Another side of Srebrenica

Radio Nederlands ^ | 2002-11-29 | David Jan Godfroid

[DTA]

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	Friday, 29 November, 2002 Another side of Srebrenica by David Jan Godfroid, 29 November 2002   The mountains of Bosnia were the backdrop for killings by both Serbs and Muslims Serbian cousins Aco and Darko are butchering pigs for winter in the village of Fakovici, along the banks of the River Drina in Eastern Bosnia. The two cousins are the men of the house; ten years ago, when they were still kids, their fathers were killed by Muslims from Srebrenica. The attack happened near this very spot.  - listen to the full report 5´24 The drama of Srebrenica, one of the darkest chapters of the Bosnian civil war, is a story often told in simple terms. Bosnian Serb troops surround the town, isolate it for years, then finally capture it and slaughter 7000 men and boys, mainly Muslims. But the reality is far more complex. There was a lot of violence here before the siege of Srebrenica began. Serbs attacked Muslim villages in the surroundings, torched the houses and killed the villagers. And Muslims did the same. From September 1992 until January 1993, dozens of Serbian villages fell prey to Muslim sorties from Srebrenica. Hundreds of Serbs, mainly civilians, were killed. Destructive raiders The village of Skelani nestles in the mountains on the eastern border of Bosnia. During the war, a Muslim army unit from Srebrenica often raided the Serbian villages in this area, under the command of Naser Oric. After ten years, you can still see the results. Birches grow out of a demolished house. Down the road, there's a group of partly destroyed houses; three of them are abandoned, two others are inhabited again, but only the ground floor has been provisionally repaired. Naser Oric was the local commander of the Bosnian Muslim army in Srebrenica. Just the mention of his name causes outrage among Serbs in this region. A man who goes by the pseudonym of Petar Jovanovic remembers Oric from the days when they both worked on the Srebrenica police force. "Oric came to Srebrenica on orders to organise a Muslim army and prepare them for war. He knew nothing about religion. Oric told me this himself. He was willing to fight for whoever made him the best offer. He was 25 or 26 years old and he wanted only three things: money, fancy cars and women." Memories of death In the village of Fakovici, Aco and Darko don't feel like talking about the attack ten years ago, but they think about the deaths of their fathers and other relatives every day. They still live in the house where the slaughter occurred. "Look," says Aco, "That's where we found grandfather . . . his hands were tied and his skull was crushed." Sitting on the very spot where that man was killed is Mica, one of the few defenders of Fakovici. Mica, who himself was injured in the assault, is still furious with his own people: "If only one person had tried to defend our villages, the Muslims would never have attacked us. We had enough arms and men at our disposal, but one paramilitary group after another came to tell us that we were under their command. And when the Muslims finally attacked, our commanders were across the border in Serbia, and our defenders went picking walnuts in the forest or fishing, three kilometres up the river Drina. We had less than 15 men to defend the village against over 200 attackers. It was one big confusion." Animal response Twenty-four people were killed in Fakovici, including Darko's parents and Aco's father and grandfather. Mica is one of the few Serbs who think Muslims are not to blame. "First we chased them out of their villages. And a man who has been forced to leave his house and live in the forest becomes an animal. They had no choice but to respond. First they were chased away, then they organized themselves and they attacked. Of course." From the graveyard of Bajina Basta, just across the River Drina in Serbia, you can see the mountains of Bosnia, where the war started ten years ago. Many of those who died in those mountains in 1992-93 lie buried here in a Serbian grave.   Remains found near Srebrenica There are dozens of them. All of the victims are from the villages across the river. Fakovici, Skelani . . . small villages, often no more then a couple of houses. The civilians who lived in such places were killed by the attackers from Srebrenica. Hari has just visited the grave of a good friend. He looks at the other side of the river Drina, his eyes filled with tears. "It hurts, because I know how many young people lost their lives there. You can rebuild a house or a village. You can replant fields and orchards. But a lost life, a young life . . . that hurts most."   Links Srebrenica inquiry underway (RNW) International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia A Cry from the Grave Disclaimer: Radio Netherlands is not responsible for the content of external Web sites

[DTA]

Dutch governement knew too well all these years about Srebrenica hoax:NIOD report has documented it in detail. However, Dutch remained silent. Silence is broken now when Bosnian Muslim thugs want to sue Dutch governemnt for damages (!)

