Bosnian Serbs Apologize For Srebrenica Massacre

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty ^ | 11/10/2004 | Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

[Snapple]

10 November 2004 -- Bosnian Serb authorities today apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serbian forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

A statement posted on the government's official web page said "the government of Republika Srpska sympathizes with the pain of relatives of the Srebrenica victims and expresses sincere regrets and apologies over the tragedy which has happened to them."

The Bosnian Serb government accepted last month a local report by a special investigative commission acknowledging that almost 8,000 Muslims were killed in the massacre, in the final stages of Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Today's statement said "the report shows without any doubt that in July 1995 huge war crimes took place in the area of Srebrenica."

(AFP/RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albainian Languages Service)

[Snapple]

Hope they can reconcile.

[Nyboe]

sorry we killed 8000 Muslim terrorists... next time we'll wait till they kill us first to make sure it meets the global test...

[Snapple]

We? Who is this we?

The 8,000 were civilians--as even the government admits.

Bosnian Muslim lived in nice little houses and were not a bunch of extremists.

They even told the Wahabbis to go home because they didn't need those morons telling them how to practice Islam.

[GSlob]

IMHO, these Balkanoids deserve each other (pox on all their houses!)

[Snapple]

The Muslims had turned in their weapons to the UN which had promised not to abandon them

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/675945.stm

In the summer of 1995, two years after it was designated a United Nations Safe Area, the Bosnian town of Srebrenica became the scene of the worst massacre in the Bosnian war. This is an account of the critical days leading up to the killings:
6-8 July 1995
Bosnian Serb forces had laid siege to the Srebrenica enclave, where tens of thousands of civilians had taken refuge from earlier Serb offensives in north-eastern Bosnia. They were under the protection of about 600 lightly armed Dutch infantry forces. Fuel was running out and no fresh food had been brought into the enclave since May.
Serb forces began shelling Srebrenica. Bosnian Muslim fighters in the town asked for the return of weapons they had surrendered to the peacekeepers but their request was refused. The Dutch commander called UN Headquarters in Sarajevo asking for "close air support" after shells and rockets landed close to refugee centres and observation posts manned by peacekeepers.

9 July 1995
The Bosnian Serbs stepped up their shelling and thousands of refugees fled to the town from southern camps ahead of advancing Serbs, who attacked Dutch observation posts, taking about 30 soldiers hostage.

Srebrenica facts
Muslim enclave in Serb-held territory

1991 Population

75% Muslim

25% Serb

Declared safe area in April 1993

UN commander Morillon arrived in March 1993 and said: "I will never abandon you"

Bosnian Serb army and paramilitaries massed in April 1995 including:

Drina Wolves

Seselj's Chetniks

Arkan's Tigers


One peacekeeper was fatally wounded when Bosnian Muslims fired on retreating Dutch troops.

10 July 1995
Dutch Commander Colonel Karremans filed a request for UN air support after the Bosnian Serbs shelled Dutch positions. UN Commander General Janvier initially refused, but agreed after another request from the colonel. Serb attacks stopped before the planes arrived and strikes were postponed.

Some 4,000 refugees were in the town by the evening and there was panic on the streets. Large crowds were gathered around the Dutch positions.

The Dutch commander told town leaders that Nato planes would launch massive air attacks against the Serbs if they had not withdrawn from the safe area by 0600 the following morning.

11 July 1995
The Serb forces did not withdraw, but at 0900 Colonel Karremans received word from Sarajevo that his request for close air support had been submitted on the wrong form. At 1030, the re-submitted request reached General Janvier, but Nato planes had to return to base in Italy to refuel after being airborne since 0600.
UN air power was unable to save the safe area
By midday, more than 20,000 refugees - mostly women, children and the infirm - fled to the main Dutch base at Potocari.

At 1430, two Dutch F-16 Fighters dropped two bombs on Serb positions surrounding Srebrenica. The Serbs responded with a threat to kill their Dutch hostages and shell refugees, causing the suspension of further strikes.

The Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic entered Srebrenica two hours later, accompanied by Serb camera crews. In the evening, General Mladic summoned Colonel Karremans to a meeting at which he delivered an ultimatum that the Muslims must hand over their weapons to guarantee their lives.

