In the past years, we have written about different types of disinformation about the genocide in Srebrenica – from denying the facts and fabricating “confessions” and tributes to the manipulation with court verdicts and narratives. The same disinformation will probably appear this year ahead of the genocide anniversary. In this text, we provide information about what was claimed earlier and how to recognize such and similar phenomena.
Photo: Raskrinkavanje.ba
This analysis was originally published on July 7, 2023.
On July 11, 2018, an anonymous news website published fake news claiming that Danijel Subasic and Luka Modric, Croatian national football team players, said that they dedicated the match against England in the semi-final of the World Cup “to the mothers and Bosniaks of Srebrenica”. Allegedly, the football players stated this at a press conference. The news was completely fabricated because neither Subasic nor Modric appeared at the mentioned press conference before the match with England.
Even though the fake news was published on an anonymous news website, it found its way to several other media outlets in the region, which reported about it. The Croatian Football Federation confirmed that the players have never made such a statement.
This example shows that for such media, the annual commemoration day for the victims of genocide, which in 2018 “coincided” with a match at the World Cup in which Croatia competed, is nothing more than an opportunity to attract as many visits to their web pages as possible.
This is just one of many examples of disinformation regarding the Srebrenica genocide, in which the genocide is misused to deceive the public and increase readership, i.e. make money.
A similar example can be found in the claim published by numerous domestic web portals suggesting that Vladimir Putin compared Ukraine to Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he acknowledged the Srebrenica genocide a few days before the attack on Ukraine. The video of the meeting during which this allegedly happened is available on the YouTube channel Ruptly. The focus of the meeting was the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the possibility of Russian recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine (DNR and LNR). In the video, Putin never mentions Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is confirmed by the transcript of the meeting.
In numerous posts published mostly by anonymous news websites, it was also claimed that Novak Djokovic stated that genocide was committed in Srebrenica and that no one can dispute that. We did not find Djokovic’s alleged statement anywhere else except on anonymous news websites. During the previous years, in addition to this kind of fake news, the aim of which is to attract as many visits to a news website as possible and in which fake “confessions” and tributes are often invented, we found many more claims denying the genocide.
This and similar disinformation about the genocide appears frequently in public discourse, mostly ahead of the commemoration of the genocide anniversary on July 11. They come from different sources, in different forms and with different goals, and some of them are repeated every year.
To raise awareness regarding this issue and to help identify it, Raskrinkavanje launched the “prebunking” series called “Rasvjetljavanje”. Therefore, this text, which is part of that series, will point to the already confirmed disinformation about Srebrenica, the ways it spreads, as well as confirmed facts about these topics.
Claims that directly deny the genocide in Srebrenica
Examples of reporting from last year show how the spread of the most widespread disinformation and inaccurate narrative about Srebrenica, the one about genocide denial, works in practice in the media.
Thus, ahead of the commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in 2022, certain media from the region promoted denial, conspiracy theories and hate speech. Most of the media from Republika Srpska reported on the commemoration in Potocari briefly, in articles using mostly basic information regarding the event. Some articles cited officials, public figures, politicians who deny the genocide and individuals who accuse the international community and part of the BiH public of belittling the Serb victims (1, 2, 3).
Various actors from the world of politics, academia and similar circles often participate in the spread of such narratives, and they try to give credibility to inaccurate claims with their authority.
In spreading this particular narrative, Milorad Kojic, the then director of the RS Center for Research on War, War Crimes and the Search for the Missing, was often quoted as claiming that Bosniak and international representatives did not stop belittling Serb victims and their families, then the leader of the United Srpska, who believed that “the Serb victims were discriminated against” or Radomir Lukic, law professor who stated that “genocide was not committed”.
In the above examples, we are talking about statements that the media quoted without any critical comment on their content and without pointing out the fact that the genocide in Srebrenica was a war crime that took place in July 1995, when more than 8,000 men and boys were killed in and around the town. Judgments qualifying this crime as genocide were passed by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Our partner web portal Istinomjer wrote about the statements made by political officials, domestic as well as foreign, who deny the genocide in Srebrenica. One such statement appeared after the high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt issued the Decision to amend the Law on the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, a memorial and cemetery for the victims of the 1995 genocide.
