“I must admit that I find it difficult to use the word genocide, which conjures up images of the Holocaust. ” (read the full post here)

While we never questioned Mr. Dobbs’ acceptance of the occurrence  of these crimes against Bosniaks, we did express concerns about his hesitation to use the  term “genocide. Most of Mr. Dobbs’ reporting regarding the Srebrenica genocide is highly commendable (just read his latest post slamming the pro-Serb genocide denier  “Srebenica historical project).  However,  using incorrect terminology such as “massacre” is very damaging to the victims of genocide because it fails to portray the full intent of the Serb army to annihilate the population of this enclave.

In today’s blog response, Mr. Dobbs clarified his position that he agrees with the classification of Srebrenica genocide by the courts stating:

“While I do not agree with all the opinions handed down by the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, I agree with the conclusion of the judges that the Srebrenica massacre met the legal definition of “genocide,” as defined by the United Nations Convention. ” you can read the full blog post here .

We appreciate Mr. Dobbs clarifying his position on genocide and we urge him to be more consistent in his use of the word  (instead of “massacre”) when describing the horrific genocide against Bosniaks in July 1995 in Srebrenica.  While to some it may appear insignificant, from an international law perspective it has significant implications on preserving the truth about the agression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, genocide against Bosniaks. Furthermore, there can be no peace or reconciliation in the region without full acceptance of responsibility for these actions.

Hamdija Custovic

CNAB Spokesperson

“The Mladic Files” will provide a multifaceted account of the proceedings against Mladic, who, as commander of the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–95 Balkans conflict, has been indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. “The Mladic Files” is available at www.ushmm.org/mladic-files. The project’s blog is available on Foreign Policy’s website.

The project is being led by the Museum’s Goldfarb Fellow, prize-winning foreign correspondent and author Michael Dobbs, who will follow the trial as part of his investigation into the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. In addition to observing the legal proceedings in The Hague, Dobbs will travel to Srebrenica, Sarajevo, and Belgrade to interview Mladic’s victims and associates, posting his discoveries to the website as he seeks to uncover what drove the Bosnian Serb military commander to order Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II.

“‘The Mladic Files’ will not only document the trial but also explore the roots of the Srebrenica massacre and its ongoing impact in the former Yugoslavia and the international community,” says Michael Abramowitz, Director of the Committee on Conscience, the Museum’s genocide prevention program. “This historic trial will play an important role in determining if Mladic’s actions constituted genocide. We are pleased that, through our fellowship program, the Museum will be able to provide deeper insights into the trial and the events that brought it about.”

As part of its genocide prevention efforts, the Museum has long shone a spotlight on the atrocities in the Balkans and in particular the massacre at Srebrenica, which is one of the few cases that the international community has deemed genocide. The Museum has been monitoring the arrests and trials of those accused of crimes against humanity in the region.

The Museum’s work on genocide and related crimes against humanity is guided by the Committee on Conscience, a standing committee of the Museum’s Council. The Committee on Conscience’s mandate is to alert the national conscience, influence policy makers, and stimulate worldwide action to confront and work to halt acts of genocide or related crimes against humanity.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors. For more information, visit ushmm.org.

Source: United States Holocaust Museum

The denial, prejudice, supremacism: they are all seeds of evil, for they evolve, they expand, and if left unchecked, when they ripen, they flourish, overgrow, and unleash the violence of unimaginable proportions. They can turn seemingly good men — everyday husbands, fathers, neighbors – into psychopathic rapists, ferocious tormentors, maniacal monsters, and mass killers. It happened in Bosnia.

The human ‘willingness’ to use rape as an instrument of terror in war, for the sole purpose of inflicting irreparable, long term psychological and physical trauma to defenseless women and children, became evident in the bloodstained Serb-led campaign of ethnic cleansing in eastern Bosnia, between 1992 and 1993. A preliminary European Community report, published in January of 1993, estimated that 20,000 Bosniak women may have been raped by Serb forces in Bosnia. The report also added that there was strong evidence that many women and children were killed during or after sexual abuse. (AP, The News-Journal, p.8A, “Bosnia Rape Victim Waits to Give Unwanted Birth”, 8 January 1993.) In 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that rape was indeed used by the Bosnian Serb armed forces as an ‘instrument of terror.’ (Trial Judgment in the case of Kunarac et al.)

While Serb soldiers participated in systematic rape of Bosniak women and girls, often mothers with their daughters, Bosniak men were sent to concentration camps or execution fields. Before they met their fate, Bosniak prisoners were savagely beaten and then forced into signing coerced statements that they had committed “crimes against Serbs.” The Serb authorities needed these “confessions” from tortured Bosniak prisoners so that they could falsify both the history and the nature of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (see, for example, the trial judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal in the case of Duško Tadić, par. 163-167.)

Women, War & Peace is the latest, and arguably the most important documentary film focusing on the systematic rape in war zones like Bosnia, to be published since the end of the Bosnian Genocide. As a survivor of war, words cannot express my gratitude toward everyone who was involved in the making of the “Women, War & Peace” DVD, especially toward the Academy-Award-winning actor, screenwriter and philanthropist Matt Damon. I urge everyone to pre-order this DVD as soon as possible. Hat tip to distinguished journalist Jessica Buchleitner for telling me about this project. Here is a preview:

Women, War & Peace is a bold new PBS mini-series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain. A co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films, Women, War & Peace places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security and reframes our understanding of modern warfare.

Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, the series reveals how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties. Simultaneously, they are emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.

Episodes include…

When the Balkans exploded into war in the 1990s, reports that tens of thousands of women were being systematically raped as a tactic of ethnic cleansing captured the international spotlight.

I Came to Testify, narrated by Matt Damon, is the moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foča broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Now, as Bosnia is once again in the headlines with the capture of Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladić, the women agree to speak for the first time since then, on condition that we keep their identities hidden for their protection. “Witness 99,” who was held at gunpoint for a month with dozens of other women in a sports hall in the center of town remembers: “We were treated like animals. But that was the goal: to kill a woman’s dignity.” Their remarkable courage resulted in a triumphant verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war. Returning to Bosnia 16 years after the end of the conflict, I Came to Testify also explores the chasm between this seismic legal shift and the post-war justice experienced by most of Bosnia’s women war survivors.

The War We Are Living travels to Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia’s pacific southwest, where two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are fighting to hold onto their gold-rich lands. They are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war.

War Redefined, the capstone of Women, War & Peace, challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State, and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making. Interviewees include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee; Bosnian war crimes investigator Fadila Memisevic; and globalization expert Moises Naim.

Note: A good complement to Women, War & Peace is BBC’s The Land That Radovan Built with Allan Little. I helped BBC producers with contacts in Bosnia during the shooting of this documentary in September of 2008. I still keep two production copies of CDs and a Thank You note sent to me from BBC producer Kate Peterson. You may watch a short preview here.

Originally published on the Official Blog of Daniel Toljaga

In evaluating the sentence of 27 years of imprisonment for General Perišić, the Trial Judgment emphasized that “the Army of Republika Srpska’s crimes lasted over a long period of time and that the victims were numerous and particularly vulnerable and that General Perišić kept providing assistance to the VRS [Bosnian Serb Army] for months after being informed of the massacre in Srebrenica”… “
Helge Brunborg, a demographer and expert witness, testified about the total number of missing persons involved with the fall of the enclave of Srebrenica. According to Brunborg, as of 21 November 2005, approximately 7,661 people were identified as missing based on reports from family members. Brunborg noted, however, that some were never reported by their relatives as missing, in some cases because the whole family was killed. It follows that the total number of missing people is probably higher.”

Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today convicted Momčilo Perišić, a former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and sentenced him to 27 years of imprisonment.

Perišić, the most senior officer and Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (VJ) from 26 August 1993 to 24 November 1998, was found guilty by majority in the Trial Chamber, Judge Moloto dissenting, of aiding and abetting murders, inhumane acts, persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, and attacks on civilians in Sarajevo and Srebrenica. He was also found guilty, by majority of Judges, Judge Moloto dissenting, of failing to punish his subordinates for their crimes of murder, attacks on civilians and injuring and wounding civilians during the rocket attacks on Zagreb on 2 and 3 May 1995. Perišić was unanimously acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting extermination as a crime against humanity in Srebrenica and of command responsibility in relation to crimes in Sarajevo and Srebrenica.

Today’s judgment is the first handed down by the Tribunal in a case against an official of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Trial Chamber found that General Perišić oversaw the Yugoslav Army’s provision of extensive logistical assistance to the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and the Army of Serbian Krajina (SVK), the self proclaimed Croatian Serb entity, which notably included vast quantities of infantry and artillery ammunition, fuel, spare parts, training and technical assistance. Such assistance “became more centralised, structured and coordinated during General Perišić’s tenure” – Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, Presiding, said reading the Judgment.

General Perišić also proposed and implemented the idea to create Personnel Centres to maintain the status of military officers of the Yugoslav Army for those who serve in the VRS (30th Personnel Centre) and SVK (40th Personnel Centre).

In relation to the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Judgment states that “the VRS regularly made no distinction between civilian and military targets. In fact, it targeted Bosnian Muslim civilians as a matter of course”. It further adds that “the crimes charged in this case were not perpetrated by rogue soldiers acting independently. Rather, they were part of a lengthy campaign overseen by top VRS officers on the Yugoslav Army’s payroll, including General Mladić.” Besides General Mladić, members of the 30th Personnel Centre included high-ranking officers who have been convicted by the Tribunal’s Trial and Appeals Chambers for crimes in Sarajevo (Stanislav Galić and Dragomir Milošević), and for crimes in Srebrenica (namely Milan Gvero, Radivoje Miletić, Ljubiša Beara, Radislav Krstić, Vujadin Popović, Vinko Pandurević, and Dragan Obrenović).

In the finding of the Majority, “General Perišić was alerted to the fact that the VRS was conducting a campaign of sniping and shelling against civilians during its siege of Sarajevo”, a campaign that lasted from September 1992 to November 1995 and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the wounding of thousands of others, which the Majority found to constitute murder as a war crime and crime against humanity, and inhumane acts and attacks of civilians as war crimes. General Perišić was receiving information from a variety of sources concerning the VRS’s criminal behavior and discriminatory intent against Muslims, including from the Yugoslav Army’s own monitoring of international community and international media and from diplomatic reports.

“General Perišić knew that it was highly probable that the VRS would forcibly transfer Bosnian Muslims and commit killings and other abuses with discriminatory intent once Srebrenica had fallen under VRS control” – reads the part of the judgment on Perišić’s aiding an abetting of murders, inhumane acts (inflicting serious injuries, wounding, forcible transfer) and persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds as crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995.

The Trial Chamber, however, could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that General Perišić could reasonably have foreseen, based on his knowledge of the VRS’s prior conduct, that the VRS would engage in the systematic extermination of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica, and acquitted him of aiding and abetting extermination as crime against humanity in Srebrenica.

The VRS largely depended on logistical and personnel assistance overseen by General Perišić in order to conduct its operations in Sarajevo and Srebrenica. Since such operations encompassed systematic crimes against civilians, General Perišić’s actions had a substantial effect on these crimes that amounted to aiding and abetting them. “General Perišić repeatedly exercised his authority to provide logistical and personnel assistance that made it possible for the VRS to wage a war while he had knowledge that the VRS’s operations encompassed grave and systematic crimes against Muslim civilians” – the Trial Chamber, by Majority, concluded.

In reaching its conclusions, the Trial Chamber relied upon witness testimonies as well as other numerous sources of information, such as material delivery forms, personnel files, internal military reports, communication records, and minutes of the Supreme Defence Council featuring discussions between General Perišić, Slobodan Milošević, Zoran Lilić and other top officials.

While Momčilo Perišić was found criminally responsible for aiding and abetting murder, inhumane acts, attacks on civilians and persecution on political, racial or religious grounds in Sarajevo and Srebrenica, he was found not guilty as superior pursuant to Article 7(3) of the Statue in relation to these crimes and extermination. The evidence did not establish beyond reasonable doubt that there was a requisite superior-subordinate relationship between him and perpetrators of the crimes committed in Sarajevo and Srebrenica. «Even though General Perišić had a collaborative relationship with Mladić and substantially aided his operations, the evidence does not establish that he exercised effective control over him or any other Yugoslav Army officer serving in the VRS through the 30th Personnel Centre” – presiding Judge Moloto said.

Momčilo Perišić was also found guilty, on the basis of command responsibility, of crimes committed by the Army of Serbian Krajina firing rockets on the city of Zagreb, on 2 May 1995, that killed 5 people and injured 146, and again on 3 May, which killed two persons and injured 54. Unlike his relationship with officers serving in VRS, Perišić is found to have exercised effective control over Yugoslav Army officers serving through 40th Personnel Centre in the SVK as he initiated disciplinary proceedings against them and had the ability to issue command orders to senior SVK officers who considered them binding. The Trial Chamber, by Majority, therefore, found him guilty for failing to take necessary and reasonable measures to punish his subordinates in the SVK who perpetrated the two unlawful rocket attacks on Zagreb, although he was immediately notified of both the attacks.

In evaluating the sentence of 27 years of imprisonment for General Perišić, the Trial Judgment emphasized that “the Army of Republika Srpska’s crimes lasted over a long period of time and that the victims were numerous and particularly vulnerable and that General Perišić kept providing assistance to the VRS for months after being informed of the massacre in Srebrenica”.

Perišić is entitled to credit for 1,078 days he has spent in custody. Both the Prosecution and the defense have the right to appeal.

The Indictment against Momčilo Perišić was raised on 24 February 2005 and he surrendered on 7 March 2005. His trial began on 2 October 2008 and concluded with closing arguments on 31 March 2011. The Trial Chamber heard over 100 witnesses and admitted in evidence 3,794 exhibits.

Since its establishment, the Tribunal has indicted 161 persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Proceedings against 126 have been concluded. Proceedings are currently ongoing for 35 Accused.
Trial Judgement: Momčilo Perišić (Serbia’s Involvement in War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia)

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Originally posted and authored by the Srebrenica Genocide Blog:  http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2011/09/perisic-judgement-confirms-serbias.html

A convicted war criminal who burned alive scores of Bosniak civilians and systematically tortured and raped Bosniak women and under-age girls enjoys the uncritical endorsement of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade reports that the Serbian Orthodox Church has hosted a book launch at the parish house of the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade to promote a prison memoir, “Ispovest haškog sužnja” (“Testimony of a Hague prisoner”). The book’s author is the convicted war criminal Milan Lukić — a ruthless mass murderer and serial rapist. The Belgrade publisher responsible for promoting the launch is the Serbian Radical Party led by ultra–nationalist politician Vojislav Šešelj. Šešelj himself is currently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague for crimes against humanity. The manuscript of Lukić’s book was smuggled out of the UN Detention Unit illegally.

This is not the first time Serbian Orthodox Church has aligned itself with war criminals. The recently-captured fugitives, former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić and Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadžić, bragged that the Serbian Orthodox Church helped them evade justice. General Mladić is now on trial as the orchestrator of the Bosnian Genocide; Hadzic is on trial for crimes against humanity committed in Croatia.  The Serbian Orthodox Church sees itself as the moral compass of the Serbian people. Its incomprehensible and repellent actions suggest that the Church is morally adrift.

In 2009 the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague found Milan Lukić guilty of burning alive more than 120 Bosniak women, children and elderly men in the eastern Bosnian town of Višegrad. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his terrible crimes.

On 14 June 1992, a group of victims, most of them from the same village, were locked into one room of a house on Pionirska Street, Višegrad, which was then set on fire. Milan Lukić was found to have placed an explosive device in the room which set the house ablaze. He then shot at people as they tried to escape the burning house. At least 59 women, young children and elderly people were burned alive, among them a 2-day-old baby.

Lukić was also found guilty of burning alive at least 60 women, children and elderly men two weeks later, on 27 June 1992, in a house in the Višegrad settlement of Bikavac. He and other members of his paramilitary group, ‘White Eagles’, forced the civilians inside the house, blocked all the exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the house on fire.

“The perpetration by Milan Lukić and [his cousin] Sredoje Lukić of crimes in this case is characterised by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,” presiding Judge Patrick Robinson noted.

He observed that, “In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man’s inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive.”

Milan Lukić also participated in systematic sexual assaults on Bosniak women and under-age girls in “rape camps” in and around Višegrad. Most notably the Vilina Vlas spa hotel on the outskirts of Višegrad was used as a rape camp while it was, on Lukić ‘s own admission, his military unit’s command post. Approximately 200 women and under-age girls were detained  in Vilina Vlas. The Association of Women Victims of War — led by rape survivor Bakira Hasečić — believes that fewer than ten women prisoners survived their detention.

Rape and sexual slavery charges were added to the indictment against Lukić less than a month before the trial. The day before proceedings were due to begin, the Trial Chamber ruled that the accused did not have enough time to mount an adequate defence.

I have taken the liberty of translating this short but important press release issued by the Humanitarian Law Center from Serbian into English:

“Humanitarian Law Center urges the institutions and citizens of the Republic of Serbia to condemn publicly the use of the Parish House of the Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade for the launch of a book by the convicted war criminal Milan Lukić during which priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church took part in the eulogisation of a war criminal responsible for some of the most terrible crimes against humanity.

Humanitarian Law Center demands that the Patriarch reveal the names of the priests who took part in this public event and explain to the public why a religious building whose construction was paid for by the state and many individual citizens has been used to celebrate a convicted war criminal who burned women and children alive.

On 29 July 2011, in the parish house of the Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade, an event to promote the book ‘Confession of a Hague Prisoner’ by the war criminal Milan Lukić was attended by several priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the company of numerous Lukić supporters. The book is published by the Serbian Radical Party.

The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague sentenced Milan Lukić to life imprisonment for shooting five Bosniaks beside the Drina River on 7th June 1992, killing seven workers of Varda factory, burning alive at least 120 Bosniak women, children and the elderly in Višegrad’s Pionirska Street and Bikavac district, the ‘cold and brazen’ murder of Hajra Koric and the brutal torture of Bosniak detainees in Uzamnica detention camp near Višegrad. In all these crimes, Milan Lukić, played a ‘dominant role’ and exhibited a ‘callous and vicious disregard for human life’, personally killing ‘at least 132 people’ according to the judges at the International Criminal Court.”

An album of photos from this ‘book’ promotion can be found on Milan Lukić’s Facebook page, which is being maintained by the priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

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This post was originally published on the Official Blog of Daniel Toljaga found here: http://danieltoljaga.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/serbian-orthodox-church-endorses-war-criminals/

The Institute for Research of Genocide- Canada is honoured to inform the public that the University of Sarajevo has awarded Mr. Brian Masse, Member of the Canadian Parliament and Sponsor of the Srebrenica Genocide Resolution in the Canadian Parliament and Professor Emir Ramic, Director of the Canadian Institute for Genocide with the prestigious academic award, the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University.

Excerpt from the reasons for the award of the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University for Mr. Brian Masse, Member of the Canadian Parliament:

“All citizens of Bosnian origin living in Canada can testify that Brian’s contribution and hard work to acknowledge and declare a day of mourning for Srebrenica and to make sure that everyone knows that the crimes committed in Srebrenica were in fact genocide. Despite the resistance to include the word genocide in the resolution, Brian was determined to pass the resolution in the Parliament. This task was accomplished on October 19th 2010.The lobbying and advocacy process for this resolution lasted more than a year and Brian’s dedication, commitment, integrity and courage are important factors that led to the realization of this; something that is very important to the Bosnian Herzegovinian community. Furthermore, this gives an advantage to Canada to strengthen its commitment in the fight to prevent genocide in the future, and further optimize the relations between BiH and Canada to prevent future genocides. It is vastly important to emphasize Brian Masse’s commitment to fighting for human rights since the beginning of his political career. In fact, his entry into politics was linked to the genocide in East Timor. From then onwards, Brian has maintained his integrity in the fight for human rights. In the case of the Srebrenica Resolution he demonstrated that the need for justice surpasses the need for apparent peace”.

Excerpt from the reasons for the award of the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University for Professor Emir Ramic:

“Professor Ramic is the name that everyone in Canada associated with a relentless struggle for truth and justice in North America and beyond. Ramic,is a victim of genocidal ideology in his hometown of Prijedor and a victim of the same ideology in Canada, but his selfless and heroic efforts in Bosnia are synonymous with resistance, and patriotism in the most original sense of the word. There is not enough space on these sheets to include all his merits and all of his victories, but we will draw attention to his immense contribution in Canada. Canada is the largest Western states to join the list of countries that passed a motion which acknowledges the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica and this is in large part thanks to Emir. While many have resisted the passage of the resolution and other similar documents, and although many people attempted to sabotage the project or at least diminish its importance by attempting to remove the word genocide from the resolution, Ramic did not accept any other offer except the original document which clearly identifies the act as: genocide, Who committed the act, who the victims are and how many victims there are. In the past seven years Ramic worked hard to adopt the Srebrenica Resolution in the Canadian Parliament. The idea eventually gained momentum, and the resolution was adopted on October 19th 2010. Now, under the watchful eye of Emir, we are working on passing a law that would officially declare a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada, as well as establish a memorial for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide in the city of Windsor. A member of the Canadian Parliament, Brian Masse presented Emir’s resolution in the Canadian parliament”.

More: http://unsa.ba/s/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=988&Itemid=348&lang=english

Aldina Muslija
Secretary
The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada

Masse discussed the significance of the motion and the importance of demonstrating support for it: “It will be an honour to participate in these ceremonies. It is important for Canada to show clearly that atrocities like the Bosnian genocide are condemned in no uncertain terms. The institutionalization of Srebrenica Remembrance Day sends the message to the international community that Canada will not tolerate acts of genocide and that we will stand with people impacted by these atrocities to inform future generations.”

The Organisational Committee has created a Programme that spans 10 days and includes victims and their families, dignitaries from the United Nations, the European Parliament, Academia, Religious Communities and Activist Organizations dedicated to peace promotion. There are a range of events scheduled including formal remembrance ceremonies both secular and religious in nature, discussion panels, athletic events, and a peace march. The ceremonies will capture international attention and many of the events will be broadcast live on national television.

Senad Alicehajic, a Member of the Bosnian Community of Windsor who will be attending the ceremonies with Masse talked about the support from the international community and the importance of continued vigilance: “The Bosnian Canadian Community appreciates Mr. Masse’s efforts to keep the memory of victims of genocide alive. Genocide is the worst example of human intolerance and is still happening all over the world. Unfortunately, it happened in our Bosnia in the 1990′s. Mr. Masse is fighting to ensure that the truth is known, and that victims are not forgotten. This trip is the follow through of the Srebrenica Remembrance Day motion and underscores the belief that much work still needs to be done in order to live up to the “Never Again” vow. Don’t forget Srebrenica!”

Masse and Alicehajic will be travelling to Srebrenica July 9th returning on the 13th.

The Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAACBH) cordially invites you to the 16th Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide on Capitol Hill. We will commemorate the lives lost during the worst atrocity committed in Europe since World War II.

Monday, July 11, 2011
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Location: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Congressional Meeting Room North

Opening Remarks:
Admir Serifovic, BAACBH President

Speakers:
Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Bosnia – invited
Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Bosnia – invited
H.E. Sven Alkalaj, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dr. Sheri Fink, Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Reporter and author of the book “War Hospital”
Ms. Dijana Muminovic, Documentary photographer who will display her work titled “Searching for Closure”

*Bosnian delicacies will be provided*

RSVP Contact: Ajla Delkic
202-347-6742
adelkic@baacbh.org

The start of Ratko Mladic’s trial today means that the most important Bosnian Serb war-criminal, alongside Radovan Karadzic, is now facing justice. This trial will be crucially important for two reasons.

Firstly, its proceedings may shed some light on the role of Serbia and its military in the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995. At the time of the massacre, Serbia was in a federal union with Montenegro, and the joint state went by the name of the ‘Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’ (Savezna Republika Jugoslavija – SRJ). Its army, the ‘Army of Yugoslavia’, provided logistical support for the Bosnian Serb army – the ‘Army of the Serb Republic’ – and its Croatian Serb counterpart, though these were formally independent of it. The minutes of the SRJ’s Supreme Defence Council (which comprised the presidents of ‘Yugoslavia’, Serbia and Montenegro) were recently used by the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)  in its case against former Yugoslav army Chief of Staff Momcilo Perisic. They reveal that Perisic regularly appealed to the Supreme Defence Council to provide such logistical support to the Bosnian Serb military, and that these appeals continued up until the eve of the Srebrenica massacre. Hopefully, the trial of Mladic, alongside that of Perisic, will provide more information on the role of the Army of Yugoslavia during the Srebrenica massacre. Indeed, it is likely that Mladic’s ability to provide such information was one of the reasons that Serbia’s military shielded him from arrest for so long. This is, however, an optimistic hope, as Mladic is more likely to continue denying responsibility for the massacre and to shield his former protectors than he is to spill the beans.

The second, and more important reason why Mladic’s trial is important, is that it provides the best chance yet to prove that genocide occurred not only at Srebrenica in 1995, but in other places and at other times in Bosnia-Hercegovina as well. The judicial record on this question so far is ambiguous. Germany’s courts have convicted Bosnian Serb perpetrators for offences relating to genocide carried out in parts of Bosnia outside of Srebrenica. One of these, the paramilitary leader Nikola Jorgic, was convicted of genocide in the north Bosnian region of Doboj in 1992, but appealed his conviction all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. The latter upheld Jorgic’s conviction for genocide, ruling that the German courts’ definition of genocide was consistent with the international legal definition. The German and ECHR rulings on Jorgic corroborate the view that genocide occurred across Bosnia from 1992, not merely at Srebrenica in 1995. On the other hand, the International Court of Justice, in the case for genocide brought by Bosnia against Serbia, acquitted Serbia of all genocide-related charges apart from failure to prevent and punish genocide. The ICJ specifically stated that genocide in Bosnia occurred only at Srebrenica in 1992, not in other places or at other times. Mladic, however, stands accused by the ICTY prosecution of systematic genocide across both western and eastern Bosnia from May 1992. If Mladic is found guilty on all charges, the judicial record for a genocide in Bosnia that occurred across the country from 1992 to 1995 will be greatly strengthened.

Be this as it may, the significance of this trial, and of Mladic personally, should not be overstated. News reports have suggested that Mladic was, along with Serbia’s wartime president Slobodan Milosevic and the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, one of the three principal perpetrators of Serb war-crimes in Bosnia. In fact, the singling out of these three individuals, to the exclusion of all others, betrays a false understanding of the nature of the Great Serbian killing campaign and of how it was organised. In reality, the Serb military aggression against Bosnia and programme of mass killing of its non-Serb inhabitants was planned and organised by the regime in Belgrade; not merely by Milosevic the despot, but by a much wider circle of top political, military and police officials. This war followed on seamlessly from the prior war waged by Serbia against Croatia in 1991-1992.

Mladic, on the other hand, was merely a run-of-the-mill officer in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) until well after the war in Croatia had begun. He served as chief of the Department for Instruction of the JNA’s 3rd Military District based in Skopje in Macedonia until January 1991, then as assistant to the commander of the Pristina Corps in Kosovo until July 1991, when he was transferred – still as a mere colonel – to Knin, which was the self-proclaimed capital of the Serb rebels in Croatia. He was appointed chief of staff of the 9th (Knin) Corps at the end of July, and played a central role in ethnic cleansing operations against Croatia. In October, after Serbia together with Montenegro had carried out a coup d’etat to establish exclusive control of the federal organs of rump Yugoslavia, including of the JNA, Mladic was promoted to major-general. From late November or early December 1991, as they were preparing to wind down the war in Croatia and to shift it to Bosnia, the Milosevic regime and the leadership of the JNA set about organising a Bosnian Serb military within the framework of the JNA, something that involved concentrating all Bosnian Serb soldiers and officers in the JNA on Bosnian territory. On 30 December, the rump Yugoslav presidency (i.e. the representatives of Serbia and Montenegro) established a new military district – the ’2nd Military District’ – based in Sarajevo, that had jurisdiction over Mladic’s Knin Corps. At the same time, Mladic was promoted to commander of the Knin Corps.

Thus, when the JNA launched a full-scale war against Bosnia in March and April 1992, Mladic was not even based in Bosnia, but was still in the relatively junior position of commander of the Knin Corps, based in Serb-occupied Croatia. He nevertheless participated in the start of the aggression against Bosnia; his forces captured the town of Kupres in south-west Bosnia from its predominantly Bosnian Croat defenders on 8 April 1992 and helped to organise the future Bosnian Serb army in that region of the country, after which he returned to the Knin region for further operations against the Croatian Army.

