Warning: This post contains offensive language.
This post was originally published July 11, 2007.
Today marks the 12th 13th anniversary of the massacre in Srebernica. In July 1995, in the United Nations mandated "safe area' of Srebrenica, Serbian forces summarily executed some 8,000 Bosnian men. The forces of the Army of Republika Srpska, led by General Ratko Mladic (still at large in Bosnia for war crimes), "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.", according to a press release by the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Judge Theodor Meron.
The majority of the atrocities were committed by the paramilitary force, the Scorpions. During the trial of Slobodan Medic, the Scorpions unit commander, video tape of various incidents surfaced. These videos are part of much larger video diary of the Bosnian war. In one incident, 6 men are shown being taken from the back of a military vehicle and led to a field. The men are then forced to march single file to meet machine gun fire , one man at a time – by the Scorpions. In the video, the soldiers are making comments to the camera – "Did you get that? Did you film me shooting that mother fucker?" Only 4 of the captured men were initially murdered and the remaining two were forced to drag the bodies to another area. According to testimony, the soldiers were mocking the scene to make it appear the prisoners were killed in combat. The two remaining men are then killed in an outbuilding. During the video, a soldier is shown emptying his entire magazine into the head of one of the prisoners, protesting "I have a few more shells left!"
In conflict characterized by ethnic rivalries, just and unjust may become blurred. Media portrayal in the affected countries during the Bosnian war inspired many of the men to embrace conscription and few were refused, especially by the Scorpions. In 1995, the United Nations forces, UNPROFOR, were overwhelmed by Serbian forces after establishing the safe zone in Srebrenica. Dutch UN forces had attempted to turn back enclosing forces by firing warning shots, but never directly engaged the attacking brigades. UN peacekeepers had made repeated requests to NATO for air support over the area, but the mission was called off due to poor visibility. Further sorties were aborted after Serbian forces threatened to kill captured Dutch personnel and Serbian forces effectively captured the town of Srebrenica on July 11th, 1995. After initial indiscriminate killings of woman and children, many of the men were separated from the rest of the community according to age. Military prisoners were detained based on perceived age of conscription; mostly men deemed old enough for combat. When the situation was complete, over 8,000 civilians were massacred in the worst episode of ethnic cleansing since the extermination of the Jews in World War II.
