The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Prelude to the Capture of Srebrenica
Commander in Srebrenica. He and Oric slipped into Srebrenica in the
spring of 1992. The attacks on Serbs began almost immediately. On
May 6, the nearby Serb villages of Gniona and Bljeceva were burnt and
plundered. The following day, seven Serbs who tried to escape from Srebrenica
were ambushed and killed. On May 8, Judge Goran Zekic, President
of the Serbian SDS Party and representative to the Bosnian
parliament was murdered, triggering a mass exodus of the 1500 remaining
Serbs in Srebrenica. At this point, scarcely a day went by without
scorched earth attacks on towns and villages such as Sikirici,
Konjevic Polje, Glogova, Zalazje, Fakovici, Kaludra, Loznica, Fakovici,
Agoni, Brezani, Krnica, Zagoni, Zelazije, Orlice, Jezhtica, Bijlaca, Crni
Vhr, Milici, Kamenica, Bjelovac, Kravica, Skelani and Zabokvica.
The massacre of Serbs at Kravica, typical in most ways of these attacks,
gained notoriety mainly because it occurred on Orthodox Christmas,
January 7, 1993. The total number of those massacred is unknown,
but Stankovic examined 48 corpses of people who had been murdered
on their most important holiday. According to Joan Phillips, by March
31, 1993, 1200 Serbs had been killed and 3,000 wounded, adding:
“Today, there are virtually no Serbs left in the entire Srebrenica municipality.
Out of 9300 Serbs who used to live there, less than 900 remain.
Out of the 11,500 Serbs who used to live in the Bratunac municipality,
more than 6000 have fled. In the Srebrenica municipality, only three
Serbian villages remain and around 26 have been destroyed; in the
Bratunac municipality, about 24 Serbian villages have been razed. The
last major Serbian villages in the vicinity of Bratunac and Skelani were
attacked and destroyed on January 7, 1993.” 42
While the U.S. State Department churned out press releases and
briefings citing Muslim reports of abuses by Serbs, Naser Oric’s reignof-terror
was almost entirely absent from press briefings and human
rights reports. Similarly, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations from 1993 through the end of the war in Bosnia,
regularly sponsored resolutions and reports criticizing Serbian abuses,
but used her veto power to block condemnation of Muslim abuses, according
to U.K. representative Sir David Hannay and Russian representative
Yuli Vorontsov. 43
Oric clearly understood that with uncritical U.S. support for the
Izetbegovic government, he could act with impunity. He even video-
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