On this occasion, the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik reacted, asserting that no genocide was committed at Srebrenica. Dodik also denied the Srebrenica genocide in June 2021, which Istinomjer also wrote about.
In addition to domestic officials, foreign officials also participate in spreading this narrative. Responding to US President Joe Biden, who stated that Putin must be held accountable for the crimes committed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, among other things, denied the genocide in Srebrenica. Zakharova said on Facebook that the genocide in Srebrenica was a “production”, and her post was published in numerous local media.
Disinformative claims regarding the genocide in Srebrenica are not only published by the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or in the RS.
In the past years, such claims were also published by certain media in Serbia. On July 11, 2022, the Serbian tabloid Informer published an article entitled “YOU’RE LYING! GENOCIDE WAS NOT COMMITTED IN SREBRENICA! A crime that has been used against Serbs for 27 years! THE EVIDENCE IS UNDISPUTABLE!”. The article states that “The Hague court” and international experts found that “there is no way genocide was committed at Srebrenica”. It is a complete fabrication because the court rulings unequivocally established that genocide was committed at Srebrenica.
The report of the Independent International Commission on Srebrenica and the “statements” of a CIA agent
The claim that “international experts” found that “there is no way genocide was committed at Srebrenica” refers to the Report of the Independent International Commission on Srebrenica, led by Gideon Greif, a historian from Israel. The independent international commission, which published this report, was commissioned by Republika Srpska in February 2019 with the aim of “reinvestigating the suffering of all people in the Srebrenica region”. The document contains conclusions that are contrary to the conclusions of several judgments of the Hague Tribunal.
For more than a decade, news websites have been publishing a fictional interview with former CIA agent Robert Baer. Quotes from the “interview” are viral, in which Baer allegedly confirms that “the CIA broke up Yugoslavia”, but also that the genocide in Srebrenica is “political marketing” and that this “story is exaggerated” since “the town of Srebrenica was sacrificed because, after that alleged crime by the Serbs, America had a reason to attack”. Raskrinkavanje contacted Robert Baer through his publishing company to inquire about the authenticity of the “interview” circulating in the region for over a decade. Baer confirmed that it is pure fiction.
“The interview indeed was completely made up. During the short time I was in Sarajevo I worked strictly on Middle Eastern terrorism, and knew next to nothing about local politics”, Baer told Raskrinkavanje’s team.
Another way of trying to prove that genocide was not committed in Srebrenica is to present incorrect claims about the victims.
Ahead of the 27th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, tabloids Novosti and Informer published articles in which incorrect claims were made about the victims of the genocide who were buried in Potocari that year (1, 2). The articles contain unsubstantiated allegations that the victims who were buried in 2022 participated in crimes against Serbs and that they were “killed fighting”. Indeed, more than 30 names from the list of victims who were buried in Potocari that year can be found in the Unified Register of Veterans of FBiH, which is managed by the Federal Ministry for Veteran Affairs. We have not found evidence that would confirm the accuracy of the allegations that these are people who “committed crimes against Serbs”. The register does not show data that could confirm such a thing, and the article does not provide any other evidence for this claim at all.
According to the publication of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia entitled “Facts about Srebrenica”, evidence from the exhumations of the remains showed that most of the victims were killed in mass executions. This clearly proves that the claim from Novosti’s article suggesting that the genocide victims who were buried in Potocari “died fighting” is incorrect.
Manipulation with court rulings
The Appeals Chamber of the International Mechanism for Criminal Courts passed on June 8, 2021 the second-instance verdict for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the former commander of the RS Army Ratko Mladic.
The panel, rejecting the appeal of Mladic’s defence, confirmed the first-instance verdict from November 2017, which sentenced Mladic to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of laws or customs of war during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (link).