On 27 April 1992, Milosevic’s regime proclaimed the new ‘Yugoslavia’ – i.e., the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ), consisting only of Serbia and Montenegro. The Bosnian Serb rebel entity, subsequently known as the ‘Republika Srpska’, had already proclaimed independence a month before. By establishing the SRJ and the Bosnian Serb republic as formally separate states, the Milosevic regime aimed to pretend to the world that it was not involved in the war in Bosnia, and that this war was really just a ‘civil war’. This necessitated a formally independent Bosnian Serb army, separate from the Yugoslav army, and Mladic was handpicked by Belgrade to be its commander. On 30 April, Milosevic and other top officials of Serbia, Montenegro and the JNA met with the Bosnian Serb leaders under Radovan Karadzic to arrange the formation of a Bosnian Serb army, and it was agreed that Mladic – who had been promoted to lieutenant general only a few days before – would serve as its commander. In early May, JNA Chief of Staff and acting Yugoslav defence minister Blagoje Adzic summoned Mladic to Belgrade to inform him that he was to be promoted to both commander and chief of staff of the JNA’s 2nd Military District, based in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. At about the same time, the acting president of the Yugoslav presidency, Branko Kostic, ordered the previous JNA incumbent of the post to surrender his duties to Mladic, whose appointment as commander of the 2nd Military District was reported by Belgrade TV on 9 May.

Mladic subsequently recalled that ‘When I took up duty in the 2^nd Military District I immediately assigned myself the task of assembling men and forming a command and General Staff, partly from the remnants of the 2^nd Military District and partly from the men who had come with me from Knin and from other areas, who were born in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We immediately began the formation of a General Staff of the [Bosnian] Serb Army.’ On 12 May, the self-declared Bosnian Serb parliament voted to establish a Bosnian Serb army incorporating all JNA units on Bosnian territory, and to appoint Mladic as its commander. Yet the law was not promulgated by the presidency of the self-declared Bosnian Serb republic until 19 May. Until that time, Mladic was still formally subordinate, along with all Serb forces on Bosnian territory, to the Yugoslav military command and Yugoslav presidency in Belgrade. Only on 19 May did the the JNA formally split into two separate armies: the ‘Army of Yugoslavia’, made up of troops from Serbia and Montenegro, which formally withdrew from Bosnia on the same date; and the ‘Army of the Serb Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina’, subsequently simply the ‘Army of the Serb Republic’, headed by Mladic and now formally independent.

In other words, although Mladic played a prominent and significant role in the Serb military assault on Bosnia that began full-scale in the spring of 1992, he was far from being its chief instigator or organiser. The latter was the political and military leadership of Serbia, Montenegro and the Yugoslav People’s Army, which handpicked and groomed Mladic for the role. Attributing excessive importance to Mladic as organiser of the war in Bosnia downplays the party that was actually responsible: the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

War crimes investigators at the ICTY were aware of how the war and mass killing in Bosnia were organised. According to the amended indictment of Milosevic for war crimes in Bosnia:

‘Slobodan MILOSEVIC participated in the joint criminal enterprise as set out below. The purpose of this joint criminal enterprise was the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs, principally Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter referred to as “Bosnia and Herzegovina”), through the commission of crimes which are in violation of Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal. The joint criminal enterprise was in existence by 1 August 1991 and continued until at least 31 December 1995. The individuals participating in this joint criminal enterprise included Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Radovan KARADZIC, Momcilo KRAJISNIK, Biljana PLAVSIC, General Ratko MLADIC, Borisav JOVIC, Branko KOSTIC, Veljko KADIJEVIC, Blagoje ADZIC, Milan MARTIC, Jovica STANISIC, Franko SIMATOVIC, also known as “Frenki,” Radovan STOJICIC, also known as “Badza,” Vojislav SESELJ, Zeljko RAZNATOVIC, also known as “Arkan,” and other known and unknown participants.’

However, at the time of writing, not a single official of Serbia, Montenegro or the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – i.e. of the regime that organised the war – nor any officer of the JNA (excluding officers of the Bosnian Serb army who had previously served in the JNA) has been convicted by the ICTY of war crimes in Bosnia. The weight of ICTY punishment has, so far, fallen exclusively on the Bosnian Serbs, while the regime of Milosevic in Belgrade and the leadership of the JNA have been mostly let off the hook. Only six such officials were ever indicted: Milosevic, Stanisic, Simatovic, Perisic, Arkan and Seselj. Arkan was assassinated before he could be arrested, while Milosevic died while his trial was in progress. This leaves a maximum of four representatives of the regime who could, if the prosecution is wholly successful, receive punishment for organising the worst case of aggression and mass killing in Europe since World War II. None of these belonged to the top rank of officials responsible for organising the war in Bosnia, with the exception of Stanisic, who was head of Serbia’s State Security Service.

Of the other representatives of the ‘joint criminal enterprise’ from Serbia, Montenegro and the JNA high command who were listed in the Milosevic indictment, Stojicic was assassinated in Belgrade before the indictment was issued. Adzic and Kadijevic, the two top figures in the JNA during the war in Croatia and (in Adzic’s case) during the first stage of the war in Bosnia, were never indicted. Neither were Jovic and Kostic, the Yugoslav presidency members for Serbia and Montenegro respectively, and therefore (along with their counterparts for Vojvodina and Kosovo) the individuals in ultimate formal command of all Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia up until 19 May 1992. Other top officials of Serbia, Montenegro and the JNA also escaped indictment over Bosnia or Croatia – such as Montenegro’s wartime president Momir Bulatovic, and acting Yugoslav army chief of staff Zivota Panic (who died in 2003).

Some relatively minor JNA figures were indicted for war-crimes in Croatia, in relation to Vukovar and Dubrovnik, but over Croatia, as over Bosnia, the weight of the ICTY’s punishment has fallen on the Croatian Serb agents of Belgrade – such as Milan Martic and Milan Babic (and potentially also the still unarrested Goran Hadzic) – while the officials of the former Milosevic regime have escaped extremely lightly.

This extraordinary failure of international justice over Bosnia – the failure of the ICTY to indict more than a handful of the officials of the regime and army responsible for the planning and launching the war, and so far to convict a single one of them – reflects both the inability of its prosecutors to understand the war properly, as well as their poor strategy in issuing indictments. As I have indicated elsewhere, a preliminary draft of a war-crimes indictment for the leadership of the SRJ (Serbia and Montenegro) drawn up in 2001 by investigators – including the present author – aimed to indict Milosevic and other members of his regime together, including Jovic, Kostic and Adzic. But by a decision of Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, the policy was then dropped in favour of an indictment of Milosevic alone. Apart from allowing his chief collaborators to escape justice, this had the unfortunate effect – as Geoffrey Nice, who led the prosecution of Milosevic, himself noted – that when Milosevic died in 2006, his trial came to an end, and with it, the trial of his regime. This contrasts with the sensible indictment strategy pursued over Serbian war-crimes in Kosovo by del Ponte’s predecessor, Louise Arbour, who indicted five top members of the regime together, including Milosevic.

In her published memoirs, del Ponte’s failure to understand the planning and organising of the war in Bosnia is apparent; it is a failure that found expression in her misguided indictment strategy. She describes Milosevic and Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman as the two figures primarily responsible for the break up of Yugoslavia – as if their respective roles in the process were equal, and as if none of the other leading members of Milosevic’s Belgrade regime was of similar importance. But this is false.

The break up of Yugoslavia and the wars in Croatia and Bosnia all formed part of a single process, planned by the regime in Belgrade under Milosevic’s leadership from at least the spring of 1990, with the goal of creating a Great Serbia (masquerading as a ‘new Yugoslavia’). So far as Bosnia was concerned, this ’joint criminal enterprise’ aimed to destroy the country and kill or expel most of the Muslim or Bosniak population. Most of Bosnia, as well as large parts of Croatia, were to be annexed by Serbia, and rump Croatia was to receive some Bosnian territory as well, with the Muslims or Bosniaks, at best, being confined to an Indian reservation in between. Tudjman was an eager collaborator in this programme of genocide and aggression, whose other leading members were, in particular, the aforementioned Jovic, Kostic, Kadijevic, Adzic, Stanisic, Panic and Bulatovic. None of these has yet been punished, and most of them certainly never will be.

As for Mladic, he was merely a middle-ranking agent in the planning and launching of this enterprise – more than a pawn, but not more than a knight or a bishop. So while his arrest and trial should be celebrated, and while we have much to expect from it, let us not pretend that justice is being served.

Originally Published on the Greater Surbiton blog on June 3, 2011

(See original Der Spiegel interview here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,635205,00.html)

“Judge Christoph Flügge was hearing the case of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic in The Hague in 2009, when he told Der Spiegel magazine that “mass murder” was a more suitable term for the killing of 8,000 men and boys in the UN safe haven in July 1995.

The judge, a former public prosecutor in Berlin, maintained in the interview that there was no reason to differentiate between “a group that is murdered for their nationality, religion, ethnicity or race, as is regulated by the Hague Statute” and a group that “happens to be gathered at a specific location”. (IrishTimes.com)

The article also referenced a CNAB letter in which we requested removal of Judge Flügge from the Karadzic case due to his impartiality to the case, because the killing of 8,000 Bosniak civilians in Srebrenica was on several previous occasions classified as genocide by the same court (ICTY) that he serves, including ICJ ruling against Serbia and Montenegro.

The judge’s comments led at the time to demands by relatives of the Srebrenica victims for his removal from the trial, with the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) describing his comments as “genocide denial” which rendered his impartiality impossible.

CNAB demanded an apology and asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to remove the judge, not only from the Karadzic trial but from “any case dealing specifically with charges of genocide”. (IrishTimes.com)

CNAB will protest the assignment of Judge Flügge once again due to his compromised impartiality as well as his refusal to apologize for the comments and publicly recognize the classification of Srebrenica Genocide.

Sources:

Cluskey, Peter. “Judge for Mladic case in row over ‘genocide’” The Irish Times. 30. May. 2011 <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0530/1224298058574.html>.

Der Spiegel. “UN Tribunal Judge on the Karadzic trial. “. Der Spiegel. 9. July. 2011. <http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,635205,00.html>

Congress of North American Bosniaks. “CNAB Demands Removal of ICTY Judge Christoph Flügge”. CNAB. 10. July. 2011 <http://www.bosniak.org/cnab-demands-removal-of-icty-judge-christoph-flugge/>

Help Us, Say Women of Bosnia

Bosniak women told a Press conference in London recently about the rape, torture and other atrocities they suffered at the hands of their Serbian captors. Zaharah Othman has the story.

In a voice devoid of emotion, Bosniak Jasmina Kocarac narrated her traumatic experience at the hands of Serbian soldiers who 15 days earlier had mercilessly killed her husband and her in-laws before her very eyes.

As with other victims of Serbian atrocities, there was no time for Jasmina to shed any more tears, for indeed her more important task now was to tell the world about the systematic ethnic cleansing by the Serbs to wipe out Bosniaks from the map and history of the world.

Jasmina was raped repeatedly by three Serbian soldiers after being arrested and taken to a concentration camp. She was handpicked from a group of women and taken to another room where she said there were naked women who had apparently been raped and sexually molested. She knew she was about to meet the same fate but was mercifully spared the humiliation when she passed out.

She wasn’t lucky the next time round and was fully conscious of the brutal reality that those who raped her were her former neighbours. One of them was the best man at her wedding.

In the same monotone voice Jasmina vowed that she would kill her rapists if she found them.

Jasmina was among a group of Bosniak refugees from Zagreb in Croatia who attended the London Peace Conference recently. Like all the others, she acquired her freedom from the concentration camp in exchange programmes for Serbian prisoners held by Bosniaks.

What happened to Jasmina was by no means an isolated case. According to Fatima Kafedzic, president of the Mothers’ Movement for Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, age did not seem to be a deterrent. Gang-raping girls as young as seven years old in front of their mothers and other prisoners offered some kind of morbid pleasure to their Serbian captors.

At a concentration camp in Manjaca, near Banja Luka, seven-year-old Mirma was gang-raped in front of her mother and fellow prisoners. Her distraught mother prayed for her daughter’s death to end her trauma. She died eight hours later.

Others, according to Fatima, were not so lucky. At a hospital in Zagreb, where many Bosniaks are taking refuge, teenage girls are awaiting the birth of unwanted babies. Some have to undergo intense psychological treatment and counselling.

“Members of my movement visited a 13-year-old girl who was raped and tortured. She was in a state of shock and was constantly crying. We told her to try to forget what had happened and try to rebuild her life,” said Fatima, her voice betraying her own conviction of her statement.

A mother of 10 children, Fatima fears for the safety of her daughters who are still in Sarajevo. She was in Austria collecting medical supplies and could not return when trouble broke out. Since then she has lost contact with her husband and six children. From Zagreb, her movement tried to help victims pick up the pieces and start life anew. It also helps rehabilitate children who had lost their parents in the war.

Another tireless figure who spends her time healing the physical and mental wounds of the war victims is Dr Alma Muslic. She said she has seen terrible cases of torture, especially of pregnant women who were brutally knifed in the stomach. And there were, of course, little children who were victims of sniper attacks or who were left orphaned without both parents.

One child who was lucky to have both parents around was Jasmin, 9, but he has to live with the constant nightmarish reminder of his days at the concentration camp in Manjaca.

Jasmin was with his mother Aziza and sister Waleeda, 12, on a abus to his aunt’s house in Dobrinja when they were stopped by Serbian soldiers.

Bosniak passengers were marched off for questioning. Jasmin was repeatedly questioned about who was supplying arms to Bosniaks.

When Aziza was taken away for questioning they threatened to rape her children if she did not co-operate.

It was while she was away that Jasmin witnessed men, who were just skin and bones, being tortured.

At the Press conference in London recently, Jasmin broke down while narrating his story and Waleeda constantly hid her face in her hands in an effort to wipe out the memory.

Earlier, before the start of the conference, a brief separation from his mother proved too much for young Jasmin, whose nagging fear was not seeing his mother ever again.

For Aziza and her children, the peace conference which brought them to London for a brief respite from the troubles in their homeland offered little hope for real peace in Bosnia.

However, they received their first good news in months during their stay in London when they heard that her husband was safe in Sarajevo.

However, for Fatima Hodzic, her husband and the rest of the menfolk in her family perished in a mass killing by Serbian soldiers.

Now, her son, five-year-old Mohamed is the only male survivor in her close-knit family of 35.

Putting her sadness aside, Fatima and the rest of the Bosniak refugees in London recently appealed for women’s organisations, especially from the Muslim world, to help them in any way they can.

“This is one occasion to call all women to give us support as we want to return to our country as soon as possible. We do not want anybody to receive us as refugees. We want to return to our country, to work and rebuild it.

“We would like to appeal for financial help to bring back our children who are refugees in Western countries so that we can bring them up as Bosniaks. We do not want them to lose their identity.”

Mr. Adis Šušnjar

PR KoREKOM BiH

Sarajevo: Coalition for REKOM

Kralja Tvrtka 5/5, Sarajevo,
Bosna and Herzegovina

www.zarekom.org

Joint letter by the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada (IRGC), Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI) and Australian Council of BiH Organizations (ACBHO)

The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), an umbrella organization of all American and Canadian Bosniaks, in collaboration with Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada (IRGC), Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI) and Australian Council of BiH Organizations (ACBHO) are supportive of the initiatives that bring forth a comprehensive study about the severity of the crimes committed in the Balkans as a result of Serbian aggression, which includes those that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s neighboring countries. However, all four organizations are of the view that it is imperative to prevent equating of the aggressors and the victims of genocide. For this reason, we believe that all the research should be conducted under the protocol of standard scientific and academic methods taking into consideration the official results of the preceding research done so far on war crimes, genocide and tribunal rulings in this area. CNAB. in collaboration with both institutes in North America as well as with the Australian Council of BiH Organizations (ACBHO) support all projects based strictly on the results of academic research.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a symbol of suffering of people due to their ethnic and religious affiliation and the continuing agenda and conquering aspirations towards Bosnia and Herzegovina and extermination of Bosniaks.

At the end of the 20th century Bosniaks have once again undergone genocide due to their religious and national belonging. According to the great-Serbian plan, genocide was intended to exterminate Bosniaks as a nation and as a religious group in order to create an ethnically pure Serbian nation. Being involved in the research of genocide and other forms of crimes both against humanity and against international laws, the above-mentioned institutions raise their voices against genocide and war crimes.

Present and future generations from all previous crimes of genocide must, in the interest of the future of the modern world and civilization, draw a historical lesson about the need to strengthen, develop and unite all progressive forces, regardless of national, ethnic, racial, religious, ideological or political affiliation and commit to the strategy of prevention and punishment of crimes of genocide.

The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada (IRGC), Australian Council of BiH Organizations (ACBHO) and Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI) deem that the initiative for proclaiming Regional Commission for the Establishment of Facts about war crimes and other grave violations of human rights in the region of former Yugoslavia should take into consideration all existing academic research based on the crimes done under the aggression of the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and crimes of genocide against the Bosniak people. We also believe that all verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice relating to the crimes in the former Yugoslavia should be accepted and recognized, and insist that the Prosecutor’s Office in BiH processes all war crimes.

Mr. Haris Alibašić, President
The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB),
www.bosniak.org

Prof. Emir Ramić, President
Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada (IRGC)
http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/

Ms. Sanja Drnovšek Seferović, President
Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI)
www.baginst.org

Ms. Senada Softić-Telalović, President
Australian Council of BiH Organizations (ACBHO)

Source: Originally Published on March 16, 2011 in Greater Surbiton Blog, by Dr. Marko Attila Hoare.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, as Defence Secretary until July 1995 and thereafter as Foreign Secretary, was one of the architects of Britain’s disastrous policy toward the war in Bosnia. For over three years, on the basis of this policy, Britain obstructed all meaningful intervention to halt Serbian aggression and genocide in Bosnia, pressurised the Bosnian government to accept the dismemberment of its country, and – most notoriously – mercilessly upheld a UN arms embargo that seriously restricted Bosnia’s ability to defend itself. It was, in effect, an intervention on the side of the aggressor and against the victim. As a direct result of that policy, Bosnia remains a mess to this day.

Yet Sir Malcolm has had time to reconsider. Monday’s edition of The Times published a powerful piece by him calling for intervention in support of the rebels in Libya, in which he argues the following:

‘First and most important should be an open and urgent supply of the necessary weapons to the insurgents so that they can fight Gaddafi on equal terms. The UN has imposed an arms embargo and some have suggested that this makes illegal any supply of weapons to either side in Libya. The UN Resolution, however, refers to a ban on arms supply to the Libyan “Jamahiriya”, which is Gaddafi’s invented name for the state he controls. It need not prevent supplies to those trying to bring him down. Otherwise, we will repeat the mistake of the Bosnian war – when the UN embargo had much less impact on the Bosnian Serbs who were, already, heavily armed. Having been Defence Secretary at that time I have, in retrospect, felt that that was the most serious mistake made by the UN.’ [emphasis added]

Indeed, there had likewise been no legal obligation on the part of UN member states to enforce the arms embargo against Bosnia, since UN Security Council Resolution 713 had been imposed on the state of Yugoslavia, not on the state of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Those enforcing the embargo against Bosnia did so because they wanted to, not because they were legally obliged to. So it is with the Libyan rebels today.

As Jesus said, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Former US president Bill Clinton has similarly admitted his error in failing to intervene to stop the genocide in Rwanda: ‘I feel terrible about it because I think we could have sent 5,000, 10,000 troops there and saved a couple hundred thousand lives. I think we could have saved about half of them. But I’ll always regret that Rwandan thing. I will always feel terrible about it.’

One wonders whether Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will one day regret the shameful policy they are pursuing toward Libya today.

Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: March 16, 2011  

Source: Originally Published on March 10, 2011 in Edmonton Journal, Canadian daily newspaper. For background see: Smear Campaign Against the IRGC.

Re: “Denying genocide should not be called freedom of speech,” by Srdja Pavlovic, Letters, Feb. 28.

Prof. Srdja Pavlovic of the University of Alberta argued that Canada was within its rights and acted correctly in refusing admission to Srdja Trifkovic, a journalist and political activist. Trifkovic writes political commentary, principally for the magazine Chronicles, a polemical publication from an organization of the extreme right, in which he is also an editor. Among scholars Trifkovic is regarded, not as a colleague, but as a curiosity from the side.

After leaving professional journalism he spent much of the 1990s in political roles, principally involved with the parastate established by a group of extremist Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was the representative of that parastate in London and the international spokesman (albeit “unofficial”) for Radovan Karadzic in the 1990s.

After the wars ended, Trifkovic continued to deny crimes it was his job to deny as international spokesman for Karadzic. His arguments are summarized in an article, The Hague Tribunal: Bad Justice, Worse Politics. He also published two books, The Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad, arguing terrorism and violence are intrinsic to the Islamic religion.

As for the claims Trifkovic makes regarding crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, they have been disproven before international judicial bodies such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which has found individuals responsible for genocide in Srebrenica, and the International Court of Justice, which found that genocide was committed.

Although Trifkovic often raises the fact that he testified in defence of one indictee at ICTY, Milomir Stakic, he tends not to mention that Stakic was convicted on five counts — and that the presiding judge, Wolfgang Schomburg, felt it necessary to distance the defendant from the extreme views advanced by his witness, Trifkovic.

Despite extreme views that would discredit most public speakers, Trifkovic has become a bit of a cause célèbre in some parts of the émigré community, partly because he is amusing and well-spoken and partly because he holds a doctorate.

What was meant to happen at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Alberta is this: student and diasporic organizations rented a room from the universities and advertised a public lecture associating the speaker’s name with a respected institution. This was meant to give Trifkovic personally and the views being promoted scholarly credibility they do not have.

Freedom of movement is a fundamental democratic value and should be restricted only for compelling reason. The Canadian government was right to exclude a participant in violations of human rights from entry to the country and to prevent this misuse of the authority of the university from taking place.

We support our colleague Pavlovic in defending the autonomy and authority of the university. We do not think denial and advocacy of crime is protected under legal guarantees of free speech.

Eric Gordy, University College London; Florian Bieber, University of Graz; Tomislav Longinovic, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Elvira Veselinovic, University of Cologne; Ulf Brunnbauer, University of Regensburg; Davor Beganovic, University of Konstanz; Bojan Aleksov, University College London; Ted Blodgett, University of Alberta; Tamara Gordy, Bainbridge Graduate Institute; Wendy Bracewell, University College London; Nebojsa Petrovic, University of Belgrade; Armanda Kodra Hysa, Institute for Cultural Anthropology, Tirana; Emilian Kavalski, University of Western Sydney; V.P. Gagnon, Ithaca College; Svetlana Rakocevic, University College London; Andrew Gilbert, University of Toronto; Dejan Djokic, Goldsmiths , University of London; Catherine Baker, University of Southampton; Jasna Dragovic-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London; Jessica Greenberg, Northwestern University; Nicole Lindstrom, University of York; Ja mes Lyon , independent scholar; Christopher Lamont, University of Ulster; Andy Knight, University of Alberta

The recent decision by Canadian authorities to deny Srdja Trifkovic – an outspoken denier of the genocide committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and former advisor to the Bosnian Serb regime that orchestrated it – the right of entry into the country is commendable and should be welcomed by all those concerned with preventing genocide, bringing perpetrators to justice, and combating the denial of the crime of genocide. By taking this courageous action the Canadian government has sent a clear message that foreign individuals that publicly deny confirmed instances of genocide and have a history of collaborating with genocidal regimes will not be welcomed into the country.  

The acts of denying confirmed instances of genocide and advocating further violence against the victims of genocide as well as other at-risk national, ethnic, racial, and religious groups in society are inseparably linked. The renowned genocide scholar Dr. Gregory H. Stanton has described the denial of genocide as the eight and final step of any genocidal campaign.  He stated that:

“Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims.”

As they were committing the genocide at Srebrenica the Serb forces were intentionally dismembering corpses and burying them in dozens of mass graves scattered around Srebrenica with the hope that they would never be found. To this day – fifteen years after the massacre – criminal anthropologists and other experts in finding and identifying human remains are still trying to locate and excavate all the mass graves that were dug.  The perpetrators’ intention from the very beginning was to deny that the calculated mass murder of over eight thousand Bosnian men and boys ever took place. In his speeches and writings Mr. Trifkovic is continuing the perpetrators’ work by trying to make sure that the truth of what happened to the victims remains buried beneath untruths and misinformation and that those responsible never get punished for the heinous crimes they committed.

By denying the genocide that was committed and attempting to protect its perpetrators Mr. Trifkovic is willfully spreading the genocidal ideology that led to the murder of over two hundred thousand innocent civilians. His public statements and published articles present a clear danger to Bosnians living in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Bosnian-Canadian citizens who found safety in Canada after being forcefully expelled from their homes. Many of these refugees and their children are Canadian citizens and it is the duty of the Canadian government to ensure their safety as well as the safety of all other at-risk ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural groups in Canadian society.

By deciding not to welcome Mr. Trifkovic into their country the Canadian authorities have shown their commitment to combating the denial of genocide and holding those known to have been involved in genocides to account. For this the Canadian authorities should be applauded. The Canadian government’s strong stance against Holocaust denial and its decision to not allow a well known and outspoken denier of genocide and former advisor to a genocidal regime to enter their country will no doubt serve as positive examples to other democratic governments that value human rights and take their commitment to upholding the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide seriously. It will hopefully inspire them to follow Canada’s lead by taking serious steps to combat denial of the Holocaust and other confirmed instances of genocide and not welcoming foreigners engaged in such nefarious activities into their countries.

Dear Professor Stephen J. Toope

The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada {IRGC} was informed that Srdja Trifkovic, a Serbian-American ‘scholar’, will be holding a lecture on Thursday February 24th at 5pm at the University of British Columbia . It is organized by the Serbian Students Association.

IRGC is shocking that the University of British Columbia would allow Srdjan Trifkovic, who has repeatedly and openly denied the Srebrenica genocide to speak at this respectable academic institution.

Denial of genocide is widely considered to constitute a form of racist hate propaganda that is incompatible with Canadian values. Recently, the Parliament of Canada has recognized the Bosnian Genocide that took place in the enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

In 2004, the Holocaust survivor, Judge Theodor Meron, presided over the appellate judgement of Radislav Krstic when the International Criminal Tribunal unanimously ruled that:

“By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity. The Bosnian Serb forces were aware, when they embarked on this genocidal venture, that the harm they caused would continue to plague the Bosnian Muslims. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act.”

Srebrenica Genocide is not a matter of anybody’s opinion; it’s a judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and subsequently by the International Court of Justice.

IRGC calls on all Canadians, friends of truth and justice to protest against Trifkovic’s lecture at the University of British Columbia

IRGC will send a request to the Canadian Parliament and Government to ban Trifkovic’s lecture.

On behalf of more than 50.000 Canadians, Bosnian origin, ost of them victims of the Bosnian genocide, IRGC invites you using your powers to deny Trifkovic’s lecture the University of British Columbia.

Prof. Emir Ramic, President
Institute for Genocide Research Canada

By: Daniel Toljaga
Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada

Unembarrassed by an obvious lack of familiarity with the subject, this ‘tenured full professor’ of history at the University of Arizona recycles propaganda about the events at Srebrenica that has long been recognized as promoting misunderstanding and antagonism.

Origin of the Srebrenica massacre

My “Part I” response to Prof. David Gibbs can be found

In his book, ‘First Do No Harm‘, Prof. Gibbs downplays Bosnian Serb war crimes, denies genocide and blames the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) victims for instigating the massacre that followed the fall of the town in July 1995. On p. 160, he declares that: “The origin of the Srebrenica massacre lay in a series of Muslim attacks began in the spring of 1995.”

Before making this unequivocal assertion, he might have done well by studying the conclusions of the United Nations report on “The Fall of Srebrenica. ” The report addresses some of the major issues surrounding events that led to the fall of Srebrenica, including allegations that the Bosniak defenders of Srebrenica ‘provoked’ the Serb offensive by attacking out of the safe area:

“Even though this accusation is often repeated by international sources, there is no credible evidence to support it. Dutchbat personnel on the ground at the time assessed that the few ‘raids’ the Bosniaks mounted out of Srebrenica were of little or no military significance. These raids were often organised in order to gather food, as the Serbs had refused access for humanitarian convoys into the enclave. Even Serb sources approached in the context of this report acknowledged that the Bosniak forces in Srebrenica posed no significant military threat to them… The Serbs repeatedly exaggerated the extent of the raids out of Srebrenica as a pretext for the prosecution of a central war aim: to create a geographically contiguous and ethnically pure territory along the Drina, while freeing their troops to fight in other parts of the country. The extent to which this pretext was accepted at face value by international actors and observers reflected the prism of ‘moral equivalency’ through which the conflict in Bosnia was viewed by too many for too long.” (UN,  ”The Fall of Srebrenica” p.103-104.)

