The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Military Context of the Fall of Srebrenica
peacekeeper where there was no peace to keep, and he suggested the
mission should be withdrawn. But he was told to stay put.
Exactly the same sort of request was being sent to the Dutch top brass
in the Netherlands from Colonel Thom Karremans, then the commanding
officer of the Dutch battalion serving in the role of UN Military
Observers in charge of the Srebrenica safe area. The Dutch
Ministry of Defense’s reaction was to start negotiations to extend the
Ukrainian military observer mission in Zepa to cover Srebrenica as well
by some time in mid-July. But as it turned out, events moved too fast
for this plan.
On June 2, U.S. Air Force pilot Scott O’Grady was shot down over
northern Bosnia. Not only did he eject safely but, miraculously, managed
to avoid capture until his rescue six days later by U.S. marines.
Senior U.S. military figures wanted to bomb Banja Luka airfield in retaliation
but, since hostage negotiations for the UNPROFOR prisoners
were still under way, this was overruled. The downing of O’Grady
had a profound effect on flights over Bosnia causing the risk averse U.S.
Air Force to take much greater care when planning routes and sorties.
A Serb air defence commander explained the attack saying that the U.S.
was simply spying on them and not imposing the “no-fly zone,” which
was regularly being broken by supply flights into Bihac, Tuzla and elsewhere.
By June 7, a British Army artillery regiment was on the ground in
Bosnia, and reconnaissance for its positioning on the strategic Mount
Igman was underway in collaboration with the French, who also started
flying-in heavy artillery for deployment on and around Igman. Located
immediately southwest of Sarajevo and once used for competition when
Yugoslavia hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, Bosnian Serb forces had
captured Igman from the Muslims in 1993 at considerable cost to themselves,
but the UN insisted that control of Igman be turned over to the
UN as a demilitarised zone. The UN then slowly allowed the Muslims
to take it back under their control in yet another example of their lack
of “neutrality.” From Igman, the newly established British and French
forces increased their attacks on Bosnian Serb forces, destroying several
tanks and artillery pieces during June and early July.
General Smith had developed a plan to attempt a “break-in” to Sarajevo
using the British force, an “extremely confrontational” plan, as one
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