Canada to become the first nation to legally recognize the Bosnian Genocide at Srebrenica by the law, not only by the resolution – motion

Background:

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTS THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION {M – 416}

On October 19, 2010. the Motion { M – 416} to establish a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada and to recognize the Srebrenica Genocide was passed in the House of Commons by unanimous consent.

The motion that passed in the House of Commons Read more

Debating Genocide Deniers, Part II / II

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

Origin of the Srebrenica massacre

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

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: Read more

Re: Genocide Denying Prof. William Schabas, Letter to the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS)

Dear International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS),

The Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada {IRGC} would like to voice concern over the proposed merger of your organization with the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).[1]

IAGS’s membership numbers remain highly questionable and they are certainly not representative of the majority of international scholars. IAGS is an obscure organization led by Prof. William Schabas, an academic who regrettably reduced himself to the position of being a genocide denier.

Please be advised that the IAGS president, Prof. Schabas, offered his expertise to Serbian defendants at the Hague Tribunal, who had been charged with crimes of genocide. His proposed testimony - in which he aimed to deny genocide in Srebrenica - was rejected on the grounds that there were conflicts of interest[2] with specific respect to the close friendship that he enjoyed with the Judges Carmel Agius and Kimberly Prost.[3][4]

In his book, entitled “Genocide in International Law: The Crimes of Crimes” (Cambridge University Press, 2d ed., 2009), Prof. Schabas denies that the killing of Slav citizens under Nazi occupation constituted genocide. The same book denies genocide during the Bosnian war of the 1990’s.

We wish to draw attention to the following facts:

[i] That the killings of Serbs by the Ustasha forces and the killings of Bosniaks by the Chetnik forces during World War II were and are, indeed, widely recognized as acts of genocide.

[ii] With respect to the Bosnian war of 1992-1995, three cases were legally validated as genocide; they included:

[a] the Srebrenica massacres (Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic),
[b] the Doboj massacres (Prosecutor v. Nikola Jorgic), and
[c] the Foca massacres (Prosecutor v. Novislav Djajic).

In 2005, both Houses of the United States Congress passed resolutions asserting that the policies of aggression and the internationally referred to ‘ethnic cleansing’ as implemented by Serb and Croatian Ustasha forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995 - including the Srebrenica massacre - constituted genocide.

A leading holocaust researcher, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton - author of several books, including “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide” and “The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and the Nuclear Threat”, agrees that what happened to the Bosnian Muslims “merits the use of the word genocide.” He is recipient of a ‘Nobel Lectureship’, ‘the Holocaust Memorial Award’ and the ‘Gandhi Peace Award’. Since the 1960s, Dr. Lifton has been internationally recognized for his research into the diverse aspects of genocide.

According to Dr. Lifton,
“What’s happening there [in Bosnia] merits the use of the word ‘genocide’. There is an effort to systematically destroy an entire group. It’s even been conceptualized by Serbian nationalists as so-called ‘ethnic cleansing’. That term signifies mass killing, mass relocation, and that constitutes genocide.”[5]

Furthermore, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs is currently defending himself against charges of genocide in connection with terrible crimes committed in and across 11 Bosnian municipalities.

After due consideration and with reference to the above text, IRGC ascertains that nothing short of irreparable damage will permeate the credibility of any organization seriously concerned with genocide, who might decide to merge with this association.

Respectfully,
Professor Emir Ramic
Director IRGC

[1] Letter from Prof. William Schabas, 7 October 2010.

http://www.genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/membership-schabas-101006.pdf

[2] ICTY, “Decision on the Admissibility of the Expert Report and Proposed Expert Testimony of Professor Schabas” 1 July 2021 http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080701.pdf

[3] ICTY, “Decision on the Request for Reconsideration of the Decision on the Admissibility of the Expert Report and Proposed Expert Testimony of Professor Schabas,” 30 July 2008.

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080730a.pdf

[4] Prosecutor v. Popovic, Pre-Defence Conference, 22 May 2008.