In another standard reference source, Human Rights Watch (HRW) finds the origin of the Srebrenica massacre in the Bosnian Serb leadership’s hatred of their Bosniak compatriots:

“The 1995 massacre in Srebrenica occurred because Bosnian Serb leaders, intoxicated by hatred and an illusory sense of omnipotence, lashed out savagely against the country’s Muslim population. But the international community also bears responsibility for the worst crime in Europe since World War Two. After promising protection to the inhabitants of Srebrenica, the United Nations and NATO allowed the ’safe area’ to fall.” (HRW, “The Legacy of Srebrenica“, 10 July 2005)

A preeminent scholar and Holocaust survivor, Judge Theodor Meron, had the privilege of sitting as the presiding Judge in the appeal of Radislav Krstić – a landmark ruling that put to rest any doubts about the legal character of the massacre. The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) unanimously ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was a crime of genocide:

“By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand [40,000] Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general…. the law calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide.”  (ICTY Press Release, “Address by ICTY President Theodor Meron“, 23 June 2004).

Gibbs’ Sources, Genocide Deniers

Having assigned the fundamental blame for what happened in July 1995 to the victims of genocide, Prof. Gibbs takes issue with the judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) without offering any evidence of his own expertise in the field of international humanitarian law. He dismisses the Krstić judgement  as  an exaggeration.

Despite the multitude of evidence that Serb forces committed genocide in Srebrenica, Prof. Gibbs finds comfort in a personal opinion of another genocide denier:

“I agree with Katherine Southwick’s criticism of the ICTY judgement, which was published in the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal… Certainly, the murder of eight thousand people is a grave crime, but to call it ‘genocide’ needlessly exaggerates the scale of the crime.” (‘First Do No Harm‘, p. 281, note 101)

To advance his ideological agenda, Prof. Gibbs cites discredited statements of former UN Protection Force commander, General Philippe Morillon – a biased source for any serious consideration –  who, unsurprisingly, also happens to be genocide denier. In support of his view that the inhabitants of Srebrenica were responsible for their fate, Prof. Gibbs presents Gen. Morillon as a ‘reliable’ source of information about Srebrenica and Naser Orić. Consider the following version of Serbian propaganda history that may appeal to misguided readers:

“Orić engaged in attacks during Orthodox holidays and destroyed [Serb] villages, massacring all the inhabitants. This created a degree of hatred that was quite extraordinary in the [Srebrenica] region… I wasn’t surprised when the Serbs took me to a village to show me the evacuation of the bodies of the inhabitants that had been thrown into a hole, a village [of Kravica] close to Bratunac.” (‘First Do No Harm‘, p.154, citing statements of Gen. Philippe Morillon)

The Court: Orić committed no massacres

Gen. Morillon uncritically and sweepingly assigns blame for creating “hatred that was quite extraordinary in the region” to Naser Orić’s attacks on Serb villages “during Orthodox holidays”. Gen. Morillon is presumably referring to a specific attack by Bosnian army forces led by Naser Orić on the village of Kravica – a Serb military stronghold – during the Orthodox Christmas holiday, 7-8 January 1993. At the same time, he avoids to mention that Serb crimes around Srebrenica started in April 1992 (some 8 months before Orić’s attack on Kravica). In the first three months of the Bosnian war (April – June 1992) Serb forces destroyed 296 Bosnian Muslim villages around Srebrenica and slaughtered at least 3,166 Bosniaks. Therefore, it is more than obvious who was responsible for this “degree of hatred that was quite extraordinary in the region.” It was the Serbs.

The Hague Tribunal found no convincing evidence that Bosniak forces were responsible for the destruction and casualties in Kravica and a number of other Serb villages (Šiljkovići, Bjelovac, Sikirić, Fakovići and Divovići) because the Serb forces used artillery in the fighting in those villages. In the case of Bjelovac, Serbs even used warplanes. Not excluding the military justification for the Bosniak attack on Kravica, the Tribunal noted that,

“… the village guards [in Kravica] were backed by the VRS [Bosnian Serb army], and following the fighting in the summer of 1992, they received military support, including weapons and training. A considerable amount of weapons and ammunition was kept in Kravica and Šiljkovići. Moreover, there is evidence that besides the village guards, there was Serb and Bosnian Serb military presence in the area.”  (ICTY, Orić Trial Judgement, para. 664).

Certainly a number of Serb civilians died in the Kravica attack (11, perhaps 13). But Morillon’s reference to the massacring of ‘all the inhabitants’ of an unspecified number of Serb villages is inaccurate, and more so is his failure, like Gibbs’, to make appropriate reference to the context in which the attack on Kravica took place — the Serb ethnic cleansing of the Drina Valley at the start of the 1992-1995 war, the siege of Srebrenica and the desperate struggle for survival of the starved inhabitants.

As for the civilian casualties in the Kravica incident, there was no massacre. The death of 11 or 13 Serb civilians caught in the cross-fire between enemy soldiers does not constitute massacre. In legal terms, the massacre is understood as the intentional killing of a larger group of helpless people (including prisoners of war) – in a particularly gruesome manner – for no ‘valid’ military objective, other than to inflict death.  The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague reviewed Serbian accusations against Naser Orić extensively, but found no evidence that his troops committed any massacres against Serb civilians in villages around Srebrenica. In the Orić’s trial judgement, the judges used the term ‘massacre’ only once, referring in fact to Serb propaganda prior to the outbreak of conflict:

“Influenced by Serb propaganda predicting an imminent massacre by Bosnian Muslims, many Bosnian Serbs left the town of Srebrenica in March and April 1992″ (ICTY, Orić Trial Judgement, para. 95).

When Serbs retook Kravica in March 1993, Philippe Morillon attended the funeral of Serbian soldiers and civilians in the village. During his stay in Srebrenica, he never bothered to attend funerals of Bosniak soldiers and civilians killed by Serb forces who regularly attacked Bosnian Muslim settlements from Kravica.

Why was Kravica attacked?

Like other Serb villages around Srebrenica, the heavily militarized Serb stronghold of Kravica was used as a ‘launching pad’ for brutal attacks on neighbouring Bosniak villages and the town of Srebrenica itself. In the case of Kravica, the Hague Tribunal established it was the Serbs who attacked first:

“The fighting intensified in December 1992 and the beginning of January 1993, when Bosnian Muslims were attacked by Bosnian Serbs primarily from the direction of Kravica and Ježestica.” (ICTY, Orić Trial Judgement, para. 662)

The Bosniak attack on Kravica was a response to the village’s use as a base for constant Serb attacks on Srebrenica and surrounding Bosnian Muslim settlements, including the Serb blockade preventing humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.  According to the Hague Tribunal,

“Between April 1992 and March 1993, Srebrenica town and the villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire, as well as occasional bombing from aircrafts. Each onslaught followed a similar pattern. Serb soldiers and paramilitaries surrounded a Bosnian Muslim village or hamlet, called upon the population to surrender their weapons, and then began with indiscriminate shelling and shooting. In most cases, they then entered the village or hamlet, expelled or killed the population, who offered no significant resistance, and destroyed their homes. During this period, Srebrenica was subjected to indiscriminate shelling from all directions on a daily basis. Potočari in particular was a daily target for Serb artillery and infantry because it was a sensitive point in the defence line around Srebrenica. Other Bosnian Muslim settlements were routinely attacked as well. All this resulted in a great number of refugees and casualties.” (ICTY, Orić Trial Judgement, para. 103)

Serbs from Kravica had played a key role in earlier atrocities around Srebrenica such as the massacre of Bosniak civilians at Glogova in May 1992. In 1992, approximately 350 Bosniak civilians  - unarmed men, women and children – were held as prisoners in a detention camp located in an abandoned Serb Orthodox church in Kravica. Serbs tortured, raped and killed Bosniak prisoners including women and underage girls.

The Serb leadership had the avowed objective of making conditions of life intolerable for the remaining Bosniak population of the Drina Valley. When the soldiers under Orić’s command attacked Kravica they were followed by large numbers of starving Bosniak civilians from the besieged enclave in search of food (the so-called “torbari” or “bag people”). The Hague Tribunal described the circumstances which led these people to accompany military raids:

“Between June 1992 and March 1993, Bosnian Muslims raided a number of villages and hamlets inhabited by Bosnian Serbs, or from which Bosnian Muslims had formerly been expelled. One of the purposes of these actions was to acquire food, weapons, ammunition and military equipment. Bosnian Serb forces controlling the access roads were not allowing international humanitarian aid most importantly, food and medicine to reach Srebrenica. As a consequence, there was a constant and serious shortage of food causing starvation to peak in the winter of 1992/1993…. Numerous people died or were in an extremely emaciated state due to malnutrition… Threatened by starvation, almost everyone from Srebrenica participated in searches for food in nearby villages and hamlets under Bosnian Serb control. These searches were very dangerous; many stepped on mines or were wounded or killed by Serbs. [...] Hygienic conditions throughout the Srebrenica enclave were appalling. There was a total absence of running water. Most people were left to drink water from a small river which was polluted. Infestation with lice and fleas became widespread among the population. The Srebrenica war hospital … lacked almost all the essentials. […] Patients suffered in dreadful conditions, as no disinfectants, bandages, aspirins or antibiotics were available with which to treat them. Limbs were amputated without anaesthesia, with brandy being administered to ease the pain… ” (Oric Trial Judgement, para. 104, 110, 112-114.)

Gibbs’ sloppy research

Critical of the ICTY’s assessment of the scale of the crime of genocide, Prof. Gibbs is less rigorous in examining the sources of the “Orić legend” on which he bases his assessment of the nature and scale of the crimes that he believes were at the origin of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.  He makes no attempt to distinguish between Serb military and civilian casualties, nor does he try to assess the balance of casualties between the two sides.

Deniers are entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. Approximately 95 percent of all victims around Srebrenica (1992-95) were Bosniaks, according to the Research and Documentation Center. All attempts to equalize the demise (military defeat) of the Serb war criminals around Srebrenica in January of 1993 with the genocidal suffering of the Bosniak people in/and around Srebrenica (from 1992-1995), amount to nothing more than a case of moral equivalence and a gross distortion of historical facts. The brutal siege of Srebrenica was described by the United Nations itself as a “slow-motion process of genocide.“‘ (United Nations, “Report of the Security Council Mission Established Pursuant to Resolution 819 (1993),” S/25700, 30 April 1993.)

Serb soldiers who died in the pursuit of criminal enterprise — by participating in the siege of Srebrenica, attacking the enclave, and committing war crimes against the Bosniak civilians in/and around Srebrenica) – cannot be considered ‘victims’ of massacres.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the Hague Tribunal has described how the scale of the alleged suffering endured by the local Serb population around Srebrenica had been deliberately distorted:

“… the OTP is always very careful in the use of the word ‘victim’. Military or police casualties from combat should not be considered victims in a criminal investigation context in the same way people are victims from war crimes, such as summary executions. Before speaking about the whole area of Podrinja, including at least the municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Vlasenica and Skelani, I would comment on the various figures circulating around the Kravica attack of January 1993. The figures circulating of hundreds of [Serb] victims or claiming that all 353 inhabitants were ‘virtually completely destroyed’ do not reflect the reality. During the attack by the BH army on Kravica, Jezeštica, Opravdići, Mandići and the surrounding villages (the larger area of Kravica), on the 7th & 8th January 1993, 43 people were killed, according to our information. Our investigation shows that 13 of the 43 were obviously civilians. Our findings are matching with the Bratunac Brigade military reports of battle casualties which are believed in the OTP to be very reliable because they are internal VRS [Bosnian Serb Army] reports. For the whole region, i.e. the municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Vlasenica and Skelani, the Serb authorities claimed previously that about 1400 [Serb] people were killed due to attacks committed by the BH Army forces for the period of May 1992 to March 1995, when Srebrenica was under the control of Naser Oric. Now the figure has become 3,500 Serbs killed. This figure may have been inflated. Taking the term ‘victims’ as defined previously, these figures just do not reflect the reality.” (ICTY, Weekly Press Briefing, 6 July 2005)

The most up-to-date analysis of Serb casualties in the region comes from the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Centre (IDC), a non-partisan institution with a multiethnic staff, whose data have been evaluated and accepted by an international team of experts. They put the number of Serb military casualties in the attack on Kravica at 35 killed along with 11 civilian victims. The IDC’’s extensive review of casualty data around Srebrenica found that Serb casualties in the adjoining Bratunac municipality — where majority of  military operations took place — amounted to 119 civilians and 424 soldiers; about one third (or 139) of Serb military losses — listed as casualties of Naser Orić’’s attacks around Srebrenica – had in fact died elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, a number of Serb war criminals who died in the process of terrorizing and killing more than 10,000 Sarajevo residents were presented as victims of Orić’s attacks around Srebrenica:

“Under the Dayton Peace Accords, the suburbs of Sarajevo held by the VRS were to be re-integrated into the city of Sarajevo . The then leadership of the RS [Republika Srpska] called on the local Serb population to leave Sarajevo and even take the graves of their loved ones with them. In fact, such a large majority followed the instructions that parts of the city of Sarajevo remained deserted for months. The remnants of their loved ones have been buried in Bratunac after the war, but their deaths are presented as the result of actions taken by the Bosnian Army units from Srebrenica.” (The Research and Documentation Center, “Myth of Bratunac,” 7 June 2010)

Philippe Morillon’s Lack of Impartiality

The French UNPROFOR commander, General Philippe Morillon, is perhaps best known for his pledge to the besieged inhabitants of Srebrenica that the enclave would be protected by the international community. He gave that pledge shortly after a fact-finding visit to the nearby towns of Cerska and Konjević Polje on 5-6 March 1993 following reports of massacres a few days earlier. The  enclave of Cerska had been overrun by Serb forces on 2 March 1993. After spending some minutes walking around the village and seeing no dead bodies, Philippe Morillon sent the controversial message back to the UN, ”Je n’ai pas senti l’odeur de la mort” (I didn’t smell the odour of death.)

According to survivor Sahma Muminovic, Serb forces massacred refugees trapped in the town’s schoolhouse. They bombarded the schoolhouse with artillery and tank shells before moving in and killing people. The victim’s bodies remained trapped under the rubble of a destroyed school.

Invited to attend a funeral of Serb soldiers in Kravica, Morillon was apparently too busy to investigate another report of the massacre. As the Serbs continued their offensive, they slaughtered 200 Bosnian Muslims fleeing Cerska, near Mount Rogašija. A group of 900 Bosniak refugees had split in two groups. A survivor, Besim Topalovic, told how the column he joined, numbering as many as 200 people, were all machine-gunned. Topalovic was fortunate to be the only survivor; the corpses fell on him and protected him from gunfire.

Despite Morillon’s denial of the Cerska massacre, the evidence  from Bosnian Serb army tells a different story. The daily combat report obtained by the Hague Tribunal and dated 2 March 1993, describes how the columns of Bosniak refugees fleeing from Udrč and Raševo towards Konjević Polje “were hit with every available means.” In the cross-examination of General Vinko Pandurević, the prosecutor Peter McCloskey was able to show how the Bosnian Serb army attempted to cover-up the attack on the column by revising their own combat reports.

“There’s been an editing job by the corps, hasn’t there?” – the prosecutor Peter McCloskey asked. “Yes, that’s what we read here,” – responded the accused.

The revised version of the original report dated 2 March 1993 referred only to “soldiers.” The revised report also replaced “The columns were hit with every available means“ with “Fire was opened on the column.” (Popovic et al., Trial Transcript, 25 February and 26 February 2009).

Nevertheless the survivor’s report which reached Zagreb via an amateur radio link, had clearly described how the escapees were attacked and slaughtered with grenade launchers and machine guns. Gen. Morillon does not seem to have followed up this report.

Shortly after his failure to investigate the 1993 Cerska massacre and other Serb massacres of Bosniak civilians around Srebrenica, Gen. Morillon went on to say something in mid March 1993 that raised eyebrows of his own aide-de-camp. On March 15, during a meeting with the Serb generals Manojlo Milovanović and Zdravko Tolimir, Morillon referred to Srebrenica — home to some 80,000 emaciated Bosnian Muslim refugees — as a nest of terrorists. He told the Serbs:

“I know you wish to clean out this nest of terrorists. I will do it for you and save you many, many casualties.” (ICTY, Orić trial transcript, 5 December 2005)

Also, during the trial of Slobodan Milošević, Gen. Morillon touched on the subject of pro-Serbian bias, hinting his own lack of objectivity:

“Once again, in this context one has to explain why sometimes French forces were considered as too indulgent to Serbs. I’m a French general. I do not forget the statue which is in Belgrade, ‘Let us love France as France loved us’…” (ICTY, Milošević trial transcript, 12 February 2004)

Speaking of those who excited nationalism, he stood in defense of the Serbs, showing his lack of impartiality and openly defending the Serbian side from any type of criticism:

“This is the reason why I have continued to say that everywhere that Serbs should not be demonised but one should judge those who brought them there to that solution, to that impasse in this drama.” (ICTY, Milošević trial transcript, 12 February 2004)

On 3 September 2010 — appearing on Bosnian television after being heckled by survivors at the Srebrenica memorial complex in Potocari — Gen. Morillon repeatedly refused to acknowledge the 1995 Srebrenica genocide (interview available on FaceTV.ba).

So much about the shattered credibility of Prof. David N. Gibbs and his sources. No further commentary is necessary.

By Daniel Toljaga
Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada

Background of the debate:
(1) 6 December 2010: “The The bizarre world of genocide denial” by Marko Attila Hoare.
(2) 20 December 2010: “ The Second Coming of Joe McCarthy: David Gibbs Responds to Hoare’s Criticisms” by David N. Gibbs.
(3) 24 December 2010: “First Check Their Sources: On David N. Gibbs and ‘shoddy scholarship’” by Marko Attila Hoare.
(4) 28 December 2010: “Debating Genocide Deniers, Part I/II” by Daniel Toljaga
[ I submitted this commentary as a response to genocide deniers on "Modernity Blog" (link #2). Unsurprisingly, it has not been approved, so I posted it here ↓ ]

On Dr. Hoare and  Prof. Gibbs

Dr. Marko Hoare’s research is a model of impeccable scholarship and, without essential hesitation, I plead guilty of praising and endorsing his work. His scholarly contributions need no defense from me. They are capable of standing on their own. In contrast, Prof. David N. Gibbs’ pernicious denial of genocide calls into question not only his academic credibility, but his very qualifications to hold tenure at a university at all.

Prof. Gibbs of the University of Arizona knows or understands very little of the relevant literature on Srebrenica and has made a deliberate misinterpretation of facts to lead people to believe that the Bosnian Muslims instigated violence around Srebrenica (e.g. discredited statements about Naser Orić by General Philippe Morillon), which I will address in my upcoming text (Part II) in a timely manner. Rather than willingly inflicting emotional distress on the genocide survivors and denigrating the public image of the University of Arizona, I invite Prof. Gibbs to reconsider his opinion and align himself with the facts about Srebrenica.

Judge Theodor Meron (Holocaust survivor) presided over the Krstić appeal when the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia unanimously agreed:

“Among the grievous crimes this Tribunal has the duty to punish, the crime of genocide is singled out for special condemnation and opprobrium… The gravity of genocide is reflected in the stringent requirements which must be satisfied before this conviction is imposed. These requirements – the demanding proof of specific intent and the showing that the group was targeted for destruction in its entirety or in substantial part – guard against a danger that convictions for this crime will be imposed lightly. Where these requirements are satisfied, however, the law must not shy away from referring to the crime committed by its proper name. By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand [40,000] Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity. The Bosnian Serb forces were aware, when they embarked on this genocidal venture, that the harm they caused would continue to plague the Bosnian Muslims. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act.”

The Question of Serbia’s responsibility for Genocide

In reference to allegations by anonymous commenter (‘frunobulax’) – who may or may not be aligned with a self-confessed genocide denier Mr Nebojša Malić – I tendered my response earlier this year and will not dwell on this nonsense again. I will gladly grant my full response to another anonymous commenter (‘Asteri’) who raised some interesting observations and refrained from name-calling.  He/she wrote:

“Marko along with a quite a few people, including Francis Boyle, the Bosnian Muslims and Daniel Toljaga reject the judgement that Serbia was not guilty of Genocide in Bosnia.”

For the record: I dissent with some aspects of the ICJ judgement, but I do not reject it.

First of all: The judgement of the International Court of Justice (26 February 2007) dealt exclusively with the question of state responsibility for genocide, while the judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal in the Krstić case dealt exclusively with the issue of individual responsibility. The ICJ judgement – which qualified Srebrenica as genocide, but exonerated Serbia from direct responsibility for the massacre (holding, instead, that it ‘merely’ failed to prevent genocide) — was not unanimous. The court acknowledged that the massacre was committed with the logistical, moral and financial support of Serbia and the Yugoslav Army; however, there was no evidence of Serbia’s “intent” (mens rea) to commit the genocide. Vice-president of the court, Judge Al-Khasawneh, dissented on the following grounds:

“Serbia’s involvement, as a principal actor or accomplice, in the genocide that took place in Srebrenica is supported by massive and compelling evidence. Disagreement with the Court’s methodology for appreciating the facts and drawing inferences there from The Court should have required the Respondent to provide unedited copies of its Supreme Defence Council documents, failing which, the Court should have allowed a more liberal recourse to inference. The ‘effective control’ test for attribution established in the Nicaragua case is not suitable to questions of State responsibility for international crimes committed with a common purpose. The ‘overall control’ test for attribution established in the Tadić case is more appropriate when the commission of international crimes is the common objective of the controlling State and the non-State actors. The Court’s refusal to infer genocidal intent from a consistent pattern of conduct in Bosnia and Herzegovina is inconsistent with the established jurisprudence of the ICTY. The FRY’s [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] knowledge of the genocide set to unfold in Srebrenica is clearly established. The Court should have treated the Scorpions as a de jure organ of the FRY. The statement by the Serbian Council of Ministers in response to the massacre of Muslim men by the Scorpions amounted to an admission of responsibility. The Court failed to appreciate the definitional complexity of the crime of genocide and to assess the facts before it accordingly.”

The bottom line: The judgment is that Serbia is responsible under the Genocide Convention for failing to prevent the genocide committed by the Bosnian Serb army (VRS) in Srebrenica and for not cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in punishing the perpetrators of the genocide.

Second of all: the Hague Tribunal continues to introduce compelling new evidence which clearly indicates that Scorpions were under the effective control of Serbia (see: “Arkan’s Men and Scorpions Under State Security Umbrella“). Now, it remains a point of contentious debate when did that “effective control” end? In the indictment of  Serbia’s Chief of the State Security Service Jovica Stanišić and the commander of the Special Operations Unit Franko Simatović, we find:

“… that in June 1995, Stanišić and Simatović ordered the Scorpions, a special unit of the Republic of Serbia DB, to travel from their base in Đeletovci in RSK ['Republic of Serbian Krajina' in Croatia], to Serb controlled territory near Sarajevo. The Scorpions arrived in BiH in early July 1995 and based themselves in the village of Trnovo, at the foot of Treskavica Mountain, near Sarajevo. In July 1995, certain Muslim men and boys who were captured after the fall of Srebrenica enclave were taken to the base of the Scorpions in Trnovo… where they murdered them by shooting them.”

Other convincing evidence, uncovered by the Hague Tribunal, also suggests that Serbia was, indeed, directly involved in the massacre. For example: Momcilo Perisic, the former Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, was present in the headquarters of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army in Han Pijesak in July of 1995, that is – during the Srebrenica genocide (see: “Perišić Visiting Mladić During Srebrenica Operation“). What was he doing there? Among the Serbian forces who entered Srebrenica in July 1995 were soldiers belonging to the Uzice Corps (see: “Srbijanci u Potočarima“, “Serbians in Potočari“). What were they doing there?

Daniel Toljaga
Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada
www.instituteforgenocide.ca

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Genocide Awareness Education

Dear All,
The latest, current statements from Milorad Novkovic, president of the higher courts and prosecution board, once again opened a Pandora’s Box – or more accurately – ‘the hunt for war criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina’. Mr. Milorad Novkovic estimates there to be approximately 1600 outstanding war crime cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determines that the prosecution of those cases will take an estimated fifteen years. Novkovic confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ‘hunt for war criminal strategy’, adopted two years ago, now faces tremendous material, financial shortcomings in tandem with inadequate space in which to conduct such imperative trials and all other business associated with the same.
II
With all due respect to Mr. Novkovic, we now draw pertinent, urgent attention to the fact that he specifically focuses on outgoing problems and their consequences, rather than on the causative factors and motivations of war crimes committed – while scrutinizing those suspected or accused of the worst war crimes as determined by humanitarian law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a result of a shift in focus regarding the extradition process of war criminals, the current system has the potential to simply disintegrate.

The primary reason for the higher court finding itself in this abysmal situation, is its apparent ignorance of the Rome Agreement, signed in February 1996. It was within this agreement that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia agreed to hand over all evidence of war crimes to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague, prior to the arrests and prosecution of the accused. This agreement remained familiar and applicable as the policies of the Roman Agreement, with all three states following the declared extradition procedures between 1996 and 2005. During which time, The International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia responded to all 1600 cases mentioned by Novkovic. Of the 1600 cases, ICTY prosecutors believe 850 cases had sufficient evidence to commence trials in the courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Additionally, the ICTY stated that insufficient conclusive evidence was available to pursue prosecution in over 750 cases Sadly, Carla del Ponte – former judge at the ICTY – transferred the mandate for further investigation of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Marinko Jurcevic in 2004.

III

In 2004, the higher court of Bosnia and Herzegovina saw results from the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. The state prosecution found that in over 800 of the cases brought, the guilty were Serbian and Croatian, while in 50 cases the guilty were Bosniaks. These facts were unpalatable to Serbian and Croatian politics. As a result, a review was conducted of all 1600 cases before the ICTY – under the instruction of Marinko Jurcevic.

Serious problems of this nature have evolved to become more frequent, since Bosnia and Herzegovina became hostage to Karadjordjevo’s judcial system.

Instead of prioritising the focus on the 850 cases, the prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has demanded another investigation of the cases that the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia carefully reviewed and investigated for nine years. Bosnia and Herzegovina did not need and does not need to create a strategy when it comes to war crimes. The only strategy that Bosnia and Herzegovina must focus on is the prosecution of the 850 cases that ICTY sees as relevant and crucial. For over five years now there has been a delay in the Bosnian courts to pursue identified war criminals – deemed crucial by the ICTY for all these years. The country’s strategy has been to ‘buy time’ instead of hunting the war criminals. For this, it is apparent that Marinko Jurcevic will receive approval from his political allies for damages he has caused thus far.

IV

International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia has confirmed with all the relevant and pertinent evidence presented thus far, that Serbia and Croatia are absolutely responsible for the genocide committed in Srebrenica. Moreover, the aggression committed by Serbia and Croatia on the sovereign and independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was perpetrated by extremist Serb and Croatian politicians, police and military forces. Via a series of properly transparent trials, it has been confirmed that Radovan Karadzic is responsible for the genocide carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Other individuals, such as Jovica Stanisic, Momcilo Perisic, Stojan Zupljanin, Jadranko Prlic, and the so called “Sestorke“ from the “Croatian Republic Herceg Bosna“ are also equally responsible for war crimes. If we compare the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and the work of the higher court in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is clear that the million pages of evidence collected in the last 16 years continue to be “Dead words on paper“. The prosecutions in the Bosnian court have only sentenced individuals who committed genocide in Srebrenica. Through earlier and current prosecutions before the ICTY – which are likely conclude in approximately 15 months – with the exception of the trials of both Radovan Karadzice and Vojislav Seselj. – more than a million new documents have been presented. At this time it is worth mentioning the trial of Momcilo Perisic, who is also accused of committing genocide in Srebrenica. In his trial over 200 new documents have been presented and can become crucial for the trial against Serbia and Monte Negro for genocide. The document named “Drina“, presented at Momcilo Perisic’s trial is the most important document to date. In 1993 Slobodan Milosevic, Zoran Lilic, Momir Bulatovic along with Momcilo Perisic and Ratko Mladic signed a document that discusses a plan of a Greater and united Serbia.

