For nearly a generation, allegations of a Serb massacre in Srebrenica have dominated the image of the Bosnian Civil War, the Yugoslav Civil Wars and indeed the image of Serbs as a people. Serbs have been stigmatized a priori as THE war criminals per se.
A 1998 article entitled “Mass Graves in Bosnia Bolster War-Crimes Cases”[i] in the International Herald Tribune exposed the fundamental dilemma confronting The Hague Tribunal in the “Srebrenica Massacre” case. The author explains that “exhumations in 1996 [the first year of digging] recovered 460 bodies; (…) 7,500 others were still missing from the town of Srebrenica. Finding the others has been the goal of war-crimes investigators for more than two years.” In other words, after they accused the Serbs of the summary execution of 8,000 POWs, 8,000 dead bodies must be found to prove it.
US-American researcher, political analyst and author on Yugoslavia, Diana Johnstone,[ii] offered a word of caution about this approach to justice. She wrote:
“When, in the early months of the war which raged across Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo, seconded by Croatian agencies in Zagreb, presented Western media with reports indicating that the Serbs were pursuing a deliberate policy of genocide, a basic principle of caution, essential to justice was rapidly abandoned. That is the principle that the more serious the accusation, the greater the need for proof, since otherwise accusations will become an instrument of the lynch mob.”[iii]
The alleged summary execution of up to 8,000 prisoners remains the sole “justification” for the charge of “genocide.” The search for justice should therefore begin with an examination of the origin of this number.
Playing the Numbers:
The International Committee of the Red Cross published a press statement on September 13, 1995, in which it was stated:
“The ICRC’s head of operations for Western Europe, Angelo Gnaedinger, visited Pale and Belgrade from 2 to 7 September to obtain information from the Bosnian Serb authorities about the 3,000 persons from Srebrenica whom witnesses say were arrested by Bosnian Serb forces. The ICRC has asked for access as soon as possible to all those arrested (so far it has been able to visit only about 200 detainees), and for details of any deaths. The ICRC has also approached the Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities seeking information on some 5,000 individuals who fled Srebrenica, some of whom reached central Bosnia.”7)
The September 15, 1995, New York Times gives another accounting:
About 8,000 Muslims are missing from Srebrenica, the first of two United Nations-designated ‘safe areas’ overrun by Bosnian Serb troops in July, the Red Cross said today. (…) Among the missing were 3,000, mostly men, who were seen being arrested by Serbs. After the collapse of Srebrenica, the Red Cross collected 10,000 names of missing people, said Jessica Barry, a spokeswoman. In addition to those arrested, about 5,000 ‘have simply disappeared,’ she said.8)
Aside from simply adding the 3,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica upon arrival of the Bosnian-Serb military (who the Serbs then took as prisoners of war) and the 5,000 Muslim men, reported to have left Srebrenica before the arrival of Bosnian Serb forces, to inflate the figures – and therefore the gravity of the accusation – this report makes no mention of the fact that by mid-September 1995 a sizable portion of the group of 5,000 had already reached Muslim territory and safety. And the fact that the Red Cross was asking the Bosnia-Herzegovina [Muslim] authorities for information about the 5,000 (the original figure) – “some of whom [had already] reached central Bosnia” – has completely disappeared from the news. The entire 5,000 of the one group and the 3,000 of the other are still today – 5 years later – being counted as “missing” and therefore presumed dead.
The Red Cross report was, itself, lacking the objectivity that one would have hoped for from a non-partisan organization. Its very off-hand “some of whom reached central Bosnia” gives the impression that only a handful could be accounted for by mid-September. But again the press gave another picture. Within a week of the takeover of Srebrenica (July 18, 1995) one learns that:
“Some 3,000 to 4,000 Bosnian Muslims who were considered by UN officials to be missing after the fall of Srebrenica have made their way through enemy lines to Bosnian government territory. The group, which included wounded refugees, sneaked past Serb lines under fire and crossed some 30 miles through forests to safety.” 9)
Similar reports appeared in other journals at the time. On August 2, 1995, The Times of London published the following:
“Thousands of the “missing” Bosnian Muslim soldiers from Srebrenica who have been at the centre of reports of possible mass executions by the Serbs, are believed to be safe to the northeast of Tuzla. Monitoring the safe escape of Muslim soldiers and civilians from (…) Srebrenica and Zepa has proved a nightmare for the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. For the first time yesterday, however, the Red Cross in Geneva said it had heard from sources in Bosnia that up to 2,000 Bosnian Government troops were in an area north of Tuzla. They had made their way there from Srebrenica “without their families being informed”, a spokesman said, adding that it had not been possible to verify the reports because the Bosnian Government refused to allow the Red Cross into the area.10)«
The Washington Post explains: “The men set off at dawn on Tuesday, July 11, in two columns that stretched back seven or eight miles”11).