12 July 1995
Buses arrived to take women and children to Muslim territory, while the Serbs begin separating out all men from age 12 to 77 for "interrogation for suspected war crimes".
Mladic: Offered Muslims freedom if they surrendered arms
It is estimated that 23,000 women and children were deported in the next 30 hours. Hundreds of men were held in trucks and warehouses.

About 15,000 Bosnian Muslim fighters had attempted to escape from Srebrenica overnight and were shelled as they fled through the mountains.

13 July 1995
The first killings of unarmed Muslims took place in a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica.

Peacekeepers handed over about 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltering at the Dutch base at Potocari. In return, the Bosnian Serbs released 14 Dutch peacekeepers who had been held at the Nova Kasaba base.

16 July 1995
Early reports of massacres emerged as the first survivors of the long march from Srebrenica began to arrive in Muslim-held territory.

Following negotiations between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs, the Dutch were at last permitted to leave Srebrenica, leaving behind weapons, food and medical supplies.

In the five days after Bosnian Serb forces overran Srebrenica, more than 7,000 Muslim men are thought to have been killed.

[FreeAtlanta]

Honestly, I don't know what to believe about this region.

[Brilliant]

Oh, that's good. They APOLOGIZE.

[Snapple]

Well, we can't bring back the past. I hope that these different groups can develop good relationships.

An apology is a start.

[No Longer Free State]

Believe a couple of things:

1) A friend with experience in the region was once chastised for being too correct when he described the atmosphere as "hate you can taste."

2) Don't know about Bosnia, but Kosovo is headed for another blow-up within a year because the UN is setting them up with false expectations that they'll receive independence very soon. When reality hits home, they'll be at each others' throats again.

[Blue Scourge]

Thats 8,000 non-combatants. Arab,Jew,White,Black...you do not shoot non-combatants if it can be avoided.

[Migraine]

Where are the two shills on this forum who used to delight in calling me an ignoramus every time I'd mention the massacre at Srebrenica?
They were chauvinists for the Serbs. On this forum, we do not need apologists; just the facts.

[Strategerist]

Well, there were a couple of Serb apologists who pretty easily found fertile ground for their propaganda here.

They'd have you believe that all 8,000 of these men and boys were rabid members of Al Quaeda. Or that it was justified because of what the Bosnian Muslims did in World War II (basically almost none killed were even alive then.) Or that any Bosnian atrocities anywhere in the war justified this atrocity.

All of the above are intellectually bankrupt ideas.

[joan]

This is a FALSE, FORCED apology by a Paddy Ashdown hand-selected crew of Serbs. He FIRED those who didn't agree. The real report from 2 years ago is linked at the end. Has more facts than the phony propaganda you guys believe.

THE FORBIDDEN SREBRENICA REPORT
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - October 16, 2004

by Andy Wilcoxson

In September of 2002 the Republika Srpska Bureau for Cooperation with the ICTY issued a report about the alleged massacre in Srebrenica. The report relied on UN documents, International Red Cross documents, BH Army documents, and photographic documentation. The report, which had been destined to be part of a larger final report, exposed the official Srebrenica story as a fraud.

Needless to say, the Muslims and the so-called "international community" were furious that the Srebrenica story had been debunked. The Serbs weren't supposed to expose the story as a fraud, they were supposed to confess so that nobody would have to try and prove the Srebrenica story with evidence. The Serbian confession was supposed to be the proof, and by debunking the story those dastardly Serbs messed-up everything.

Paddy Ashdown, who is for all intents and purposes Bosnia's dictator, was furious at the Serbian disobedience. He condemned the report without even reading it. He sacked the leadership of the commission that wrote the report, and he demanded that another report be written.

According to a report issued by the International Strategic Studies Association, Ashdown and his cronies at the OHR demanded that a fabricated report be issued in which Serbs blindly accepted the all blame for everything that the Muslims accused them of at Srebrenica.

After hand picking a new commission, and firing everybody who would dare to question the Muslim version of the Srebrenica story; Ashdown, not surprisingly, recently got the report that he wanted.

