10th anniversary of Srebenica

[iBrian]

It's ten years on since Srebenica.

For those who don't know: the bloody civil war in Yugoslavia across the mid-1990's had been conveniently ignored by the rest of Europe.

However, eventually, after pressure for action, the UN was sent in to create "safe havens" for civilians.

However, on 11th July 1995, an area outside of Srebencia which was under the protection of a Dutch contingent of the UN, was placed in a direct confrontation with Serbian forces.

Ringing for advice from headquarters, the Dutch were told that the UN policy was of non-confrontation, and that they should not stand in the way of any Serbian advance, and hand over control of the town as requested by the Serbs.

The Dutch walked out of the compund they had been originall told to defend, and the Serbs walked in - and massacred around 7,000 Muslims men and boys - for being Muslim.

The events before the massacre were filmed by a camera crew. The events during the massacre were filmed by Serbian special forces.

Here's a BBC piece on the events:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_4080000/4080690.stm

And now ten years on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4670379.stm

Something I find somewhat staggering is that fervent nationalism within Serbia prevented many people from accepting that the massacre - simply one of many - ever took place.

In fact, according to another BBC peice the Serbs actually saw themselves as victims, with sadistic killings done in their name simply performed by CIA agents, while the Serb commanders hunted down "terrorists":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4078234.stm

Simply something I take in interest in, not least in having seen a program a while back which covered the Dutch retreat from Srebenica.

 

[Postmaster]

Sick acts of our modern days... I've only just recently started to read into this.. But may someone explain to me why the heck the Dutch UN peace keepers turned a blind eye. We are talking about people who are suppose to be professional peace keepers, any of them with the slightest bit of knowledge would have knew that Serbs coming down was bad news.. What the heck were they there for anyway? It's just as discussing as the massacure itself....

Anyway Brian, what makes us think we really know the truth about anything these days... Maybe someone created a stew that over cooked

 

[iBrian]

From what I gather from the documentary I saw, the UN at the time was ordered explicitly not to confront the Serbian forces or to put UN lives in the line of fire. Politically, it was an awkward situation, because the country was technically in civil war, and that makes direct action politically difficult as it would in this instance have pitted the UN as a combatant against the Serbian Army.

In the end, I believe that the UN role was superceded by the NATO attacks on Serbia to protect Kosovo. Perhaps ironically, this was an instance when the US pushed hard to protect Muslims.

Europe really needs to hang its head in shame over the entire Balkans conflict - there were reports of outrages for years, but Europe chose to sit around and do as little as possible, not least because of the multitude of different political positions.

When NATO finally went in, it was the US who provided the majority of frontline firepower. I think this is precisely why Europe realised it needed to create a single European armed forces under the direction of a European general, who would be able to make military decisions without having to refer to 20+ different member parliaments. I'm not sure how far they are in those preparations, though - knowing Europe, it will take years.

 

[Postmaster]

The fact that this event can take place in the Middle of Europe in 1995 and know one around to stop it is unbelievable. How the heck people committing the murders can justify there actions is also beyond me.. Barbaric animals. Greek Cypriots experienced the same thing during the Turkish invasion. 2000 people are missing till today, some have been found in mass graves, but Turkey will not say what has happened to the rest.. Yet no international recognition for these crimes. The Huns were a barbaric race, they settled in Anatolian came all the way from Mongolia and then you have the Northern /Central Europeans. Where ever atrocities like this take place you know the people used to be considered barbaric even from ancient times.

 

[iBrian]

I think it's fair to say that war brings out the worst in humanity - and the worst in huamnity bring out war. There's a lot of horror in the world that the mainstream Western media will rarely cover, but it frankly is so unlikely to touch BRitish lives ordinarily. Which is somewhat tragic.

 

[Postmaster]

It makes me wonder how sick this world would have been without religion, allot of people say some of the problems are from religion inself but I believe that we territorial humans would have been much worse without it.

Let's pray!