Points of agreement and disagreement with the Srebrenica Lobby
As far as we are concerned there is no dispute that something terrible happened to Moslem prisoners of war during three days in July of 1995. But in order to properly understand what happened, and why, it is necessary to also take into account what was happening to Serb civilians in and around Srebrenica during the preceding three years. It is conventional wisdom, and an irrefutable moral truth, that two wrongs do not make a right. But by amputating the record, and then inflating the amputated part, we shall never approach the whole truth, achieve justice, or lay the foundations for lasting reconciliation between two communities that must live in peace together unless, indeed, one takes it upon itself to exterminate the other.
All reasonable people will agree that Moslem prisoners were massacred in large numbers by Serb forces in July of 1995. Agreement on this point is not only possible but can serve beneficially as common ground for further investigation and dialogue. Unfortunately, this appears to be insufficient for some on the Bosnian Moslem side who feel obliged to go beyond provable facts and wish to reshape and “enhance” reality in order to promote their political agenda. They have two rigid demands: [1] the mass killing of Moslem prisoners in July of 1995 must be recognized as genocide; and [2] the mass killing of Serb civilians that preceded it should be minimized as either a lie or an event so statistically insignificant that it may be disregarded. Whoever refuses to bow to these demands is ostracized as a “genocide denier,” which is obviously a pathetic attempt to hitch a ride on the coattails of Shoah, the demonstrable genocide of European Jewry, an event that really did take place and the denial of which is genuinely immoral.
Some general considerations
We recognize that a terrible massacre of prisoners of war took place around Srebrenica in July of 1995, and that it was contrary to the laws and customs of war. It is a point we do not challenge. We insist however that these events be placed in proper legal and moral perspective. That would most likely exclude calling it a “genocide” or regarding the Serbian people as a community, in whole or in part, as being responsible for it. Nor does that furnish any grounds for questioning the status or calling for the abolition of the Republic of Srpska, which was established in 1995 under the internationally recognized Dayton Agreement, and which is the safe haven of the Serbian people in Bosnia/Hercegovina.
In addition to a desire to reframe the Srebrenica debate and to critically reexamine its factual, legal, and political implications, it is our goal also to raise the issue of the several thousand innocent Serb civilians from villages surrounding the supposedly “demilitarized” Srebrenica enclave who were murdered and expelled by Naser Orić’s forces between 1992 and 1995, whose property was pillaged and villages burned. Only by raising that ignored issue can we put the terrible events of July 1995 in their proper moral and psychological perspective: in part at least an act of revenge (which we do not support), but certainly not a step in the plan to exterminate the Moslem community in Bosnia/Hercegovina.
In addition, our goal is to oppose the abuse, on both sides, of a human tragedy for base political and propaganda purposes. It is to that end that we would like to help launch a reconciliation program between the Serbian and Moslem communities, with the assistance of international experts with experience in that field from their own countries. But, as the title of the South African commission (Truth and Reconciliation) suggests, truth must come before and serve as the foundation for reconciliation.
Our objectives
Our broad purpose is to collect information on Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia, defined not narrowly as three days in July 1995, but more broadly as from 1992 to 1995. That means that we are creating a comprehensive and contextual, as opposed to a selective record of the violence between communities in that area during the conflict. We shall focus also on crimes committed against the Serb civilians, not because we favor them but because so far they have been ignored. We wish to redress that balance, but we will not work with any ideological commitments. A corollary goal will be to launch something akin to the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission, with emphasis on truth as logically coming before, and as a precondition, to reconciliation. That is another reason we wish to do a great deal of empirical work on the neglected crimes against the Serbian population. Only after all crimes committed in Srebrenica are properly documented and acknowledged will exploring reconciliations strategies begin to make sense.
The fundamental objective of our Project is to rise above politics and propaganda to create a contextual record of the Srebrenica tragedy encompassing more than July 1995 and in a way that can serve as a corrective to the distortions of the last two decades and as a genuine contribution to future peace.