Thousands of documents of evidence have been presented in the cases of Jovica Stanisic and Freni Simatovic – and – Radovan Karadzic, who is expected to be sentenced for genocide in Srebrenica, in tandem with genocide conducted in all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through the proper legal management and pursuance of these cases, there lies the possibility for Bosnia and Herzegovina to prosecute Serbia and Montenegro for genocide within the International criminal court. In addition, it is necessary to actualize Dayton’s, territorial, national and social structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is well known that the ICTY provided the Bosnian prosecution with 18 unclear probes (17against Serbs and Croats and 1 against Bosniaks); in addition to the 850 previously defined cases. It is quite possible then, that ‘history’ will only report the facts that the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia concluded, even though it is known that the ICTY mandate is restricted, The last example, is the trial of Gojko Klickovic and his collaborators, for the crimes committed in the region of Bosnian Krajina. The decisions of the court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not only an abasement for the victims but also for the ICTY and all its processes. To uphold the idea that in the region of Bosnian Krajina, there is no way of knowing who attacked who and that Bosniaks voluntarily fled after the sentencing of Radoslav Brdjanin, Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic in the ICTY is a fraudulent farce presented by the court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

V

The ending process at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia is presented as an imperative. It is clear that the United Nations Security Council is placing tremendous pressure (not only financially) on the ICTY, with the aim of shutting it down as soon as possible. During the next two years, the judicial structure in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be strengthened. The Priority lies in preventing the disintegration and collapse of the jurisdiction surrounding the cases of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

APPEAL FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH OF GENOCIDE- CANADA:

Bosnia-Herzegovina contains three branches of government – the legislative, executive, and judicial branches that have both the authority and the responsibility of ensuring the wishes of the voting public are acted upon. The state of Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of institutions that intrinsically suppress the wishes of the greater part of the voting public. Although the Institute for Research of Genocide – Canada does not regard the current forms of institutions – that were forced upon the Bosnian people following the referendum on independence held in 1992, as being appropriate – the institute does recognize that for the time being there are no alternative mechanisms by which the problems we currently face can be adequately addressed. Based on that which has already been stated, the Institute for Research of Genocide-Canada calls for the following actions to be taken:

1. We call upon the High Court and Prosecution Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina together with and specifically Mr. Milorad Novkovic. to immediately commence work on redefining the current national strategy in order to prioritize the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). More specifically we call on them all to prioritize the 850 cases that the ICTY classifies by the letter “A”.

2. We call upon Milorad Barasin – chief prosecutor of Bosnia-Herzegovina – to prioritize the 850 cases that the ICTY classifies by letter “A” which are also in accordance with Roman Agreement guidelines.

3. We call upon the Tripartite Presidency and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina to immediately produces a pertinent, workable strategy to secure funding for the work of the Prosecutor’s Office and the High Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina – to ensure they have adequate resources to bring all those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide to justice.

Emir Ramic
Director of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

Bosniaks should not allow the victims to be thwarted by abandoning the legal domain in solving problems. Law has to be the basis of Bosniak political action. Giving up on law opens unimagined dangers for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and for Bosniaks.

Genocide in Bosnia is the criminal component of the plan, strategy and clear intent to murder, exterminate, rape, expel, and forever do away with the Bosniak people.

IGRC participated in the Canadian Bosniak campaign for adoption of the Genocide in Srebrenica resolution, by the Canadian Parliament, because of its strong sense of responsibility to create a permanent warning, for our fellow Canadians, against the worst type of crime which, throughout history, has caused the greatest loss to humanity. With the ultimate goal of ridding humanity of genocides.

In this campaign the IRGS communicated to the Canadian public certain facts about the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Primarily that this was an armed aggression, or crime against peace and safety of humanity. An international armed conflict.

The Bosniak population of the occupied territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its besieged cities, were a victim of the worst crime known to humanity – genocide.

The aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the genocide against the Bosniaks were the culmination of the evil collaboration of the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, and the Republic of Croatia, their leaders and institutions, along with the fifth column, and mercenaries. The intent of this criminal act was completion of the Serbian and Croatian expansionist aspirations at the expense of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Part of the project was the infamos ‘final solution’ of the Muslim problem – extermination of Bosniaks or debasement of this ethnic group to an insignificant group. Eager collaborators and executors of this crime were fifth column groups from Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Croatian Coalition of Herceg-Bosna”, “Republika Srpska”, “Autonomos Region of Western Bosnia”) and the Croatian Republic (“Republic of Srpska Krajina”), The aggression and the genocide were planned (ideologically, politically, militariliy, economically, psychologically, etc.) with a clear objective, ordered by political and military leaders, and executed in premeditated, systematic and co-ordinated manner. The aggressing states, ideological instigators, planners, commanders, executors and collaborators, and their crimes, and motives behind those crimes are well-known.

The extermination of Bosniaks, a group which falls under the definition of a protected group (national and religious) under the international humanitarian law, was motivated by a genocidal criminal intent and a genocidal plan (in addition, there are explicit orders for execution of genocide, including creation of concentration camps). The aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with the weapons embargo, politics of ignoring the expansionist aspirations of the fascistic and genocidal project of the “Greater Serbia” by the United Nations, Europe, and the international community were all the integral part of Milosevic-led Serbian state politics. The outcome was the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, killing of Bosniaks, expulsion and extermination through concentration camps, raping, pillaging, and stealing of property and territory, with the intent of wiping out the cultural and civil Bosniak history.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and its United Nations designated “safe haven” of Srebrenica are the symbol of killing and suffering of a people because of their nationality, ethnicity, and religious beliefs, initiated by expansionist aspirations of its Serbian neighbours. The fight of the Bosniaks against their extermination is another symbol. A symbol of anti-fascistic resistance, and the defence against the worst known evil – the crime of genocide. This resistance at the end of the 20th century, when the Europe did little to answer the dying shrieks for help from the countless human beings, and while the world, especially the governments of the western nations, took up a neutral, indifferent, passive and hypocritical stand towards the victims, and was complicit in an attempt at their biological extermination by taking away their legal right at defence.

IRGC joins the survivors of the genocide in speaking out against the genocide. Our message to Canadians is motivated by our desire to save the humanity, the civilization, to preserve the human values, human rights and human lives of the smallest, the weakest, the helpless.

It is only the scientific knowledge obtained through the research that can serve as a permanent basis for the improvement of our abilities to detect, identify, prevent, and punish the crime of genocide, in which the researchers of holocaust, genocide, and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law play historical role and bear the responsibility. It is the duty of these researchers, as Nobel Prize winner Ellie Wiesel noted, to talk in the name of these victims, to remind the world of their suffering and tears and suppress the fear of oblivion. The researchers must have professional responsibility and sufficient moral courage to research and share with public the scientific truths about genocide.

IRGC hopes to awaken the current and future generation’s collective consciousness on the need to join all the democratic, progressive, and antifascist forces to combat the genocide, and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law, wherever and whenever these occur. The survivors and the investigators have an especially important and prominent role to play in this cause.

IRGC wants also to remind the Canadian and international public that the facts about the genocide committed against Bosniaks, including rulings of the International Court of Justice for Former Yugoslavia, are still being denied, distorted, disparaged, and otherwise marginalized.

In order to protect victims from barbaric crimes and in order to punish crimes and criminals, criminal acts and criminals need to be treated primarily within the domain of Law, i.e. in the domain of judicial truth and judicial method. The victim must not be cheated by allowing the legal aspect of efforts to address the problem, to be abandoned, sabotaged or watered down in its implementation, by allowing the problem to be redirected, reduced or marginalized to moral lectures, debates and condemnations; religious, academic and journalistic quibbling; delivery of humanitarian assistance to the victim in the form of food, clothing, medicine, etc. – all in the form of a surrogate, i.e. an extremely limited, painfully insufficient exercise of rights provided to the victim under the international legal order. By strategically redirecting the resolution of its problems – the perpetration of internationally defined and documented crimes against it – from the domain of Law to mere moralizing, public debates, humanitarian campaigns, etc., this victim of aggression, war crimes and genocide had been cynically deceived. All along, unsanctioned by the local (constitutional) and international legal order, processes carrying all the characteristics of aggression and uninterrupted genocide against Bosniaks and bringing a OUN member state to final and irreversible destruction, had continued – and are, in fact, still ongoing.

IRGC stands for saying publicly, and full freedom of the victims to tell the truth about the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the genocide against Bosnians.

IRGC believes that all political, scientific-research and other institutions need to present all the information about war crimes with their disposal.

IRGC finds that the concealment of war crimes, is also a crime.

IRGC are striving to bring all war criminals to court of justice, national or international.

IRGC will participate in each project under conditions of respect for truth and justice on the aggression on B&H and genocide against Bosniaks, namely:

1. Recognition of the genocide on the basis of the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the European Court of Human Rights and national courts, which includes a legal ban on genocide denial, like the laws banning denial of the Holocaust.

2. Bringing all War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, in particular Ratko Mladic.

3. Compensation for mental pain and caused material damage to the victims of genocide, which the Bosniaks suffered across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

IRCG would like to thank the Congress of North American Bosniaks, many academics and intellectuals, friends of truth and justice on their important contribution to the success of Canadian Bosniaks – Adoption of Resolution M – 416 on genocide in BH in the Canadian Parliament.

Professor Emir Ramic

Institute for Research of Genocide Canada {IRGC}

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/

STATEMENTS OF PROMINENT INTELLECTUALS AND ACADEMICS ON ADOPTION OF THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IN CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

With this declaration, Canada acknowledges the importance of this event in helping to bring closure for the Bosnian people through truth and justice. The institutionalization of Srebrenica Remembrance Day every July 11 will help to inform future generations and assist all of us to work towards peaceful coexistence.” After the fall of Srebrenica on July 11th 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic (an indicted war criminal), and paramilitary units rapidly executed more than 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men, boys, and elderly, who had sought safety in the area. Moreover, approximately 30,000 people were forcibly deported in an UN-assisted ethnic cleansing. The European Parliament resolution referred to the Srebrenica Massacre as “the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII.” This atrocity has been declared an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in 2005 have passed resolutions on the Srebrenica Genocide and all the atrocities that occurred during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The European parliament passed its resolution on January 15, 2009 institutionalizing July 11 as the day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide. This past March the Serbian parliament passed a resolution recognizing the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica. With this motion, the House of Commons joins Canada with many other countries in doing something that should have been done long ago,” Hon. Brian Masse, Member of Canadian Parliament, Sponsor of the Srebrenica Genocide Resolution {M-416}.

I want to thank Bosniak – Canadian Community for hard work. It was your persistence that made this resolution possible. I am thankful that all the party’s were willing to join us in supporting the motion officially making July 11 Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada . It is a tremendous privilege to work on the recognition of the Srebrenica Genocide by the Canadian government and parliament with Canadian Bosniaks. And also enjoyable! Thank you for all the work you do on behalf of other Canadians of every background. Hon. Rob Oliphant, Member of Canadian Parliament.

In Europe, humanity witnessed a series of the most horrific genocides: the Armenian genocide; the Holodomor, the famine genocide of Ukrainians; and the greatest evil amongst all evils, the Holocaust. In horror, sixty-five years ago, Europe pledged, the world pledged, ‘Never Again.’ Fifteen years ago, it happened again, in Europe, in Srebrenica. As we mark this fifteenth anniversary, we do so in shame. When will our pledge of ‘Never Again’ mean ‘Never Again. Hon. Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Member of Canadian Parliament.

On behalf of my clients, the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja, I want to heartily congratulate the Bosniak-Canadian Community for all the outstanding work they performed in getting this Srebrenica-Is-Genocide Resolution adopted by the Canadian Parliament. We need similar Resolutions to be adopted by every Parliament in the world. Professor Francis A. Boyle, Attorney for the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja.

The passage of Motion M-146 proclaiming July 11 Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada is a profoundly meaningful achievement. Motion M-146 recognizes the genocide that occurred at Srebrenica in July 1995 and affirms, in this respect, the findings of two international courts of law: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. With passage of Motion M-146 we bear witness to the suffering of the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) at Srebrenica as well as those Bosniaks who endured war crimes throughout Bosnia. In solemn memory of the Bosniak victims, the European Union should now observe the most stringent of conditions for Serbia’s entry to the European Union, including the arrest and prosecution of Ratko Mladic; respect for the sovereign borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multicultural society, and support for the reunification of Bosnia through constitutional reforms and other political processes. Similarly, the international diplomatic community should condemn Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik for his denials of the genocide at Srebrenica and for his secessionist rhetoric. Our thanks to Brian Masse, Member of Parliament Windsor West, and Professor Emir Ramic, President of the Governing Board, Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada, for their indispensable role in shepherding this historic Motion M-146 through the Parliamentary process. The establishment of July 11 as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada renews our hope in the ongoing struggle for justice in Bosnia. David Pettigrew, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Southern CT State University, USA.

The Canadian House of Commons resolution on Srebrenica is a belated recognition of the worst mass-murder in Europe since the Second World War. It is a welcome rebuke to all the revisionists that have attempted to deny or minimize its monstrous scale and gravity. The facts of this genocide are not in question. We have to ask then why it took so many years and so much effort to gain recognition of such a notorious historical event. Payam Akhavan, Professor of International Law, McGill University, Former Legal Advisor to the ICTY-OTP

The fact of the Srebrenica genocide has been legally established by two different international courts. I hope the adoption of the resolution on the genocide by the Canadian parliament will make it more difficult for genocide deniers to ignore this fact. Professor dr. Marko Hoare

Congratulations to everyone involved in passing a resolution in the Canadian parliament that recognizes the suffering of the people of Srebrenica. While you savor this victory please remember that genocide occurred not only in Srebrenica but throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992-1995. This needs to be recognized. Moreover, the Government of Canada played a shameful role during this period in indirectly assisting in the perpetuation of this genocide – a fact that has yet to be acknowledged by Canada. Thus, more work remains to be done. I hope the friends and supporters of Bosnia can continue their valiant efforts in defense of historical truth and justice. Professor Dr. Nader Hashemi

Genocide Watch commends the Canadian Parliament for its adoption of the resolution recognizing the massacres at Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia as genocide. These crimes must not go unpunished or ever be forgotten. Genocide Watch strongly urges the Republic of Serbia to arrest and hand over the perpetrator of the Srebrenica genocide, General Radko Mladic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Professor Dr. Gregory Stanton, President, Genocide Watch,

It is with sincere pleasure that I take this opportunity to congratulate all who have contributed in any way at all, efforts along the pathways and avenues that brought about the passing of Motion M-416 and the proclamation of a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in the Canadian Parliament, recognising the genocide perpetrated. Indeed this marks one more achievement for (particularly, though not exclusively) Bosniaks who chose to make Canada their new home. A country offering peaceful co-existence for all its citizens. Sincere, heartfelt thanks and gratitude must be extended to Mr Brian Masse, who gave of his time and vocationally focused support, in order for this milestone to become a reality. In spite of – and perhaps because of the many challenges he faced in this respect, Brian Masse did not waver nor abandon the effort – conveying many positive messages to the Boanian global diaspora. This major step in the foothills of an enormous mountain which the Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada will necessarily climb during their extensive quest for applied JUSTICE, is truly an achievement. Research into all aspects of ‘genocide’ is something which aims to contribute to its eventual eradication and therefore greatly important. Let us collectively aspire to continue to collaborate for everything that is good and positive for all people, whomsoever and wherever they may be – while remaining firmly in opposition to genocide and all other injustices. Let us remember that: .”Evil happens because good men do nothing” - Sir Winston Churchi., Professor Dr.Safia Soliman

By passing a resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, Canada is not only admitting that genocide occurred on the Bosniak people in Srebrenica but also reminding the world that the victims of the Srebrenica need to be collectively included into the memory of communities, peoples and civilizations. This day of remembrance is not only designed to pay respect to the victims of an intentional mass execution but also to shed light on the suffering of survivors. Adopting the resolution on genocide in the Canadian Parliament gives hope to future generations to understand the importance of preserving and promoting universal importance of man and civilization; this is the only way new generations can prevent evil from happening again. This is why the resolution is not just be a remembrance day for victims of genocide. This resolution must be accepted in the Canadian public as prevention against those who still negate genocide in Srebrenica which was proclaimed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. Florence Hartman, French journalist, author and former spokesperson for Carla Del Ponte, The head Judge in the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

Many times by now it has been proven that truth and the battle for truth go hand in hand. For truth people must fight and in our case- the genocide on the Bosniaks- must be continuously proven. The international media is aware of the statements put out from the Bosniak side about the genocide that happened, but that does seem to make a difference. Since I was part of a team in the EU that worked on the Srebrenica resolution, I know how much effort goes into passing this type of a resolution. All those who helped in one way or another are heroes. These types of resolutions make our job at the ICTY in Den Haag easier. Amir Ahmic, ICTY.

The decision of the Canadian parliament to adopt a Srebrenica resolution shows us that fighting for the institution of cultural remembrance, like the Jewish community with their powerful lobby twenty years after the end of the Second World War with a goal to build a multidiscipline memory of the holocaust is necessary. In front of our generation are the following duties: to establish a genocide museum in Sarajevo so all victims of genocide across Bosnia and Herzegovina are acknowledged through education and cultural programs and commemorative and symbolic means. Furthermore, victims need to be protected by law from discrimination and physical harm. The resolution passed in Canada has convinced us that we are on the road to positive change Mr. Fatmir Alispahic, Author.

My heartfelt congratulations to you and your colleagues for successfully advocating Motion M-416 and the proclamation of Srebrenica Remembrance Day by the Canadian Parliament. This is another step in acknowledging the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1992-95 aggression. While nothing will bring the victims back to life or compensate for the atrocities committed against so many men, women and children, in recognising the victims of the genocide and other war crimes and condemning the perpetrators, Canada’s stand constitutes an important moment in the prevention of similar acts in the future. It also helps redress the continuing shame of Canadians who, acting in their government’s name, aided and abetted the evil being committed and who continue to deny the evil that was done. Given that so much of the world chose to look the other way during the aggression, it is to be hoped that Motion M-416 will encourage other nations to follow Canada’s lead and embrace July 11 as international Srebrenica Remembrance Day. Professor Dr. Ron Adams, La Trobe University, Australia

The resolution regarding the genocide in Srebrenica that was adopted by the Canadian parliament is vastly important in bringing dignity back to humanity in today’s world. Also it is an important political act that demonstrates a common goal to prevent future massacres. Adoption of this resolution holds specific worth as well as meaning that signifies legitimacy in the Canadian parliament. I am aware of all the positive factors and for that reason I dearly thank the parliament of Canada for their kind act of humanity. I assume that the resolution is very important especially today for two reasons. First, the international community allowed genocide to occur in Srebrenica and even today the international community has not made up for the damage it has caused. Two, we have witnessed that today many places in the world- including the western countries- are empowering extremism and right wing political parties that have lead to many intercultural conflicts. With that in mind, we see this resolution as a light on the horizon that is overshadowing the bad. Prof. Dr. Esad Durakovic, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosniaks are a group who survived genocide. They seek freedom and equality like all other people, and this is an authentic expression of contemporary life. All communities that people organize themselves into are according to their interests which can be seen as a basis for equality in today’s world. The genocide in 1995 in which thousands of Bosniak civilians were killed in the eastern region, Srebrenica represents the biggest crime in Europe since World War II. The genocide on the Bosniaks was planned and executed by the army and the police from Republika Srpska, at that time led by Radovan Karadzic and a number of military leaders from Serbia, including Slobodan Milosevic. The main individual responsible for the genocide was Ratko Mladic unfortunately he is still walking freely around Serbia. The atrocities committed by the Serbian criminals signify the shame committed on a nation. That is the world we live in today. The hope from the Bosniak community relies on the understanding from large nations and their humane support. In that context, adopting the resolution M-416 regarding the genocide in Srebrenica from the side of the Canadian parliament represents strong and meaningful support to Bosnia and Herzegovina, its citizens, all its peoples but especially Bosniaks because equality and justice were established. Bosniaks thank all their friends in Canada, especially those who worked hard to pass this important resolution. That being said, we appreciate the friendship between Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina because it signifies our unity and a wonderful future. In the name of “BZK Preporod”, I kindly thank the Canadian government on their valued support for the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After all Bosnia and Herzegovina is now able to stand equally on the world stage. Also I want to thank to all the true fighters on human rights in Canada who have successfully run this very important action. Professor Dr. Senadin Lavic, Director of the Bosniak Cultural Association “Preporod”

The memory of the genocide against the Bosniak population in the region of Srebrenica in July 1995 is getting more and more planetary attendance. Not in terms of content, such as discovering details of this terrible crime, but primarily in the form. At least in the symbolic form of verbal condemnation of the atrocities by the parliaments of democracies around the world. In this series of condemnation the express of our respect deserves the Parliament of the Kingdom of Canada which, after long and difficult intellectual struggle of Bosniaks who live in Canada, unanimously adopted the resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide, and expressed the opinion that the 11th July should be a memorial day to mark the Day of commemoration on Srebrenica.It should be recalled that the victory of the Bosniaks Congress of North America followed the true relationship and support of the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada under the initiative of Bosniak intellectuals who live in this country to condemn this gruesome crime committed on the Europe soil after Second World War. In this humane mission substantial activity was shown by the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, whose leaders deserve our special gratitude and admiration. These resolutions serve to remind us that this terrible crime should never, ever be forgotten and that the perpetrators of crimes must not go unpunished. Dr. Suad Arnautovic, Associated professor on Faculty of Political Science University of Sarajevo, Member of Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina

I believe that the adoption of the resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica in the Parliament of Canada is an extremely important aspect of the arduous process of determining the actual circumstances and purpose of the conflict caused by the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Canada as one of the most powerful members of the international community in this way contributes to the stabilization of relations in the region, because the truth about character of the crime is a key element of stabilization in the Balkans, victims gives such a sense of justice and the perpetrators of organized crime committed identify individually and organizationally, as perpetrators and as the criminal system, thus avoiding the collectivization of responsibility for an entire people, and creates long-term basis for rebuilding the war- violated the trust between nations and ethnic groups in former Yugoslavia. The Government of Canada should now put more effort and energy in performing those guilty of genocide to justice, and to prevent all forms of organized crime in other parts of the world. By adopting resolution Canadian parliament undoubtedly demonstrated a high level of responsibility and awareness for the protection of human rights and freedoms in the world. Dennis Gratz, Dr. Phil .Lecturer on “Genocide and Genocidal Atrocities in Theory and International Law” at the Center for Interdisciplinary.

It gives me pleasure to know that the Canadian parliament has adopted this resolution, but I am upset that it has taken this long because of challenges through out the process. This reminded me of a quote “People, do not fear life”. We should not fear changes or new goals, that stand in front of civilized individuals. In the end the truth is the strongest weapon and this resolution confirmed that. A big congratulations goes out to the Institute for Research of Genocide in Canada and its director Professor Emir Ramic for organizing the community to work tirelessly on lobbying to get this resolution passed in the parliament.

Mr.sc. Zijad Bećirović, Director of The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Adopting the resolution on Srebrenica in the Canadian parliament is a result of a wonderful coalition of organizations and individuals under the direction of the Institute for Research of Genocide- Canada. This insitute has once more confirmed its importance through this success, led by professor Emir Ramic. The adoption of this resolution in the Canadian parliament is proof of that anything can be achieved with an organized system and a collective goal. It has been confirmed through this resolution that everything civilized is possible. Bakhtyar Aljaf, The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana, Slovenia

The decision of the Canadian parliament to adopt a Srebrenica resolution shows us that fighting for the institution of cultural remembrance, like the Jewish community with their powerful lobby twenty years after the end of the Second World War with a goal to build a multidiscipline memory of the holocaust is necessary. In front of our generation are the following duties: to establish a genocide museum in Sarajevo so all victims of genocide across Bosnia and Herzegovina are acknowledged through education and cultural programs and commemorative and symbolic means. Furthermore, victims need to be protected by law from discrimination and physical harm. The resolution passed in Canada has convinced us that we are on the road to positive change. Mr. Fatmir Alispahic, Author.

The adopted resolutian is an important step toward strentghening the awareness on the importance of punishing perpetrators, keeping the memory and preventing genocide and other crimes against humanity, an effort which obliges us all regardless of national and other borders. Canada is a country which, for years, has been promoting justice and human rights, the dedication of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, some Canadian researchers and peacekeepers in the fight against genocide is legendary, so this resolution also goes hand in hand with that tradition in the fight against genocide is legendary, so this resolution also goes hand in hand with that tradition. For Bosnia’s citizens, thos resolution means that Canada supports a path of reconciliation and society-building based primarily on truth and justice for all citizens, and this is a signal we in Bosnia welcome very cordially. Velma Saric, University of Sarajevo, Sociology -Postgraduate study (Faculty of Political Science). Project manager in Centre for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) and Atlantic Initiative (AI) Sarajevo. An IWPR trained journalist, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) London.

When future generations of Bosniaks in North America learn about the Bosnian history I am positive that the events that occurred in Canada on October 19th, 2010 will be talked about with great pride. Finally after many years of lobbying, a relatively small Bosniak community, led by the activists from the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada and CNAB succeeded in adopting a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide in the Canadian parliament. With this resolution, respect is paid to all victims of genocide and aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this resolution we have not only recognized the victims but also sent a clear message and a warning that another Srebrenica will never happen to anyone, anywhere. The tragedy in Srebrenica is no longer an issue of Bosniak morale or patriotic duty, it has become a concern for human rights in general. Canada has recognized the ability to identify the importance of human rights on a larger scale, amongst all the obstructions and politics, Bosniak Canadians, members of political parties and your representatives in the Canadian parliament, must be thanked for this humane as well as important political achievement. Professor Semir Djulic.

Sentencing and acceptance of war crimes in today’s world must become a basic necessity of democracy. The present doubts of genocide which happened to the Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, demonstrate a problem because it leaves room for new human rights abuses. Adopting the resolution on Genocide in the Canadian parliament is not and cannot only be important to Bosniaks instead it is all of our duty to remember all those victims that also justify the sentencing of criminals, which was not allowed to happen in the 20th century Europe. In addition it is a shame because there still needs to be such a huge battle for truth and for the future. Professor Maja Kassa.

The adoption of a resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, UN Protected Zone, which took place in July 1995, through the Canadian Parliament, is evidence and hope that the truth must and can win and that this fight should never cease until the victims have their peace, and that criminals deserve their punishment. The EU Parliament, U.S. Congress, the Parliament of Canada, our neighbors, and many other countries around the world finally understand what occurred in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and show that they accept the decision of the court of justice. The Assembly of the UN had the people in the protected zones of Srebrenica under its’ protection, and has a responsibility and obligation to adopt a resolution of remembrance on the 11th of July as a day of remembrance for the victims of genocide in Srebrenica, and that this would be binding for all UN member states. M.S. Nanic Husein, Member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Every public appraisal no matter what the crime is a great success for the public, especially when appraisals are given to serious types of crime such as genocide. Resolution that the Canadian parliament adopted gives hope to all of us that there will be fewer war crimes in the future. In addition, this is a small achievement for the victims of genocide, in relation to their family members and those who worked hard in achieving this Remembrance Day. We can hope that there will be more resolutions of this type in the future so there will be less and less genocide deniers. As an individual who lost many members of my direct and close family, I thank the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada for their determined efforts in globalizing the issue of war criminals and genocide. Professor dr. Alija Suljic.

In recent days, the Canadian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution marking July 11th as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada. This motion recognizes the actions that took place in Srebrenica in July of 1995 – the massacre of Bosniak men and boys and the forcible removal of Bosniak people from their homes – as an act of genocide. It also ultimately recognizes that genocide took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war. This is a great step towards justice for the innocent victims of the Srebrenica Genocide, as well as for all of the war’s victims. Once justice is served, the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina will be to achieve solid and lasting peace. Suzana Vukic, Journalist – columnist, The Hudson/St. Lazare Gazette, Montreal.

On behalf of the Bosnian-American Genocide Institute and Education Center , it is my honor to congratulate the Bosnian-Canadian community for passing the Resolution declaring July 11 a day of remembrance of the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica and all of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the attack on independent Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, an attack executed by its neighboring countries, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro. The passing of this resolution is also an invitation to all Canadian citizens to collaborate in attempts to end the cycle of aggression and to promote a harmonious coexistence among all of the world’s people I would like to extend special congratulations to Professor Emir Ramic, director of the Canadian Genocide Institute and President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks. Professor Ramic has devotedly led the passing of this Resolution, convinced that truth and justice must prevail and thus affect the prevention of crimes against humanity and international law. Sanja Seferovic Drnovsek, Director of Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center

Congratulations to the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada and the Congress of North American Bosniaks for the unanimous adoption of Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, after a 5 year battle and persistent lobbying. This Resolution obliges all citizens of Canada to 15th July to mark the appropriate way with the message that genocide never, to anyone, anywhere not happen and not happen again. We hope that over time the number of Serbian Chetnik populations in Canada, which so persistently fought with lies and fraud against the adoption of this Resolution, because of their children and future generations of time to accept its messages and lessons, face the reality of the past, to condemn the crimes and confess, seek forgiveness, just like the Germans after the Holocaust, and thus wash away the taint of a bar with future generations in order to better joint future. Selena Seferovic, Director of the Bosnian Libraries of Chicago and Mensur Seferovic, Historian and Author.

