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Hi joan,

You are right about the youngest child. Could have been.

So far as I can tell, the Truth of Srebrenica is like a dark mist, the further one ventures into it, the more surely one is lost. (Heck, I dunno, I was very busy many kilometres away, but that's how I understand it.) Sounds profound anyway, huh? (wink)

Seriously, I did discuss Srebrenica with high-ranking military analysts from several countries with traditions of respectable military training (Brit, Kiwi, American, several Contintenal nations) ... and I am sure they all had reservations and a sense of "some things which do not add up" ... but, after all these years, I simply cannot recall with certainty specific details, as Tuzla and Gorazde were also being discussed during that same time frame. (I'm concerned I might confuse the Gorazde/Tuzla details with details about Srebrenica, etc.)I don't want to mix up the details and give any false info. Sorry I'm not much help. Too bad I was too busy "saving grannies" to keep an accurate diary at the time. Or if only I had written down all this in 1998 when my memories were still fresh and clear. But, alas, I did not.

I do distinctly remember speaking with trusted ICRC/IFRC representatives who said that the numbers on Srebrenica "were a mess" and, much later, from the same, that it appeared many thought lost were now found. That's all I can say about that. (Sounds like shades of Forrest Gump, but there are good reasons.)

Good catch on the "men" vs. "men and boys." I salute you for that! Trouble is, for reporting puposes, and therefore in "media speak" a "boy" is aged 14-18, while a "child" is under 14. Mrs. Hirkic's eldest son would have most certainly been classified as a "child" during the fall of Srebrenica. So no points to be garnered there, sorry, joan.

Best regards, wonders (who wishes she could be of more help)

This is what you told me:

The Croats threw bodies in the river, incinerated them, or disolved them with lime and other chemicals. After "Op Storm" they also buried them in established cemeteries on top of bodies properly buried years before, and even made two "show graveyards" containing over 100 bodies each (one in Knin, one in Dvor) which were technically not a "mass graves" as the bodies were buried so many inches apart and marked with numbers. No horrifying headline-grabbing "mass graves" to be found!

2 "show graveyards" of over 100 each would account for 1/2 of Tropoljac's 400-something number of Serbs killed during Operation Storm. Would you agree that 1/2 of all Serbs killed in Operation Storm ended up in those graveyards or that that was only the tip of the iceberg.

I was vacationing in the Balkans during the liberation of Srebrenica and from what I saw, after the fighting the Muslim men were released (women and children were allowed to leave long before). What happened next was that Serbian irregulars either ignored or did not hear that the Serbian command had let the Muslims go free. What happened was that the Serbs, mostly animated by a semse of revenge from what I could tell (due to the work of Oric's head hunting Mujis) would shoot at the Muslims as they retreated. For the most part the Serbian command lost control of their irregulars.

The cell phone conversations the Hague has indicate this fact. Karadic is heard yelling at Mladic and demanding an explanation, Mladic is informing Karadic that he is doing his best to regain control of the situation, etc.

The reports that the Serbs rounded up the Muslims in batches, and killed them in the manner Nazi einsatzgruppen is a fiction. The numbers killed can not be confirmed but it is no where near the 10,000 first mentioned or the 8,000 currently mentioned. The most accurate figure is probably around 2-3,000, who mostly were killed by mortar or small arms fire in many places along the line of retreat.