Srebrenica. The days of shame E-Book

Luca Leone

• Herausgeber: Infinito edizioni
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Srebrenica represents a dark and painful chapter in late twentieth-century European history. Here, a still unknown number of Bosnian Muslim citizens were tortured and killed in July 1995. About 8.500 deaths have so far been confirmed, but survivors say 10.701 people died as a result of the blind and racist violence of the Bosnian Serb army led by Ratko Mladic’ and mainly Serb paramilitary forces, as the Dutch UN Peacekeepers and, with them, the entire international community, stood by and did nothing. Srebrenica has been defined ‘genocide’ by various international rulings, the first of which was handed down in April 2004. However, today some people continue to deny what happend, even in the knowledge that they are lying. “Srebrenica. The days of shame” is the first book ever published in Italy about this genocide, the first in Europe since the Holocaust. This is the fourth edition of the book, updated following the capture of Mladic’ (May 2011) and his consignment to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). “There are no mitigating circumstances for Mladić’s full responsibility in the Srebrenica genocide, but the trial of the former general can shed light on the truth and clarify any co-responsibilities for what is and will always remain one of the most dramatic pages in the history of crime in modern and democratic Europe.About the full responsibility of Mladic’ in the genocide of Srebrenica there aren’t mitigating, but the process against the ex-general could shed light on the truth and clarify any co-responsibility in a fact that is and will always remain, one of the most dramatic pages of criminal acts in the modern and democratic Europe.” (Carla Del Ponte, ex Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) “When my friend and great human rights activist Luca Leone wrote the first edition of this book commemorating the Srebrenica genocide he, I and many others hoped that the days of shame would be just that – a matter of 'days'. That truth and justice would be served quickly. From one edition to the next the 'days' have become 'years’ of shame: those up to now, to which the three years prior to 1995 should be added.” (Riccardo Noury, Spokesman for Amnesty International Italy).

Leseprobe

Luca Leone

ISBN: 9788868610951

This ebook was created with BackTypo (http://backtypo.com)by Simplicissimus Book Farm

Table of contents

​Preface

​Introduction

Presentation

Note on Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author's note

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Notes

© Copyright Infinito edizioni

First edition: April 2015

Infinito edizioni S.r.l.

Formigine (MO) - Italy

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ISBN 9788868610951

Translated from the Italian by Laura Clarke

To the women of Srebrenica,

to their children who are no more and to those who, with terrible traumas, survived;

to all women and children,

of whatever nationality and religion,

who have experienced first-hand the monstruous atrocity of war,

starting from the cowardly and premeditated barbarity of ethnic rape;

to their right to justice.

At last.

​Preface

By Carla Del Ponte

ex Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is currently hearing the fourth trial for the crime of genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995, but the main perpetrators, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, are appearing in court only now, after the death of Slobodan Milošević. It took many years of hard work by the Prosecutor's Office, but at last the person materially responsible for the genocide, Mladić, will also have to appear before the judges at The Hague to answer for this crime which, as the title of this book by Luca Leone makes clear, brought and continues to bring shame on the international community for its inability or unwillingness to prevent it, despite having a peacekeeping presence on the ground since Srebrenica had been declared a United Nations (UN) 'safe area'.

Mladić, like Karadžić, could have been arrested much earlier if it had not been for the lack of political will. The ex-general took refuge in Serbia in 1997 under the protection of the government and particularly of the military, which considered him a war hero; he moved from one army barracks to another and circulated freely with an armed escort; he attended events including weddings and football matches and once it even emerged that he had been lunching at a Belgrade restaurant just a few metres from where The Hague's Chief Prosecutor was holding a meeting with diplomats. He made regular visits to his daughter's grave but no one intervened, despite our requests. We received constant information about his presence in various parts of Serbia, including at his cousin's house where he was eventually arrested. All this happened while Serbian President Kostunica was in power; and in our numerous meetings we never failed to inform him of the acts of aiding and abetting Mladić in absconding of which there was evidence.

The change in the political situation in Serbia with the advent of Boris Tadić's presidency at least made Mladić's life as a fugitive more difficult: his pension payments were blocked, he was banned from staying on military premises, he was denied an official escort, his relatives were placed under constant surveillance and he was prevented from having contact with them.