The Srebrenica proclamation in the Canadian Parliament is of significant historical value as it clearly identifies that genocide was committed against the citizens of Srebrenica. We can never forget what happened in Srebrenica and proclamations such as those enacted by the Canadian Parliament guaranty that this tragic event will be forever remembered and documented in the history of mankind as an example of greatest evil acts upon man. As such, it will hopefully ensure that such events are not repeated and that criminals will be stopped in the future from repeating such barbaric acts against humanity as a whole. As an Bosnian-American, I am especially pleased that both my own county, the USA ,and now its primary ally ,Canada, whom many Americans consider their sister country, have both enacted resolutions condemning the terror and recognizing the genocide against our brothers and sisters in Srebrenica. I sincerely thank the Canadian people and government for taking a step in ensuring that we will never forget and will take steps to ensure that history will not repeat itself! Dzafer Kulenovic Chicago, Illinois, USA

There is probably no more apt or thorough description of the act of the recent Resolution regarding the Srebrenica Genocide passed recently in the Canadian Parliament than the one given by Hon. Brian Masse, M.P. (NDP). He simply called it the “Institutionalization of Srebrenica Remembrance Day”. That same day I updated my facebook status to read “O Canada” (linked to one of the most beautiful vocal renditions of our anthem), and I wrote that “today it is truly wonderful to be a Canadian and a Bosniak.”I’m convinced that the passing of this resolution is of monumental importance to Canada, first as a very democratic nation, and second, as a country that regards humanitarian principles as fundamental values of its internal and external policy. The acceptance of this resolution will be remembered as one of the bright spots of “Harper’s Era”. On a personal level, the passing of the resolution provokes two feelings; one of a thankfulness to God that my children live in a country where humanity is valued, and the second, a feeling of great respect towards my new homeland. The next important question in front of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian diaspora in Canada is “What’s next”? The resolution has, at least in a political sense, brought to an end the feeling of victimization in Bosniaks, and with that has created conditions to begin efforts of cooperation and reconciliation. There is also, as always, the mission to pursue and apprehend the perpetrators of war crimes in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have a desire and a dream to see our children, associate freely in all aspects of life, regardless of their nationality, that they be proud Canadians, and that they love and understand their roots and where their parents came from. There are no evil nations, there are only people and their “good and bad souls”, to quote the great Rumi. Zijad Burgic, journalist.

Having the Canadian Parliament recognize July 11 as Srebrenica Remembrance Day is very important to me as a Canadian, as a Bosniak and as a human being. I’m not from Srebrenica, but for the past few years I’ve been sponsoring Semsa Catic, who was a child when her father and brother disappeared from their village, one of many surrounding Srebrenica in July 1995. Semsa is now a young woman studying in Sarajevo. In 2007 I met Semsa, her mom, her sister and her nephew in Ilijas. Semsa’s family is one of many that has been scarred forever by the genocide committed by the Serbs on Bosniaks in Srebrenica. I hope that by remembering July 11 we will prevent future genocides so that Semsa’s story does not repeat ever again anywhere. Sanela Gorovic, Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

The adoption of the resolution on genocide in the Canadian parliament is an extraordinary step in the historic context on the aggression of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I read the document carefully and I am convinced the road that the Canadian Bosniaks, led by professor Emir Ramic was not in any sense simple. Emir Ramic and his team deserve kudos and the institute is worthy of praise for their fight against genocide that began in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For those of us who follow the determined work of Emir Ramic and the Canadian Bosniak leaders, it is an honour and a privilege to know that the issues that were attempted to be buried at the end of the aggression have made it on the international stage. I hope the work on this project will last for decades since serious damage has been done in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the aggression. Neighbouring countries, Croatia and Serbia must admit to their actions and understand that their ambitions today and the actions during the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina represent their ideologies from past centuries. The results from the Canadian Bosniaks and the leadership from professor Ramic largely confirm the citizenship, statehood, independence and unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina that openly, freely and in a civil matter stabilize the political climate on the Balkans. Sabit I. Milinkich.

Adoption of the genocide resolution in the Canadian parliament is a grand success for the Bosniak Canadian community that was led by Professor Emir Ramic. I am aware that the Bosniak Canadians had a large opposition but once again they demonstrated how big and strong they are. The war against the Bosniaks still goes on; it is just led through diplomatic means. Professor Emir Ramic as a leader of Canadian Bosniaks is one of the first leaders in that war and from one battle to another he led the community to huge success. I hope that his achievements will never be forgotten and that his name will be used through history as an individual from the Bosniak corpus in the battle for human rights. Canadian Bosniaks had one of the biggest and strongest Diasporas in Canada against them. The Serbian Diaspora was inspired by their collective nationalistic aims and this was the biggest barrier and challenge the whole time. Only a leader such as Professor Emir Ramic was able to break through that barrier and was able to sit on the winning throne. Sulejman V.Aličković, author.

With the hard work and leadership from Emir Ramic, Canadian Bosniaks successfully established a resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide in the Canadian Parliament, even after aggressive lobbying from the Serbian side that resulted in a veto from the Canadian prime minister. Even after all of this, the community proved to the Canadian politicians and the rest of the world that in the end truth and justice won and with this resolution the Canadian parliament stood on the side of truth and respect towards the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this resolution, the international community, including the Canadian government take responsibility for the years of brutality and aggression from the side of Serbia and Karadzic’s army that was created through the embargo on Bosnia and Herzegovina. The determined work of professor Ramic and the efforts of others in the Congress of North American Bosniaks as well as all other friends and lobbyists of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been achieved out of debt and respect to all those victims of the Srebrenica genocide and all those Bosniaks who survived the effects of hate due to dark ideologies from the Serbian academy. It is up to todays and the future generations to remember the tragic past as well as to motivate others to fight for current injustices of war crimes and genocide that have resulted in the creation of Republika Srpska. Aziz Ramovic.

To Professor Emir Ramic, the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, we congratulate you all on the successful work in having the Canadian parliament adopt a resolution on the remembrance day of genocide that was started by the Serbs on the Bosniaks in Srebrenica. This resolution that was passed in the Canadian parliament that many fought for and succeeded means a lot because it has been achieved in a non-European Union country however it joins the European parliament in marking the genocide in Srebrenica from January 2009. Affan Cehajic.

Congratulations to Emir Ramic and the lobbying team on this wonderful achievement. The battle for truth and justice to be remembered is very important. It is necessary to be determined and strong to achieve something like this. Alija Izetbegovic once said life is a battle between the good and the bad and the battle is usually against injustice but we are only left with a choice to fight against the bad. I would like to add that the battle gives us meaning and strength in life and in that sense life is more beautiful. Amra Hodzic.

I am truly happy to see that determination, cleverness and hard work of Canadian Bosniak lobbyists with the leadership of Emir Ramic resulted in success. Preventing genocide is a moral obligation of all individuals. Radical right wing movement are given the right to spread throughout Europe. This reminds me of a conversation I had with a wonderful professor Steven Dediere who wrote a letter to Bush 15 years ago insisting that Milosevic is a fascist and needs to be stopped, “If you do not act on this right now, in ten years we will have hundreds of individuals like him who will destabilize the world”. These are Dedier’s words to Bush. Sevko Kadric, author.

The adopted resolutian is an important step toward strentghening the awareness on the importance of punishing perpetrators, keeping the memory and preventing genocide and other crimes against humanity, an effort which obliges us all regardless of national and other borders. Canada is a country which, for years, has been promoting justice and human rights, the dedication of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, some Canadian researchers and peacekeepers in the fight against genocide is legendary, so this resolution also goes hand in hand with that tradition in the fight against genocide is legendary, so this resolution also goes hand in hand with that tradition. For Bosnia’s citizens, thos resolution means that Canada supports a path of reconciliation and society-building based primarily on truth and justice for all citizens, and this is a signal we in Bosnia welcome very cordially. Velma Saric, University of Sarajevo, Sociology -Postgraduate study (Faculty of Political Science). Project manager in Centre for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) and Atlantic Initiative AI) Sarajevo. An IWPR trained journalist (Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) London.

Statements that were issued earlier, you can read the links:

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/canadian-parliament-unanimously-adopts-the-srebrenica-genocide-resolution/

http://www.bosniak.org/canadian-parliament-unanimously-adopts-the-srebrenica-genocide-resolution/#more-3796

Author: Daniel Toljaga
The Bosnian Institute, UK
www.bosnia.org.uk

More than three years before the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, Bosnian Serb nationalists – with the logistical, moral and financial support of Serbia and the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) – destroyed 296 predominantly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)[1] villages in the region around Srebrenica, forcibly uprooting some 70,000 Bosniaks from their homes and systematically massacring at least 3,166 Bosniaks (documented deaths) including many women, children and the elderly. It was these massacres that should have alerted the international community to the prospect of genocide when the United Nations-protected enclave eventually fell to Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladić three years later, in July 1995.

The following study provides a short background account of the outbreak of war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 1992, an overview of significant massacres committed against the Bosniak population in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of the war, including a breakdown of the numbers of Bosniak victims and a complete list of villages wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in and around Srebrenica between April and June 1992.

For the purposes of this study, the Srebrenica region is defined as the area comprising the municipality of Srebrenica and the adjoining pre-war municipalities of Bratunac, Vlasenica, Rogatica and Višegrad. This strategically important central section of the River Drina valley is situated in the Podrinje, which forms Bosnia’s eastern border with Serbia. According to the 1991 population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks comprised the ethnic majority in all five municipalities (75.19% in Srebrenica; 64.05% in Bratunac; 55.17% in Vlasenica; 60.10% in Rogatica and 63.54% in Višegrad).

Although armed conflict in this part of eastern Bosnia commenced on 6 April 1992 with the attack of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) on the town of Višegrad, it was not until 17 April that the Bosnian Serb authorities announced their effective intention to commit genocide in a public threat to “destroy” the Bosniak population of the municipalities of Srebrenica and Bratunac, some 49,000 people.

Preparing for War (Early 1991)
Prior to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of sovereignty in October 1991, the Bosnian Serb leadership was already making preparations “for eventual secession from or division of BH from behind the scenes” by actively undermining “the existing political and administrative system in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SRBiH).”[2] For example, in April 1991 the Bosnian Serb leadership embarked on a programme of regionalisation by creating the Serb “Autonomous Region of Krajina” (ARK) and establishing parallel institutions of government throughout the area that was intended to form part of an ethnically homogeneous Serb state, the “Greater Serbia” project.[3] The decision to incorporate Srebrenica into a future restructured Serbian state was made by the government of Slobodan Milošević, then President of Serbia.

In early May of 1991, Milošević’s cabinet summoned two local Bosnian Serb leaders to attend a high-level meeting with Mihalj Kertes in Belgrade. The meeting was attended by Goran Zekić from Srebrenica and Miroslav Deronjić from Bratunac, the leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in their respective municipalities. Kertes, long-time director of the Yugoslav Federal Customs Bureau, was Milošević’s man of trust who provided logistic and financial support for various undercover operations of the Serbian regime. At this meeting, Kertes advised Zekić and Deronjić that “the decision of the political and state leadership of the SFRY [Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] was that an area of 50 kilometres from the Drina would be Serb.[4]

There was one problem with this decision: the area Milošević had assigned to the Bosnian Serbs included large swathes of predominantly Bosniak-inhabited territory in the municipalities of Zvornik, Bratunac, Vlasenica, Srebrenica, Višegrad, Rogatica, Goražde and Foča. Bosniaks loyal to the Bosnian government in Sarajevo stood in the way of the plan to establish an ethnically-pure Serb region that would eventually form part of a “Greater Serbia”.

Milošević’s strategy could not be implemented without the use of force and the Belgrade leadership agreed to start covert shipments of arms to local Serbs in and around Srebrenica immediately under the supervision of Zekić and Deronjić. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found that weapons were “shipped into the area from Serbia across the Drina River or flown in by helicopter. Paramilitary training was covertly provided in public buildings in Bosnian Serb villages throughout the area. In comparison… there were not even firearms to be found in the Bosnian Muslim villages, apart from some privately owned pistols and hunting rifles; a few light weapons were kept at the Srebrenica police station.”[5]

Killings Fuel Tension (3 September 1991)
On 3 September 1991 four Bosniaks were ambushed by a group of Serb nationalists as their car was passing through the village of Kravica in Bratunac municipality. Dževad Jusić and Nedžad Hodžić – were shot and killed, while the other two – Mevludin Sinanović and Zaim Salković – survived with injuries.[6]

The Kravica ambush aroused particular panic, evoking vivid memories of horrendous massacres during World War II. In the fall of 1941, Nazi-collaborating Bosnian Serb Chetniks under the command of Jezdimir Dangić killed 81 Bosniak civilians in the village of Zaklopača. They barricaded civilians in the local mekteb (Muslim religious school) and burned them to death.[7] A similar crime took place in December 1941. This time Chetniks from the Serb village of Kravica – armed with guns, knives, hammers, sticks, and axes – massacred 86 Bosniak civilians in Sopotnik (near Drinjača).[8] Then in February 1943, Draza Mihailovic’s Chetnik forces rounded up and killed 9200 Bosniaks from both sides of the River Drina.[9]

Karadžić’s Threats of Genocide (October 1991)
In the months before Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the former Yugoslavia [10], Milošević’s ally, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić expressed his own genocidal intentions in intercepted telephone conversations and public speeches. Historian Dr. Robert J. Donia described Karadžić’s language as “‘threatening’ and issued from the point of view of someone ‘who can dictate to the Muslims what their options are.’”[11]

In the recording of an intercepted conversation between Karadžić and Gojko Đogo on 12 October 1991, Karadžić repeated five times that in the event of war the Bosniaks would “disappear”. In his words, “They don’t understand that there will be bloodshed and that the Muslim people could disappear. Misguided Muslims, who do not know where he [Izetbegović] is taking them, that they could disappear… they will disappear, this people will disappear from the face of the earth.’”[12]

A day later, speaking to Momčilo Mandić over the telephone, Karadžić said: “Within a few days there will be no Sarajevo, and there will be over 500,000 dead; within a month the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina will be destroyed!” Then again, on 15 October 1991, speaking to Miodrag Davidović and his own brother Luka, Karadžić said: “In the first instance, none of their [Bosniak] leaders will remain alive, they will be killed within 3 or 4 hours. They will have no chance of surviving.”[13]

Karadžić spoke publicly about the “annihilation” of the “Muslim people” when he addressed the Parliament of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the night of 14–15 October 1991. Making clear what was likely to happen if Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from the rump of Yugoslavia, Karadžić indicated the possibility that the Bosnian Muslims could disappear as a group:

“You want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina down the same highway to hell and suffering that Slovenia and Croatia are travelling. Do not think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and do not think that you will not perhaps lead the Muslim people into annihilation because the Muslims cannot defend themselves if there is war. How will you prevent everyone from being killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina?“

Deployment of the Yugoslav Army (JNA) (January 1992)
In response to the growing crisis in the former Yugoslavia, representatives of a European Union Peace Mission headed by Jacques Gabrielle, visited Srebrenica on 3 January 1992 to meet with local political leaders. Asked what he thought was potentially the most destabilizing factor in inter-ethnic relations in the Srebrenica municipality, the chairman of the municipal assembly Besim Ibišević replied point blank, “The JNA.” Ibišević explained that,

“The arrival of the JNA will spark the outbreak of war. The Serbs desire JNA’s arrival, because it is their Army. After seeing what the Yugoslav Army has done in Croatia, Bosniaks are rightfully fearful of it and see it as a hostile military force. JNA has plans to enter into the territory of our municipality, and if they do so, then the war is inevitable.”[14]

Ibišević’s concerns were justified. The JNA was the third largest army in Europe and one of the largest in the world. By early 1991, the JNA had transformed itself into a de facto Serbian army with approximately 90 percent of high-ranking officers of Serb and Montenegrin ethnic origin.[15]

When on 2 January 1992 a ceasefire agreement brought the fighting in Croatia to a provisional halt, the JNA began redeploying many of its units into Bosnia. By April 1992, artillery posts had been set up at all the strategic points and elevations around Srebrenica. Other preparations for the onslaught against the local Bosniak population were also in place.

The Propaganda War
Prior to the outbreak of the armed conflict, the Bosnian Serb authorities started waging a propaganda war. Prominent members of Karadžić’s Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) regularly appeared in the media making discriminatory speeches insulting and degrading non-Serbs and inciting the Bosnian Serbs to commit crimes against other ethnic groups.[16]

Then, at the beginning of April 1992, the Bosnian TV relay station on Mount Kvarac was blown up. Local residents could no longer receive TV broadcasts from Sarajevo, only Serbian programmes from Belgrade.[17] The source of Srebrenica’s water supply in the village of Slapovici was also sabotaged, leaving the town with no access to running water and creating an atmosphere of panic.[18]

The deliberate destruction of the local TV relay was no accident. It was part of the programme of “regionalisation” referred to earlier, which envisaged the creation of autonomous regions in which Serb “authorities started taking over television and radio installations, and broadcasting ‘Serb’ programs that intimidated persons of other nationalities. Muslim leaders were barred from the radio while SDS [Karadžić's Serb Democratic Party] leaders had unlimited access.”[19]

The propaganda campaign had a “disastrous impact on the people of all ethnicities, creating mutual fear and hatred and particularly inciting the Bosnian Serb population against the other ethnicities” and creating “a climate where people were prepared to tolerate the commission of crimes and to commit crimes.” Once armed conflict had broken out in Bosnia, the SDS-controlled media openly incited Bosnian Serbs to kill other non-Serbs.[20]

The Outbreak of War and the First Victims
The first impact of the outbreak of war was felt in Višegrad, at the beginning of April 1992, as the Yugoslav Army embarked on a campaign of intimidation that was to lead to the ethnic cleansing of the town and some of the most terrible atrocities committed anywhere during the entire Bosnian war, described later in this chronological sequence of events.

In the municipality of Srebrenica, the first victims of war crimes were two Bosniak civilians from Potočari, Meho Hrvačić and Bahrudin Osmanović. On 15 April 1992, their vehicle was stopped by a group of armed Serbian Chetniks on the road from Skelani to Srebrenica. They were executed and their bodies left at the roadside. Earlier that day, a truck full of armed Chetniks came from the direction of Skelani, entered the Bosniak village of Kragljivoda and destroyed a local Post office.[21]

The Ultimatum of Genocide (17 April 1992)
On 22 March 1992, Serbs formed the so called “Serb municipality of Skelani”, without any consultation with the majority Bosniak population of the municipality of Srebrenica or of the Skelani area. Skelani, located in the municipality of Srebrenica, was one of the largest Bosniak villages in eastern Bosnia.[22] In the first half of April 1992, “volunteers” from Serbia crossed the Drina River and took control of this village in a preparatory operation aimed at ‘disarming’ the civilian population and establishing a Serb foothold in the predominantly Bosniak municipalities of Bratunac and Srebrenica.

Then, on 17 April 1992, a meeting was held in the Hotel Fontana in Bratunac between the Bosniak and Serb representatives of the Srebrenica and Bratunac municipalities. It was at this meeting that the Serb authorities issued the public ultimatum which effectively threatened the Bosniak population of Srebrenica and Bratunac, some 49,000 people, with genocide.[23] In the words of Miroslav Deronjić, Bosniaks had two options: “To leave Srebrenica quietly or to be killed. There is no third option.” He warned that “Bratunac, Skelani, Milići, Rogatica and Višegrad are already in Serb hands.”[24] Bosniaks were “to surrender weapons and legal authority to Bosnian Serbs. Otherwise they were to suffer from destruction at the hands of thousands of Serb soldiers who were amassed across the Drina River in Serbia.”[25]

War in the Municipalities of Srebrenica and Bratunac (17 April onwards)
That same day, the Serb nationalists of Radovan Karadžić’s Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) assumed political power in Bratunac. This event marked a transition from uncertainty and political instability to a period of war and suffering, accompanied by large-scale expulsions of the Bosniak population driven by a campaign of unrelenting violence.

The attack upon the Bosniak population of the Srebrenica region took many forms, starting with the Serb takeover of towns and villages and followed by the systematic and large-scale criminal campaign of murders, rapes and mistreatment of civilians. Despite routine guarantees of safety offered if they surrendered weapons, unarmed Bosniak villagers were frequently rounded up and executed, while many women and girls were subjected to sadistic sexual torture and gang-raped.[26]

Localised resistance in some cases led to the establishment of enclaves under Bosniak control to which refugees fled from elsewhere in the Podrinje, the most notable of them being Srebrenica, Kamenica, Cerska, Konjević Polje, Velika Glogova, Potočari, Sućeska, Osmače and Žepa.

The First Fall of Srebrenica and Massacre (18 April – 8 May 1992)
Following the takeover of Bratunac, the Serb forces began the attack on Srebrenica on 18 April 1992, firing around 5000 mortar shells on the town and the surrounding Bosniak villages. There was no resistance. The same day, Serbs entered the town, looting Bosniak property, setting houses on fire and killing Bosniak residents who were unable to flee into nearby woods.

The Serb occupation of the town of Srebrenica lasted until 8 May, the day when Serbs burned to death 23 Bosniak civilians in the downtown Srebrenica. The victims died in excruciating pain. From April 17 to May 8, a total of 74 Bosniak civilians were killed in the occupied Srebrenica.[27] The youngest victim was the 12-month-old boy Nezir Suljić whose charred body was still lying in his cradle. His father Huso, his mother Muška, and his brother Nisvet were burned to death in the same room. Nezir’s nine-year-old sister Sanela survived by jumping through a window and hiding in nearby woods.[28]

First Instances of Resistance (20 April 1992)
On 20 April 1992, Serb paramilitary units attempted to enter Potočari, a Bosniak village on the road from Srebrenica to Bratunac. They were met by opposition from a group of Bosniak villagers armed with hunting guns and led by Naser Orić. The villagers set up an ambush, killing four attackers belonging to the notorious paramilitary group “Arkan’s Tigers.” This was the first instance of successful Bosniak resistance to Serb aggression in the municipality of Srebrenica. Orić was subsequently to achieve prominence as the most effective commander of the defence forces during the period of the siege.

On the same day, the mountain village of Likari, located about 10km from Srebrenica, became the first Bosniak settlement in the municipality to be completely destroyed by the Serbs. Likari was defended by a group of poorly armed Bosniak villagers with “only about 25 old hunting rifles and no means of obtaining more.”[29] The capture of Likari enabled Serb forces and the Yugoslav People’s Army to strategically reposition their heavy artillery and inflict heavy material damage on property including homes and agricultural buildings in Potočari and neighbouring Bosniak villages.

The Hranča Massacre (2-3 May 1992)
On 2 May 1992, Hranča became the first Bosniak village in the municipality of Bratunac to be attacked. A group of Serb paramilitaries commanded by Najdan Mlađenović, raided Bosniak homes demanding weapons. They killed one Bosniak civilian, Fićo Ramić, before leaving the village. The next day, Serb gunmen with Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) support, surrounded and then torched the village, killing another 14 Bosniak civilians, including a seven year old girl Selma Hodžić.[30] British journalist Tim Judah visited Hranča two days later and found local Bosniaks praying over the dead. The little body of the girl was “lying on a sofa in a small house there.”[31] The Hranča massacre was the clearest possible signal of what was about to happen next to the remaining Bosniak population of the Srebrenica region.

The Blječeva Attack (6 May 1992)
The next target was the predominantly Bosniak village of Blječeva in the municipality of Bratunac which was attacked by Serb mortars on 6 May 1992. The mortars struck several homes in the village, killing a 16-year old Bosniak girl, Vesna Muratović, and two elderly Serb residents of the village, Kosana Zekić and Gojko Jovanović. Several other residents were wounded. The Bosniak population of the village fled towards the village of Pale. Serb forces quickly moved into Blječeva, pillaging and burning homes. They shot and killed one Bosniak civilian, Ibro Jašarević, and took prisoner anyone unable to flee, including Nurif Memišević, a paralyzed Bosniak man unable to move unaided. He was forced to sign a ‘confession’ to the effect that he was being well treated by his Bosnian Serb captors, and that it was Bosniaks who had attacked the village and been responsible for the killings. Memišević was never seen again.[32]

Liberation of Srebrenica (8 May 1992)
Bosnian Serb forces retreated from Srebrenica following the death in an ambush on 8 May 1992 of the local Serb leader Goran Zekić, a key organiser of the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population of Srebrenica and Bratunac. After his death, local Bosniaks succeeded in reoccupying the devastated town and began organizing its defence. However, the town remained under siege, cut off from the territory under Government control. The brutal siege of Srebrenica was subsequently described by the United Nations itself as “a slow-motion process of genocide”[33]

Although the presence of the Yugoslav People’s Army on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina formally ended on 19 May 1992, the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) found that “a large number of JNA troops, weaponry and equipment remained in BiH and were merely re-designated ‘Army of the Serbian Republic of BiH’ (VRS). Consequently, the VRS had at its disposal a significant cache of resources, outweighing by far those available to the Bosnian Muslims.”[34]

Serbian forces regularly fired on Srebrenica from positions on Mount Tara across the Drina in Serbia where the Special State Security Forces of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) operated a training centre. Some places were shelled blindly, but a sizeable portion of the free territory was within clear sight and range of Serb artillery and snipers. In the first three months of war, Serb forces fired an average of 2000 mortar shells per day on the enclave of Srebrenica. The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) concluded that:

“Between April 1992 and March 1993, Srebrenica town and the villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire, as well as occasional bombing from aircrafts. Each onslaught followed a similar pattern. Serb soldiers and paramilitaries surrounded a Bosnian Muslim village or hamlet, called upon the population to surrender their weapons, and then began with indiscriminate shelling and shooting. In most cases, they then entered the village or hamlet, expelled or killed the population, who offered no significant resistance, and destroyed their homes. During this period, Srebrenica was subjected to indiscriminate shelling from all directions on a daily basis. Potočari in particular was a daily target for Serb artillery and infantry because it was a sensitive point in the defence line around Srebrenica. Other Bosnian Muslim settlements were routinely attacked as well. All this resulted in a great number of refugees and casualties.”[35]

Glogova Massacre (9 May 1992)
On 9 May 1992, Serb forces assisted by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) entered the village of Glogova and killed at least 64 unarmed Bosniak civilians. Several women were taken into the nearby forest where they were gang-raped by the masked Serb soldiers.[36] The remaining population of the village was forcibly expelled. Prior to the massacre, village residents had been disarmed and guaranteed safety. The decision to attack Glogova was taken two days beforehand, at a meeting between the Bratunac Crisis Staff and the Yugoslav People’s Army commander known as ‘Captain Reljić,’ Raša Milošević, commander of the Kravica Detachment, “and another person who was a member of the State Security of Serbia.”[37]

According to Ibrahim Dervišagić, a survivor of the massacre, many of the Serbs who participated in the Glogova massacre came from the nearby Serb village of Kravica.[38] Another survivor, Azem Rizvanović, watched from a nearby forest as two women from Serbia – Vesna Krdžalić from Beli Manastir and Dragica Mastikosa from Novi Sad – used knives to kill Bosniak civilians. Both women were killed during the 29 May 1992 attack on the Bosniak village of Sandici.[39]

The Role of Kravica in Crimes Against Bosniaks
Kravica is a predominantly Serb populated village in Bratunac municipality. Throughout the Bosnian war, Kravica was heavily militarized. The Bosnian Serb Army’s Kravica Detachment took part in almost daily attacks on Bosniak hamlets, villages and settlements in the area, including terrible massacres of civilians in villages such as Glogova. From the very beginning of the war, the Kravica Serbs looted livestock and other goods belonging to Bosniaks killed or driven from their hamlets and villages. They also took part in more systematic abuse of Bosniak prisoners.

As well as taking part in the torture of Bosniak civilians in the detention camp set up in the Vuk Karadžić school in Bratunac, Serbs from Kravica also established a detention camp for captured Bosniak civilians in an abandoned local Serb Orthodox church, where they tortured, raped and killed prisoners including women and underage girls. Some 350 civilians were detained in the camp.[40] The physical abuse perpetrated on them included beatings with objects, including steel pipes and rifle butts and bare fists, kicking victims with boots and extracting teeth with rusty pliers. Detainees were beaten unconscious and some beaten to death.

