The Srebrenica massacre, also called genocide of Srebrenicawas a massacre committed in July 1995 from Serbo-Bosnian troops against the Bosgnacca population who lived in this city of Eastern Bosnia.
According to the most accredited estimate, just three days they were brutally killed 8,372 people, almost all male. The episode is in the context of the Yugoslave wars and, more specifically, in the war that broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, during which the three parts in question (Serbs of Bosnia, Croati and Bosgnacchi) were responsible for massacres and atrocities. For the massacre of Srebrenica, the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia He sentenced 21 people. However, controversy on some issues are still underway, such as the failure to intervene by the UN Blu helmets and crimes committed by the Bosgnacchi against Serbian-Bosniaci before the massacre.
Wars in Yugoslavia and the situation in Bosnia
There Yugoslavia It was made up of six political entities inhabited by different populations for ethnicity and religion: Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. In the 90s, however, the six republics that made up separated, giving life to Independent states.
The dissolution caused bloody discountsand Bosnia-Herzegovina was the scene of particularly heinous violence, being The most multi -ethnic of the republics. Bosnia-Herzegovina was in fact inhabited by three main ethnic groups:
- Bosgnacchicitizens of Muslim religion (today they constitute about 51% of the total population);
- Serbian-bosniaccitizens of Serbian ethnicity and Christian Orthodox religion (about 31% of the population);
- Croatian of Christian-Catholic religion (about 16% of the population).
Bosnia was therefore the scene of strong tensions. In 1991, when the National Parliament declared theindependence from Yugoslaviathe political representatives of the Serbian-Bosnian population, headed by Radovan Karadzic and supported by Belgrade governmentrefused the decision and proclaimed the birth of the Srpska Republicthat is, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, on the territories in which the Serbian component was majority.
All three ethnic groups in Bosnia constituted armed forces: the army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Arbitah) for the Bosgnacca part, the army of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VRS) for Serbo-Bosniaci, the Croatian defense council (HVO) for the Croatian part. The war broke out in 1992 and lasted until the end of 1995, when he ended thanks to Dayton agreements.
The situation of Srebrenica and the crimes against the Serbs
Srebrenica was a city inhabited by a majority Bosgnacca located in a territory a Serbian majorityTherefore it was a sort of enclave. In 1992 the city was besieged by the Serbian-Bosnian army, commanded Radko Mladicwhich intended to eliminate the bosgnacca presence in the area. In Srebrenica the Bosgnacco Army was also present, commanded Nser oricwho was responsible for crimes against the population of Serbo-Bosnian (the extent of the massacres has never been ascertained). Certainly Srebrenica was a city full of tensions and in 1993 the UN declared it a protected area, together with other Bosnian cities, deploying its own in the area blue helmets.
The massacre of the Bosgnacchi in Srebrenica
In the July 1995 Mladic troops launched an attack on the Enclave of Srebrenica. There, thousands of Bosniaci had fled three years earlier, when hostility began, because because the UN had declared it a protected area. But to mention the writer Paolo Rumiz, “Srebrenica has become their trap”.
General Serbian Milanovic said to Radio Belgrade:
Srebrenica is a huge appearance room. They can only stay sitting and wait when we will arrive to finish the job.
Still, the world remained to look.
In those days, in Srebrenica there were about 600 Dutch blue helmetswho shot some shots in the air, but did not offer a real resistance, as required by resolution 836 of the UN. Colonel Karremans launched the alarm for the arrival of Mladic troops, asking air support on 6 and 8 July, and making a second request three days later. But the Dutch general Nicolai, stationed in Sarajevo, refused to forward his requests to the French general Janvier, who was responsible at the UN headquarters in Zagreb. Only on 11 July, when Mladic’s tanks have now entered Srebrenic, Nicolai transmitted the request, but It was too late. At the F-16s who were already in flight on the city he was ordered to return to the Italian bases to refuel, and the blue helmets retired with the motivation to “do not have sufficient forces to counter the Serbian-Bosnian advance”. Serbo-Bosnian troops were thus able to implement their plan without obstacles “ethnic cleaning“(term they coined and then reused several times to describe the genocides).
The massacre began immediately after the conquest. Serbian soldiers, shared by Serbian Paramilite Militia of the Scorpionsseparated men from women and children and they carried out mass executions in different locations. Bosgnacchi male citizens were aligned and demolished with machine gunshots. The massacres continued for several days, until July 19, and the corpses were buried in was common. The number of victims, according to the Bosnian Commission for disappeared people, is equal to 8,372 men. At the moment, only 6,930 have been identified.
The women – young, old and girls – suffered the horror of the rape: in fact they were almost 50 thousand women raped systematically from the soldiers of the Serbian army or from the paramilitary groups to their service.
In Dayton agreements of November 1995 which sanctioned the end of the war, Srebrenica was assigned to the Srpska Republic, the extent of the Bosnian state with a Serbian majority (Bosnia, based on Dayton’s agreements, is a state composed of two semi-autonome political entities, a Bosgnacca and a Serbo-Bosnian).
Judicial and controversy procedures
The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia He sentenced 21 people for the massacre of Srebrenica, including Radovan Karadzic and Radko Mladic, who are serving thelife imprisonment.
The Government of Serbia It was not recognized responsible: although he supported the Serbian-Bosnian, it does not appear that he gave the green light to the massacre or was aware of it.
The Srebrenica massacre causes bright discussions in the Netherlands regarding the role of blue helmetsin particular because they refused to welcome Bosgnacchi refugees in their base, making them end up in the hands of the executioners.
Another question discussed is that of massacres made by the Bosgnacchi to the detriment of the Serbo-Bosnian. The Serbian government and the Srpska Republic argue that the Bosgnacco Army killed thousands of Serbian-Bosnian (estimates up to 3500 victims), implicitly asserting that the massacre made in July 1995 by Mladic soldiers was a Act of revenge for the massacres of which they had been victims. To date, the number of Serbo-Bosnian victims is not ascertained. During the war in question, therefore, they were committed hesitated crimes from all sides into questionalthough the Srebrenica massacre, due to the extent of the massacre, is the most serious and bloody episode.