[DTA]

Ping - ICTY sham

Dutch government has broken mafioso code of silence regarding Srebrenica and Dutch radio is finally speaking up. They did not speak up to protect Dutch soldiers from unjust accusations, they speak to protect government from hoax lawsuit by Bosnian Muslims.

Bosnian Muslims goofed badly, they bit the hand that feeds them.

Srebrenica hoax is about to colapse. Will Nasir Oric become household name? What will happen with ICTY sham?

Stay tuned.

[secretagent]

I don't understand what "NIOD" means.

[Destro]

bttt

[DTA]

Good news.

Code word for silence is broken.

All the credit goes to Bosnian Muslims. They wanted to sue Dutch Government for damages :-)

Thank you Mujo, thank you Haso :-)

[DTA]

NIOD is Dutch Intstitute for War documentation

They were commisioned by the Dutch government to investigate events leading to fall of Srebrenica. And NIOD did, with meticulous detail. the report showed that Srebrenica was used as a staging ground by the muslims to attack neighboring Serb villages. It also showed that Muslims in Srebrenica were soldiers, not "men and boys" as usually stated in media blurb.

Dutch goverment had to resign because the report was the major embarrasment for NATO

Report is 7000 pages long. See details here

[secretagent]

Thanks.

[itsahoot]

Sorry but only the USofA can retaliate, even for other people.

[eleni121]

The Judgment video available through The Emperor's clothes.com demonstrated that the ITN production was a hoax. I organized a "teach in" at our college against the role of NATO against Serbia and used the video which conclusively proved the Srebrenica hoax. Apparently not everyone was convinced but they will be soon.

[marron]

Just read the press summary of the report. It is hair-raising. This must reading for anyone interested in the laughable condition of UN and EU soldiering.

The UN declared Srebenica to be a safe haven for Bosnian Muslim refugees from surrounding areas, and the Dutch Army volunteered to defend it.

But, the Dutch were not authorized to use force to defend the zone, neither to separate the combatant forces, to defend the city, or to prevent violations on the part of the Bosnian Muslim fighters there.

They were only authorized to use force to protect their own lives, if they were fired upon directly.

As Serb forces closed in on them, they asked for air support, and were denied. The French commander was concerned about French soldiers being held hostage, and didn't want to upset the Serbs.

The report stresses that part of the problem facing the Dutch forces was the lack of intelligence. But, also that the Dutch refused offers of intel from the US, and rejected the offer of communications equipment from the CIA.

As the Serbs rolled into the city unopposed, as the Dutch were not authorized to defend the city, the Dutch were pressed into service helping the Serbs to separate the men from the women. Their defense is that they didn't know what was going to happen to the men; but as the report makes clear, there had already been an earlier massacre of several hundred Muslim prisoners, so in fact the Dutch could surmise what was going to happen. The report goes on to make clear that the Dutch soldiers were very much in fear for their own lives, and their first concern was to get themselves out of Srebenica alive.

I see nothing in this Dutch report to contradict the statement that Serbs executed their Muslim prisoners, that the Dutch knew it was going to happen, and took no steps to prevent it. They also took no steps to prevent Muslim fighters from using UN safe zones as a base, which sounds a lot like the situation at the UN camp at Jenin, in the West Bank. And, it should be mentioned, since the report mentions it, that one of the Dutch soldiers had been murdered by a Muslim in Srebenica, and that the Dutch particularly detested the Muslims, and had no interest in protecting them in any case.

Reading this makes it plain that no UN or EU force was ever going to be successful, and it becomes obvious why the US was successful when they were not. There is a distinct relative difference in the level of seriousness.

[joan]

There was a lot of violence here before the siege of Srebrenica began. Serbs attacked Muslim villages in the surroundings, torched the houses and killed the villagers. And Muslims did the same. From September 1992 until January 1993, dozens of Serbian villages fell prey to Muslim sorties from Srebrenica. Hundreds of Serbs, mainly civilians, were killed.

Wasn’t it Serbs from Srebrenica who were ethnically cleansed at the very start of the war? Didn’t the Muslims kill a Serb judge or politician and other Serbs first? It sounds like it was the civilian Srebrenica Serbs who were beseiged, then the Muslims went after Serbs living in the surrounding villages, expanding their cleansing further. The Muslims fighters - thousands - had been living off the food stolen from villagers, but after they killed off so many in the surrounding villages they faced a starvation problem.

