The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Military Context of the Fall of Srebrenica
one fatally. The cry that “Something must be done!” was deafening.
Then on December 14, both Radovan Karadzic and the former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter appeared via telephone on consecutive segments
of the CNN nightly news. Karadzic declared that Carter had agreed to
help in negotiating a comprehensive peace settlement for Bosnia, and
would shortly be travelling there. As a demonstration of the Bosnian
Serbs’ readiness to negotiate, Karadzic announced a series of unilateral
concessions by the Bosnian Serbs effective within 24 hours. 15
This took observers by surprise, but within days the Clinton White
House was busy issuing statements minimising the impact of the initiative
and even casting aspersions on Carter’s grasp of the situation.
Even by the standards of the Balkans, it was an extraordinary situation
in which a former Democratic U.S. President was putting his prestige
and reputation behind a peace plan that at the same time was being undermined
by the incumbent Democratic U.S. President. It later transpired
that the irony was even darker: The Clinton administration was
allowing a flood of arms to the SDA Muslims from Iran, the very country
which had humiliated the United States during Carter’s term in office
by holding its embassy staff hostage for 444 days.
Nevertheless, discussions went ahead under Jimmy Carter’s chairmanship
and, on his departure from Bosnia, he announced a “complete
ceasefire throughout Bosnia to be implemented on December 23.” 16 Although
not party to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA),
as the Carter Agreement was formally known, but in its spirit, the Krajina
Serbs removed road blocks allowing the main Zagreb to Belgrade
highway to reopen on December 21. By the same date, the BSA 5th
Corps had withdrawn from Velika Kladusa in the Bihac pocket allowing
Abdic to reoccupy his headquarters, albeit stripped of almost everything.
O’Shea describes the implementation of the agreement as follows:
[All] sides initially appeared to be committed to the process,
notwithstanding yet another attack on Sarajevo’s market place
in which two men died. Not for the first time there was no clear
indication from where the shells had been fired but it is not unreasonable
to suggest that whoever ordered the attack did so in
the hope of scuttling the Carter Agreement, as well as exerting
some influence on Akashi. He was at that very moment deep in
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