The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Prelude to the Capture of Srebrenica
government forces using their “safe area” status as a staging area to attack
and occupy the Serb inhabited Grabez plateau region. When Serbs
responded by bringing their forces to the edge of the zone, Bosnian Foreign
Minister Haris Silajdzic told a startled press conference in Sarajevo
that ‘’The situation in Bihac is dramatic,’’ and added that “Akashi and
Rose are responsible for the deaths of 70,000 people.‘’ 60 As fighting subsided
and General Rose and UN officers journeyed to Bihac, the Bosnian
government lowered their casualty count to 14,000. John Simpson
of the BBC reported that Muslim forces threatened the lives of UN officials
who used lower casualty figures, but that the UN estimated that
“fewer than 1000” people had been killed in fighting around Bihac that
had been initiated by the Muslim side. 61
Preparing a Sacrifice
The failure of the safe area concept had become increasingly apparent
to international officials involved in mediation efforts by the end of
1994. The crucial question was: Would the fate of these areas be resolved
by diplomacy, or by military means? Because U.S. military and
political support for the Muslim government had repeatedly undermined
efforts to end the war through negotiations, the European Union
and UN officials encouraged the United States to become more deeply
involved in negotiations through the Contact Group, which also included
Russia. Diplomacy, however, made little headway, despite the
efforts of U.S. envoy Robert Frasure, because the Bosnian Muslim leaders
were increasingly confident they could prevail militarily, thanks in
large part to American support.
As early as 1993, in discussions with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic,
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic proposed the exchange of
Serb-held Vogosca, a suburb of Sarajevo, for Srebrenica. Eventually, this
idea was taken up by mediators. “There was a consensus amongst the
negotiators (the U.S. administration, the UN and European governments)
that it was impossible to maintain the three Muslim enclaves,
and that they should be exchanged for territories in Central Bosnia,”
writes Carlos Martin Branco who served with the UN Secretariat in
Bosnia. He continued: “Madeleine Albright suggested this exchange on
numerous occasions to Izetbegovic, based on the proposals of the Contact
Group….The truth is that both the Americans and President
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