Srebrenica Casualty Numbers Challenged by Experts as Politicized and Ethnically Divisive

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WASHINGTON, DC, September 18, 2003: On the eve of the dedication of a monument to Muslims killed at Srebrenica, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1995, a group which includes a former UN official, intelligence experts, and journalists, released a statement challenging the alleged casualty number of 7,000 victims as "vastly inflated and unsupported by evidence".

They asserted that one-sided interventionist policies permitted al-Qaida forces and radical Islamists backed by the Iranian clerical government to take root during the Bosnian war, clouding the future of the region. As well, they agreed that the "memorialization" of false numbers in the monument actually appeared to be intended to perpetuate regional ethnic hatred and distrust and to deliberately punish one of the victim groups in the Bosnian civil war. Former US President Bill Clinton is expected to attend and legitimize the dedication of the monument at Srebrenica, which was constructed using one million dollars of US Embassy funds at the request of High Representative Paddy Ashdown. But former BBC journalist Jonathan Rooper, who has researched the events in Srebrenica since 1995, says that the region was a graveyard for Serbs as well as Muslims and that a monument to inflated casualties on one side "serves neither truth nor the goal of reconciliation".

Phillip Corwin, former UN Civilian Affairs Coordinator in Bosnia during the 1990s, said: "What happened in Srebrenica was not a single large massacre of Muslims by Serbs, but rather a series of very bloody attacks and counterattacks over a three year period which reached a crescendo in July of 1995." Mr. Corwin is author of Dubious Mandate, an account of his experiences during the conflict. He points out that Srebrenica, which was designated a safe zone, was never demilitarized as it was claimed to be, and that Muslim paramilitary leader Nasir Oric, who controlled Srebrenica, launched repeated attacks on surrounding Serb villages. He noted: "I was the United Nations" chief political officer in Bosnia the day that Srebrenica fell. Coincidentally, it was the same day that the Bosnian Government tried to assassinate me as I drove over Mount Igman on the way to Sarajevo."

Intelligence expert and strategist Gregory Copley, President of the International Strategic Studies Association and the ISSA's Balkan & Eastern Mediterranean Policy Council, accused US Ambassador Donald Hays, who serves as Deputy High Representative of Bosnia-Herzegovina, of using the power of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) governing Bosnia "to force Bosnian Serb elected officials to sign a fraudulent document accepting the official version of events in Srebrenica. The leaders of Republica Srpska [the predominantly Serbian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina] invited the office of the High Representative to join their investigation of the events in Srebrenica. Instead they were told they were told to sign a statement drafted by OHR endorsing casualty figures they publicly disagreed with." Copley added: "It is significant in that the former US Clinton Administration fought this war unquestioningly supporting only the Croat and Muslim factions and disregarding the historic alliance of the Serbian peoples with the US. Then, after the war, the Clinton Administration failed to follow US tradition in helping to heal the wounds of war, but, rather, perpetuated ethnic divisions and hatreds. This differs from the US role in all other wars."

"Unfortunately, all of the policies and officials put in place in the region by the Clinton Administration remain. The current Bush Administration has neglected the Balkans and has, instead, allowed the Clinton policies to continue, which has meant that divisive politics continue. This, then, requires the ongoing commitment of US peacekeeping forces in both Bosnia and in the Kosovo province of Serbia."

Copley added that, according to intelligence obtained from Islamist sources, that the monument was intended to become a shrine for radical Islamists in Europe and site for annual pilgrimages. He added: "Deputy High Representative Donald Hays forced the Republica Srpska Government to issue a statement which accepted the radical Islamists" version of the Srebrenica affair, despite the fact that the Office of High Representative does not have any investigative capability of its own to make a valid assumption on the matter. As well, the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague " no friend of the Serbs " has itself not completed its investigation of Srebrenica, and nor has the office of the Government of Republica Srpska which has been working with the ICTY."