Also, didn’t the Muslim fighters inflate the number of civilians living in Srebrenica so they would get more food? Were there actually not as many civilians in Srebrenica during the fall as the “missing” would suggest. I’ve read that some of the names included in the missing were last seen in Srebrenica years before the fall, like 1992 – these people may have long since left, died in other battles, died naturally or in accidents, etc.

DTA, are you still working on converting the Muslim videos of them murdering Serbs from European into the American systems?

[joan]

I find interesting things on the web. I find for instance, a man from Srebrenica who fought in Croatia against Serbs before the war in Bosnia began. People throw at fit because Serbs from Serbia may have fought or helped their ethnic kin in Bosnia or Croatia, but what about Bosnian Muslims who went to help Croats genocide Serbs in Croatia. The real genocide was of Serbs living in Croatia - the Serbian population was reduced from 12.2% to 4.5%, whereas in Bosnia the percentage of Muslims is equal or greater than before the war.

Do you know how many Bosnian Muslims participated in Croatia's war? This man from Srebrenica went to fight in Bosnia after Croatia, but it doesn't say if he went back to Srebrenica, or if he was there during the fall. However, he is alive nonetheless.

http://www.crucibleofwar.com/adnan.htm :

Adnan didn’t so much fight for his country, as much as he fought against another country – Yugoslavia. This stocky traffic cop from Srebrenica first fought against the Serbs in Croatia. It would only be a matter of time before he would have to return to the frontlines to defend his homeland of Bosnia.

[fielding mellish]

How many muslims and Croatians in RS? How's about the Muslims that helped Mladic attack Croatia?

[DTA]

There are many interesting twists in Bosnian war:

-Fikret Abdic's Muslims helping BSA and vice versa in Western Bosnia (Kladusha)
-BSA helping Bosnaian Croats to flee from Bosnian Muslims in Central Bosnia. Croats kept all weapons while crossing through Serb territory.
-Croats and Muslims fighting in the ranks of BSA along Serbs in Northern Bosnia

Serbs renting tanks and artillery to Muslims to attack Croat positions

Bosnia is not black and white, "poor innocent Muslims".

War is hell. There is only one thing I do not understand: Why Croats keep repeating Bosnian Muslim lies about 50,000 raped Muslim women when it is proven that there were only 2000 cases of rape on ALL 3 sides.

[fielding mellish]

I don't know of any Croats, other than the liberal pro_Yugo type feminists who repeat that. We're much closer to the Bosnian Serbians than to the muslims.

[DTA]

Calling armed fighters "innocent men and boys" is factually incorrect. One might say Patton's Army slaughtered German "men and boys" in it's way into Germany in 1945 conveniently ommiting they were Hitler's soldiers under arms.

When fighters fight it is called "combat", at least since invention of firearms.

Muslims fighters killed some 3000 Serbs., mostly civilians in 3 years. Why phrases "understandable revenge" are reserved only for Albanians and other assorted U.S. cuttrhroat allies? When Serbs do it, it is called "genocide".

How about recent events in Afganistan, what happened with Taliban POWs in U.S. custody? Was it genocide also?

NIOD report specifies the following:

SREBRENICA WAS NOT DEMILITARIZED AS ALWAYS REPRORTED IN THE MEDIA -Bosdnin Muslim Army was using Srebrenica enclave as a base

-U.S. was gathering intel using Srebrenica enclave as a base
-British commandos were training Muslims in Srebrenica
-Bosnian Muslims were making hit and run attacks on Serb villages in perimeter of 30 mi around Srebrenica and running back to Srebrenica to be protected by UN.

Dutchbat soldiers and brass knew it all. When they were brought back to Holland, their films were destroyed, soldiers were debriefed with PC story. Entire Dutchbat was blamed for not preventing "genocide" that did not happen in the first place. Some soldiers commited suicide because they could not stand the pressure of the public opinion.

Dutchbat commanders let their soldiers down the drain and did not protect them from false accusations.

The truth has started to surface and NATOcrats can do nothing to prevent it.

Of course, U.S. has satellite photos of Srebrenica Genocide but can not show them because "it would reveal U.S. capabilities to the foes" (or something like that ;-) /sarcasm off