Two weeks before the Red Cross representatives Angelo Gnaedinger and Jessica Barry gave their numbers to the press, another spokesperson for the International Red Cross in Geneva, Pierre Gaultier, provided an important detail. In an interview given to the German journal Junge Welt, he explained:
“All together we arrived at the number of approximately 10,000 [missing from Srebrenica]. But there may be some double counting… Before we have finished [weeding out the double countings] we cannot give any exact information. Our work is made even more complicated by the fact that the Bosnian government has informed us that several thousand refugees have broken through enemy lines and have been reintegrated into the Bosnian Muslim army. These persons are therefore not missing, but they cannot be removed from the lists of the missing (…) because we have not received their names.”12)
Since the number of “missing” (and therefore assumed dead) has remained at roughly 8,000 throughout the past 5 years, it can be reasonably assumed that the Muslim government has never furnished the Red Cross with the names of those who reached Muslim lines. Also to be noted is that when Prof. Milivoje Ivanisevic at the University of Belgrade took a close look at the Red Cross list, he discovered it contained the names of 500 people who were already deceased before Bosnian-Serb troops entered Srebrenica. Even more interesting, when comparing the Red Cross’ list with the electoral list for the 1996 fall elections, he also found that 3,016 people listed by the Red Cross as “missing” were on the electoral lists the following year.13) This leads to one of two possibilities: either the Muslims were having their dead vote, meaning that the voters were bogus, and the election a fraud; or the voters were in fact alive, in which case, here is an additional piece of evidence that the massacre is a hoax.
Early in the war, journalists of Time magazine saw through the game being played on the press and international organizations. They wrote: “Bosnian Muslims, fighting at the raw level of their rivals, are likewise guilty of barbarism–and of inflating horror stories about the Serbs to win sympathy and support.”14) It appears that they were not without success.
With deliberately inflated figures clearly being used to fuel a major propaganda campaign to make “Srebrenica” a symbol of Serbian “genocide”, some Red Cross spokespersons in effect became a party to the conflict by failing to bring important information to public attention. It is difficult to understand how correspondents such as Mike O’Connor and their editors could be unaware of the extremely misleading and inaccurate content of the reports they published.
Both Red Cross and UN officials knew that thousands were safe. Yet neither corrected the communique given in September. And both failed to report that Ms. Barry’s 5,000 who “simply disappeared,” had simply disappeared back into the ranks of the Bosnian army. The propaganda put into circulation by representatives of the Bosnian government was allowed to stand uncontested even by organizations otherwise seen as non-partisan.
Within days of the take-over of Srebrenica, Zepa, a second Moslem enclave (and UN Safe Area), was also captured by Bosnian Serb forces. Among the defenders of Zepa were hundreds of the “missing” soldiers from Srebrenica. The New York Times recounts:
“The wounded troops were left behind, and when the Bosnian Serbs overran the town on Tuesday, the wounded were taken to Sarajevo for treatment at Kosevo Hospital. Many of them had begun their journey in Srebrenica, and fled into the hills when that ‘safe area’ fell to the Bosnian Serbs on July 11. These men did not make it to Tuzla, where most of the refugees ended up, but became the defenders of Zepa instead. ‘Some 350 of us managed to fight our way out of Srebrenica and make it into Zepa,’ said Sadik Ahmetovic, one of 151 people evacuated to Sarajevo for treatment today. (…) They said they had not been mistreated by their Serb captors.15)”
It might seem strange that the Muslim soldiers of Zepa would abandon their wounded comrades and that 5,000 Srebrenica soldiers would abandon their women and children to an enemy with a reputation – at least in the media – of being sadists, and rapists seeking to commit “genocide”. Could it be that these Muslim soldiers knew that they need not be particularly worried about their women, children and wounded comrades falling into the hands of their Serbian countrymen? The Serbian forces had the wounded Muslim soldiers evacuated behind Muslim lines to their Muslim hospital in Sarajevo. Is this how one goes about committing genocide? Is this the military force compared to Nazis? What a trivialization of Nazi barbarism! Even the fact that the Serbs provided safe passage to women and children is interpreted as sinister, when it is proof that “genocide” was not happening.