Amb.. Hays and OHR chief Paddy Ashdown forced the Republica Srpska statement merely to ensure that the opening of the "shrine" " to be attended by Clinton " would vindicate Clinton Administration policies of support for the radical Islamists." Yossef Bodansky, who has written several books on the war in Yugoslavia and also serves as Research Director of ISSA, calls the 7,000 figure "disinformation" and notes that "all independent forensic evidence points to Muslim casualties in the hundreds, possibly the low hundreds. Continued emphasis on such allegedly high numbers of Muslim deaths at Srebrenica also obfuscates the Muslim murders in that city, earlier, of Serb civilians." Bodansky also wrote extensively on the link between Osama bin Laden and the Bosnian Islamists in numerous articles and special reports and three books, including Offensive in the Balkans: the Potential for a Wider War as a Result of Foreign Intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1995), Some Call it Peace: Waiting for War in the Balkans (1996), and Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America (1999).

Rooper says that at least 1,000 Serbs, mostly civilians, were killed by forces led by Oric who did not bother to hide his crimes, even showing videotapes of slaughtered Serbs to Western journalists. Meanwhile a group of academic experts and journalists from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Serbia, and the United Kingdom has been organized by Professor Edward S. Herman of the University of Pennsylvania to examine the evidence regarding events at Srebrenica in July 1995 and earlier, how the media reported these events, and the political role of claims about Srebrenica. It is expected that a report from this group will be available in June 2004. Rooper points out that the 40,000 inhabitants the UN used in July of 1995 before the capture of Srebrenica roughly matches the number of former residents accounted for in the aftermath. A commander of the Muslim-dominated Army of BiH (Bosnia-Herzegovina) later confirmed to parliament in Sarajevo that 5,000 BiH troops escaped largely intact to Tuzla while the UN registered some 35,632 civilian survivors.

While the capture of Srebrenica was reported in July 1995, as it unfolded, an international outcry only took place a month later, after Madeleine Albright, then US representative to the UN, held up a photo which she said provided evidence that thousands of Muslim victims had been buried at field near Nova Kasaba, 19 kilometers from Srebrenica. Excavations which took place following the war, however, yielded 33 bodies at Nova Kasaba. Two years after the event, a total of 400 bodies had been found at 20 sites near Srebrenica, an area which had seen bloody fighting over a three year period. Instead of acknowledging that there was no support for the original figures, Rooper says a various means were used to prop up the official story.

"Spokesmen for the Clinton Administration suggested that Serbs might have moved the bodies to other locations. Rooper points out that excavating, transporting and reburying 7,000 bodies was "not only beyond the capabilities of the thinly stretched, petrol-starved Bosnian Serb Army, but would have been easily detected under intense surveillance from satellites and geostationary drones.

By 1998, thousands of bodies excavated from all across Bosnia were stored at the Tuzla airport. Despite state of the art DNA testing, only 200 bodies have been linked to Srebrenica. Around 3,000 names on a list of Srebrenica victims compiled by the Red Cross matched voters in the Bosnian election in 1996. "I pointed out to the OSCE that there had either been massive election fraud or almost half the people on the ICRC missing list were still alive," says Rooper. "The OSCE finally responded that the voting lists had been locked away in warehouses and it would not be possible for them to investigate."

The inflated Srebrenica statistics are part of a larger picture that intelligence experts such as Bodansky and Copley find troubling. They say US policymakers have been slow to recognize that Bosnia is viewed as a strategic base for operations in Europe by al-Qaida and the HizbAllah. In 1993, when the Clinton Administration was strongly backing the Muslim President of Bosnia, Alija Izetbegovic, Osama Bin Ladin was regular visitor to his office, according to Renate Flottau of the German weekly, Der Spiegel. The Bosnian daily, Dani, reported that the Vienna Embassy of BiH issued a passport to Bin Ladin in 1993.

A special report by Copley, issued Tuesday, September 16. 2003. noted that Bosnia-Herzegovina Ambassador Huso Zivalj, who issued the passport to Bin Ladin, later served as Bosnian Ambassador to the United Nations in September 11. "It is becoming increasingly clear that the movement of Zivalj to the New York post just before (and his departure just after) the September 11,2001 attacks was not coincidental."

"To refer to US Bosnia policy as a success story is to disregard substantial evidence to the contrary. Instead of misplaced symbolism in Srebrenica, US policymakers need to take a hard look at assumptions which have guided US actions in the region," Copley said.

