Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Bosnian Genocide..Don't forget !!

The Genocide occurred between 1992 and 1995 in the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (a small country that emerged from the break up of former Yugoslavia). The attacks were largely carried out by the Yugoslavian army, Bosnian Serbs & partly by chetnicks from Serbia and Montenegro (neighbouring BiH)

The genocide against Bosnian Muslims was, effectively, an ethnic-cleansing of the bloodiest & most brutal kind. It resulted in more than 200,000 deaths (average of around 198 deaths per day). Civilians - men, women and children - were killed by Serb armies, as well as Serb snipers, who continually shot down helpless innocents in Sarajevo (including 3,500 children). In addition, there was a systematic rounding up and shooting of Bosnian Muslims, either for immediate mass-murder or detention of men and boys in make-shift concentration camps. In order to force Muslim villagers to flee their homes, a large number of women and girls were raped.

Although the UN imposed economic sanctions on Serbia, it fell short of interefering militarily. Indeed, the International Community at large failed to take instant military action to stop the oppression. Consequently, throughout 1993, genocide against Bosnian Muslims was freely committed.

Many areas, which were labelled as 'safe-havens' (controlled by UN peacekeeping forces), were also attacked. At this point, some of the worst genocidal activities of the four year old conflict occurred.

In Srebrenica, an internationally-recognized Safe Haven for Muslims, Dutch U.N. peacekeepers stood by as the Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys between the ages of twelve and sixty. The events at Srebrencia in July 1995 constitute the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II. In addition, the Serbs continued to engage in mass rapes of Muslim females, and a stream of refugees sought safety in Potocari which fell shortly thereafter without any resistance.

On August 30, 1995, effective military intervention finally began as the U.S. led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response to the killings at Srebrenica, targeting Serbian artillery positions throughout Bosnia. The bombardment continued into October. Serb forces also lost ground to Bosnian Muslims, who had received arms shipments & Muslim troops from the Islamic world. As a result, half of Bosnia was eventually retaken by Muslim-Croat troops.

Faced with the heavy NATO bombardment and a string of ground losses to the Muslim-Croat alliance, Serb leader Milosevic was now ready to talk peace.

After three weeks of negotiations, a peace accord was declared. By then, over 250,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while 2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, "the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s."
A number of people have been tried for actively committing or assisting war crimes and genocide. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was being tried on charges of war crimes and genocide, he died before the end of his trial.

Six suspects indicted by The Hague tribunal are still at large. Of those, the most prominent are the Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, indicted for atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Both Karadzic and Mladic are in hiding (possibly in Serb-controlled Bosnia or Serbia itself) and are said to be constantly surrounded by teams of heavily armed bodyguards. Karadzic has evaded capture at least six times and is sheltered by supporters in Bosnia and Montenegro.

Mladic is thought to be protected in Serbia by old comrades from the former Yugoslav Army. He is accused of murdering about 8,000 Muslims in the supposed UN safe haven of Srebrenica in 1995.

There is currently an outstanding international arrest warrant against Karadžić following the Rule 61 of ICTY, which concluded that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused has committed the crimes in question including genocide.

The United States government has since offered a $5 million award for his and Ratko Mladić's arrests.

Efforts to find & arrest these criminals, however, have been far from adequate.

SOURCE: Remember The Bosnian Genocide.

Watch the BBC documentary on the genocide:

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