Having obtained all these measures from the Serbian government, in 2003 it seemed that his arrest would be imminent. Unfortunately this was not the case, with the excuse that he could not be pinpointed in time. It was beyond belief, as regular contacts between the Prosecutor and the Serbian intelligence services had shown them to be effective and able. The failure to arrest Mladić was clearly down to lack of political will. Meanwhile, commemorations of Srebrenica were held at the Potočari memorial each 11 July, with the mothers growing increasingly angry with the Prosecutor for the failure to arrest Karadžić and Mladić while the politicians in attendance would make their official speeches and leave without talking to them.

And so it was decided to take the political route to obtain the arrests. Serbia wants to join the European Union, and so we travelled to Brussels and European capitals to demand that the war criminals' capture be made an indispensable precondition for starting the accession process. After innumerable talks, meetings and trips the Chief Prosecutor obtained full support and launched the final phase for obtaining the fugitives' arrest, continuing to exercise political pressure as the situation evolved and forcing the Serbian government to order the arrest of Mladić and Goran Hadžić. The two remaining accused of the 161 top political and military leaders indicted for the serious crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia are now in The Hague. It is a huge achievement for international justice and against impunity for those in power.

The evidence against Mladić and Karadžić for the Srebrenica genocide is overwhelming and they should be tried jointly and just for Srebrenica, given the short time available and the urgent need to obtain Justice and Truth concerning those events. Because Mladić can and must clarify – given that it was he who dealt directly with the UN representatives present to defend the Srebrenica 'Safe Area' – how at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslims could have been killed in the space of just a few days without anyone intervening to prevent the slaughter or, at the very least, to stop it once it had begun. There are no mitigating circumstances for Mladić’s full responsibility in the Srebrenica genocide, but the trial of the former general can shed light on the truth and clarify any co-responsibilities for what is and will always remain one of the most dramatic pages in the history of crime in modern and democratic Europe. Justice for the victims and survivors and, as in Nuremberg, with the pledge of ‘never again’. 

​Introduction

The years of shame

By Riccardo Noury

Spokesman for Amnesty International Italy

When my friend and great human rights activist Luca Leone wrote the first edition of this book commemorating the Srebrenica genocide he, I and many others hoped that the days of shame would be just that – a matter of 'days'. That truth and justice would be served quickly. This would not compensate for the pain and suffering, but it would signify a response from the international community to the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War.

From one edition to the next (a positive sign at least in terms of interest and the desire to remain alongside the women of Srebrenica) the 'days' have become 'years’ of shame: those up to now, to which the three years prior to 1995 should be added. If a fifth edition of this book appears next year it will mark the start of the third decade of shame.

This shame is widely apportioned. Earlier I used the term 'international community', which has the defect of invoking a generic and impersonal responsibility every time it is used. This book gives the names and surnames of those within the United Nations, NATO, individual European governments who, though foreseeing or knowing about the Srebrenica genocide, allowed it to happen. It is well not to forget them. Their responsibility is examined in these pages: an “indelible” responsibility, according to Professor Francesco Guida in Chapter 14. Indelible before the living and the dead and before History itself.

It is also well not to forget the conscious and voluntary inertia – dictated by a presumed and self-perceived racial supremacy – of the Dutch troops on the ground. Sixteen years on, and particularly when I watch the Netherlands play football (because this is what those soldiers did after leaving Bosnia: drink beer and play football), the graffiti left by an anonymous soldier of Dutchbat III on a wall in the compound in Potočari, the base of the blue helmets deployed by Amsterdam to the 'protected area' of Srebrenica, still come to mind: “No teeth...? A mustache...? Smell like shit...? Bosnian girl!”

In particular the prolonged suffering of the mothers, the wives, the daughters of Srebrenica must not be forgotten. The suffering of those who, after all these years, still hope to be able to bury their loved ones, having lost all hope of finding them alive. Assuming, of course, that it is possible to reassemble the remains, dismembered and interred in as many as five different mass graves over a radius of thirty kilometres. What else can explain the preparation and premeditation of the genocide? What else can show that in Srebrenica there were not just 10,000 direct victims, but an even bigger number of indirect ones?

The unbearably tardy delivery of the two main perpetrators of the genocide, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, to international justice may give the women of Srebrenica an hour's relief, little more. Because it is impossible to forget. In Chapter 12 Amor Mašović, chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federal Commission for Tracing Missing Persons, gives an idea of the immensity of the horror. He says: “Not even the German Nazis returned with excavators and trucks after killing their victims and burying them in mass graves to reopen the graves, break up the bodies and move them to secondary graves.”

