In the previous analysis in the “prebunking” series called “Rasvjetljavanje”, we wrote about different types of disinformation that most often appear ahead of the anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. In this analysis, we provide an overview of known facts about the 1995 events in Srebrenica.
Photo: Raskrinkavanje.ba
This analysis was originally published on July 6, 2023.
Even though the former high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, imposed amendments to the Criminal Code in 2021 that prohibit and punish the denial of genocide and the glorification of war crimes, the narrative that genocide was not committed in Srebrenica is still present in the public space.
In previous years, ahead of the genocide anniversary and commemoration in the Potocari Memorial Center on July 11, Raskrinkavanje regularly recorded an increase in inaccurate and manipulative claims that try to support the denialist narrative. Based on the fact-checking analyses that Raskrinkavanje has written on this topic so far (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14), we can conclude that the tries to prove Srebrenica genocide denial narrative employ different claims, angles and strategies. In some cases, it is insinuated or explicitly claimed that the court-established facts about the events in Srebrenica in July 1995 were falsified or that the number of victims was “exaggerated”. Such claims often go “hand in hand” with allegations of some kind of conspiracy whose goal is to portray the Serbs as a “genocidal nation”. In some cases, the number of victims and the details of the events are not rejected, but it is denied that the crimes in Srebrenica constituted genocide.
Individuals, the media, public officials and institutions that make such claims often look for a basis for their arguments in the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Suffering of All People in the Srebrenica region between 1992 and 1995, published in 2021, which concludes that genocide was not committed in Srebrenica. The “independent” commission was formed in 2019 by the Government of Republika Srpska, and the report contains several claims that contradict the facts established in court. Raskrinkavanje wrote in a previous analysis from the series “Rasvjetljavanje” in more detail about this report, as well as all other disinformation that often appears in connection with the genocide in Srebrenica, which you can read here. It was then concluded that, despite the existence of different types of disinformation about Srebrenica, which arise for different reasons and have different goals, the most widespread inaccurate narrative on this topic is the one claiming that no genocide was committed in Srebrenica. Given that this and similar disinformation appears every year ahead of the genocide anniversary, we can expect the same occurrences this year, as well as every year to come.
Therefore, in order to contribute to increasing resistance to such disinformation that may potentially appear in the future, in the continuation of this analysis, we provide an overview of the facts about the 1995 events in Srebrenica, as well as an overview of the definition and characteristics of genocide.
What happened at Srebrenica?
In July 1995, during the war in Bosnia Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys, were killed in the vicinity of Srebrenica after the Republika Army took control of the town.
As stated in the publication of the International Residual Mechanism for UN Criminal Courts entitled “Chronology of Genocide”, the RS Army took control of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, in the operation codenamed “Krivaja 95”. Thousands of residents sought refuge in the UN base in nearby Potocari. The RS army took control of Potocari on July 12 and began separating men and boys and forcibly transferring women and children to Kladanj, which was under the control of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). After the fall of Srebrenica, between 10 and 15,000 men of military age, among whom were civilians and members of the ARBiH, fearing that they would be killed if they went to Potocari, formed a column about ten kilometres long and began to move on foot through the forest in the direction of Tuzla, which was also under the control of the ARBiH. Thousands of these men were captured and, together with the men and boys who were separated in Potocari, killed. The mass executions began on July 13 and lasted until the beginning of August. In the following months, the RS Army, in cooperation with local authorities, began exhuming bodies from the original mass graves and moving them to secondary mass graves in an attempt to cover up evidence of mass executions.
Operation “Krivaja 95” was carried out on the orders of Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the RS Aemy, and was part of a wider plan to eliminate the Bosniak population from the enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa, as recorded in the document “Directive 7”. Karadzic planned the attack on Srebrenica in agreement with the President of the RS People’s Assembly, Momcilo Krajisnik, and the Chief of Staff of the RS Army Drina Corps, Radislav Krstic, according to the publication “Chronology of Genocide”. It also states that on July 12, Lieutenant Colonel of the Drina Corps Vujadin Popovic informed the Assistant Commander for security and intelligence affairs of the Bratunac Brigade, Momir Nikolic, that in the coming days, thousands of women and children would be removed from Potocari, and that the men of military age would be taken away, temporarily detained in Bratunac and then killed. On the same day, the RS Army commander Ratko Mladic told the refugees in Potocari not to be afraid and that nothing bad would happen to them.
Contrary to the allegations about the “exaggerated” number of victims in Srebrenica and/or the claims that the men who were killed in the town vicinity “perished fighting”, which we wrote about in the previous analysis from the “Rasvjetljavanje” series, the evidence from the exhumations of the remains showed that most of the victims were killed in mass executions.
The verdicts classifying the crime in Srebrenica as genocide were passed by the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, the International Court of Justice and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far, more than 50 people have been convicted of crimes in Srebrenica, and of the 20 verdicts by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes in Srebrenica, seven include verdicts for genocide.
Thus, the events in and around Srebrenica in July 1995 were thoroughly investigated and, based on numerous pieces of evidence, facts were established in court.
What constitutes genocide?
The UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as follows:
In this Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such:
– killing group members;
– inflicting serious physical or mental injuries on members of the group;
– deliberately imposing living conditions on a group to lead to its physical destruction in whole or in part;
– imposing measures to prevent births within the group;
– forced transfer of children from one group to another.
This definition directly challenges the claims from the denialist narrative, according to which the crime in Srebrenica does not constitute genocide because of the number, age or military ability of the men and boys killed.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia established that the RS Army killed between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in July 1995, that most of them were killed in mass executions, that the killings did not happen on impulse, but that they were the result of a planned and coordinated operation, and that they were an act of genocide. The court qualified the crime as genocide based on evidence that clearly shows that the RS Army systematically executed thousands of men and forcibly relocated around 25,000 people, knowing that this would lead to the disappearance of the Bosniak population from the area of Srebrenica. According to the Court, the intention to destroy the Bosniak population in Srebrenica was also reflected in the fact that Bosniak homes and the central mosque were destroyed. Based on the evidence, the court therefore concluded that the RS Army killed men of military age to destroy the Bosniak community in Srebrenica.
The fact that mostly men of military age, and not women and children, were killed at Srebrenica is often used as an argument for denying genocide both at the trials of war criminals and in media articles and public appearances by local and regional officials. Nevertheless, from the very definition of genocide, as well as the conclusions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, it is clear that genocide is not defined by the gender or age of the victims.
After all, the claims that only men of military age were killed in Srebrenica are incorrect considering that the youngest victim was the newborn baby Fatima Muhic and that three of the 50 victims buried last year were minors at the time of the execution.
The denial narrative regarding the genocide in Srebrenica, which mainly relies on disinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories and manipulative interpretation of evidence, has been present in the region for decades. Year after year, ahead of July 11, we witness the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories about what happened at Srebrenica. In the media articles, as we saw in the previous analysis from the series “Rasvjetljavanje”, there is also glorification of criminals, calling victims of genocide “butchers” and belittling their families.
All this affects the culture of memory, contributes to the spread of inter-ethnic tensions and creates an atmosphere of fear in the region. This is exactly why it is important to repeat and promote the facts about the Srebrenica genocide.
(Nerma Šehović, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