The London Times article quoted above mentions that 2,000 Srebrenica soldiers made their way to the north of Tuzla “without their families being informed”. Were their families ever informed? Other than the very few articles that took notice of their resurrection from the presumed dead, the public at large was never informed that they were in fact alive. On the contrary. And the women of Srebrenica continue to demonstrate demanding information about their loved ones, whom they believe are still alive.
To maintain the hoax, it is not only necessary to create the illusion that the proof of a massacre exists, but it is also necessary to suppress any evidence that it did not happen. Not only must the 5,000 never be accounted for, but not too many of the 3,000 listed by the Red Cross as prisoners of war must be allowed to return “from the dead.”
On January 17, 1996, the British daily “Guardian” published an article concerning one group of the former Muslim POWs from Srebrenica and Zepa, who, once liberated from a POW camp, were flown directly to Dublin:
“Hundreds of Bosnian Muslim prisoners are still being held at 2 secret camps within neighboring Serbia, according to a group of men evacuated by the Red Cross to a Dublin hospital from one camp – at Sljivovica. (…) A group of 24 men was flown to Ireland just before Christmas [1995] (…). But some 800 others remain incarcerated in Sljivovica and at another camp near Mitrovo Polje, just three days before the agreed date for the release of all detainees under the Dayton peace agreement on Bosnia (…). The Red Cross in Belgrade has been negotiating for several weeks to have the men released and given sanctuary in third countries. A spokeswoman said most were bound for the United States or Australia, with others due to be sent to Italy, Belgium, Sweden, France and Ireland. (…) Since late August, the Red Cross has made fortnightly visits from its Belgrade field office. (…) Teams from the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague have been in Dublin to question and take evidence from the men.”16)
Why would prisoners of war, whose normal first wish upon being freed would be to be reunited with their families and to restart their interrupted lives in peacetime, be rushed off to Dublin, with “papers to remain in Ireland”? Why would the Red Cross – usually known for reuniting families – be seeking to secretly spirit them out of their homeland, away from their family and friends? Were their families ever informed?
The ex-prisoners were widely dispersed. To a second country…:
[The] US decided to accept 214 Bosniaks who, (…) had been detained in Serbian camps and give them refugee status.17)
Why have neither the Red Cross (which has been visiting the prisoners since August), nor the Tribunal (in its search for evidence of a “genocide” in Bosnia, for which Srebrenica is slated to be the key incriminating evidence), nor the American government made mention since August 1995 of these men being held as war prisoners?
And a third country… The pro-government [Muslim] news agency TWRA reports:
“[One] Hundred‑three Bosnian soldiers who were recently released from prisons in Serbia, were sent to Australia against their will”, claims their commander, Osmo Zimic. Zimic also criticizes the UNHCR, whose spokesman claimed these soldiers demanded departure to Australia and by no means return to Bosnia for they would allegedly face criminal charges as deserters there. “This is not true”, says Zimic. Australian immigration & ethnic affairs office spokesman says he was informed [of] Zimic’s allegation from the Bosnian embassy in Canberra and that the investigation was initiated.”18)
“The Bosnian Embassy in Australia requested the Hague International Tribunal (ICTY) to start an investigation on the deportation of Bosniaks (800 persons) from Serbia to Australia and Europe in which, supposedly, UNHCR assisted, instead [of] involving Bosniaks in the exchange of prisoners, esp. for they had been in the camps in Serbia which claimed not to be involved in the war in Bosnia. The principal witness for the prosecution is Osmo Zimic, a Bosnian Army Officer, one who had been deported to Australia against his will.”19)
It seems as though the Red Cross, the UNHCR, and a host of “western” governments around the world were engaged in hiding the fact that these men were not massacred. Who stood to gain?
