The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Military Context of the Fall of Srebrenica
coincided with a series of Muslim offensives around the Gorazde
‘safe areas’. ‘It was like the Somme, they just walked into minefields,’
said BBC correspondent Martin Bell who watched the
offensive from high ground inside Sarajevo. ‘We filmed them
[the Bosnians] taking the Pale road; then the Serbs counter attacked.’
Choosing their moment wisely, the Bosnian Serbs let the Muslims
take some frontline positions and then hit their infantry
with artillery as they crossed open ground. The casualties started
to mount and the BMA could not hold their meagre gains from
the inevitable counter attacks.
Thousands of Bosnians died or were injured in the offensive
which ground to a halt after barely a week. Hospitals throughout
central Bosnia were overwhelmed with casualties and the
Sarajevo government had to stop newspapers printing the usual
death notices to try to shore up morale. The Bosnian attacks in
Gorazde were more successful and resulted in a number of tactical
successes with little loss, which played an important part in
securing the enclave from Serb attack during the summer.
UNPROFOR and UNPF intelligence officers were not really
surprised at the defeat of the Sarajevo offensive. The ‘H Hour’
or starting time for the offensive had been widely leaked to the
international press beforehand, so the Serbs had plenty of warning
of the impending attack. Veterans of the Sarajevo press
corps, such as the BBC’s [Martin] Bell, and many senior UN-
PROFOR officers are convinced the attack was designed to fail,
to show up the impotence of the UN and increase the pressure
for US intervention. ‘The ABiH [BMA] June offensive to break
the Sarajevo siege was a glorious sacrifice to preserve Bosnia’s
victim status in the eyes of the world,’ said Lieutenant Colonel
Jim Baxter, General Smith’s military assistant. 53
Despite the ultimate and costly failure of the Sarajevo offensive, the
resurgent BMA was evidently growing in confidence and capability. The
flow of arms and all the other evidence of support by the U.S. and other
powerful countries clearly showed that the Bosnian Serbs were, and
would remain, under enormous pressure. Fuel shortages were seriously
hampering daily operations let alone their war fighting potential.
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