RBJ wrote- "Very pretty countryside, if it weren't for all the farm houses the Serbs blew up after stealing the fridge. And yeah, 90% of the foreign aid money goes to the Federation. Why? The Serbs in the RS government STEAL it if we give it to them. The Federation (for all its fault) does not. We know who and how they spend the money. Give it to the RS and it winds up in hands of the mafia.

It is very pretty, flat with a few rollers, right?..:)

You need to reassess that answer, bro. The CA Bn only evaluates and then recommends. The higher up politico's and military brass divert. Need details? a start is: HHC, 35 ID Mech.

I guess Ronly Bonly never heard of all the scandals over the theft of money sent to the Federation, and people like Muhamed Sacirbey:

Ex Bosnia Foreign Minister Arrested For Theft:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations was arrested in New York Tuesday for allegedly stealing about $2.5 million from his government's mission to the international organization. Muhamed Sacirbey, 46, who also has served as Bosnia's foreign minister, was arrested at his home in the city on a warrant issued for the purpose of extradition, the U.S. Marshals Service said...

This is a report from 1999. I extract the section which uses specific examples, and I believe they are all in the Federation:

Leaders In Bosnia Are Said To Steal Up To $1 Billion:
Tuzla, a Muslim city. is one case study of widespread corruption that infects many local governments, the report says. The investigators' report charges that $200 million was missing from this year's budget, in addition to $300 million missing over the last two years.
Tuzla's schools were painted four times last year alone by the city government, although they were rebuilt and painted by international aid organizations as well. Tuzla officials paid two or three times the normal price for such work and sold many of the cans of paint on the local market, the auditors found. Many of the schools, meanwhile, still lack heat, and students must wear their coats to class in the winter.
In the town of Sanski Most, heavily damaged during the war, municipal funds are being used to build a horse racing track, much to the consternation of aid agencies, the report said.
The report charges the town's Mayor, Mehmed Alagic, with 358 counts of corruption. The charges include the theft of $450,000 in relief aid from Saudi Arabia. That money was supposed to be used to provide feed and farm equipment, but the report alleges that the Mayor gave the money instead to his brother to start a bank. The Mayor has denied the charges and accused the Office of the High Representative of mounting a campaign against him.
The most sensitive case under investigation by the antifraud unit concerns the Bosnia and Herzegovina Bank, or BiH, in Sarajevo. The bank took in tens of millions of dollars from international agencies and 10 foreign embassies. The money, the investigators say, was lent to fictional businesses or given as personal loans to friends by the two owners.

Terrorists calling themselves Muslims are causing 90% of the unrest around the whole world. Ignoring this reality is ignorance at it's most blissful depth of delusion.

If those Muslims didn't do a damn thing to deserve what the Serbs alegedly did to them between 1992 and 1995-the Serbs probably didn't do it to them. It was more likely ordered done to them by some militant Muslim Cleric and carried out by his goons, as punsihment for their being bad Muslims for doing nothing to cause the Serbs to retaliate against them.

It's okay for you to babble about WWII though right? We all know the owner of that little mustache you are trying to hang under my nose.

As to Racak, Serb forces executed unarmed civilians, just like they had in Croatia and Bosnia before, and the same idiots who tried to exonerate Milosevic's murderers got quickly to work to lie and deceive with enough volume and repetition to try and drown out the truth of the matter, and you and your opinions are a result of that effort - congratulations on your gullibility.

Does this mean you've finally found some reputable forensic specialists to cast doubt on the OSCE's findings, or are you just teasing us again?

Terrorists calling themselves Muslims are causing 90% of the unrest around the whole world. Ignoring this reality is ignorance at it's most blissful depth of delusion. >>>

But you guys don't care that 99.9% of Muslims don't do a damned thing to Christians. All you want to do is revel in hate hate hate hate. You remember 9/11 like it was some sort of high Islamic ritual instead of the depraved act of a small group of Satanic pirates. It's the moral equivalent of the Jewish blood libel and I for one am sick of it.

