YNF Blog: The truth about the Srebrenica Massacre

NATO, the UN, and the media will tell you that in July of 1995, 8000 muslim men and boys were massacred and dumped into mass graves in Srebrenica.
Let me be the first to say that this is nonsense. A story made up by cowardly Islamists, who lost a battle against an overwhelming force.
As they say, the victor writes the history books. The serbs won this battle, but they lost the war. As a result, islamists survived, trained, and went on to commit large scale terrorist attacks.

Dear fellow readers,

There is no use in apologizing for something one has not done. In that sense, your headline is misleading in two ways. First, the Serbian parliament's motion does not apologize for the so-called massacre, instead it apologizes (as the Dutch UN troops should) for not doing more to prevent it. Secondly, this "apology" narrowly passed by a coalition government cobbled together by the US Embassy does not represent the will of the Serbian people, who most certainly do not believe the Srebrenica "genocide" myth.

A battle took place around the heavily armed Muslim stronghold of Srebrenica before and after Bosnian Serbs escorted the Muslim women and children to safety by buses. The United Nations attests to the fact that no women or children who accepted evacuation were harmed. However, the men of the city, all of whom were armed down to the teenagers, were abandoned by the Bosnian Muslim regular forces who left the town unprotected just before it fell. Those men refused to surrender (fearing revenge killings by Serbs) and thousands of them tried to break out on foot carrying weapons en route to another Muslim stronghold, Tuzla.

That was a fateful and foolish decision in the midst of a war in which Muslim forces in Srebrenica had killed thousands of Serb men women and children in surrounding villages during sneak attacks and nighttime raids (one even on Christmas day) in which they had slaughtered and tortured all Serbs they found.

When the surviving Serbian relatives of those Serbs who had been slaughtered in their beds in cold blood caught armed Muslims running through the woods after the fall of Srebrenica, neither side was thinking of anything other than revenge: the Serbs about how to get revenge, and the Muslims about how to avoid it. The Muslims, abandoned by their officers and in total disarray, were massacred, in a battle, in skirmishes and in ambushes that dragged out over days. That is the "Srebrenica Massacre".

I personally interviewed the head of the UN mission about the fact that Srebrenica was not a safe area but instead a military staging area for the Muslims... a charge that he admitted, on tape.

If war itself is legal, then winning battles against armed killers is also legal. That is why the vast majority of Serbs in both Bosnia and Serbia see no reason to apologize for any "massacre". And that is why the silly fig leaf of this parliamentary vote has no meaning for either Serbs or Muslims.

Moreover, whatever battle did take place in Bosnia was one between the local Serbs and the Muslims, not involving the regular armed forces of Serbia. Had the armed forces of Serbia been engaged in the civil war in Bosnia, as many Serb nationalists wished but Serbian President Milosevic refused to authorize, the whole of the Bosnian Muslim fundamentalist army would have been wiped out, including most of the 911 suicide bombers who were then training for Islamic Jihad against America as volunteers in the Bosnian Muslim ranks.

So, if any apology is due at all, it might be an apology from Serbia to the American people for not having attacked and destroyed the Islamic Jihad in Bosnia, thereby saving the lives of the thousands of victims killed by Bosnian-trained Jihadis in the Twin Towers. Now that was a real massacre.

The truth is a powerful thing and it will always come out. It is inevitable. Once it does, rest assured, we Serbs will gladly accept the apologies of all those who have falsely accused us of everything under the sun, including this unfounded charge of genocide.

Most sincerely,

John Bosnitch
Journalist
Belgrade

It's unfortunate that once again, Mark Lowen’s comments about the Serbian Parliament’s Srebrenica resolution peddles the simplistic, Serbophobe line. If he could make a little more effort to understand the complexities of this much maligned and misunderstood country and it's extraordinary people, his observations might carry more weight.

Of course, there is still a strong groundswell of nationalist opinion here, mostly uninformed and driven perhaps by fear of a loss of identity. For most Serbs, a sense of who they are is almost all they have. Given the recent and historical experience of these people, should we really be surprised? And are these nationalist Serbs really so different from the countless millions of nationalists in the UK, greater Europe and beyond? I think not.

Nobody is entitled to deny that there were some people who called themselves Serbs, who did many dreadful things during the wars which followed the destruction of Yugoslavia. We accept this and deeply regret it, but our criminals are not the only guilty ones. Croats, Albanians and Bosnians of all political and religious persuasions were responsible for appalling atrocities; killing, torture, systematic rape, destruction of entire towns and villages and the forced migration of countless thousands of innocent people. People of all former Yugoslav states became victims, including many thousands of Serbs and most of this happened while the rest of the world looked on, choosing sides and doing nothing until it was much too late.

There is a real sense here, even among more moderate and objective Serbs that justice was not done by NATO and the Western Powers and of course, the Hague Tribunal. I think they are entitled to their doubts, so it is perhaps even more remarkable that the Serbian Parliament's resolution on Srebrenica was approved by a majority of Deputies who voted. Yes, the Radical, reactionary element objected to many aspects of the resolution but most of them did not vote against it, they abstained.

It is cynical in the extreme to interpret this critical moment in the rehabilitation of my adopted country simply as a necessary step on Serbia's path to membership of the EU. It is much more than that. It is a mature and honest attempt to by some very courageous politicians to accept this country's share of responsibility for not doing more to prevent an appalling crime. Perhaps we'll now see similar statesmanship from the leaders of Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo/Albania, from the Dutch and the UN and maybe even NATO? Somehow I doubt it. The crimes of those who acted in their names often had the tacit and sometimes active support of powerful forces in the West, usually enthusiastically aided and abetted by their journalists and commentators.

Reconciliation is a critical component of the post-conflict process and Serbian President Boris Tadic and his more enlightened colleagues deserve credit for their contribution to the process. It took great personal and political courage to do what they did and they should be congratulated. However, the BBC's Mark Lowen and others who maintain the simplistic 'Serb bad, everyone else good' line, do themselves little credit and perhaps they even share some responsibility for many Serbs' continuing mistrust of The West.

If Serbia's destiny lies with the European Union, then Europe must win the hearts and minds of the Serbian people. Serbia has other options and many here look fondly towards their orthodox friends in the East for more sympathy and understanding. There is a real possibility that without the enlightened and forgiving support of the West, a more radical Serbian administration might turn it's back on Europe's glittering promise, preferring instead to trust in old, predictable Russian friends. This may or may not be a bad thing but make no mistake, Serbia and the wider Balkans region are at a historical crossroads. We Serbs still have choices and the choice we make will depend on our suitors' success in winning our hearts and minds. Lowen's and other commentators' predictable rehash of subjective and outdated anti-Serb prejudice will do little to encourage us to anticipate a better future as an equal partner in a progressive Europe.

Andrew Beaumont
Zlatibor
Serbia

Tennis player Novak Djokovic receives flowers as he is welcomed in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica April 3, 2008. Djokovic visited northern Kosovo in support of Serbs protesting against Kosovo's independence.

Serbian Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic, center, shakes hands with his supporters during a pre-election rally in northern, Serb-dominated part of ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, Saturday, April 5, 2008. Serbia's coalition government collapsed early March because of a rift between pro-NATO President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica over Kosovo's independence and Serbia's NATO integration. Parliamentary vote in Serbia will be held May 11.