But for Ashdown one problem exists. The original report of September 2002 still exists, and it still proves that the Srebrenica story is a fraud, and no amount of phony extorted "confessions" can change that.

Ashdown has been lucky so-far, because only 500 copies of the original report were ever printed. This makes it a very hard document to find, and keeps it largely inaccessible to the general public.

But Mr. Ashdown's luck has ran out. We have managed to obtain a copy of the forbidden 139-page report. We have scanned it, and now we are making it available for you to download and distribute all over the internet!

http://slobodan-milosevic.ihostsites.net/documents/srebrenica.pdf>SREBRENICA REPORT, September 2002 (15 Mb) PDF File

[joan]

This is the correct link to the report from 2 years ago, which the international community stopped and then went in heavy handed until they got their version which you see today:

SREBRENICA REPORT, September 2002 (15 Mb) PDF File

[joan]

The Muslims did not turn in their weapons: they only left their HEAVY weapons in UN storage as they were not conducive to a quick, secretive escape from Srebrenica to Muslim held territory.

Many of them arrived in Tuzla armed, and there were actually a few shoot-outs between them because some felt the leadership had given up Srebrenica - which it did.

Naser Oric and the top leadership, around 17 men, had left 3 months before, in April, and they never even bothered coming back. The town was obviously decided to go to Serbs for some time after the "fall".

There is a book, entitled "Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis: After the Fall", which has quotes from an extended family, living in St. Louis, circa 1999. Some of the "survivors" are men who were in the army (about 3 of them). All of them say they were told by the acting commander to gather in the city (which meant they had to leave their fortified defenses), while he and the UN told the women and children to head for the UN base at Potocari. This, even before the Serbs got to the city and were still on the outskirts. Serbs started forward after the Muslims launched attacks and ambushes, likely for the set purpose to have the Serbs come. The Serbs were surprised at the lack of resistance on the way to the city.

The Muslim army in Srebrenica was claimed to be in the range of 8,000 - 12,000. The Serb army in the area 1,000 - 2,000 - NO WAY the Serbs could have captured that city, with Muslims in a defensive position, much larger, with Iranian arms. The Dutch Srebrenica report said Iranian arms brought to Sarajevo quickly showed up in Srebrenica.

[Hoplite]

U.S. EMBASSY STATEMENT ON RS REPORT ON SREBRENICA

DATE: 09/05/2002
The substance and conclusions of the report issued September 3, 2002 by the RS Government Coordination Bureau for Liaison with the ICTY are simply false. The enormity of the crimes, committed against civilians in Srebrenica in July 1995, including genocide -- as established by the ICTY -- is simple truth. For any government office to maintain otherwise appears a crude attempt to manipulate and divide the public of this country. We call on all responsible RS authorities to reject the contents of this report, and to demonstrate their commitment that justice be done in the prosecution of all war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. Only in this way can they serve the interests of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including those in the RS.

"Well, Joan still believes us, anyway."

[kimosabe31]

Joan...great post. Thanks for linking the september 2002 report. It'll be interesting to read the reactions from "BB" brains migrain, snapple and their ilk.

[Modernman]

Where are the two shills on this forum who used to delight in calling me an ignoramus every time I'd mention the massacre at Srebrenica? They were chauvinists for the Serbs. On this forum, we do not need apologists; just the facts.

I've been called a "Serb-hater" a few times on these threads. Kind of amusing since my family can trace its Serbian roots back to the battle of Kosovo in 1389.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Well, maybe it is EUROPES worst event since WWII.

But I think Saddams 200,000 is worse.

[DTA]

>>>>>>The 8,000 were civilians--as even the government admits<<<

You seem to be a knowledgeable person. Can you explain us how no male Bosnian Muslim died in Srebrenica of natural cause from 1992 to the fall of the enclave July 1995? This is quote a feat, having in mind that crude death rate for Bosnia in peacetime was 7/1000. For population of 20000+ during three year span natural cause death toll should ammount to 500+ or more due to adverse epidemiological effects.

How dead Srebrenicans managed to vote on OSCE-controlled elections a year later?