Italian MEP Mario Borghezio of the Northern League said recently that he would not abandon Mladić, that he would visit him in prison. He should take him this book and hopefully read it first. 

Presentation

By Enisa Bukvić[1]

I have little to add to this fourth edition of this fortunate and important book, Srebrenica. The days of shame, with respect to what I wrote for the first edition in 2005. My thoughts and feelings about the most recent genocide in Europe remain the same. Instead, I would like to ask European citizens what they think about it; those very same citizens, and their fathers and fathers' fathers, who, after the Second World War, said: 'No more genocide!' And have continued to repeat it to this day. But to no avail: Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina are in Europe. I believe the only thing we can do collectively is continue to call for justice for these innocent victims.

Srebrenica evokes pain.

Just how big this is became clear to me a couple of years after the Dayton accords. I had gone to attend a conference organised by the women of Srebrenica at Tuzla sports centre, a large hall in which international sports meetings take place. This vast space was completely covered in fabrics and cushions embroidered with the names of the victims of Srebrenica. The sight was shocking and left me speechless. I read the names of the sons, husbands, brothers, cousins embroidered by these women; I could feel the pain of their suffering deeply, and from that moment it penetrated my heart and has remained there. Now I think about Srebrenica, talk about Srebrenica, cry for Srebrenica and pray for Srebrenica. Perhaps in this way I will be able to help myself overcome the pain and also to help the women of Srebrenica do the same, at least in part. But I know they will carry much suffering inside them until they die.

I often wonder how in a world that speaks of peace, rights and tolerance –today's world – certain events can still be possible: a genocide in the heart of Europe. Why did Europe do nothing to stop it? Bosnia's multicultural community has existed since ancient times and now families with mixed religious and cultural backgrounds represent, directly or indirectly, 42 per cent of the total. Bosnia could have been used as a model for the identity of an enlarged and united Europe; instead, it was ignored. So the expansion of the European Union, multiculturalism and true globalisation – not economic globalisation but the globalisation of culture and values – are merely a utopia? I wonder what world we are living in, where it is leading us.

Over fifteen years have passed since the crimes perpetrated in Srebrenica and the mothers, sisters and wives have still not obtained justice for the loss of their loved ones. What is in the heart of the criminals who carried out the genocide? Why all this hatred? Why did they want to cause so much pain? After long consideration, I came up with the idea of sending thoughts of compassion to these hard hearts in the hope that they might begin to reflect on their crimes, repent and voluntarily turn themselves in to the tribunal in The Hague.

It is right that the population of the Republika Srpska (RS) shouldopenly acknowledge the genocide, asking forgiveness and calling on the local authorities to establish dialogue and reconciliation with other parts of the Bosnian Herzegovinian population. The Dayton accords should be revised and the RS abolished because it rests its foundations on the ethnic cleansing and genocide. This is the only way of stopping the hatred from being passed on to the new generations and of avoiding a repetition of the violence and war in Bosnia and the Balkans.

Serb and Bosnian Serb extremists – the četniks – are the material perpetrators of the crime in Srebrenica and the main culprits of the genocide. Then there is the United Nations (UN), which with resolution 819 put this majority Muslim enclave under its protection. The Dutch soldiers stationed in Srebrenica in July 1995 disarmed the Muslim population with the promise of safety... Instead they stood by and watched as the genocide was carried out. In just a few days the četniks exterminated at least 10,000 Muslim men. Why did the UN not protect these people and keep its promise? Why this support, at least indirectly, to the war criminals?

The main perpetrators of the Srebrenica genocide, Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić, have at last been captured and are now in prison in The Hague. I hope they are handed life sentences. At this point, if the UN really wants to save face it should have its leaders of the time and those in charge of Bosnian peacekeeping operations during the war, who are at least morally co-responsible for the Srebrenica genocide, put on trial. Their names are to be found easily in the pages of this book. Only in this way would justice be served in Srebrenica and in Bosnia.

Dear Srebrenica, all that remains is to talk about you. I know that we must not forget what happened. The whole of humanity should ensure that what happened in Srebrenica never happens again anywhere in the world. The right to life on earth belongs to every human being and it should be equal for everyone; for the strong and weak. Death arrives sooner or later of its own accord without distinctions.

There is no need for man to hasten it.

Note on Bosnia and Herzegovina