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Muslim Commander Vows to Regain Srebrenica By Samir Arnaut
"We will go back," even if blood had to be shed again, Naser Oric told an emotional rally on Friday of 40,000 to 50,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees from the town in eastern Bosnia.
The rally was staged as war crimes investigators unearthed a mass grave near Srebrenica believed to contain missing Muslims. "We want Srebrenica where our sons are," and "We want to go back," people cried, as several women fainted, weeping. Men threw stones and apples and shouted abuse at several speakers. Separatist Serb forces overran the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, expelled some 30,000 Muslim women, children and elderly and U.N. war-crimes investigators say, massacred between 3,000 and 8,000 unarmed men in flight. Authorities say this was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.
A year on from Srebrenica's fall, the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague issued arrest warrants for the
Serbs' political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, both accused of genocide. The bloodbath that overwhelmed U.N. troops mandated to "protect" the Bosnian government enclave led to NATO bombing raids which crippled the Serb war machine and yielded the Dayton peace treaty on Bosnia in December.
U.N. investigators, hampered by slow international bureaucracy, are only now starting to exhume mass graves identified by massacre survivors or spy satellite photos as long ago as August 1995.
"People in blue helmets (the U.N.) took away from us the few arms we had. And we believed in a better tomorrow... the U.N. handed us over to the butcher, it wasn't Mladic who captured us," said Fahrudin Salihovic, president of the Srebrenica municipality.
"(U.N. Secretary General Boutros) Boutros Ghali is responsible for the crimes. Srebrenica will never forgive him.
That was a treason," said Ejup Ganic, a member of the Bosnian presidency and a vice-president of the Muslim-Croat federation. Women, children and aged who survived the Srebrenica massacre now live in extreme poverty around Tuzla, and have next to no hope of returning home.
Many live in dreary collection centres where the food is slop and people sleep crammed in rooms. Most survive on charity. Srebrenica, 75 km (45 miles) southeast of Tuzla, is now a haven for Serb refugees from Bosnian federal territory. Srebrenica women refugees association in Tuzla claim some of the 6,000 men initially listed as missing are still held in Serb prisons, and demand international action to free them.
The rally, organised by the Bosnian government, assembled people from all over Bosnia, who came to Tuzla in buses. Many share the same fate as the Srebrenica refugees, as nationalists on all sides prevent people from returning home, despite commitments they made under the Dayton peace treaty.
"We should not raise problems because of our dead today. (We should) stay calm and dignified," Oric said."But we must and we will go back... We won't let criminals get away with it wherever they may be." "The battle for Bosnia continues with all means until everyone returns to his (pre-war) home. Maybe blood will be spilt on this way, but we have to endure," Oric said. |
TUZLA, Bosnia, July 13 (Reuters) - The former commander of Muslim Srebrenica's military garrison has publicly vowed to regain the "safe area" which fell to separatist Serbs a year ago, despite world promises of protection.
Experts say remains of civilians found in a mass grave near Srebrenica bear evidence they were massacred, not killed in battle as Bosnian Serb officials claim.
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Berserkistan, July 11 · Last Muslim Soldier to Flee Srebrenica Remembers the Day
Berserkistan, July 11 · West Still Shamed a Year after Srebrenica
Berserkistan, July 11 · Dutch Bare Scars over Srebrenica
Berserkistan, July 11 · World Court Reaffirms Genocide Case Against Rump Yugoslavia
Berserkistan, July 3 · Mladic Promised Safety to Srebrenica Muslims
Berserkistan, May 29 · Documentary Claims Serbia Provided Srebrenica Arms
Berserkistan, Massacre Hill Jim Bartlett in Bosnia's Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Ghosts in the Woods Team Berserkistan Investigates a Srebrenica Massacre Site
SREBRENICA
Serbs Massacre Muslims in "Safe Area" of Srebrenica
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
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