One of the most sadistic individuals to take part in the torture was Momir Nikolić. He used a sharp knife to gouge out prisoners’ eyes. In one particularly gruesome incident other prisoners were forced to watch as Nikolić blinded the defenceless Bosniak prisoner Šaban Salkić. Female detainees, including young women and underage girls, were forced to lie beside the cross on the altar while their abusers took sadistic pleasure in torturing and raping Muslims in a Serb Orthodox church. One of the most violent of the rapists was Golub Erić.[41] According to his grandson Slaviša, Golub Erić and his brother Nego had also committed crimes against Bosniaks in World War II. Both participated in the massacre of Bosniak civilians at Sopotnik mentioned above and were sentenced to death but for some unknown reason they escaped execution by the Yugoslav authorities.[42]

The Vuk Karadžić School Massacre (10 May 1992)
On 10 May 1992, the Yugoslav People’s Army, various paramilitary groups from Serbia and local Bosnian Serb forces jointly conducted one of the most violent assaults on the Bosniak population of Bratunac and the surrounding villages. Some 4,000 to 5,000 Bosniak civilians were expelled from their homes and detained in the local football stadium “Bratstvo” (Brotherhood). Serb forces stripped Bosniak civilians of their possessions and forcibly separated men from the women, killing some of them on the spot. The youngest known victim was a six month old girl, Narcisa Salihović, and the oldest a 110 year old woman, Zahida Suljagić.[43] A United Nations investigation found that some victims interned in the “Bratstvo” stadium were “forced to serve as blood donors, and some did not survive because so much blood had been withdrawn. Reportedly, the bodies of hundreds of individuals have been burned or thrown into the Drina River.”[44]

Several hundred of women and underage girls were taken from the Bratstvo stadium to the local Hotel Fontana where they were repeatedly raped. Other women and older men were herded onto buses, warned never to come back to their homes again, and forcibly expelled in the direction of the government controlled town of Kladanj.

About 700 unarmed Bosniak men were taken to a detention camp located in the gymnasium of the Vuk Karadžić primary school. When the men arrived in the camp, they were met by the sight of mutilated detainees. The men were offered very salty food with no water. They were brutally tortured over the next few days and some 350 of them were murdered in the most sadistic ways.

Physical abuse at the camp included beatings with objects including wooden sticks, wooden poles, steel pipes, metal bars, baseball bats, rifle butts, bare fists, kicking with boots, extraction of teeth with rusty pliers and suffocation. Some prisoners were decapitated and their heads held up for all to see, then kicked around the floor. Other prisoners were forced to move bodies before eventually being killed themselves and their bodies thrown on the pile. According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, “Witnesses claim that the bodies of those killed were butchered, with nose, ears, genitals cut off, or crosses being cut into them. Those witnesses also claim that while that was being done, they were forced to sing Chetnik songs.”[45]

The local Muslim priest Mustafa Mujkanovic, was humiliated, tortured and beaten for hours. His throat was cut open in front of other prisoners after he defiantly refused to cross himself, drink alcohol or raise three fingers in the Serb manner (he lifted only two, symbolically asserting the struggle of the Bosniak people for freedom).

The Suha Massacre (10 May 1992)
On 10 May 1992, Serbs attacked and destroyed the Bosniak village of Suha in the nearby municipality of Bratunac. They sexually tortured young women and girls and then killed 38 unarmed Bosniak residents. They dumped their bodies in a local mass grave. Among the 38 exhumed remains were those of nine children ranging in age from 3 months to 11 years, several women and mostly elderly men. One of the victims was the 9-month pregnant Zekira Hrustanbasic (aka: Zekira Begić). When pathologists at the University Clinical Center in Tuzla conducted their examination of the victims’ remains, they found the body of her unborn child had been pierced by a bullet.[46]

The principal suspects of the Suha massacre are Milenko (“Mungos”) Prodanovic, a former paramilitary leader, and his associate Vujadin Stevic, also known as Dragan. Despite repeated calls for his arrest Prodanovic had still not been charged with any crime and was a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly in 2010.[47] Stevic’s whereabouts are unknown.

Strategic Objective: “Eliminate the Drina” (12 May 1992)
Meanwhile, on 12 May 1992, at a session of the Bosnian Serb Assembly, Radovan Karadžić announced the six “strategic objectives” of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of them was to ethnically cleanse the predominantly Bosniak-inhabited Drina valley, that is “[to] establish a corridor in the Drina river valley, that is, eliminate the Drina as a border separating Serbian states.” The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) at the Hague found that,

“The Bosnian Serb leadership, including Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajisnik, Biljana Plavšić, and Nikola Koljevic, understood and intended that the creation of Serbian ethnic territories included the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the separation and the permanent removal of ethnic populations from municipalities designated as Serbian, either by agreement or by force.”[48]

Furthermore, the Hague Tribunal specifically established that “the operative part – that is the actual implementation of the use of force – was directed from Belgrade [Serbia].”[49]

Two months later, at the 17th Session of the Bosnian Serb Assembly, held on 24-26 July 1992, Karadžić was more specific as to what he really wanted to do with the Muslims of Bosnia:

“Neither Serbs nor Croats together can control through the birth-rate the penetration of Islam into Europe, since in 5-6 years Muslims would make 51% of the population of inner Bosnia… There is truth in what Mr Kuprešanin has said, although nobody in Europe will say it openly, that this conflict was roused in order to eliminate the Muslims.”[50]

The Zaklopača Massacre (16 May 1992)
Large scale attacks on the Bosniak population of the adjoining municipality of Vlasenica had began on 1 May and continued through June 1992. A number of Bosniak villages in the municipality were burned down including Here, Vrsinje, Zilići, Gerovi, Pomol, Nurići, Bešići, Žutica, Štedrići and Đile. Many civilians were reported killed, others were captured and interned in the Sušica concentration camp.

One of the worst massacres occured in a small Bosniak village called Zaklopača. On 16 May 1992, armed Serbs entered Zaklopača demanding that the civilian residents hand over their weapons. Apart from a few legally-owned hunting rifles, the residents had no weapons, either to attack anyone or to defend themselves with. When the Serbs learned that the residents of the village were effectively unarmed, they blocked all the exits to the village and massacred at least 63 Bosniak men, women and children. A survivor, Nihada Hodžić, described the aftermath of the killings:

“We dared to step out again, to witness that inferno, the death and destruction of this inevitable storm which plundered our town and raped it of its virtues and good life. We saw dead bodies everywhere. The smell of death permeated the entire town. Dead children, women, men. Bodies everywhere. We were in shock…We saw my eldest uncle (Bećir Hodžić) again – in a kneeling position with a cigarette still burning in between his index and middle fingers, his head bowed to the ground, and a puddle of blood next to him – he was dead too. We saw small children with their mothers lying side by side on the ground, motionless, very still – in an eternal sleep. We were told that my father was among the dead too.”[51]

The Nova Kasaba Massacre (18 May 1992)
Vitkovići is a village in Bratunac municipality where Serbs and Bosniaks had co-existed in a mixed community. On 18 May 1992, the Bosniak villagers were forcibly expelled from Vitkovići and taken to the nearby town of Bratunac. Three days later, they were forced onto buses and told they would be taken to the Sušica detention camp in nearby Vlasenica. Near the village of Nova Kasaba, the buses were stopped and 32 civilians were taken off and shot. Only three survived the massacre and were able to tell their story. The survivors were later able to help in the recovery and reburial of the decapitated bodies of the victims.[52]

The Borkovac Shootings (20 May 1992)
On 20 May 1992, Serb forces attacked the village of Borkovac, in Bratunac municipality, and captured 14 Bosniak civilians. They tortured their prisoners before shooting them. Among the captives was Amer Ramić and his sister Hamedina. According to Naser Orić’s book, “Srebrenica Testifies and Accuses,” Amer was forced to watch Serb soldiers rape his sister, before they killed her. The survivors identified Novak Stjepanović (“Krke”) as the leader of the Serb paramilitary group responsible.[53]

On 12 November 2009, Stjepanović was indicted by the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina on charges of crimes against humanity. The indictment alleges that the accused Stjepanović ”participated in torturing of [14] detained civilians” and “in the killing of seven civilians from this group.”[54] According to Orić’s book, Serbs killed eight Bosniaks that day: Hamid Alić, Halima Alić, Munib Sulejmanović, Fadil Sulejmanović, Hajro Hasanović, Hamed Velić, Meho Avdić and Hamedina Ramić.

The Joševa/Jagodnja Killings (22 May 1992)
On 14 May, the villages of Joševa and Jagodnja in the municipality of Bratunac were attacked from the direction of Skelani and two Bosniak civilians were killed. The attack was repeated on 22 May when another 10 civilians were killed. Without any sophisticated combat weapons, the villagers succeeded against the odds in preventing Serb forces from entering Joševa and Jagodnja by setting up ambushes at all the entrances to their villages. Nevertheless, most of the houses and other buildings in Jagodnja, Joševa and the nearby Bosniak villages and hamlets, were damaged or set ablaze by heavy artillery fire. The nearby village of Zapolje was partially destroyed by shelling from the direction of Serb-held Fakovići. Other Bosniak hamlets and villages in the area suffered co-ordinated attacks on a daily basis.[55]

The Sase Camp (May 1992 onwards)
While large scale raids were being conducted on Bosniak villages around Bratunac, the Bosnian Serb forces in the municipality of Srebrenica converted the Sase mine and its administrative building into a detention camp where Bosniak civilians from nearby hamlets and villages were imprisoned. Beatings, torture, rapes, and murders were a daily occurrence at the camp.

Court transcripts of the International Criminal Tribunal indicate that “many Muslim civilians, including more than a dozen children, were killed” in this camp.[56] Naser Orić, who commanded the defense of Srebrenica, wrote in his book that Serbs killed most of the detainees and then buried them “in the sludge deposit of the mine in Sase.” He also noted that “a large number of the detained girls and women were raped.“[57]

The head office of the mine was situated in Gradina, an outlying hamlet of Sase. Serb forces took control of Gradina on 21 May 1992, after attacking this undefended hamlet and killing seven Bosniak civilians. Many Bosniak civilians who fled for safety into nearby woods were subsequently captured by Serb paramilitary gangs and brought to the Sase camp. Hundreds of women and underage girls were taken to abandoned Muslim houses outside the camp where they were sexually enslaved and systematically raped by Serb paramilitaries led by Novak Stjepanović (“Krke”).[58] One of the victims was Edina Karić, who was only 15 at the time. She described her ordeal to the International Criminal Tribunal:

“…We were raped and abused and beaten throughout the night, and I myself had a gun pointed at my head all the time… I was screaming too much.” She testified that local Serbs were not ‘peace-loving’ village guards as they liked to portray themselves in their evidence describing the situation around Srebrenica, but “…an army with lots of weapons… They were killing, looting, raping, setting houses alight, and they perpetrated a great many crimes.”[59]

In one incident 51 prisoners were called outside, loaded onto lorries, and sent to be killed. Edina Karić testified that “there was a lot of screaming in the hall at that stage, and the children started crying and it was terrible. Words are failing me in trying to describe it but it was terrible. People were being pushed onto lorries, and one woman was unable to get on, and she was hit and then thrown on to the lorry.”[60]

The Sušica Camp (May 1992 onwards)
On 21 April 1992, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and local Serb forces took control of the town of Vlasenica and rapidly began implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing. The local authorities began arresting prominent Bosniak residents and burning their homes. Over the next several months, as many as 8,000 unarmed Bosniak civilians from Vlasenica, Bratunac and Srebrenica – men and women, young and old, sometimes entire families – were detained in the barbed wire-surrounded Sušica concentration camp, commanded by Dragan (“Jenki”) Nikolić.[61]

The detainess were kept in the camp without proper shelter, food, or medicine with the deliberate intent that they die. According to The New York Times, “Unlike Nazi camps during World War II, Sušica was a camp in which torture and death were meted out by soldiers on people who had been their immediate neighbors.”[62] The International Criminal Tribunal concluded that abuses of civilians in the camp “were not isolated acts, but an expression of systematic sadism… [amounting to] the highest level of torture. The camp was severely overcrowded and living conditions were deplorable.”[63]

The detainees were treated rather as slaves than as inmates.[64] Prisoners endured beatings with iron bars, metal knuckles, metal pipes, rubber tubing filled with lead, truncheons, axe handles, rifle butts, wooden bats and pieces of timber, along with other forms of physical and mental abuse. Women of all ages were raped or sexually assaulted.[65]

According to the “Association of Families of War Victims in Vlasenica 1992-95” between late May and October of 1992, some 1600 Bosniak civilians were killed in the camp.[66] A former guard at the camp, Pero Popović, testified that he “personally witnessed, close to 3,000 Bosnian Muslims from around Vlasenica lost their lives at Sušica.”[67] In January 1993, Mr. Popović deserted from the Bosnian Serb army due to “his remorse over the eviction and killing of his former neighbors.” In 1994, he gave three interviews to The New York Times in which he corroborated earlier accounts of systematic killings of Bosniak civilians in the Sušica concentration camp:

“Executions of small groups took place within the camp, just outside the hangar used as a barracks, Mr. Popović said. But large-scale executions — which generally happened in reprisal for the killing in the war of a local Serb — were carried out at a nearby ravine called Han Ploča on the road south toward Han Pijesak. Men were loaded into the back of a truck, taken up to the edge of the ravine, about five miles away, and then shot as they got out of the vehicle, he said. Groups of young soldiers were brought in to perform the executions. The bodies fell into the ravine and bulldozers were later used to cover them over. ‘…In mid-June I witnessed the execution at the ravine of 26 people. One man got away by running down into the woods as he got out the truck. In all, at least 1,000 people were executed up there. At first the executions took place during the day, but later they were all at night.’”[68]

The Bosanska Jagodina Massacre (26 May 1992)
On 26 May 1992 about 200 Muslim refugees from Višegrad hoping to reach Macedonia were turned back at the Mokra Gora border crossing when Serbian soldiers refused to let the refugee convoy pass through Serbia.[69] As the buses tried to return to Višegrad, armed men halted the convoy in the village of Bosanska Jagodina. A bus company employee saw 17 Bosniak children taken from the buses and executed on the spot. One of the fathers begged to be killed instead of his son, but Serb forces rejected his pleas: “‘No, you, we will not kill,’ one of the gunman reportedly replied. ‘We will kill your son and you will suffer for it.“[70]

The killers were members of notorious “volunteer” groups from Serbia that operated as part of a local Serb “territorial defense” formation, systematically abducting and murdering Bosniak civilians in the region. The fate of a number of the refugees who were sent back to Višegrad, a town controlled by Serbian paramilitaries, remains unknown.

Air Bombing from Serbia (June 1992 onwards)
For most of 1992, there were still many small patches of Bosniak-held territory scattered across eastern Bosnia, including the villages of Kamenica, Cerska, Konjević Polje, Velika Glogova, Potočari, Sućeska, Osmače and Žepa. All of them were subjected to daily artillery bombardments, but the attacks intensified in June with the introduction of air bombings.

According to Hasan Nuhanović, a survivor of the siege of Srebrenica and the town’s subsequent fall, four fighter jets from Serbia started bombing the village of Žepa on 5 June 1992 and,

“After that date, the use of the air force of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a repressive means against civilians in the Žepa, Srebrenica, Konjević Polje and Cerska region became an almost daily occurrence. The air bombardment caused panic among inhabitants, far greater than the panic caused by the daily tank, artillery and rocket-launcher attacks.”[71]

Fighter jets flew from Ponikve Airport, near Užice in Serbia, and also from the Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade. Others were based at the airport in Banja Luka in Serb-controlled Bosnia. A relatively slow-flying civilian aircraft used a runway on a farm near Bratunac, some 4 miles away from Srebrenica.

As another survivor of the Srebrenica siege, former judge Mensud Omerović, testified in the trial of Naser Orić, “We were bombed on a daily basis. The centre of Srebrenica was attacked by planes every day and there was constant shelling, particularly from multiple rocket launchers and they would simply drop around 30 to 40 shells in the area of the town at once. It was terrible.”[72]

Rape as a Weapon of War
The non-governmental organisation “Women Victims of War” has documented some 25,000 cases of rapes in the Bosnian war, many of them from the region of Podrinje.[73] This figure should be considered a conservative estimate, bearing in mind the social stigma associated with rape and the unwillingness of women to come forward and be readily identified as rape victims. Within the Srebrenica region, it was at Višegrad that rape was most obviously, systematically and horrifically used as an instrument of ethnic aggression. The significance of rape in the campaign to eliminate the Bosniak population of Višegrad was recognised only very belatedly in Milan Lukić’s trial before the Hague Tribunal. An attempt to include rape and sexual slavery in the indictment failed on the grounds of inadequate time to prepare a defence.[74]

It is beyond the scope of this paper to examine in depth the use of rape as a weapon of war in the broad context of the Bosnian war or even in the limited area of Srebrenica and adjoining municipalities of the Central Podrinje. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the rapes perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in the Drina valley were more than acts of individual violence committed in the context of conflict and a breakdown of the rule of law. Rape was used systematically as an instrument of terror and demoralisation in order to achieve the political and military goal of securing the permanent removal of the Bosniak population from the area.

Višegrad Massacres (April – June 1992)
Višegrad, an adjoining municipality to Srebrenica, was the scene of systematic rapes, torture and murders of thousands of helpless Bosniak civilians regardless of their age or sex. The scale and ruthless brutality of the murderous campaign of terror waged against Višegrad’s majority Bosniak population included some of the most appalling examples of inhuman treatment and cruelty inflicted on the Bosniak population anywhere in the Srebrenica region. The following sequence of events discusses some of the worst crimes that occured in Višegrad between April and June 1992.

Vilina Vlas Rape Camp (April 1992 onwards)
Of 21 Serb-run rape and torture camps established in the municipality of Višegrad in April and May of 1992, the rape camp at the ‘Vilina Vlas’ hotel was one of the largest and most brutal. Serb soldiers and members of Milan Lukić’s “White Eagles” paramilitary group detained hundreds of Bosniak women and girls and systematically tortured, enslaved, and sexually abused them in the most sadistic ways (for example, raping mothers and their underage daughters together), with the aim of inflicting irreparable psychological damage on the victims and ensuring they would never return to the area. Young and beautiful women were selected and repeatedly raped with the intention that “they would bear Serb children.” Of approximately 200 women and girls imprisoned at the camp, only a handful survived. Many disappeared when the camp was closed after coming to international attention.[75]

Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge Massacres (April 1992 onwards)
The Drina River was used to dispose of many of the bodies of the Bosniak civilians killed by Serb forces in the early months of the Bosnian war. The famous bridge on the Drina built by Mehmed Pasa Sokolović (Sokollu Mehmed Paşa) became emblematic of the suffering of Višegrad’s Bosniak residents. Truckloads of civilians were taken by Serb paramilitaries to the bridge or the riverbank where they were stabbed or shot, and then thrown into the river.

In one instance, when a group of 22 people were murdered on 18 June 1992, Milan Lukić’s men tore out the kidneys of several individuals; in other cases individuals were tied to cars and dragged through the streets and children were thrown from the bridge and shot before they hit the water.[76] Hundreds of bodies, including mutilated remains, floated down the Drina and eventually settled in Lake Perucac, the reservoir formed where the river’s flow is dammed by the Bajina Basta hydroelectric power station.

At the time of writing, in September 2010, Lake Perucac was the site of a forensic operation to retrieve these bodies. According to a report published by Balkan Insight, “The corpses of about 250 civilians, believed to be victims of the 1992 Višegrad killings in Bosnia, have been found in Perucac lake on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.”[77]

The Pionirska Street Live Pyre (14 June 1992)
On the fourth day of the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha on 14 June 1992, Milan Lukić’s White Eagles celebrated the Serbian Orthodox holiday of the Holy Trinity by burning to death at least 60 Bosniak women, children and elderly men in a house on Pionirska Street in Višegrad.[78] They barricaded their victims in one room of the house, then set the house on fire. The youngest victim was a newborn baby, who according to a witness, “one or two days did not have. Tonight is born, burned down tomorrow evening.” The witness continued, “I am wounded through the left leg and left arm when I jumped out the window, threw out the son of 13 and a half, 14 years. Thus yet another woman. The four of us survived.”[79] Prior to being burned to death, the victims were robbed, forced to strip naked, and then younger women and girls were forcibly taken out and raped before being brought back to die in horrible pain.[80]

The Paklenik Massacre (15 June 1992)
On the morning of 14 June 1992, an unarmed Bosniak civilian named Ferid Spahić was one of 150 other Bosniak men, women, and children from Višegrad, who boarded two buses in the village of Bosanska Jagodina, thinking they were headed for safety. The buses were stopped in Rogatica where the men and boys (ages 15-60) were separated from the women and children. The men were held against their will overnight, beaten, and ordered to board another bus the next morning. They were transported to Paklenik village, led to the edge of the Propast ravine (the name signifies “disaster”), systematically executed and their bodies thrown into a pit. Ferid Spahić was the only survivor.[81]

The Bikavac Live Pyre (27 June 1992)
On the Serbian Orthodox holiday of Saint Vitus’s Day (Vidovdan), 27 June 1992, Milan Lukić’s White Eagles carried out a repeat of their earlier crime at Pionirska Street. They forced a group of Bosniak women, children and elderly men inside a house in Bikavac, near Višegrad. They barricaded all the exits and then set the house on fire. At least 59 helpless victims were burned to death.[82] According to the testimonies of two protected witnesses, the terrible sobs of burning victims inside the house lasted about half an hour and sounded like “like the screams of cats”.[83] Only one woman, Zehra Turjačanin, managed to escape. Her injuries were described by journalist Maggie O’Kane: “Her ears are melted away. All that is left are two waxy, twisted beige blobs like burned out candles. Her forehead is covered in a huge scab that is still healing and her nose is a maze of burst blood vessels.”[84]

Prior to the Pionirska Street crime, Turjačanin had witnessed Chetniks douse a group of Bosniak civilians with gasoline and set them on fire in broad daylight.[85]

Numbers of Bosniak Victims:
According to the figures assembled and published by the Research and Documentation Center (IDC) in Sarajevo (Istraživačko dokumentacioni centar) between April and June 1992 Serb forces killed at least 3,166 Bosniaks in the Srebrenica region. This number should be regarded as a minimum figure rather than a final total. Some 15 years after the war 10,419 people still remain unaccounted for in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the vast majority of them Bosniaks.

Although three international experts – Partick Ball, Ewa Tabeau and Philip Verwimp – assessed the IDC database favorably, they expressed concern over the under-reporting of civilian victims. Many families wanted their members to be buried as soldiers, even though they died as civilians. The most common reason for this was access to social benefits for families of killed soldiers. The experts concluded that these practices were likely to lead to over-reporting of soldiers and under-reporting of civilians in the sources.[86]

I was advised by Elma Zahirović of IDC, administrator of the Bosnian War Crimes Atlas project, that “a number of killed and missing persons for whom we were unable to determine the exact date of death, were not included in the following list of victims.”

April, May, and June 1992:
Srebrenica – 403 Bosniaks (294 civilians / 109 defenders)
Bratunac – 612 Bosniaks (399 civilians / 213 defenders)
Vlasenica – 636 Bosniaks (527 civilians / 109 defenders)
Rogatica – 434 Bosniaks (242 civilians / 192 defenders)
Višegrad – 1081 Bosniaks (830 civilians / 251 defenders)

Srebrenica
April 1992 – 36 Bosniaks (23 civilians / 13 defenders);
May 1992 – 279 Bosniaks (235 civilians / 44 defenders)
June 1992 – 88 Bosniaks (36 civilians / 52 defenders)

Bratunac
April 1992 – 24 Bosniaks (21 civilians / 3 defenders)
May 1992 – 508 Bosniaks (344 civilians / 164 defenders)
June 1992 – 80 Bosniaks (34 civilians / 46 defenders)

Vlasenica
April 1992 – 40 Bosniaks (38 civilians / 2 defenders)
May 1992 – 254 Bosniaks (200 civilians / 54 defenders)
Juny 1992 – 342 Bosniaks (289 civilians / 53 defenders)

Rogatica
April 1992 – 12 Bosniaks (9 civilians / 3 defenders)
May 1992 – 52 Bosniaks (37 civilians / 15 defenders)
June 1992 – 370 Bosniaks (196 civilians / 174 defenders)

Višegrad
April 1992 – 38 Bosniaks (22 civilians / 16 defenders)
May 1992 – 280 Bosniaks (178 civilians / 102 defenders)
June 1992 – 763 Bosniaks (630 civilians / 133 defenders)

List of 296 Wholly or Partially Destroyed Bosniak Villages (April – June 1992)
In the rural, predominantly agricultural area around Srebrenica, Bosniak villages consisted of groupings of smaller hamlets and settlements with close communal ties between them. It is important to bear in mind that one wholly or partially destroyed village in fact translates into several devastated hamlets and settlements. During the first three months of the Bosnian war (April-June 1992), Serb forces destroyed 296 predominantly Bosniak villages in the Srebrenica region. The figures given in brackets indicate the relative percentage of the Bosniak population in each village according to the 1991 Population Census in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosniak people were also expelled from 81 mixed and/or predominantly Serb villages in the area.

Srebrenica municipality:
Of the 296 Bosniak-majority villages that were wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of war, 93 were located in the municipality of Srebrenica:

Alimani (100%), Barakovići (100%), Begići (100%), Beširovići (98.54%), Borbašići (100%), Brezovice (87.61%), Bukovik (100%), Čičci (100%), Čivići (100%), Dimnići (100%), Donja Rijeka (100%), Donja Žgunja (100%), Donje Peći (100%), Donji Potočari (85.52%), Đurđevac (100%), Gladovići (99.62%), Glumci [Visošnjik] (100%), Gornja Rijeka (100%), Gornje Peći (100%), Gornji Potočari (100%), Gradina (100%), Grujčići (100%), Hađići (100%), Ivčići (100%), Jovičići (100%), Kadrići (100%), Kalići (100%), Kamenjača (100%), Karćino Brdo (100%), Karići (100%), Katanići near Tokoljak (100%), Klotjevac (97.07%), Knezovi near Sulica (100%), Kovačići (100%), Kragljivoda (100%), Krnjići near Daljegošta (100%), Lasovac (100%), Liješće (71.94%), Likari (96.26%), Luka (98.66%), Ljeskovik (99.62%), Markovići (100%), Mala Daljegošta (90.65%), Mali Dobrak (100%), Mehmedino Polje (100%), Mehmedovići (100%), Miholjevine (97.29%), Moćevići (100%), Nogačevići (64.73%), Ornica (100%), Osat (100%), Osatica (96.12%), Osmače (99.26%), Oštrika (100%), Pećišta (92.65%), Petinići (100%), Podgaj (96.63), Podkorijen (100%), Podševar (100%), Poljak (100%), Polje (100%), Porobići (100%), Poznanovići (99.33%), Predola (100%), Pribidoli (87.89%), Prohići (99.75%), Rabađići (100%), Radovčići (88.33%), Rađenovići (100%), Raušići (100%), Rešagići (100%), Ritašići (100%), Rulovci (100%), Sase (82.15%), Sejdinovići (100%), Sjedaće (100%), Skejići (100%), Skelani (84.59%), Skenderovići (100%), Studenac near Osat (100%), Sućeska (100%), Sulice (99.71%), Suljagići (100%), Šljivica (100%), Tihići (100%), Tokoljaci (98.41%), Trubari (100%), Tursanovići (100%), Urisići (99.69%), Vaćići (100%), Vodice (100%), Velika Daljegošta (99.38%) and Veliki Dobrak (100%).

Bosniaks were also forcibly expelled from 14 mixed and/or predominantly Serb villages, including Brežani, Bujakovići, Čičevci, Gaj, Gostilj, Kalimanići, Krnjići, Međe, Obadi, Orahovica, Radoševići, Toplica, Viogor, and Žabokvica where Bosniak homes were destroyed and property plundered.

Bratunac municipality:
Of the 296 Bosniak-majority villages that were wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica region during the first months of war, 22 were located in the municipality of Bratunac:

Abdulići (99.38%), Biljača (96.03%), Blječeva (87.35%), Borkovac (100%), Glogova (99.37%), Hranča (77.31%), Hrnčići (99.67%), Jagodnja (99.30%), Joševa (100%), Konjevići (97.69%), Krasanovići (67.29%), Lonjin (96.17%), Mihaljevići (95.90%), Pirići (100%), Pobuđe (99.49%), Podčauš (82.33%), Suha (85.93%), Tegare (63.30%), Urkovići (99.63%), Voljavica (99.70%), Zalužje (99.51%), and Zapolje (95.76%).

Bosniaks were also forcibly expelled from 12 mixed and/or predominantly Serb villages, including Bjelovac, Fakovići, Loznica, Magašići, Mratinci, Pobrđe, Rakovac, Repovac, Sikirić, Slapašnica, Vitkovići and Zagoni where Bosniak homes were destroyed and property plundered.

