Srebrenica: Tragedy That Time Cannot Heal

Written by Muzaffer Vatansever
Monday, 12 July 2010.
Courtesy Of "The Turkish Weekly"

Srebrenica, which was located on the eastern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina according to borders drawn by Dayton Peace Accord, witnessed the most dramatic tragedy of the recent history. In the last days of the Bosnian War, Srebrenica, where eight thousand people were massacred, went down in the history as the biggest mass destruction after the World War II. International society, which had been relatively hesitant since the beginning of the war, cannot force the war criminals to pay the bill of the Srebrenica genocide as they could not prevent. On 26th of 2007, International Court of Justice accepted Srebrenica massacres as genocide. However the Court decided that Serbia cannot be blamed for responsibility (1).

Today 11th of July 2010; fifteen years ago General of the Serbian Army Ratko Mladiç entered Srebrenica, one of the six so called “safe zones” demilitarized by UN. He said on 11st of June in 1995 “we are in Srebrenitsa. We are on the eve of an important day. We want to gift this city Serbian Nation. After the rebellion, it is time to take revenge from Turks.” These sentences were registered in archives of recent history. After that, the following five days more than eight thousand Bosnian men have been massacred. There are several mass graves near Srebrenitsa. Victims of massacre whose identities were ascertained after the openings of 13 mass graves were buried on 11th of June each year by commemoration. Today, in the fifteenth year of massacres, 775 people are buried to grave.

1992-1995 Bosnian War and the International Society

Ideological bases of Bosnian War, which took place between 1992 and 1995, go back to memorandum which criticized Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (hereafter, SFRY) was released in 1986 by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In this memorandum it was stated that Serbia, one of the six Republics of Yugoslavia were exploited and SFRY advocated restructuring. Moving from this point, Slobodan Milosevic initially canceled the autonomous statute of Kosovo in 1989 and significantly altered the 1974 Constitution. Dismantlement process of Yugoslavia which started with Milosevic Administration reached the peak point after independence of Croatia and Slovenia. These two Republics were followed by Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, there is an immediate response to independence of Bosnia by Serbs in Bosnia and Armed Forces of Yugoslavia which would throw Bosnia to a bloody war, lasting three and half years. Initially, war broke out in peripheries and clashes between Serbs and Croats were the first attempts of gaining soils in Bosnia. This war in which a Muslim Bosnian character in the novel of Ivo Andric, the Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1961, said that “death is our life, graves are our country” witnessed the inhumane behaviors and led to demise of more than 150.000 Muslim Bosnians. Numerous people were displaced and forced to migrate.

Interventions of the International Community to Bosnian War restricted to the soft measures which did not include the violence as embargo on arms, humanitarian aids, and establishment of safe zones. On the other hand, there were new plans for the future of Bosnia Herzegovina as Vance-Oven Plan and Oven-Stoltenberg Plan which were mentioned by name of its leaders. However none of them were able to prevent brutality. Here upon, UN Security Council adopted “safe areas” formula which was used in Gulf War for Kurds. In pursuant the decision of the Security Council, UN declared Srebrenica, Zepa, Tuzla, Saraybosna, Goradze and Bilhac as safe areas. Population of Srebrenica increased to more than 40000 which had been around 26000 before the resolution of UN Security Council with regard to establishment of safe areas. However Dutch soldiers who were responsible to protect “Srebrenica safe area” failed. They just stayed as out-watcher to the massacre in the region which started with the siege of the city by the Serbs on 6th of July 1995. Worse than that, in 2006, Dutch Government gave medal to these soldiers due to “difficult conditions of Srebrenica.”

Srebrenitsa: July 1995

This unbelievable tragedy started with siege of Srebrenitsa where thousands of Bosnians took refuge, on the 6th of July, 1995. In sum 34000 soldiers were expected to be in these six safe areas. However there were just 7600 UN soldiers in total and 600 soldiers in Srebrenitsa (2). When the Serbian Army’s attack began, Bosnians wanted their weapons which they gave to UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) beforehand. However, UNPROFOR rejected their demands. Serbs invading the city on 9th of July and captured thirty Dutch Soldiers in observation towers as hostages. Serbs used hostages as bargaining items and demanded the extradition of Bosnians. Despite the fact that NATO intervention came to agenda, it could not be started due to veto of the members, at first Holland. On the eleventh of June Serbs General Ratko Mladic came to city and reached an agreement with Dutch General. Onset of 12th of July all women and children were dispatched to other Muslim regions while Bosnian men, between 12 and 77 years old, were imprisoned as “war criminals”. Those who tried to escape were killed by Serbs. Massacres firstly started on 13th of June in storage near to Kravica. It is bitter that Dutch Soldiers gave 5000 Muslim Bosnians to Serbs in return for 14 Dutch hostages. First information about genocide, which had lasted for five days, were heard after some Bosnians who were able to escape and reached the Muslim villages. This brutality, which ended up with the massacres of more than 8000 Muslim Bosnians, was embedded in memories of Bosnians with deep pains; on the other side, it will ever exist in Serbian history as an embarrassing event.

Overview

Turkish Prime Minister Recep T. Erdogan, Serbian President Boris Tadic and leaders of countries in region attended to commemoration which is organized each year on 11th of July. This synergy is very important in terms transformation of the Srebrenica to a common suffering. Only if Srebrenica can be turned to a common suffering, the permanent basis of cooperation could be established. Therefore, basis of stability can be established. Change in the perceptions of Balkans which were the symbol of ethnic and religious conflicts in the past can only be enabled by the implementation of regional cooperation mechanisms. Turkey believes that permanent peace can only be achieved by regional rapprochement. Therefore, internalization of Srebrenica by the regional countries can be regarded as a significant opportunity in terms of construction of the common future in the region.

On the other hand, it is very desperate that European Leaders did not attend the commemoration. Why did not a representative of UN who was one of the main actors in Srebrenica come up front side? What does the medal given by Holland Defense Ministry to Dutch soldiers, who just watched the massacres, mean? And finally, the EU … The EU regards itself as the forerunner of human rights and universal values. If it is, from this point of view, it can be said that it firstly should face with Srebrenica.

Muzaffer Vatansever
USAK Center for EU Studies
muzaffer.vatansever@gmail.com

1- For the full text of the Court decision, see: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/ 91/13685.pdf (for the summary of the decision, please see: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/13687.pdf).

2- Merve İrem Yapıcı, “Bosna-Hersek’te Gerçekleştirilen Müdahalenin Uluslararası Hukuktaki Yeri”, Journal of International Law and Politics, Volume:2, No: 8, pp.5-6.
Monday, 12 July 2010