The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Prelude to the Capture of Srebrenica
served to diplomatically isolate the Bosnian Serbs. ICTY Chief Judge
Antonio Cassese praised the speedy indictments as a “good political result”
and noted that “these gentlemen will not be able to take part in
peace negotiations” 48 —a strictly political consideration that nonetheless
has failed to discredit the ICTY in the world’s eyes. “I realized that
the War Crimes Tribunal was a huge valuable tool,” the chief U.S. negotiator
Richard Holbrooke told the BBC. “We used it to keep the two
most wanted war criminals in Europe—Karadzic and Mladic—out of
the Dayton peace process and we used it to justify everything that followed.”
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The Bassiouni’s Commission’s silence on Oric and the pattern of the
indictments by the Tribunal reflected the political goals of the U.S.,
which dominated the Security Council on the Bosnia issue, and which
viewed the Tribunal as another weapon to be mobilized on behalf of
the Bosnian government, rather than as an impartial judicial body. Because
the U.S. and other permanent members of the Security Council
had veto power, the work of the ICTY was inherently political and even
the most brazen crimes by Muslim units were given a low priority. Similarly,
officials of the Tribunal allowed investigations of Bosnian President
Izetbegovic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to drag-on for
years until their deaths by natural causes. Spokespersons for the Tribunal
simply announced that no information would be made public about
these investigations and imminent indictments, because the deceased
were unable to defend themselves.
Oric’s destruction of Serbian villages created two major problems for
those under his command in 1993. Srebrenica had depended on pillaging
Serb villages for food, but these sources had been destroyed.
Meanwhile Serbian survivors of the massacres along Muslim supply lines
did their best to block international aid convoys. Muslim refugees inside
Srebrenica complained that food was being diverted to Oric who
set up a lucrative black market. International aid officials encouraged the
refugees to elect one of their own to distribute foods, but a day after a
man was elected to carry out this function, he was murdered.
The second problem for Oric developed following the massacre at
Kravica on Orthodox Christmas 1993, when Bosnian Serbs formed the
Drina Corp to protect surviving Serb inhabitants and to destroy Oric’s
forces. After defeats in Cerska and Koljevic Polje, Oric was pushed back
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