These two successively published reports in the London “Guardian” and the “Daily Telegraph” are eloquently paradigmatic of the propaganda hype that has plagued media reporting about Srebrenica since July 1995. The July 25 1995 article, filed by “Guardian” diplomatic editor Ian Black, is replete with speculation about the alleged dire fate of 7,000 missing persons from Srebrenica, complete with the attention-grabbing word “barbaric” embedded in the headline. To lend credence to his allegations, he quotes extensively the hyperbole put out by the UN special envoy for human rights, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. The article is peppered with unverifiable quotes from anonymous sources, such as “a Serbian couple from Bratunac” and “two Dutch soldiers.” Needless to say, subsequent Srebrenica investigations, lasting for over two decades, have yielded no trace of “1,600 people killed in a school yard,” the mythical “Serbian couple” who allegedly reported it was never mentioned again, nor was the subject ever raised subsequently once it served its ephemeral propaganda purpose on the pages of the “Guardian” on 25 July 1995. By contrast, the day before, on 24 July 1995, the “Daily Telegraph” published another piece on the same topic but with entirely different content and intonation. Reporter Tim Butcher who, unlike his diplomatic editor colleague and envoy Mazowiecki, was on the spot in Tuzla as Srebrenica refugees were arriving, quotes Peruvian diplomat Hubert Wieland, who also happened to be on the spot and had access to first hand sources. Wieland told Butcher that “lack of clear evidence … proved the near-impossibility of establishing what happened when the Serbs overran the Muslim enclave,” an entirely reasonable statement given the short period of time that elapsed since the fall of Srebrenica on 11 July and the general chaos that ensued. While deploring the ejection of the civilian population, Wieland stated significantly that “we have not found anyone who saw with their own eyes an atrocity taking place.”
- Republika Srpska’s First Srebrenica Report (2002)
- Edward S. Herman and David Peterson: Marlise Simons on the Yugoslavia Tribunal: A Study in Total Propaganda Service (2004)