Posted on 07/12/2003 1:32:02 PM PDT by a_Turk
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Survivors wept over long rows of caskets Friday and remembered families wiped out in Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II as they buried the newly identified bodies of 282 victims to mark the slaughter's eighth anniversary.
The slayings of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs have come to symbolize Bosnia's devastating 3 1/2-year war.
But Friday's ceremony, held under heavy security in this bleak corner of eastern Bosnia, held signs of hope that the ethnically divided nation may find the will to heal: For the first time, the Bosnian Serb prime minister was among mourners.
"The time has come to talk about everything that happened in this area," the official, Dragan Mikerevic, told 20,000 people who gathered on a grassy field on the outskirts of town where, eight years ago, Bosnian Serb forces separated the victims from their wives, mothers and sisters. The Serb soldiers hauled the men and boys away, forced them to strip and shot them one by one.
The slaughter at Srebrenica, at the time a U.N.-protected zone, began on July 11, 1995, shortly before the end of the war. The victims' bodies were dumped in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia.
Forensics experts have exhumed more than 5,000 bodies, 1,620 of which have been identified through DNA analysis and other techniques.
On Friday, 282 identified bodies were laid to rest at a new Srebrenica cemetery dedicated to the victims. The first 600 identified remains were buried there earlier this year, and several hundred more are expected to be buried this autumn.
Relatives gathered around the caskets, lined up in long rows and draped with green cloths — the color of Islam — as thousands of mourners watched, many weeping openly.
"Why live when you lost everything you were living for?" Ajka Hasanovic, 60, asked as seven members of her family — including her three sons — were buried. "I won't find peace until I lay down next to them." Her husband's remains have not been found.
Male family members carefully lowered the caskets into the ground, while women placed flowers on the graves. Young Muslim women read aloud the names of those buried.
Mustafa Ceric, head of the Islamic community in Bosnia, addressed the crowd of survivors, guests, foreign ambassadors and local politicians.
Calling the Srebrenica massacre one of "humanity's greatest shames," he told the mourners that "truth is our power, justice our destiny, love is our hope and peace is our message."
Ceric also reminded those attending that "the two top fugitives are still laughing in the face of the world, while at the same time the mothers of Srebrenica are still screaming for their sons."
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic — both indicted in 1995 by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites), Netherlands, for genocide and crimes against humanity at Srebrenica and elsewhere — are still at large.
Of the 282 victims buried Friday, 26 were under age 18; the two oldest were 75.
Besides the seven victims bearing the name Hasanovic, mourners buried nine members of the Salihovic family, nine members of the Alic family and six members of the Omerovic family.
Jusuf Rahic, 40, is the only surviving man in his family. He came to bury his father, Safet.
"I lost everybody," he said sadly.
About 250,000 people were killed in the war between Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs. Since the end of the conflict, about 16,500 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves throughout the country.
Tahira Osmanovic, 45, and her 11-year-old daughter, Sahza, came from Colorado — where they started a new life in 1996 — to bury the remains of her husband, Ibrahim, and their 16-year-old son, Edin, at Friday's ceremony.
"I fainted when they separated me from my husband and son, and when I woke up, they were gone," she said. "I never saw them again."
The 'tribunal' is dealing with it, and they can't find 'command responsibility', because there isn't any. Just little ole you saying it doesn't make it so.
longer they stay in the sinking boat, the lower their demonstrated IQ.
Tell that to the defenders of the Alamo. Facts are that Milosevic's boat or Serbia's has not sunk-- yet. But the 'Tribunal's' case has sunk. They're in a corner, 150 'prosecution witnesses' for over a year and a half, actually resulting in making the case for the defense. Milosevic is winning and still has his turn at bat, unless you can prevent it, and it's evident that's what the 'puppet judges' have resorted to. They're trying to run out the clock, Milosevic's clock.
What I wonder, is if anyone can find statements and testimony by named Dutch soldiers where they witnessed any killed (execution style or murdered and not in skirmishes/battle). "DTA" said that if the Dutchbat testifies that the prosecutions' case would fall apart.
Just last week, at the Haque 'Tribunal' the 'prosecution' submitted evidence that the French gave Mladic immunity, and are protecting both Mladic and Karacdzic, who are located in the French zone of Bosnia.
Of course the 'prosecution' had the evidence , but buried it, it took Milosevic to read it into the court record. And a squirming Judge May allowed it.
But Hoplite doesn't squirm, I assume because he has no consience. He just keeps spouting wornout 'propaganda', all of which is being disprove at the Haque by Milosevic.
Explain how the prisoners from the column were held for a period of time, up to a couple of days, then transported by vehicle to execution grounds and then buried in mass graves.
Those who fell during the fighting withdrawal were more or less left in place to rot by the Serbs - who had no reason to hide them. The bodies in the mass graves, on the other hand, many with blindfolds and ligatures, are fatal to your argument - they were prisoners of war and were executed, plain and simple.