As a result of the Srebrenica hoax, a new order of the world is beginning to take shape, where the UNHCR assists in creating refugees, where the Red Cross helps separate families and where tribunals indict first and look for crimes later.
Before discovery of conclusive evidence that the alleged crime has even been committed, the indictment alone is made to serve as punishment. This reverses the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” and amounts to inquisitorial “justice”. For three years the Tribunal has been searching for evidence of an alleged “genocide” which has already largely served its political purpose. Now the search is on for a retrospective judicial fig leaf.
Endnotes:
7) Former Yugoslavia: Srebrenica: help for families still awaiting news ICRC News 37 https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/news-release/2009-and-earlier/57jmjl.htm
8) AP; Conflict in the Balkans; 8,000 Muslims Missing; New York Times; Sep 15, 1995; p. 8 (https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/15/world/conflict-in-the-balkans-8000-muslims-missing.html?mtrref=www.google.de&gwh=A80E11013B5A5A732D722B1C60A5ECF3&gwt=pay). In fact the NY Times simply reprinted an AP article, (Maud S. Beelman, “Red Cross Says 8,000 People from Fallen Safe Area Are Missing,” Sept. 14, 1995 (http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1995/Red-Cross-Says-8-000-People-from-Fallen-Safe-Area-Are-Missing/id-e819fee986982e076194b1b9b71524a8 ) in which AP journalists interviewed lower-ranking ICRC employees on the basis of the facts in the Gnaedinger press statement, and then edited together the answers to fit a “mass murder” scenario.
9) Chris Hedges; Conflict in the Balkans: In Bosnia; Muslim Refugees Slip Across Serb Lines; New York Times; July 18, 1995, p. 7. The same day, the Washington Post reported the number closer to the upper estimate: “About 4,000 Bosnian army soldiers trudged for five days through Serb-held territory to escape from Srebrenica and reach a safe haven in Medjedja” (Pomfret, John; Bosnian Soldiers Evade Serbs in Trudge to Safety; Washington Post, Jul 18, 1995)
10) Evans, Michael and Kallenbach, Michael; Missing’ enclave troops found; The Times; 02 August 1995 p. 9.
11) Dobbs, Michael/ Spolar, Christine; 12,000 Muslims Massacred In July Srebrenica Exodus; Washington Post, October 27, 1995.
12) Pierre Gaultier (interview), Wo sind die Vermißten aus Srebrenica? Junge Welt, 30.8.95
13) Faux électeurs… ou faux cadavres; Balkans Infos, Paris; Oct. 1996 (No. 6); See also Ivanisevic, Milivoje; “Un Dossier qui pose bien des Questions”; Balkans Infos, Paris; Dec. 1996 (No. 8).
14) McAllister, J.F.O. et al; Specters of barbarism in Bosnia compel the US and Europe to ponder: Is it time to intervene?; Time Magazine Aug. 17, 1992.
15) Hedges, Chris; Bosnia Troops Cite Gassings At Zepa; New York Times, Jul 27, 1995
16) Vulliamy, Ed; Bosnia: The secret War – Serbs ‘run secret camps’: Men freed from clandestine detention tell Ed Vulliamy of random beatings and ‘mobile torture machines’; Guardian, 17.1.96
17) S.K., Another Two Mass Graves ‑ Discovered, Press TWRA, Jan 19,1996
18) A.S.; Bosnian Soldiers in Australia Against Their Will; Press TWRA, Feb 6, 1996
19) A.S.; Investigation on Deportation of Bosniaks Requested; Press TWRA, March 9, 1996
[i] Original NY Times article: O’Connor, Mike, “Bosnia War Tribunal Finds Hidden Bodies of Slain Muslims” NY Times, May 13, 1998 (http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/13/world/bosnia-war-tribunal-finds-hidden-bodies-of-slain-muslims.html?pagewanted=1)
[ii] Johnstone is the author of the very well researched work, “Fools’ Crusade, Yugoslavia, NATO and western Delusions” Pluto Press, London, UK, 2002
[iii] Johnstone, Diana, Selective Justice in The Hague: The War Crimes Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia is a Mockery of Evidentiary Rule; The Nation, 22.9.1997 (See: http://sorryserbia.com/2013/fools-crusade/)