C. Wiebes - Intelligence en de oorlog in Bosnië 1992-1995. De rol van de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten - Engels

261community that the situation was becoming critical and prompting serious thought. 1372 There are alsoreports of intercepts of Serb communication that pointed to VJ involvement in the attack onSrebrenica 1373 and indicated that the commands for executions were issued from Belgrade. 1374The Croats supposedly had identical intelligence, which they passed on to the Bosnian Muslims. 1375According to these sources, no clear orders were ever issued for mass executions but there were vaguereferences such as ‘getting rid of the problem’. 1376 Delic concluded that VJ troops were involved in theattack on Srebrenica, claiming that the ABiH had documents and intercepts to indicate this. Thesewould prove that the VJ and specifically the Arkan Tigers were involved in the attack. 1377 However,these documents were not made available.What did the ABiH claim to know about the column to Tuzla?After the fall of Srebrenica, a long column of over 10,000 Muslims trekked through the mountains toTuzla. On 12 July 1995 the intercept site at Konjuh was ideally positioned for tracking the progress ofthe column and the 2 nd Corps in Tuzla also had an approximate idea of the size of the column. Thiswas confirmed by a Sigint expert of the ABiH. The VRS used denigrating terms, like ‘swines’, to referto the men from Srebrenica. VRS Colonel Vukovic asked: ‘Are you ready for the hunt?’ and orders to‘kill all the beasts’ were issued. The order to catch Oric alive was also intercepted; 1378 apparently, noteveryone was aware that Oric was already in Tuzla. The 2 nd Corps also knew from Comint fromOkresanica that the VRS was hunting down the column. 1379The Sigint unit of the 2 nd Corps in Tuzla knew the VRS frequencies and followed the fate of thecolumn, often through intercepts of orders issued to VRS commanders inside and outside the enclave.During an interview held with the intelligence officer of the 2 nd Corps of the ABiH, Major Sefko Tihichad some intercepted messages brought in which he then read aloud. 1380 The first was allegedly aconversation that took place between Colonel Obrenovic and General Krstic after the fall ofSrebrenica. It ran as follows: ‘How are you? Are there more fish to catch?’ Mention was then made ofthe column. The two men agreed that most of the Muslims would probably step on mines anyway.Then the order was issued to ‘kill all of them’. The second intercept concerned a question from a VRScommander to the commander of a VRS Special Forces unit: ‘Where are my units? Are they in Milici?’The answer was: ‘Yes, they are. They are working there and capturing people’. A third interceptindicated, according to Tihic, that the VRS knew that the ABiH were listening. Here, a VRS soldierwarned Krstic, ‘They are listening to us’. Krstic replied, ‘Let them hear us talk. We will do the same inthe other areas’.At Krstic’s trial intercepts of 15 July were submitted in which a VRS colonel complained toKrstic that he still needed to distribute 3,500 parcels. ‘Parcels’ was the code for Muslims and ‘distribute’1381was the code for execute. The colonel asked Krstic for more men to finish the job. Some of theseintercepts had already been published in the summer of 1998 in Sarajevo Slobodna Bosna by journalistMehmed Pargan, who had managed to lay his hands on 200 pages of intercepted VRS messages and1372 Delic provided no clear answer when asked by the NIOD whether the knowledge obtained from the US source cameonly after the attack.1373 Ed Vulliamy, ‘srebrenica killer in the dock’, The Guardian, 01/06/96.1374 Roy Gutman, ‘Bosnia Evidence Secret’, Newsday, 08/11/95.1375 FOIA State Department, Washington DC, US Mission Vienna to SecState, no. 2135, 26/07/1995.1376 Interview with Sefko Tihic, 08/03/99.1377 Interview with Sead Delic, 10/03/99.1378 Interviews with Hajrudin Kisic, 17 and 18/05/99.1379 UNGE, ICTY, No. 00924932, Okresanica to 2 nd Corps, no. 01/12795, 12/07/95.1380 Interview with Sefko Tihic, 08/03/99.1381 Annieke Kranenberg, ‘Krstic liet ‘pakjes’ in Srebrenica doden’ (Krstic had ‘parcels’ killed in Srebrenica), De Volkskrant,14/03/00 and ‘Krstic aangeklaagd voor volkerenmoord’ (Krstic indicted for genocide), Algemeen Dagblad, 14/03/00.