If you want to ask God to bring down the fires of eternal vengeance on every living Muslim, (a) don't expect God to answer nicely and (b) don't expect to be able to excrete such wishes on FR without getting a very, very hostile reception.

Hey bro, I was there last month.Evidently, you do not acknowledge what the trauma the local Serbs of Bratunac-Srebrenica, Milici, Skelani corridor experienced prior to the war and the onset. The Muslims did not listen tot he Serbs concerns, the Serbs wanted the same rights as the muslims, the right of self-determination. The muslims were granted the same right, the Serbs were denied after the Serbs voted 99% to seperate themselves from the muslims. >>

Yeah. So they expressed their desire to separate themselve from the Muslims by rounding them up and committing genocide on them. And you support this. God have mercy on you; you are the moral equivalent of a German who looks at Auschwitz and says, "Hey, we had to protect ourselves against the Jews."

Anathema sit.

If those Muslims didn't do a damn thing to deserve what the Serbs alegedly did to them between 1992 and 1995-the Serbs probably didn't do it to them. It was more likely ordered done to them by some militant Muslim Cleric and carried out by his goons, as punsihment for their being bad Muslims for doing nothing to cause the Serbs to retaliate against them. >>

I only just reread your post and saw this amazing paragraph.

Hmmn. The Srebrenica dead, undeniably Muslims, were found with bullets that matched weapons from Serb V Corps rifles. So this scenario would require that the Serb V Corps, in the middle of combat, turn over their weapons to Bosnian Muslim terrorists to shoot their own people, then give the guns back to the Serbs.

It seems that LSD on the market these days seems to be decreasing in quality, judging from your posts.

Your vision is narrow, are you TonkinGulfs nephew or younger sibling?

Sent tremors through you when you discovered your own ignorance when you were told I was there last month, ehh?

You are a LAIR when you say you'd live under Alijas rule after reading his Islamic Declaration.
You care to recite some of his words from his book? I am confidant you have not read it, please enlighten us with his words of peace and co-existant promises.

You still are sure that is what you would do?

The OSCE does more than monitor elections. The OSCE Verification Mission was set up in part to make sure that the Serbs (and Albanians) cooperated with efforts to investigate alleged war crimes. Although they themselves didn't conduct any forensics investigations, the investigations were conducted under their supervision, and they've found no improprieties that anyone's been able to point to. The tests showed that 37 out of the 40 bodies in Racak had residues consistent with having discharged firearms.

Stop avoiding the topic - The Serbs were denied the Right to self-determination whereas the muslims/Croats were granted that exclusionairy right- meaning the Serbs, regardless how they felt or voted, wouldnt be granted a voice. >>

Helloooooo.....McFly......anyone home, McFly?

What you mean is: Either the Serbs get to dictate to everybody or they pick up their balls, assuming they have any, or go home.

In a democracy, you vote and you go along with the will of the majority. If you aren't an outright majority, you work with the others to get your way. That's how it works.

In a tri-ethnic environment, you create alliances. Serbs work with the Croats to keep the Muslims from imposing Sharia, Serbs work with Muslims to keep the checkerboard from becoming the national flag, and Croats and Muslims work together to keep from having to have the Serb 4-c swastika branded on their buttocks to have the right to vote.

What was the war all about? Slobo was afraid he'd lose power, so he dredged up Serb Nationalism so that ignorant nationalist retards would be more afraid of the Muslims than outraged at his theft. And the serb nationalist retards ate every piece of his political excreta. He counted on you guys being idiots, and you delivered.

Well, guess what. You lost. Tough noogie.

The tests showed that 37 out of the 40 bodies in Racak had residues consistent with having discharged firearms.

You mean the circa 1930's paraffin test used by the Serbs and Byelorussians that the EU-FET team discounted because that method has been discarded in the West in the 1960's due to it's non-specificity?

Oh, that one.

Meanwhile, the EU-FET's autopsies and subsequent investigation of the crime scene in November of '99 discounts the Serb spin on Racak, and the trajectories of the bullets that killed the villagers, who were supposedly taken away to Stimlje by their captors, can only be explained by close range firing from the edges of the gully down into the victims.

In short, a massacre.

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