Vlasenica municipality:
Of the 296 Bosniak-majority villages that were wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of war, 35 were located in the municipality of Vlasenica:

Bešići (99.48%), Bukovica Gornja (100%), Cerska (98.58%), Donje Vrsinje (80.12%), Drum (81.35%), Durakovići (100%), Durići (100%), Džemat (98%), Đile (99.65%), Gerovi (99.23%), Gobelje (95.15%), Gornje Vrsinje (92.46%), Gradina (99.86%), Here (100%), Kuljančići (99.16%), Maćesi (98.98%), Mršići (100%), Neđeljišta (83.73%), Nova Kasaba (78.11%), Nurići (100%), Pijuke (100%), Pomol (99.78%), Pustoše (88.94%), Raševo (71.33%), Rašića Gaj (69.26%), Rovaši (100%), Sebiočina (100%), Skugrići (93.26%), Šadići Donji (88.51%), Štedra (100%), Štedrići (100%), Turalići (85.93%), Zaklopača (65.90%), Zilići (100%) and Žutica (100%).

Bosniaks were also forcibly expelled from 11 mixed and/or predominantly Serb villages, including Bukovica Donja, Buljevići, Milići, Mišari, Mišići, Peševina, Rupovo Brdo, Tugovo, Višnjica, Vrli Kraj and Vrtoče where Bosniak homes were destroyed and property plundered.

Rogatica municipality:
Of the 296 Bosniak-majority villages that were wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of war, 56 were located in the municipality of Rogatica:

Borovac (98.63%), Borovsko (85.18%), Brčigovo (98.48%), Brda (100%), Burati (80%), Čadovina (100%), Čavčići (99.62%), Čubrići (91.04%), Dobrače (96.92%), Dub (100%), Đedovići (83.72%), Gazije (100%), Godomilje (69.90%), Golubovići (71.42%), Jasenice (68.96%), Karačići (100%), Kopljevići (100%), Kovanj (78.23%), Kozarde (100%), Kozići (86.66%), Kramer Selo (94.32%), Kujundžijevići (68.88%), Kukavice (93.82%), Laze (88.76%), Lepenica (74.28%), Lubardići (98.48%), Ljubomišlje (98.97%), Mahala (84.78%), Medna Luka (93.54%), Mrgudići (96.66%), Nahota (100%), Okruglo (72.51%), Orahovo (100%), Otričevo (100%), Pašić Kula (75.78%), Pokrivenik (100%), Pripečak (97.60%), Prosječeno (100%), Purtići (99.43%), Radič (98.46%), Rakitnica (100%), Ribioc (100%), Slap (100%), Sočice (94.91%), Stop (100%), Strmac (80.13%), Surovići (100%), Šatorovići (100%), Šetići (80.29%), Šljedovići (100%), Šljivno (100%), Vragolovi (89.94%), Vratar (100%), Vrelo (98.95%), Žepa (97.40%), and Živaljevići (73.40%).

Bosniaks were also forcibly expelled from 26 mixed and predominantly Serb villages, including Babljak, Begzadići, Borač, Borika, Dobrašina, Dobromerovići, Dobrouščići, Dumanjići, Jarovići, Mesići, Osovo, Pavičina Kula, Planje, Plješevica, Pribošijevići, Rađevići, Seljani, Sjemeć, Stara Gora, Starčići, Stjenice, Šena Krena, Vražalice, Vrlazje, Zagajevi and Zakomo where Bosniak homes were destroyed and property plundered.

Višegrad municipality:
Of the 296 Bosniak-majority villages that were wholly or partially destroyed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of war, 90 were located in the municipality of Višegrad:

Ajdinovići (100%), Babin Potok (95.18%), Ban Polje (92.40%), Barimo (100%), Batkušići (100%), Bistrivode (99.18%), Blaž (100%), Bogdašići (100%), Borovac (100%), Brezje (75%), Brodar (100%), Crijep (100%), Crni Vrh (100%), Čengići (100%), Donja Brštanica (100%), Donja Crnča (99.55%), Donje Dubovo (100%), Donje Štitarevo (100%), Donji Dobrun (70.84%), Donji Dubovik (100%), Drina (100%), Drinsko (100%), Drokan (100%), Dubočica (91.17%), Dušče (89.65%), Džankići (100%), Đipi (100%), Gazibare (100%), Gornja Brštanica (97.95%), Gornja Crnča (97.04%), Gornje Štitarevo (100%), Gornji Dobrun (99.41%), Gornji Dubovik (100%), Hamzići (99.18%), Holijaci (96.84%), Hranjevac (100%), Jarci (100%), Jelačići (100%), Jelići (100%), Kabernik (87.27%), Kamenica (98.42%), Kapetanovići (95.74%), Klašnik (100%), Kosovo Polje (71.85%), Kuka (100%), Kupusovići (93.75%), Kurtalići (97.22%), Kustur Polje (100%), Lasci (100%), Madžarevići (100%), Mala Gostilja (93.06%), Mangalin Han (95%), Međeđa (98.96%), Menzilovići (98.30%), Meremišlje (100%), Miloševići (100%), Mušići (90.76%), Nezuci (99.61%), Obravnje (80%), Okolišta (70.07%), Okrugla (99.34%), Omerovići (98.26%), Orahovci (99.19%), Palež (100%), Polje (100%), Povjestača (93.97%), Presjeka (91.11%), Raonići (100%), Repuševići (89.23%), Resnik (100%), Rodić Brdo (87.87%), Rohci (100%), Rutenovići (100%), Sendići (100%), Smriječje (97.77%), Šip (83.78%), Šumice (100%), Tupeši (100%), Turjak (100%), Tusta Međ (100%), Tvrtkovići (100%), Uništa (78.57%), Velika Gostilja (79.60%), Vlahovići (93.95%), Zagorac (100%), Zakrsnica (100%), Zanožje (100%), Zlatnik (100%), Žagre (100%), and Žlijeb (79.32%).

Bosniaks were also forcibly expelled from 18 mixed and predominantly Serb villages, including Bodežnik, Ćaćice, Donja Jagodina, Faljenovići, Glogova, Klisura, Koritnik, Mirlovići, Pijavice, Pozderčići, Pretiša, Rujišta, Sase, Šeganje, Velji Lug, Višegradska Banja, Vodenice and Vučine where Bosniak homes were destroyed and property plundered.

Acknowledgement: The completion of this study was assisted by friends and colleagues, most notably Prof. Besim Ibišević, historian and former Mayor of Srebrenica; Dr. Marko Attila Hoare, Kingston University London; Prof. David Pettigrew, Southern Connecticut State University; Mr. Kirk Johnson, public librarian, Prince William County Public Library System; Mrs. Elma Zahirović, Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo; Prof. Emir Ramić, Chair of the Institute for the Research of Genocide (Canada); Haris Alibašić, MPA, Ph.D. Candidate, President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, and numerous others who provided valuable feedback and criticism. Thank you all.

FOOTNOTES:

1 In this study, the designation ‘Bosnian Muslim’, with its problematic religious connotations that have tended to obscure the essentially secular, political and ethnic nature of the conflict, has been avoided in favour of the term more generally used by the community to refer to itself, Bosniak.

2 ICTY, Expert Report of Patrick J. Treanor, “The Bosnian Serb Leadership 1990-1992“, page 4. Research report prepared for the case of Momčilo Krajišnik & Biljana Plavšić (IT-00-39 & 40), 30 July 2002. Retrieved from the Court Database of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Exhibit P64.

3 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brđanin, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-99-36-T, para. 163-164.

4 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Miroslav Deronjić, Sentencing Judgement, Case No. IT-02-61-S, para. 54.

5 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-03-68-T, para. 93-94.

6 Besim Ibišević. Amsterdam, 1999. “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 133-134.

7 Daniel Toljaga, “Interview with Nihada Hodžić, Survivor of the Zaklopača Masssacre,” published by the Canada-based Institute for the Research of Genocide, 12 February 2010.

8 The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), Apendix IV, History and Reminders in East Bosnia; Chapter 3, World War Two, 1941-1945, Chetnik terror against Muslim villages.

9 In a report to Serbian Nazi collaborator Draža Mihailović, dated 13 February 1943, commander Pavle Đurišić stated that Chetniks killed 1,200 Bosniak soldiers and 8,000 Bosniak women, children and elderly in a single military operation.

10 Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence on 3 March 1992 and was recognized by the European Community on 6 April 1992. On 22 May 1992, the United Nations admitted Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member State.

11 Rachel Irwin, “Karadžić’s ‘Threatening’ Language”, The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 14 June 2010.

12 Florence Hartmann, “The aim of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was to destroy the Bosnian Muslims”, The Bosnian Institute (United Kingdom), 16 August 2007.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibišević, “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 147.

15 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brđanin, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-99-36-T, par. 91.

16 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brđanin, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-99-36-T, par. 81-83.

17 Ibišević, “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 190.

18 Ibišević, “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 190.

19 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Momčilo Krajisnik, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-00-39, par. 48-62.

20 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brđanin, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-99-36-T, par. 81-83.

21 Ibišević, “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 208-209.

22 According to the 1991 Bosnia and Herzegovina Population Census, Skelani had 1,123 inhabitants: 950 Bosniaks, 160 Bosnian Serbs, 7 Yugoslavs, and 6 Others.

23 According to the 1991 Bosnia and Herzegovina Population Census, a total of 49,107 Bosniaks lived in the municipalities of Srebrenica (27,572) and Bratunac (21,535).

24 Ibišević, “Srebrenica (1987-1992)”, 213.

25 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Miroslav Deronjić, Sentencing Judgement, Case No. IT-02-61-S, Par. 70-71.

26 BEHAR, Bosnian language Magazine for Cultural and Social Issues, Special Edition “Raped” [“Silovane”], issue # 90-91, Year XVIII, 2009.

27 The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), Appendix IV, History and Reminders in East Bosnia, Chapter 6, War In Eastern Bosnia: Ethnic cleansing by Serbs and first acts of Muslim resistance.

28 Dnevni Avaz [Sarajevo-based Bosnian language daily], “Obilježavanje stradanja prvih srebreničkih žrtava”, 7 May 2009.

29 Helen Warrell, “Bosnian Muslim Hazim Malagic remembers Serb aggression as he testifies in defence of the Srebrenica commander“, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), 20 November 2005.

30 Naser Orić. 1995. “Srebrenica Testifies and Accuses: Genocide Against Bosniaks in Eastern Bosnia (Central Podrinje) April 1992 – September 1994.“[“Srebrenica Svjedoči i Optužuje: Genocid nad Bošnjacima Istočne Bosne (Srednje Podrinje) April 1992 - Septembar 1994,”] Chapter: “Massacres in the Months of April and May of 1992” [“Pokolj u Mjesecima April i Maj 1992 Godine”], 49.

31 Tim Judah, “The Waiting Game in the Balkans”, The New York Review of Books, 11 August 2005.

32 Information provided by witness Smajo Imamovic.

33 United Nations, “Report of the Security Council Mission Established Pursuant to Resolution 819 (1993),” S/25700, 30 April 1993.

34 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-03-68-T, Par. 86.

35 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-03-68-T, Par. 103.

36 BEHAR, Op. cit. 55.

37 ICTY, Prosecutor v Miroslav Deronjić, Sentencing Judgement, par. 85, 30 March 2004.

38 Association “Women of Srebrenica”, “The United Nations on the Srebrenica’s Pillar of Shame: 104 testimonies about the role of the UN in genocide against the population of the UN ‘Srebrenica Safe Haven‘”, Chapter: “Slaughtering of Civilians in the Village of Glogova on 9 May 1992”, 16-17.

39 ICTY, Court Transcript, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Tuesday 22 November 2005.

40 Sejo Omeragic. Sarajevo, 1994. “Satanic Sons” (“Satanski Sinovi”).

41 Emir Suljagić,”Exclusive: Names of Yet Not-Indicted Criminals” [Ekskluzivno: imena još neoptuženih zločinaca (I)”], published by BH Dani (Sarajevo-based Bosnian language daily) on 15 Juni 2001.

42 Naser Orić Trial, Court Transcripts, Testimony of Slavisa Erić on 26 October 2004.

43 Reuters, “Bosnian Muslims Bury Oldest Victim of War Killings”, 12 May 2009.

44 Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992), Annex VIII – Prison Camps, Under the Direction of M. Cherif Bassiouni.

45 United Nations Human Rights Committee, Document submitted by Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 April 1993, para. 13. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/333378630589b6d680256674005bc280?Opendocument ,

46 Preporod Journal, Issue # 103, ISSN 1334-5052, Special Edition: September 2008, Photo Archive “Masovna Grobnica Suha”, 9-12.

47 “Zekira Begić was killed in the 9th month of pregnancy” [“Zekira Begić ubijena je u devetom mjesecu trudnoće”], published online by the Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (RTVFBiH) on 9 Maj 2010.

48 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Miroslav Deronjić, Sentencing Judgement, Case No. IT-02-61-S, Par. 57, 68.

49 Ibid.

50 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Momčilo Perišić, Case IT-04-81-PT, Submission of Expert Reports of Dr. Robert J. Donia, (ii) Thematic Excerpts from the Assembly of Republika Srpska, 1991-96, attached at ANNEX B, 23 September 2008.

51 Daniel Toljaga, Op. cit. “Interview with Nihada Hodžić.”

52 Orić, “Srebrenica Testifies and Accuses”, p. 55-56.

53 Ibid.

54 The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Indictment confirmed in the Novak Stjepanović case”, Press Release, 12 November 2009.

55 Orić, “Srebrenica Testifies and Accuses”, p. 54, 57.

56 ICTY, Prosector v. Naser Orić, Court Transcript, page 3911, 20 January 2005.

57 Orić, “Srebrenica Testifies and Accuses”, p. 59.

58 Association “Women of Srebrenica”. Tuzla, 1998. “Deadly Srebrenica Summer ’95” [“Samrtno Srebreničko Ljeto '95”] p. 133-135.

59 ICTY, Court Transcript, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Testimony of Edina Karić, 14-15 September 2005.

60 ICTY, Court Transcript, Prosecutor v. Naser Orić, Testimony of Edina Karić, 14-15 September 2005.

61 ICTY, “Dragan Nikolić, ‘Sušica Camp,’ (IT-94-2),” Case Information Sheet.

62 Roger Cohen, “Bosnian Camp Survivors Describe Random Death”, The New York Times, 2 August 1993.

63 ICTY, Court Transcript, Prosecutor v. Dragan Nikolić, Testimony of Habiba Hadzic, 3 November 2003.

64 ICTY, “Judgement in the Case The Prosecutor v. Dragan Nikolić”, Press Release, 18 December 2003.

65 Hasan Nuhanović. Sarajevo, 2007. “Under the UN Flag: The International Community and the Srebrenica Genocide,” p. 29-31.

66 Oslobođenje (Sarajevo-based Bosnian language magazine], “Anniversary of Suffering in the Sušica camp” [“Godišnjica stradanja u logoru Sušica”], 27 September 2009.

67 Roger Cohen, “Ex-Guard for Serbs Tells Of Grisly ‘Cleansing’ Camp”, The New York Times, 1 August 1994.

68 Roger Cohen, “Bosnian Camp Survivors Describe Random Death”, The New York Times, 2 August 1994.

69 First Report on the War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia, “Submission of Information to the United Nations Security Council in Accordance With Paragraph 5 of Resolution 771 (1992), September 22, 1992.”

70 Carol J. Williams, “Horror in Bosnia: Children Slain as Parents Watch”, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 1992.

71 Hasan Nuhanović, Op. cit.“Under the UN Flag”, p. 41.

72 Naser Orić Trial, Court Transcripts, Testimony of Mensud Omerovic, 26 May 2005.

73 Dnevni Avaz, “U BiH 25.000 silovanih žena i 52 muškarca,” Issue No. 4652, p. 11, 5 September 2008.

74 ICTY, “Decision on prosecution motion seeking leave to amend the second amended indictment,” 8 July 2008.

75 Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992), Annex IX: “Rape and sexual assault,” Chapter “Višegrad,” Under the Direction of: M. Cherif Bassiouni, Chairman and Rapporteur on the Gathering and Analysis of the Facts, Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992).

76 United Nations Human Rights Committee. Op. cit. para. 34.

77 Balkan Insight, “Corpses of 250 People Exhumed from Perucac Lake”, Bojana Barlovac, 9 September 2010.

78 ICTY, “Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić, ‘Višegrad,’ (IT-98-32/1),” Case Information Sheet.

79 Slobodna Evropa, “Milan Gets Life Sentence, Sredoje 30 Years” [“Milanu doživotni zatvor, Sredoju 30 godina”] by Dženana Halimović, 20 Juli 2009.

80 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Milan Lukić & Sredoje Lukić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-98-32/1-T, par. 1008-1009.

81 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Milan Lukić & Sredoje Lukić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-98-32/1-T, par. 842-865.

82 ICTY, “Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić, ‘Višegrad,’ (IT-98-32/1),” Case Information Sheet.

83 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Milan Lukić & Sredoje Lukić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-98-32/1-T, par. 648-649.

84 Maggie O’Kane “Then they set the house on fire and everyone inside was screaming – I was the only one who got out”, The Guardian, August 20, 1992.

85 ICTY, Prosecutor v. Milan Lukić & Sredoje Lukić, Trial Judgement, Case No. IT-98-32/1-T, par. 852.

86 Patrick Ball, Ewa Tabeau and Philip Verwimp. The Bosnian Book of Dead: Assessment of the Database (Full Report), 17 June 2007.

The only survivor of 30 civillians executed in the Roma village Hamzić July 1992, Mr. Zijo Ribic testified in the trial of indicted for war crimes in the Zvornik municipality (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He testiefed witnessing the rape of his sister, who was subsequently murdered.

At the beginning of the war in Bosnia, a group of [Serb] soldiers had taken away about 30 Roma residents from their houses in the village of Skočić in Bosnia and Herzegovina where they Roma civillans were hiding. [Serb soldiers] beat the men, while his sister was raped by three [Serb] soldiers, said Mr. Ribic who was then seven years old, testifying before the Department for War Crimes in Belgrade at the trial of Simi Bogdanovic and four other defendants.

“After we were transported by two trucks to the Hamzić village, where the Serb soldiers first shot at us, and then threw the bodies into the previously excavated pit,” said Mr. Ribic who was hit by a bullet in his arm and stabbed in the neck.

“I pulled up from the pit, trampling over dead bodies,” he added and pointed out that he had not seen the murders, but that he heard the gunshots.

Mr. Ribic [also] said that next two soldiers took him to the village health center in Kozluk, where he first saw the accused, Simo Chetnik, whom he did not recognize at today’s trial.

“Sima said that he ‘would take care of me’, but the soldiers did not allow him to and they took me to hospital in Zvornik, where I remained until September 1994.” Mr. Ribic added.

Defendants Sima Bogdanovic, D. Bogdanovic, Zoran Stojanovic, Tomislav Gavrić, and Djordje Sevic, have denied that they, as members of paramilitary groups in the village of Skočić captured and tortured 27 civilians Roma among whom were women and children and then drove to the village Hamzić and then shot them all.

According to the indictment, the defendants [Serbian soldiers] have separated from the group planned for execution and held in captivity protected witnesses “Alpha” “Beta” and “Gama”, whome after they were captured were kept against their will where they were tortured, raped and abused.

Continuation of the trial is scheduled for 18 and 19 November, when it is scheduled for the hearing of witnesses.

After five years of lobbying by the Canadian – Bosniak community, the Canadian parliament has unanimously adopted the Srebrenica genocide resolution {M-416} recognizing the genocide that happened in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovine, in 1995

In light of the recent strides that we have made, we would like to inform you about the steps that have led up this important moment

Beginning of the lobbying exactly on the tenth anniversary of genocide in Srebrenica

 The lobbying process for this resolution started five years ago, specifically, on the tenth anniversary of the genocide.  Then, a member of the parliament – Jean Augustine, the first African American woman in the Canadian parliament, a member of the Liberal party of Canada and a close friend of the Bosniak community, read a statement to the parliament which said: “the massacre in Srebrenica was the worst crime of genocide in Europe since World War II.  A resolution, presented by the Congress of North American Bosniaks, for the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica states that the political aggression and genocide created by the Serbian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina completely define the crime of genocide from point two: Conventions for preventing and punishing the crime of genocide.  Recalling these crimes are still fresh in the hearts and minds of all friends of truth and justice in Canada.”

 That same year, then minister of foreign affairs in Canada – Pierre Pettigrew (Liberal Party of Canada) turned to the Canadian public with a statement in the name of the Canadian government which stated: “the massacre in Srebrenica represents the worst crime in Europe since World War II. The best way to pay respects to those who were killed in Srebrenica is to arrest all the architects of the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to put them on trial.”

Canada has a chance to fix its mistake and recognize Genocide in Srebrenica like many other on the international scene 

 In 2009, Brian Masse, a member of the Canadian parliament (New Democratic Party of Canada) became the parliamentary sponsor of the Srebrenica genocide resolution.  At the end of August, 2009, Brian Masse held a press conference in downtown Windsor.  At that time, Mr. Masse stated: “Genocide occurred fourteen years ago, and Canada has not paid enough attention to that genocide nor identified the scars and aftermath of that genocide.  Today, Canada has a chance to fix this mistake and recognize what many in the international community have already recognized.  Victims of this genocide deserve support and help.  Everyone needs to learn the lesson from this event because anyone could find themselves in a situation where our voice is not strong enough to prevent such disastrous losses of human life.  Furthermore, those who want to prevent such massacres from happening must work on strengthening the lobbying actions against genocide while improving the quality of life of all victims so they can live a normal life.  This is not just the case of Bosniaks and Muslims, nor is this just my resolution, a positive result is important.  An individual must be able to identify the need to prevent genocide wherever it may be happening.  This is why I am proud of the Bosniak community in Canada, they share their openness and progressive nature to work with others to create better standards of live for all people.  This guarantees that the job will be well done.  Srebrenica is genocide, and there is no debate about it.  Since Canada has accepted thousands of Bosniaks, it is the responsibility of this country to protect other nations’ traditions as well as help ease the scars that have been created in their home countries.  By passing this resolution, Canada would join other countries on the international scene.”

 Resolution M-416 states that Canada, as a member of the international community, has the responsibility to support the decisions of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, respect all countries that passed individual resolutions on the Srebrenica genocide, respect international law, and accept information regarding the Srebrenica genocide which has already been declared genocide in international courts. With this resolution we ask that July 11th is declared as a remembrance day for more than 8,000 innocent Bosniak victims of genocide in Srebrenica and that the week of July 11^th is declared Bosnia and Hercegovina Tribute week.  Through a well organized campaign, the Bosniak community in Canada successfully received support from more than two thirds of the parliament and from three political parties.

Rob Oliphant, a member of the Canadian parliament (Liberal Party of Canada) heard about the initiative from the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada and became a sponsor of a private member’s bill for Srebrenica Remembrance Day.  By having a remembrance day through a private member’s bill, Canada would become the only country in the world to do that. At a conference in the Canadian parliament, Rob Oliphant stated: “It is an honour to present a bill that will establish a Canadian national day of remembrance for the genocide in Srebrenica that would be marked on July 11th. In July of 1995, over 8,000 Bosniaks were massacred in the Srebrenica Region in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a UN safe area, by the Bosnian Serbs. This was the biggest mass killing in Europe since World War II.  The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice in the Haag concluded that the massacre in Srebrenica is genocide”.

Bosniaks in Canada will never accept a resolution that does not contain the term genocide

Therefore, resolutions that accept this genocide have been voted on in the European and American parliament as well as in the American Senate. Recognizing the devastation caused by the genocide in Srebrenica in July of 1995, this bill would give an opportunity to all Canadians to stand together with the members of the Bosniak-Canadian community to pay respect to the victims who were massacred. Since the fifteenth anniversary of this genocide is fast approaching, I hope that this bill will serve as a step in the right direction which will ultimately provide some comfort for the survivors of this genocide that live here in Canada. May we never allow the memories of those killed in this genocide fade.”

The Conservative party of Canada, along with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, rejected the original resolution proposed by the Bosniak community and proposed a new version. Instead of using the correct term: Bosniak, the party and its leader changed it to “genocide committed on Bosnian peoples”. By using the term “Bosnian people”, the Conservatives were suggesting that victims of this genocide were all the nations who live in Bosnia and Hercegovina. As a result, the number of victims of the Srebrenica genocide was significantly reduced and the term genocide was changed to “mass killings”.  Bosniak victims of genocide strongly protested against Conservatives’ altered version of the resolution. As for Harper, he accepted the term Bosniak and the actual number of victims of the genocide in Srebrenica but strongly opposed the use of the term genocide. Bosniaks from Canada believe there is no negotiation when it comes to genocide which was also confirmed by both international courts and in various other documents.

More than twenty countries adopted resolutions in their parliament that declare July 11th as a remembrance day for all victims of genocide in Srebrenica. This once again demonstrates that the Conservative party of Canada is under the influence of Serbian and Russian Canadians. In fact, Serbian Canadians had their own campaign opposing Srebrenica Remembrance Day and, in the parliament, handouts were given against this resolution. In return, the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, along with many Bosniak Canadian citizens, organized the strongest lobby to date to support the original M-416 resolution. Canadian Bosniaks sent a clear message to the Canadian government and to the Canadian parliament: Bosniaks in Canada will never accept a resolution that does not contain the term genocide. Leaving out the word genocide is not just an insult to Bosniak Canadians and all victims of genocide, it is also an insult to human rights.  Canadian Bosniaks will not negotiate the term genocide. No one has a right to negotiate in the name of thousands of innocent victims who gave their lives in defence of Bosniaks and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most prominent individuals from the international law and various human rights organizations support the endeavour of the Bosniak community in Canada so that the truth about the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and justice for the crime is recognized by the Canadian parliament.

Canadian Bosniaks protected their rights, justice and home land by continuously fighting for the Srebrenica genocide resolution

 The adoption of this resolution in Canada will pay respect to the victims of Genocide in Srebrenica and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, adopting this resolution shows the regret Canada feels for not preventing this genocide from happening. This resolution also implies that all human rights abuses must be punished and victims of genocide cannot be forgotten. Survivors of aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina are aware that the past cannot be changed however it is easier to mourn for the killed ones when there are allies.

Declaring July 11th as Srebrenica Remembrance Day by the Canadian parliament sends a message to past war criminals, current and future war criminals that their crimes will be punished. With this resolution the goal is for every Canadian to know that “what occurred in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sin and a crime against humanity.” For that reason, Canada must confront its past actions in Bosnia through this resolution. Canadian Bosniaks have no fear of truth and justice regarding the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina or seeking justice for those victims. Through their lobbying actions for this resolution, they fought for human dignity, rights, truth and justice.

The adoption of the resolution is just the beginning of more serious work on informing the Canadian public and Canadian authorities with the dimensions of the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniaks. Opportunity for this is already provided in the lobbying for the adoption of Bill, C – 533 an Act respecting a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada.

The Srebrenica genocide resolution has now officially adopted by Canadian parliament. This is the moment that all dedication and hard work of Bosniak – Canadian community has been proven worthwhile.  On behave of Bosniak – Canadian community we thank the Canadian government and parliament for finally doing the right thing. Canadian Bosniaks will once again feel proud to be Canadians.  We thank to all Canadian Bosniaks who participated in this struggle. Thanks  to all friends of truth and justice that us supported these five years, especially in moments when we are exposed to attacks by those who try to deny the genocide. Thanks to the media, who regularly publish results of all our struggles.

Professor, Emir Ramic

Director Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

President of the Governing Board of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/

emir.ramic@instituteforgenocide.ca

The final language of the Motion, M – 416, passed the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament  with unanimous consent

 ”That, in the opinion of the House, the day of July 11 should be recognized as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in memorial of the Srebrenica Massacre of July of 1995, in which more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed, declared an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice, and 25,000 others were forcibly removed from their homes by Bosnian Serb forces.”

