The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Military Context of the Fall of Srebrenica
UN source stated, the general wanting to “get tough with the Serbs,”
had already been shelved, 51 and the SDA Muslims, eager to use their
newly supplied equipment, lost patience and started to blockade UN-
PROFOR troops in their barracks and threats to request the withdrawal
of UN troops became more common from the SDA leaders. These developments
went largely unreported in news reports.
As Ripley describes them:
The international media never gave great prominence to Muslim
and Bosnian Croat restrictions on freedom of movement
and generally only reported Bosnian Serb harassment of the
UN….Although the media made much of the threat to the enclaves
during June 1995, within western governments there was
no sense of crisis about their imminent fall. The [BSA] had yet
to mount a determined attack on Srebrenica and Zepa as opposed
to just randomly shelling them, actions that the Bosnians
always ‘hyped up’ into acts of ‘genocide’ for the international
media. The results may have been tragic, but in no way could
they be termed significant military acts. 52
By June18, all the hostages had been released unharmed and new
convoy routes to Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde were opened up via Belgrade.
On the very same day, the BMA launched its “Big Push” to break
out of Sarajevo and link up its with territory in central Bosnia.
Ripley’s description of the operation is graphic, by far and away the
most detailed and is quoted at length:
Tens of thousands of Bosnian troops were massed outside the
city for the offensive, which began on 18th June. It included.
2nd, 3rd and 7th Corps troops, as well as units from inside Sarajevo.
It is believed in excess of 10,000 troops were launched
against the Serb minefields and trenches after a series of huge artillery
barrages….
The Muslims pushed troops southwards to try to clear the Sarajevo
Tuzla road from Olovo and Visoko. Other units, brought
into the city through the airport tunnel, tried to push up the
Pale road to cut the supply lines to the Bosnian Serb Army
troops holding the outer siege lines opposite Visoko. Croat artillery
in the Kiseljak pocket joined the offensive, but their support
was distinctly lukewarm. The offensive around Sarajevo
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