I understand your position completely, and I sympathize with your condition.
Have a nice day - just have it somewhere else.
2. "First!" (Do I win anything?)
By the way, here is an account written by a British muslim who volunteered in the Bih Army which you might find interesting.
"There are those that will say that I’ve left out my involvement in the Croatian conflict before going to Bosnia. They will say that I’ve started my story a third of the way through."
So this Englishman fought in Croatia's war against the Serbs before going to Bosnia. The Bosnian Muslims did the same. Why aren't Croatian Serbs allowed to pursue justice against the Bosnian Muslims for crossing over? In one Bosnian town, Banovici, they sent 300 Muslim men to fight and train in Croatia:
http://www.gov.yu/cwc/engleski/7-IZV-EN.html:IX-164
DESIGNATION OF CRIME: Ethnic cleansing
PLACE AND TIME: Banovici, year 1991-1994
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Serbs at the beginning of war were making some 18% of population in Banovici. After the elections and the coming into power of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Serbs were dismissed from the leading positions in the Municipality.
When the war started in Croatia in 1991, president of the Municipality Hukic Mirsad organized the departure of some 300 able-bodied Muslims from the area of the Municipality of Banovici for Croatia for military training and participation in the Croat armed forces.
Most of these men returned in 1992 to the Municipality of Banovici. At the same time, a large number of Muslims were admitted to the reserve units of the police force, while Serbs employed in the interior affairs services were dismissed...
Extrapolating for the whole of Bosnia, there'd have to be thousands. They weren't peaceful and innocent, but trained, and many battle hardened before the Bosnian war. They also were coordinating along with Croatia's military which sent its soldiers to Bosnia to kill Serbs. Why aren't Bosnian Serbs able to pursue justice against Croatia?
And here's another Bosnian man, from Srebrenica no less, (and he's alive today, as this is a recently done, semi-finished documentary), who went to Croatia before the Bosnia war.
A Peaceful Dream: a journey back to the Balkans A Project of Crucible of War Productions"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. Little did Adnan know then that he and his Serbian counterparts would soon be picking up arms again, but in far different circumstances."
So, he is a "survivor", but the question is: was he in Srebrenica during the "fall" or elsewhere? Because it looks awful suspect that he'd go to Croatia to fight there, yet not be there to fight in his own town of Srebrenica. There were thousands of Srebrenica men/soldiers seen in Tuzla after the fall by the Red Cross but the Izetbegovic government wouldn't allow them to learn their names. I think everyone has a right to learn all of their names, as it is the media which is trying and convicting Serbs. We don't have the last name for "Adnan" but there is his picture at the website. If he was one of those who left before the fall or after, he would know the names of others who made it like him.
Yes. It's a tradegy the west aided the destruction of the old Yugoslavia by supporting the neo-fascist secessionist movements. The opposite should have been done: supporting the federal organs and NATO bombing the sh*t out of the Neo-Ustasas and Islamo-fascist seperatists. They wouldn't have dared to provoke a civil war in that case.
You are half right. Yes there was fighting in which some civilians got in the way and some Muslim soldiers were killed as part of the combat. However it was also a massacre, or more specifically--a number of massacres--in which some thousands of Muslim civilians and captured Muslim soldiers were executed. The media may indeed exaggerate the total numbers and circumstances, but the evidence of Serbian atrocities at Srbrenica is overwhelming. What is a guy named after a communist albanian dictator doing on an american conservative forum?
I'm with you on this one, Seselj. What gives, Shoku Enver?
The rest of the bodies were found in and around villages where Nasir Oric's execution squads operated. as for who is a liar.......well let's just say you are telling same tales Bill (I never had s.. with that women) Clinton................
The Islamofascists and Nazis massacred millions of Christians and Jews in the Balkans. The so called Srebenica "massacre" has been disproven over and over again.
Are you implying that the executed had trials? Or were they merely guilty of being Muslims in the hands of a bunch of morons with guns?
I take it your tactic now is to play up the fact that soldiers were killed and that there was combat occurring along the path of the column of men going to Tuzla.
Great - granted, and I don't think that was ever in dispute.
But that still leaves the fact that what the nitwits on trial for in the Hague are being charged with is murdering unarmed men, either civilians or POWs, and I would direct your attention to the guilty pleas of both Momir Nikolic and Dragan Obrenovic and their respective Statements of Facts, which give the lie to you and those like you attempting to whitewash this atrocity.
Are you unawares of the recoveries from mass gravesites that have taken place around Srebrenica in the last 8 years, or are you just playing stupid?
From you: Genocide without corpses is only possible when those like you are preconditioned to accept the lies of Albright, the Muslims, and other propagandists for Muslims.
From me: You are delusional.
Let me suggest that when you read reports from the Balkans that you do not swallow every report hook line and sinker. Those who do are naive fools and you are not that are you?
Meanwhile the Muslim/Turk propaganda machine keeps rolling along and picks up the gullible and those with other agendas along the way..
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