Toljaga

“Why was it not enough to prove that the Bosnian Serb military leadership was financed and paid by Serbia and that it was tightly connected to Serbia’s political and military leadership?” – Judge Antonio Cassese

Author: Daniel Toljaga

Distinguished Italian jurist, whose leadership of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) helped propel forward the Bosnian Genocide trials, died October 22nd at his home in Florence. Judge Antonio Cassese, 74, was the first president of the ICTY. He will be remembered as a man of utmost integrity and a man who spoke the truth. 

May he rest in peace. His leadership of the International Criminal Tribunal has ensured the accountability for the most serious violations of the international humanitarian law.

The Washington Post describes him as “a prolific academic writer and professor for several decades at the University of Florence, where he established a reputation as a top scholar of international law.” The same source notes that “In 1996, a New York Times reporter overheard him explode in frustration about Serbian leaders’ failure to cooperate with the tribunal and the message their intransigence sent to other dictators. ‘Go ahead! Kill, torture, maim! Commit acts of genocide!’ he shouted in a court hallway. ‘You may enjoy impunity!’

In 2007, Judge Cassese sharply criticized the controversial judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which pronounced that genocide had been committed at Srebrenica, but exonerated Serbia from direct responsibility for the annihilation of 8,000 Bosniak boys and men of this beleaguered, UN-protected, “safe haven” (holding, instead, that it ‘merely’ failed to prevent genocide).

The judicial standard of proof was unreasonable, to say the least. Would it make any sense to ask Jewish victims to produce a document in which Nazi Germany explicitly ordered the Holocaust? Of course not. And yet, the International Court of Justice expected Bosnia to do the impossible — to produce a document in which Serbia explicitly ordered the Genocide. Does this make any sense?

Protesting in the  Guardian on 27 February 2007 (the day after the ICJ pronounced its verdict), Judge Cassese argued that the judgment was seriously flawed, questioning its logic:

The 1992 Suha Massacre: One of Reasons Why Naser Orić Attacked Kravica in 1993

| BOSANSKI |

On 10 May 1992 — more than three years before the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide, eight months before Naser Orić’s counter-attack on the Serb village of Kravica and in the first days of the Bosnian war — Serbs from the village of Kravice, with the help of the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) and other Serb forces in the region, participated in the massacre of Bosniak civilians in the Bosnian Muslim village of Suha in the municipality of Bratunac, adjacent to Srebrenica. They sexually tortured young women and girls and then killed 38 unarmed Bosniak residents. They dumped their bodies in a local mass grave. Among the 38 exhumed remains were those of nine children ranging in age from 3 months to 11 years, several women and mostly elderly men. One of the victims was the 9-months pregnant Zekira Begić-Hrustanbašić.

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