The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Military Context of the Fall of Srebrenica
against all of the former Yugoslav republics. But the U.S. had announced
in November 1994 that it was no longer going to allow the
U.S. Navy to participate in the sea patrols in the Adriatic enforcing the
arms embargo, 10 and in the sky, the U.S. Air Force was in a position to
“turn a blind eye,” since its AWACS and fighter aircraft played the main
role in enforcing the “no-fly” zone. 11
During July 1994, the Bihac Pocket in far northwestern Bosnia was
the focus of most of the fighting which had died down in other parts of
the country. Bihac played a pivotal role in the outcome of the military
struggle in both Bosnia and Croatia. The independent-minded commander,
Atif Dudakovic, who headed the Bosnian Muslim Army
(BMA) 5th Corps, was ringed by hostile forces. To the north, east and
south, Dudakovic was faced by the Bosnian Serb Army (BSA). To the
west, what had only three years before been an administrative boundary
within Yugoslavia, was now, in theory at least, an “international”
border between Bosnia and Croatia. In reality, the Army of the Krajina
Serb Republic (KSA) did not recognise a border that represented the
very separation they opposed, and so were quite happy to assist the BSA
whenever the need arose. Indeed, since the KSA was formed to oppose
the secession of Croatia from Yugoslavia and consequent relegation of
Serbs to second-class citizens in an independent Croatia, it would have
been contradictory for their army to respect it at all. However, the KSA
was increasingly aware of the growing strength of the Croatian Army
(CA), whose access to the sea made the import of heavy weaponry relatively
easy, especially after the U.S. withdrawal from the naval patrols.
In addition to the well-publicized clashes between Serbs and Muslims
in Bosnia, the Bihac Pocket was the setting for a phenomenon
which the media largely ignored—a significant body of armed Bosnian
Muslims opposed to the supposedly representative Sarajevo-based SDA
regime. In Bosnia’s November 1990 elections, the Muslim politician
and entrepreneur Fikret Abdic had received the biggest share of the
Muslim vote, 12 but after being ousted by the Islamic fundamentalist,
Alija Izetbegovic, he had drifted from political opposition to armed resistance.
Abdic had declared the Autonomous Province of Western
Bosnia, which consisted of the northern half of the Bihac Pocket, where
most of his profitable businesses were based. He loosely allied himself
and the 50,000 Muslims in the Autonomous Province with the Krajina
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