 Statements

With pleasure we received the news that the Canadian Parliament adopted a Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica. This is a great victory of Bosniaks and their organizations in this country, as it were, in this regard, great resistance and destruction. In this way, another of the major world countries, where lives a large number of Bosnians, a planetary admitted the crime, the largest in Europe after the Second World War – genocide in the Srebrenica safe zone, the United Nations, July 1995. At the same time, these are conditions that eliminate relativism and minimizing the crime, which was in Canada. In these and similar actions will always have our support, where you once again congratulations on your perseverance and tenacity., Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Director, Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Adoption of the Srebrenica genocide Resolution which declares the eleventh day of July of Canada to commemorate the victims of genocide in Srerbenici was a big win of Canadian Bosniaks. Canada joins other countries in solidarity with the victims of crimes of genocide against Bosniaks and showed its reputation as a country that stands for peace, truth and justice and protect human rights and freedoms. Canadian reputation on the international scene with this resolution will be more respected. Adoption of Resolution Canada is sending a clear message to all those who abuse power, human rights and freedoms, will always support peace through justice and truth. Adoption of the Srebrenica Genocide Resolution Canada will become a model and mentor to other countries to accept the resolution on remembrance of the victims of genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs from both Bosnia and Serbia — supported by the Serbian government — killed approximately 250,000 Muslims; raped more than 50,000 Muslim girls and women; imprisoned thousands in concentration camps; maimed and wounded tens of thousands more. The full list of atrocities and their morbid statistics is too long to recount here. In the now-infamous Bosnian town of Srebrenica — which was supposed to be an internationally recognized safe-zone — Serbs slaughtered an estimated 8,000 men and boys for the sole “crime” of being Muslim. All of this unspeakable brutality, this horrendous and obscene waste of humanity, took place right before the eyes of the so-called “civilized” world. What was done to innocent Bosnians by Serb forces meets the definition of genocide as stated in Article 2 of the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was established in Paris on December 9, 1948 and came into force on January 12, 1951. Traumatic memories of intentionally committed atrocities on Bosniaks are still very much alive in the minds and hearts of those who survived. Even though these massacres happened more than a decade ago, it is not too late for the world to collectively denounce the evil inflicted on innocent people in Bosnia. Both the House and Senate of the U.S. Congress have passed resolutions and the European Parliament did so earlier this year. The Srebrenica genocide resolution is giving Canada the opportunity to stand up and join other countries in solidarity against the heinous crime of genocide and regain our national reputation a true peace-broker in the world. Adopting the resolution by Parliament Canada benefits in many ways: a) Canada’s international image will be respected as it was in the past; b) Canada will send a clear message to all abusers of power that we will always stand for peace through justice; c) Canada will serve as the model and mentor to other countries to follow its path in acknowledging the genocide of innocent Bosnians; and d) Canada will give hope to those whose hope was taken from them. Adopting the Srebrenica genocide resolution by Canadian parliament justice has brought to bear on behalf of all who were so brutally massacred. Dr. Zijad Delic, National Director of the Islamic Congress of Canada

To go forward, Canada must remember Srebrenica. What happened in Srebrenica is a crime, is genocide, is a grave sin for human life and human honor. I do not call for hatred, but invite you to not forget Srebrenica. I do not call for vengeance or punishment, because God will punish all his justice. I call this evil remember to take a lesson from it. No one has the right  to required of Bosniaks to remain silent. Srebrenica victims are not just numbers. These are evidence of the disappearance of Bosniak man, Bosniak families, Bosniak generations. Everything can be the subject of compromise, but the Bosniak genocide victims – never. Why? Because without memories of the genocide victims has no Bosniak people. This is the limit which must be established in each Bosniak head. West has been built by the currency, “never again genocide “ from the Second World War, which did not prevent the events in Srebrenica. Srebrenica Holocaust violated the right of existence of the West, and therefore Canada to go forward, Canada must remember Srebrenica. The aim of the action Bosniak-Canadian community for the adoption of the resolution on the genocide in the Canadian Parliament was that Canadians know about the fall of Srebrenica and the negation of Canadian values that these events carry. This includes Canada to undertake initiatives to support this task, to react in a unique way of rehabilitation and the Democratic Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the revision of the Dayton Agreement. The resolution should encourage all participants in the Canadian public life who have social or educational accountability (teachers, researchers, journalists, cultural societies or associations) to achieve that massive and Canadians were interested in the Srebrenica tragedy, and so to convince the world about the dimension of this issue. For Canadian Bosniaks resolution should start work on a strategic vision to develop a culture of memory in the Bosniak being. The resolution should scan the aloofness of the Bosniak victims, because the Bosnian victims of genocide are not subject to oblivion. He who controls the past controls the future. Bosniak victims are the key that locks the Bosniak right to the future. Bosniak’s memory must override the tears, strengthen morale, and solidify the ambition to become an absolute compass in behavior and doing everything to a Bosniak’s way. In each of the Bosniak victims written in our life. The experience of victims to be disseminated through time, space, generation. Today, the victims of genocide, won after a five-year struggle for truth and justice in Canada. Because this is a great day for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Great day for the Bosniaks. Great day for all friends of truth and justice in the world. After five years of great political struggle, the truth about the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a politically and legally formulated in the Parliament, one of the most developed Western democracies. This resolution is proof that truth and justice worth fighting for. It symbolizes the recognition of Canada that genocide against Bosniaks before the passive eyes of the world. It symbolizes the recognition of Canada, together with other countries is not done all it could to be the greatest human tragedy in Europe since the Second World War prevented. Thank you to all Canadian Bosniaks who participated in this struggle. Thank you to all friends of truth and justice that we all supported these five years, especially in moments when we are exposed to attacks by those who try to deny the genocide. Thanks to the media, who regularly publish results of all our struggles. Emir Ramic, Director Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, President of the Governing Board of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch

I welcome the decision by the Canadian government to honor of the victims of genocide and aggression which occurred in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is extremely important that we continue to remember the victims and talk about the horrible events that made this the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II and the Holocaust. The genocide occurred after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995 to the Bosnian Serb forces supported Serbian paramilitary forces.  Horrific atrocities that occurred afterwards would remain forever on a collective consciousness of the entire world.  The Bosnian Serb forces systematically murdered more than 8,000 innocent Bosniak civilians, including new born children, with the intent of eradicating the Bosniak population from Srebrenica and the surrounding villages.  Further 30,000 civilians were expelled from their homes, while women were raped, and the entire town set ablaze by terrorizing forces. This event has been classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. Both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives passed resolutions in 2005 acknowledging the genocide that the Serbian forces perpetrated in Srebrenica and all of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995.  By remembering the victims, we will ensure that we honor them by spreading awareness of genocide cases throughout the world so that what happened in Srebrenica will never happen again, anywhere in the world. But we must not forget other cities and towns in Bosnia which witnessed similar destruction and aggression, places like: Brcko, Doboj, Zepa, Prijedor, Gacko, Trebinje, Foca, Zvornik, Visegrad, Bijeljina, and many others.  We must always remember the entire country of Bosnia and Herzegovina whose vote for freedom and democracy was met by brute force, aggression, and hatred. Many war criminals, including Ratko Mladic, general who led attacks on Srebrenica, are still at large.  For true peace and reconciliation all war criminals must be brought to justice. It is therefore imperative that we continue to show support for Bosnia so that it will continue strongly on its path to peace, stability, democracy and freedom for all of its citizens. Haris Alibasic, President of the Governing Board of the Congress of North American Bosniaks

I commend the decision of the House of Commons to recognize 11th of July as Srebrenica Remembrance Day. By adopting the modified version of the Resolution, Canada joined the long list of the countries which had stood behind the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia much earlier, soon after it declared execution of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys an act of genocide., Tajib ef. Pasanbegovic, Head Imam of the Bosniak Community in Canada

 Recognize Genocide. Canada is legally bound to recognize genocide against Bosniaks in the time scale of 1992-1995 in general and the genocide in Srebrenica, perpetrated in July of 1995, in particular. At all material times Canada was legally bound, as it is today, by the 1948 Geneva Genocide Convention which stipulates in its first article that member nations are to  prevent and punish the crime of genocide. At all material times Canada had its military on the ground in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At all material times Canada had, and availed itself of, the ability to gain information of all of plans and movements of all of the opposing forces on the ground in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is incumbent upon Canada to finally and formally recognize, by way of a parliamentary debate and vote, that genocide was indeed perpetrated against Bosniaks. A formal recognition of that, by a body representative of all, is necessary in order to provide for catharsis on the part of the perpetrators on the one hand, and forgiveness on the part of the victims, their relatives and members of community on the other. Zeljko Milicevic, President of the Justice for Bosnia Task Force

Canada has always been internationally respected for its resolve in the fight for justice and human rights. It has a longstanding history of extending a warmhearted welcome to many who have knocked on her doors in times of desperation. One very recent example of such grace is Canada’s embrace of Bosnian emigrants. Since our arrival to Canada, the Bosnian community has worked very hard to rebuild their lives and integrate themselves into the Canadian social fabric. One very important product of this effort is the founding of the Bosnian Canadian Relief Association (BCRA). The BCRA is a charitable organization focused on humanitarian efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). Formed in the summer of 1992 in response to the humanitarian disaster that followed a genocidal aggression against the civilian population of B&H, the BCRA has since incessantly worked to alleviate the consequences of injustice in the country. Over the last 14 years the BCRA has also meticulously worked on many ongoing and side projects. More importantly, in an effort to contribute to Canada’s truly amazing multicultural mesh, the BCRA actively seeks to educate and share with Canadians the beauty of Bosnian culture and the bloody history which accompanies it. As the official humanitarian organization for the Congress of North American Bosniaks, the BCRA has organized numerous lecture series, panel discussions, and various other gala events. In turn, our humanitarian efforts have been recognized by organizations and dignitaries from Bosnia and the Canadian community alike. In other words, the BCRA actively works on enriching Canadian society by raising awareness for the Bosnian cause. It is in this light that we, the members of the BCRA, appeal to the members of the Canadian Parliament. Help us continue raising awareness and fighting injustice by passing the resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica. Help us make a difference!  Today, those Bosnians who once fled their homes and families to start a safer and peaceful life in Canada, compose a unique and very important part of the greater multicultural social fabric that characterizes Canadian society and we as Bosnians are very proud of this integration. Nevertheless, as grateful as we are that Canada has given us the opportunity to contribute to its growth as a nation, we as Bosnians, as a people who have suffered so much injustice at the hands of those who have no respect for human life or dignity are once again knocking on Canada’s door to do the honorable thing and pass the resolution on the genocide of Srebrenica in the Canadian parliament.  Members of the Bosnian Canadian Relief Association

Adoption of the resolution in the Canadian parliament is a historical event which won justice, and spoke the truth. With this act, the victims of the Srebrenica genocide will never be forgotten. The world is one step closer to knowing that genocide never forgives the perpetrators and will always be condemned, and the hand of justice, though slow, will always be attainable.Senad Pasalic, Secretary of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

Adoption of the resolution means a lot as a man and a Bosnian – Bosniak, because here in Canada where our enemies are very powerful, we were able to sustain and convince the Canadian Parliament and the Canadian government to accept the truth. I hope this will help us in our future work as a Canadian ‘ethnic communities and especially the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada and the Congress of North America., Mirsad Smajic, Member of the Governing Board of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch

As a young Canadian Bosniak I cannot explain the pride and joy I feel for having July 11^th as an official Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day. I have been dreaming about the day when this date has an official meaning in Canada for many years. Before I go on, I have to thank all the MP’s and lobbyists that believed in this resolution and all those who supported this cause. You are all an inspiration. Many might think this is just a piece of paper with a few signatures from politicians. For Canadian Bosniaks throughout this country this resolution means so much more. Injustice has been done and genocide committed in my native land and all of us are carrying those scars today. By having an official remembrance day, it demonstrates that the Canadian government acknowledges that genocide was committed by Bosnian Serbs and Serbia proper in Srebrenica.  Furthermore Canada is finally stating to the world that its government and people do not tolerate genocide. For the last 15 years we have been mourning for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina but the lack of support from the government left us feeling alone and isolated as a community.  With an official day of remembrance we will educate Canadians about this genocide and unite with other communities to fight against injustice, war crimes and human rights abuses. We want to send a clear message to all those who commit, are committing and committed genocide that such people will not and are not tolerated in this world. Canada, by giving this day to the Bosniak community, you have gained 50,000 human rights activists who will fight to keep the promise of “Never again” never again. Our goal is to shed light on the events that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to demonstrate to victims of genocide and other communities, it is important to talk about the past because that is the only way we will keep the memory of the victims alive. As citizens of a democratic country it is our duty to speak about these issues and fight for truth and justice. I will end by saying Denial is the last step of Genocide. Canada, thank you for accepting the Srebrenica genocide.  Aldina Muslija, Member of the Governing Board of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch, Member of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

Just as among different individuals, so as among different political parties and activist groups, resolution of conflicts and problems is best done through negotiations in order to reach certain preferred goals. If we want to see certain changes in the world, we, ourselves, have to be ready to change, thus we have to be ready to work hard. The very beginning of that hard work is based on the will to negotiate i look for solutions which will lead to improvement of the quality of our life (and lives of others), however, we need a lot of patience there. The same case we have here in terms of lobbying for the motion M-416 (Srebrenica Genocide), which was recently passed by Canadian Government. Even though there is only one truth about this sad event, many are freely taking the true facts (testimonies, numbers, perpetrators) and manipulate them to the point that they negate the event ever took place, or they re-victimize those affected by the very same genocide. In order to fight for the truth, Bosniak Community of Canada took an advocacy approach, and in the long process of presenting the facts realized the “conviction” which confirmed the events in and around Srebrenica in July of 1995 to be ones that constitute GENOCIDE. It also clearly states the names of perpetrators, victims, numbers and finally proclaims the Day of Srebrenica Remembrance. This proclamation will b a stepping stone towards even stronger resolution that will follow. In this way Bosniak Community of Canada became a relevant power in lobbying for the “Bosnian matter” and will continue its fight to prevent genocide not only in Bosnia, but also anywhere else in the World.  Senad Alicehajic, Bosniak Community Windsor

In Prosecutor v. Krstic, a landmark ruling that put to rest any doubts about the legal character of the massacre, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia unanimously ruled that it was an act of genocide. The Jewish Holocaust survivor, honorable judge Theodor Meron, presided over the Krstic appeal when the Court established the following facts:“By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand [40,000] Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity.The Bosnian Serb forces were aware, when they embarked on this genocidal venture, that the harm they caused w ould continue to plague the Bosnian Muslims. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act.” Daniel Toljaga, Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada

CHRONOLOGY OF THE CAMPAIGN OF THE BOSNIAK – CANADIAN COMMUNITY FOR ADOPTION SREBRENICA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

CONGRESS OF NORTH AMERICAN BOSNIAKS, CANADIAN BRANCH {CNABC} AND INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH OF GENOCIDE CANADA {IRGC} LAUNCHED CAMPAIGN FOR ADOPTION SREBRENICA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

CNAB and IRGC call on the Canadian Parliament and Government to pass Motion, M – 416 and Bill, C – 533

BEGINNING CAMPAIGN FOR ADOPTION OF THE MOTION M – 416

Beginning in July 2005, The Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch{CNABC}which represents interests of more than 50.000 Canadians, Bosniak origin launched the Canadian national campaign for adoption of Srebrenica Genocide Resolution. On the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, July 11, 2005.

The Hon. Jean Augustine, MP made the statement in the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament to ensure that the Resolution of the Srebrenica Genocide is on the table in the Canadian Parliament – 38th Parliament, 1^st Session, Edited Hansard, Number 124, Contents, Tuesday, June 28, 2005

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/statement-from-the-hon-jean-augustine-mp/

More: http://openparliament.ca/politicians/3355/

In the same year The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada has issued a statement regarding the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/statement-by-pierre-pettigrew-minister-of-foreign-affairs/

More: http://www.patrides.com/july05/ensebrenitsa

LAUNCHING CAMPAIGN FOR ADOPTION OF THE MOTION M – 416

On August 29, 2009, Brian Masse M.P. along with Prof. Emir Ramic, President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks – Canadian Branch and Director of the Institute for Research of genocide Canada , Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, National Director of the Islamic Congress of Canada, the Canadian Bosniak community and many supporters launched the campaign for a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada with the public presentation of a motion M – 416 to be introduced in the House of Commons.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/srebrenica-remembrance-day-campaign/#more-140

Brian Masse to lunch Srebrenica Remembrance Day Campaign and Motion

More: http://www.brianmasse.ca/node/1060

INTRODUCTION OF THE MOTION M – 416 IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

Motion – M – 416 — September 10, 2009 — Mr. Masse (Windsor West) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should declare the day of July 11 as Srebrenica Remembrance Day and the week of July 11 as Bosnia and Herzegovina Tribute Week in memorial of the Srebrenica Massacre of July 1995, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak civilians were executed under the policy of ethnic cleansing, the worst act of genocide in Europe since the Second World War, and 30,000 others were expelled from their homes by Serbian forces.

More: Order Paper and Notice Paper No. 80

MOTION M – 416 SECONDED

M 416 Mr. Masse (Windsor West) — Srebrenica massacre — Notice — September 10, 2009 Pursuant to Standing Order 86(3), jointly seconded by: Mr. Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas) and Ms. Charlton (Hamilton Mountain) Chris — October 6, 2009

More: Order Paper and Notice Paper No. 80

WORLD INTELLECTUALS URGE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT TO ADOPT MOTION M – 416

Members of the International Team of Experts of the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada express support for Motion M – 416 on Genocide in Srebrenica. The Motion has support from: the Liberal Party of Canada, New Democratic Party of Canada, Blok Quebecois, Green Party of Canada, the Islamic and Jewish Congress of Canada, the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, the Congress of North American Bosniaks, many organizations for the protection of human rights and freedom in Canada and in the world. World Intellectuals Urge Canadian Parliament to Adopt Srebrenica Genocide Motion (M-416). With Motion-M – 416 , the Canadian Parliament and Government are observing the 15th anniversary of the genocide committed in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica in July 1995, and expressing support for the designation of “Srebrenica Remembrance Day” in Canada. Affirmation of the Canadian Record on the Srebrenica Genocide Resolution calls upon the Canadian Parliament and Government to ensure that Canadian foreign policy reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the Canada record relating to the Srebrenica Genocide.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/world-intellectuals-urge-canadian-parliament-to-adopt-srebrenica-genocide-motion-m-416/

SUPPORTERS OF THE MOTION M – 416 IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

The Motion has support from: the Liberal Party of Canada, New Democratic Party of Canada, Blok Quebecois.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/supporters-of-motion-m-416-in-the-parliament-of-canada/

Letter from Prof. Smail Cekic to Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/letter-from-prof-smail-cekic-to-canadian-parliament/#more-1086

Letter from Prof. David Pettigrew to Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/letter-of-prof-david-pettigrew-for-canadian-parliament/#more-1046

Letter from Prof. Francis A. Boyle to Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/letter-from-prof-francis-a-boyle-to-the-government-of-canada-re-resolution-m-416/#more-994

CANADIAN BOSNIAK COMMUNITY DO NOT ACCEPT MOTION M – 416 WITHOUT THE INCLUSION OF THE TERM “GENOCIDE”

Canadian Bosniaks do not accept Motion M – 416 without the inclusion of the term “genocide”.

Motion M 416 is about the crime of genocide against Bosniaks at Srebrenica.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/canadian-bosniaks-do-not-accept-motion-m-%E2%80%93-416-without-the-inclusion-of-the-term-%E2%80%9Cgenocide%E2%80%9D/

Letter to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/letter-to-stephen-harper-prime-minister-of-canada/#more-1546

Press release – Bosnian Community in Canada

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/press-release-%E2%80%93-bosnian-community-in-canada/#more-1536

Final negotiated version of the Motion- M – 416

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/research/motion%E2%80%94m-416/page/2/

CNABC AND IRGC DISAPPOINTED WITH PRIME MINISTER HARPER’S SHAMEFUL VETO OF THE MOTION M – 416

CNABC and IRGC disappointed with Prime Minister Harper’s shameful veto of the motion to remember the Srebrenica Genocide

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/cnab-disappointed-with-prime-minister-harper’s-shameful-veto-of-the-motion-to-remember-the-srebrenica-genocide

Statements by prominent experts in international law, humanists and statesmen regarding the Conservative Party of Canada refusal to allow an all-party Motion M – 416 on the Srebrenica genocide in Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/statements-by-prominent-experts-in-international-law-humanist-and-statesman-regarding-to-the-conservative-party-of-canada-refuses-to-allow-an-all-party-motion-m-416-on-the-srebrenica-genocide-in-ca/#more-1604

Members of the Canadian Parliament demand Harper recognize The Srebrenica Genocide

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/mps-demand-harper-recognize-the-srebrenica-genocide-2/

Members of the Canadian Parliament demand Harper recognize the Srebrenica Genocide

More: http://www.brianmasse.ca/node/1141

INTRODUCING THE BILL C – 533 AN ANCT RESPECTING SREBRENICA GENOCIDE

Honourable Rob Oliphant, Member of the Canadian Parliament and Member of the Liberal Party of Canada on June 10th introduced Bill C – 533, an Act respecting a Srebrenica Remembrance Day

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/bill-c-%E2%80%93-533-an-act-respecting-a-srebrenica-remembrance-day/#more-1517

Introducing the Bill C-533, Third Session, Fortieth Parliament, 59 Elizabeth II, 2010, , House of Commons of Canada, An Act respecting a Srebrenica Remembrance Day, first reading, June 10, 2010

An Act respecting a Srebrenica Remembrance Day, introduced by Mr Oliphant on June 10^th:

More: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=4610579&file=4

More: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3&DocId=4613107

More: http://openparliament.ca/hansards/2279/9/

Comments by Mr Oliphant on June 10th in the House of Commons:

More: http://www.xtra.ca/blog/ottawa/post/2010/06/10/Rob-Oliphant-talks-about-recognising-the-Srebrenica-genocide.aspx

Rob Oliphant holds a press conference introducing his bill, Bill C-533, – Rob Oliphant MP Introduces Bill C-533 – Rob Oliphant holds a press conference introducing his bill, Bill C-533,, An Act Respecting a Srebrenica Remembrance Day.

More: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzaHwfSrxl8

Robert Oliphant, MP Press Release – Presents Bill Calling for Srebrenica Remembrance Day, Blasts Government for their Inaction

More: http://www.roboliphantmp.ca/Press-Release-2010-06-10.php

Bill C – 533 seconding by Hon the hon. Libby Davies, member For Vancouver East

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased this morning to introduce a bill that seeks to establish a national Srebrenica remembrance day to be held every July 11. I thank my colleague the hon. Libby Davies, member For Vancouver East for seconding the bill.

CANADIANS REMEMBERING SREBRENICA GENOCIDE PROMOTING EDUCATION, REMEMBRANCE AND RESEARCH OF THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE

July 11th 2010 marked the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide. In commemoration of this tragedy Toronto’s Bosnian community hosted a series of well organized and well received events: a photo exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel, a silent march in downtown Toronto, and a commemoration ceremony in Etobicoke. Events were organized in partnership with the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for the Research of Genocide-Canada. The Bosnian Community of Toronto hosted a number of events to Commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Srebrenica, Bosnia & Hercegovinia Genocide. We were honoured to be a part of it, to capture moments of remembrance for a time in history that must never be forgotten and never again repeated anywhere to anyone. In partnership with the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for the Research of Genocide-Canada, the Southern Ontario Bosniak community hosted a series of well organized and well received events: a photo exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel, a silent march in downtown Toronto as well as a commemoration ceremony in Etobicoke this past weekend on the 15th year anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide. All information is available at srebrenica.ca.

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/toronto-canada-15th-commemoration-of-srebrenica-genocide/

Statements by the Members of the Canadian Parliament at the Srebrenica Genocide Commemoration in Toronto: The 15th Anniversary

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/statements-by-the-members-of-the-canadian-parliament-at-the-srebrenica-genocide-commemoration-in-toronto-the-15th-anniversary

Statement by Borys Wrzesnewskyj

More: http://www.srebrenica.ca/web/index.php/component/content/article/52-mp-borys-wrzesnewskyj-commemorates-srebrenica-genocide-at-bosnian-islamic-centre-in-etobicoke

STATEMENT OF CNABC AND IRGC REGARDING STATEMENT OF THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF CANADA

Canada Commemorates 15th Anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide – (No. 217 – July 10, 2010 – 12:30 p.m. ET) The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre:

More: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/217.aspx?

More: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/217.aspx?lang=eng

More: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/217.aspx?lang=fra

Statement of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch and the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada regarding Statement of the Foreign Minister of Canada Lawrence Cannon

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/statement-of-the-congress-of-north-american-bosniaks-canadian-branch-and-the-institute-for-research-of-genocide-canada-regarding-statement-of-the-foreign-minister-of-canada-lawrence-cannon-2/#more-1690

Canada condemns the atrocities committed in Srebrenica in July 1995, as well as all other forms of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide

CANADA CONDEMNS THE ATROCITIES COMMITED IN SREBRENICA IN JULY 1995, AS WELL AS ALL OTHER FORMS OF WAR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND GENOCIDE

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/research/motion%E2%80%94m-416/

Response from Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Congress  of North American Bosniaks Canadian Branch and Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/response-from-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs/

CURRENT STATUS

Upon its introduction it was referred to the House of Commons of Canada, Motion M – 416 was sent back for a full house vote sometimes after September 20, 2010.

After its first reading in the House of Commons of Canada Bill C – 533 is awaiting its second reading in the House.

Please join CNABC and IRGC in our campaign to encourage Canadian Parliament and Government to take a firm stand against the unspeakable horrors of Srebrenica Genocide.

CNAB AND IRGC CINTINUE TO CAMPAIGN FO THE ADOPTION OF MOTION AND BILL

CNABC and IRGC on behalf of the Bosniak-Canadian community continue to campaign for the adoption of the motion M- 416 and the Bill C – 533 in the Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/cnabc-and-irgc-on-behalf-of-the-bosniak-canadian-community-continue-to-campaign-for-the-adoption-of-the-motion-m-416-and-the-bill-c-%E2%80%93-533-in-the-canadian-parliament/

Canadian Bosniaks do not accept Motion M – 416 without the inclusion of the term “genocide”

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/canadian-bosniaks-do-not-accept-motion-m-%E2%80%93-416-without-the-inclusion-of-the-term-%E2%80%9Cgenocide%E2%80%9D-2/

The Genocide Prevention Group Solemnly Commemorates Srebrenica Remembrance Day

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/the-genocide-prevention-group-solemnly-commemorates-srebrenica-remembrance-day/

The Letter of the Canadian-Bosniak Community to the Members of the House of Commons and Senate of the Canadian Parliament

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/the-letter-of-the-canadian-bosniak-community-to-the-members-of-the-house-of-commons-and-senate-of-the-canadian-parliament/

The Letter of CNABC and IRGC to the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/the-letter-of-cnabc-and-irgc-to-the-right-honourable-prime-minister-stephen-harper/

The Letter of CNABC and IRGC to the Honourable Lawrence Cannon

More: http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/the-letter-of-cnabc-and-irgc-to-the-honourable-lawrence-cannon/

The Government of Canada would support a parliamentary resolution recognizing and commemorating the Srebrenica Genocide

More:  http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/the-government-of-canada-would-support-a-parliamentary-resolution-recognizing-and-commemorating-the-srebrenica-genocide/

Bosniak – Canadian Community accepts the proposed resolution that was submitted for our consideration by Conservative Government of Canada

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/bosniak-canadian-community-received-a-new-proposal-of-the-resolution-on-the-genocide-in-srebrenica-m-%E2%80%93-416-by-the-government-of-canada/

OTTAWA, ON – Today Brian Masse M.P., NDP Industry, Automotive, and Border Critic declared a victory for human rights as the motion he introduced to establish a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada was passed in the House of Commons by unanimous consent after a long campaign which began more than a year ago in his riding and was lead by the Bosnian-Canadian community.

“The time is long past due for Canada to declare July 11 Srebrenica Remembrance Day. This anniversary raises awareness of the tragic suffering of the people of Bosnia and honours and remembers those who were killed as a result of the policies of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995,” Masse stated. “With this declaration, Canada acknowledges the importance of this event in helping to bring closure for the Bosnian people through truth and justice. The institutionalization of Srebrenica Remembrance Day every July 11 will help to inform future generations and assist all of us to work towards peaceful coexistence.”

After the fall of Srebrenica on July 11th 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic (an indicted war criminal), and paramilitary units rapidly executed more than 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men, boys, and elderly, who had sought safety in the area. Moreover, approximately 30,000 people were forcibly deported in an UN-assisted ethnic cleansing. The European Parliament resolution referred to the Srebrenica Massacre as “the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII.” This atrocity has been declared an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in 2005 have passed resolutions on the Srebrenica Genocide and all the atrocities that occurred during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The European parliament passed its resolution on January 15, 2009 institutionalizing July 11 as the day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide. This past March the Serbian parliament passed a resolution recognizing the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica.

“I would like thank and recognize the enormous effort, determination and perseverance of the Bosnian-Canadian community in bringing about this achievement today for Canada. This result in due to the endeavours of thousands of Bosnian-Canadians across the country lead by Emir Ramic, President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks-Canada, Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, Zeljko Milicevic, Chair of Justice for Bosnia Task Force, Senad Alicehajic, President of the Bosnian Club of Windsor, Leila Handanovic, Dina Bajric, and countless others. With this motion, the House of Commons joins Canada with many other countries in doing something that should have been done long ago,” Masse stated.

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. The motion that passed in the House of Commons today:

“That, in the opinion of the House, the day of July 11 should be recognised as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in memorial of the Srebrenica Massacre of July 1995, in which more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed, declared an act of genocide by the international Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of justice, and 25,000 others were forcibly removed from their homes by Bosnian Serb forces.”