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/trans/en/080522ED.htm

[5] Toledo Blade, “Slavic Horror Termed Genocide” 28 February 1993.

http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=rCcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,7117418&dq

Letter to INOGS re: Genocide Denier Prof. William Schabas

Debating Genocide Deniers, Part I / II

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 Read more

Bosnian Genocide Case at the International Court of Justice

Document: The Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), case 91, International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judgement returned on 26 February 2007. Dissenting Opinion of Vice-President Al-Khasawneh.

Bosnian Genocide Case (ICJ), Dissenting Opinion of Vice-President Al-Khasawneh

Statements Confirming Crimes Committed by Lt. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie

SHOCKING ACCOUNTS BY RAPED BOSNIAK WOMEN AND CRIMINAL UNDERTAKINGS OF Lt. Gen. (ret.) LEWIS MACKENZIE

Dear friends of truth and justice,

It is in the name of truth and justice, the brightest stars lighting the path of humanity and civilization, Canadian – Bosniak Community wishes to inform the public at large, about certain statements made by Bosniak women and men, which statements, beyond a shadow of a doubt, corroborate that Lt. Gen. (ret.), Lewis Mackenzie, stayed at the rape-camp “Kod Sonje” (At Sonia’s) and was party to committing crimes against women. It is not the prerogative of the Congress of North American Bosniaks to judge. It is the job of the judiciary and the system of justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina to do so. The Canadian – Bosniak Community wishes, by way of publishing these statements, to inform the world community in general, and the Canadian public in particular, about the moral and ethical traits of a person who was sworn, trusted and charged with leading the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations, while the aggression and genocide against Bosnia and Herzegovina was being committed. By publishing these witness accounts, the Canadian – Bosniak Community is sending a message to all those who aspire to committing war crimes - your crime will not be allowed to be hidden and to go unpunished. And it is also sending a message to all the victims of war crimes - truth and justice must, and will, be victorious as they are “conditio sine qua non”. Truth and justice are the fundamental reasons for the very existence of humanity and civilization.

1.A witness account corroborating regular visitations of Lt. Gen. (ret.) Mackenzie, to the rape-camp “Kod Sonje” Read more

Prof. Emir Ramic on Gen. Lewis MacKenzie

In his new book ” Soldiers made me look good” the retired Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie announced a lawsuit against the professor Emir Ramic, Director of the Institute for Research genocide, Canada and President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, Canadian Branch

The latest book of the retired Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie ” Soldiers made me look good” is based on false claims about the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the crime of genocide against the Bosniaks. This book is yet another evidence that McKenzie continues his pro-Serbian action. He was strongly pro-Serbian stance while he occupied a position of high responsibility which is under the Charter of the United Nations and as such sought his impartiality. In his book, McKenzie leaves out the fundamental principles of democracy that were set up at the request of the European Union in 1991. and 1992. year, throughout the whole of former Yugoslavia, when four of the six republics voted for separation from Serbia and Montenegro. As a witness to the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the crime of genocide against the Bosniak, McKenzie did not do anything about these crimes to the suspension. He was the accomplice to the crime of aggression and genocide. Read more

Letter of Rob Oliphant, M.P. to the Institute for the Research of Genocide (Canada)

Prelude to the Srebrenica Genocide: Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of the Bosnian War (April-June 1992)

The study was republished with permission from the Bosnian Institute, UK.

PRELUDE TO THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE:
Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks in the Srebrenica region during the first three months of the Bosnian War (April-June 1992)

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 2022 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 2021)
On 3 September 2021 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 2022 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 2022 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 2022)
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 2021)
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 2022)
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 2021)
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 2021)
Bosnian Serb forces retreated from Srebrenica following the death in an ambush on 8 May 2021 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 2021)
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 2021 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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
On 26 May 2021 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 2021 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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2021)
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 2022 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.

Experience of the IRGC Campaigning for the Recognition of Bosnian Genocide

EXPERIENCE OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH OF GENOCIDE CANADA {IRGC} IN CAMPAIGNING FOR THE ADOPTION OF A RESOLUTION ON GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA {BH} IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

Genocide in BH is a defeat all the achievements of human civilization. IRGC speaks on behalf of victims, reminiscent of their suffering and tears and suppressed fear of oblivion 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.
4. 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}

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, 2022 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 Churchil, 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 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.

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

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

Statements that were issued earlier, you can read here and here.

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