10 Year Commemoration of the Genocide of Bosnian Muslims
Bosnian Martyrs Waited 10 Years for Their Funeral
By Adem Yavuz Arslan
Published: Tuesday July 26, 2005
zaman.com
Six hundred and ten of the 8,000 or more Bosnians slaughtered by the Serb soldiers at Potocari near Srebrenica have been identified. These are to be buried on July 11 at a commemoration ceremony. The remains of the dead were brought from Sarajevo to Potocari on Saturday. Thousands of Bosnians gathered along the roads as the coffins passed mourning and prayed for the dead. Some relatives of the martyrs were present at the ceremony attended by the Bosnian President of Republic Suleyman Tihic.
The Bosnian mothers were wearing white headscarves sent from Turkey for the ceremony. The identification of thousands of Bosnians slaughtered by the Serb Chetniks was possible only through advanced DNA techniques as the bodies had been cut up into pieces and buried in different sites so that they could not been recovered. The International Commissions for Missing Persons (ICMP) conducting the identification work of 25,753 missing persons in Bosnia could only identify 7,767 bodies so far. The ICMP director Adin H. Jasarogich said they had taken DNA samples from 71,000 persons since 2000 to compare them with those obtained from the bones of the dead, to identify the bodies. He adds, "The commission was founded in 1996. We collected blood samples from all over former Yugoslavia, and from Srebrenica. We are comparing these with the samples we obtain from the bones." The commission has two branches in Srebrenica and Tuzla, and a forensic institution at the center. Any bone fragment discovered in Bosnian territory is analyzed in depth. Millions of bone fragments have been labeled and kept in stores until all the bones belonging to a body are found. Jasarogich says: "Field units all around over the country gather data and send them to the center. However there are thousands of cases for which we were unable to find a single family to take a DNA sample from. We collected DNA samples from the European countries where the Bosnians had fled. Yet, there are still many cases in relation to which we were unable to find corresponding DNA samples. We cannot bring new bones from the field and open new graves.
Karadzic Circle Gets Narrow
Project coordinator Zlatan Sabanovic says that there are still bones of 6 dead bodies in their store, adding: "Our job is not easy because the dead bodies are in pieces. Sometimes we find bones of one body from different places. We sometimes find bones from different bodies buried together. This is of course proof of a mass execution." Bosnia and Herzegovina Missing Commission Head Amur Marsovic affirms that there are thousands of dead bodies which do not have any relatives to match their DNA's and thousands of corpses whose identities will never be found. Morsovic says there are 4000 such bodies proving that they were victims of a genocide. The preparations for the ceremony on Monday are underway. Foreign minister Abdullah Gul and a parliamentary delegation will represent Turkey at the ceremony also attended by British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and 50 other top level representatives from 50 different countries. More than 600 journalists will also attend ceremony. Strict security measures have been employed in the area after explosives were found recently. The Bosnian government has announced July 11 as a day of mourning. Meanwhile, the freedom walk which began from Tuzla, the place where those who escaped the genocide sheltered, continues. It will end on Monday. About 300 people, who survived the genocide will return to Potori walking the path that they used in order to escape from Srebrenica.
As the anniversary for the genocide approaches, NATO soldiers in Bosnia have increased the frequency of their patrols. Radovan Karadzic's son Alexander Sasa Karadzic was detained in a NATO operation in Pale, Serbia. After the operation by 30 Special Force soldiers Sasa Karadzic was taken to a military center. According to information Zaman received from NATO sources the operations, the frequency of which increased in order to apprehend Karadzic and Mladic, have come close to bringing the leaders of the genocide to justice.URL: http://www.zaman.com/?bl
CHRONOLOGY-Events leading to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre
11 Jul 2005 10:21:46 GMT
Source: Reuters
SREBRENICA, Bosnia, July 11 (Reuters) - Following is a short chronology of events that led to the July 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim males taken from the U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces. The massacre was commemorated on Monday.
1992
April - War breaks out in Bosnia. The Bosnian Serb army (VRS) sweeps eastwards. Srebrenica, a town of 36,000 where Muslims make up 75 percent of the population, is taken over by Serb troops but Muslims regain it after several weeks.
1993
January to March - Serbs start an offensive on Muslim-held areas. Srebrenica and Zepa become isolated enclaves deep in Serb-held territory. Muslims from the area flock to Srebrenica. Its population swells to 60,000. They have little food, water or medical supplies.
April - Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde in eastern Bosnia are declared three of six U.N. "safe areas". The United Nations Protection Force UNPROFOR deploys troops and VRS attacks stop. But the town remains isolated and only a few humanitarian convoys reach it in the following two years.
1995
March - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic orders that Srebrenica and Zepa be entirely cut off and aid convoys be stopped from reaching the towns.
July 9 - Karadzic issues a new order to conquer Srebrenica. The VRS starts Operation Krivaja 95. Troops surround the enclave and attack the observation posts of Dutch peacekeepers, taking about 30 soldiers hostage.
July 10 - The VRS starts shelling Srebrenica. The Dutch force threatens the Serbs with NATO airstrikes if they do not withdraw by morning.
July 11 - NATO planes bomb Serb tanks outside Srebrenica. The VRS threatens to resume shelling and kill the captured Dutch soldiers. Air strikes stop. In the evening, Bosnian Serb commander General Ratko Mladic enters Srebrenica.
July 11-18:
About 15,000 Bosnian Muslim soldiers and male civilians leave Srebrenica overnight, marching through the hills to reach Muslim-held territory. Many die from shelling and sniper fire. VRS soldiers intercept and kill those they catch.
Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica separate women and children and send them to Muslim-held territory on buses and trucks. Males aged 16-70, but also some younger and older, are held for "war crimes screening" .
They are crammed into warehouses, schools and barns in the area outside Srebrenica. They are shot and buried in dozens of mass graves in the area.
A total of about 8,000 men and boys from the enclave are estimated to have been killed in detention or while trying to flee through the woods.
URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09710828.htm
Key facts about 1995 Srebrenica massacre
SREBRENICA, Bosnia, July 11 (Reuters) - Following are the key facts about the July 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys taken by Bosnian Serb troops from the U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica.
* The exact number of victims is not known. U.N. prosecutors say between 7,000 and 8,000 people were killed, a Bosnian Serb government report put it at at least 7,779, while the Bosnian Muslim missing persons commission say it is more than 8,374.
* 42 mass graves have already been exhumed by U.N. and Bosnian teams. Experts estimate there may be another 22 locations in the area around Srebrenica.
* So far, 2,070 victims have been identified. More than 7,000 body bags with full or partial remains await identification through DNA matching with surviving relatives.
Identification is hard: bodies were broken up by excavators that bulldozed them into mass graves. Bodies were also moved from the original graves to secondary locations to conceal the crime.
* The U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague has charged 19 people in connection with the massacre. Six have been sentenced and 10 are being tried or are awaiting trial. Three are at large, including Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic who are charged with genocide for orchestrating the massacre.
URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09514465.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment