The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

UN Report on Srebrenica—A Distorted Picture of Events
units. The safety of the population should also be guaranteed in
the event that they should attempt to cross to the territory of the
Republika Srpska. The orders made no mention of a forced relocation
of the population. The VRS units were to be ordered
not to destroy any civilian property unless they met with resistance.
Buildings were not to be set on fire. A final instruction,
also of significance, was that the population and prisoners of
war should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
On 11 July all of Srebrenica fell into the hands of the
Bosnian Serbs. 46
The Dutch report notes that General Tolimir’s letter was in the possession
of the ICTY at the Hague, but the Tribunal and news organizations
have chosen not to publicize a crucial document that undermines
the official Srebrenica narrative. While threatened, UN personnel were,
in fact, not harmed by the BSA in this operation. Minimal property
damage was done in the capture of the town and safe passage for more
than 25,000 civilians to Tuzla was provided. Moreover, General Tolimir’s
letter confirms that abuses against captured Muslim soldiers would have
been contrary to military orders.
The UN report does not repeat the oft-stated and false claim that
7,000 - 8,000 military age Muslim men were executed at Srebrenica.
Instead, it focuses on the 2,500 bodies that it alleges had already been
discovered in mass graves (para. 467)—after three-and-a-half years of
bloody fighting. The report echoes the ICTY claim that a “majority” of
the casualties were from executions (para. 467), but gives no supporting
evidence for this unproven claim. Carlos Martins Branco, who debriefed
military observers assigned to Srebrenica, stated to the contrary
that “the mass graves are filled by a limited number of corpses from
both sides, the consequences of heated battle and combat and not the
result of a premeditated plan of genocide.” 47
The only witness before the ICTY to state that he participated in any
executions was the Croatian mercenary Drazen Erdemovic, whom the
Tribunal found mentally incompetent to testify at his own trial. Erdemovic,
however, was used to provide testimony—much of it vague and
contradictory—against Serbian military officers in a highly controversial
plea-bargaining arrangement (see Chapter 5). According to an
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