Some media, reporting on the dissenting opinion of Judge Prisca Matimba Nyamba, who chaired the Appeals Chamber of the International Mechanism for Criminal Courts in the case of Ratko Mladic’s defence appeals, stated that she “wanted to acquit him”. The fact is that this is not stated in the dissenting opinion of this judge.
Judge Nyamba’s dissenting opinion is published in its entirety in Chapter 6 of the judgment against Ratko Mladic. In it, Nyambe considers the individual points of the appeal filed by Mladic’s defence. She believes that the defence appeal should have been accepted on all counts, except for count 6, which refers to the joint criminal enterprise of taking hostages of UNPROFOR and UNMO personnel in Pale, Banja Luka, Gorazde and in and around Sarajevo.
Judge Nyambe actually expressed the opinion that Mladic should be tried again on all counts of the appeal except for count 6, and not that he should be acquitted.
Unfounded accusations of imposing collective guilt and “recognition” of genocide
In addition to claims directly denying the genocide, the local media also published inaccurate and manipulative claims that the Serbs as a nation were declared “genocidal” in various ways.
Raskrinkavanje thus verified the accuracy of the allegations in which it is claimed that Russia prevented labeling the Serbs a genocidal nation in a resolution of the UN Security Council. The vote in the UN Security Council on a draft resolution condemning the crime of genocide committed in Srebrenica as established in court verdicts and expressing the understanding that accepting the tragic events of 1995 as genocide is a condition for reconciliation was held on July 8, 2015. Russia vetoed the draft during the vote.
In the draft resolution, the term “people” or “nation” is not used in the context of the Serbian or any other nation. The draft resolution refers to court verdicts on the genocide in Srebrenica. In these verdicts, no collective guilt was established, but individuals serving sentences for confirmed war crimes and genocide are clearly and unequivocally singled out.
In January 2022, the Serbian tabloid Kurir published an article in which it was falsely claimed that Severina Vuckovic, a singer from Croatia, “accused the Serbs of being a genocidal nation”. Commenting on the reasons why she will not work for UNA television, Severina previously told Vecernji list that she “does not want to participate in a project that has to do with a person who does not admit that genocide was committed in Srebrenica”, referring to the then member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik. So, in this case, the media incorrectly presented her statement related to Dodik’s denial of genocide as calling an entire nation genocidal.
Besides incorrect allegations that there are efforts to have the Serbs declared “genocidal”, claims that there are “coercions” to recognise the genocide in Srebrenica are also not rare. Implicitly, they deny the fact that genocide was committed.
One such example is an article published in June 2022 by news website Novosti, another media outlet from Serbia, which states the incorrect claim that visitors to the Potocari Memorial Center will have to sign a statement acknowledging the genocide in Srebrenica when entering the complex.
The Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center is a memorial and cemetery for the genocide victims, which opened in September 2003. Emir Suljagic, director of the Potocari Memorial Center, denied allegations that there are plans to introduce the signing of statements to acknowledge the genocide upon entering the Memorial Center. In addition, Suljagic pointed out that no one from Novosti contacted him before the publication of the article.
Raskrinkavanje wrote about a similar example in an analysis from 2021. At the time, it was claimed that “a secret document was leaked” containing a list of everything “that the Serbs will not be allowed to deny in addition to the genocide in Srebrenica”. An article with that title was published on the news website Sputnik. The allegation regarding the existence of such a document is completely false.
In fact, there is no mention of any document in the text of Sputnik. It features the opinion of the author and how he interprets the move of the high representative in BiH and the motives for his decision in the context of amending the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina with provisions prohibiting the denial of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for which there are second-instance court verdicts. The author actually concludes that the decision of the high representative implies the creation of some future “secret document”.
In conclusion, different actors participate in the creation and spread of disinformation about Srebrenica in different ways and for different reasons. Past practice assures us that we can expect the same and similar phenomena in the period leading up to the July 11 anniversary this year as well.
In order to resist the influence of such disinformation, should it appear again in the period ahead, it is important to be able to recognize it, to understand why it exists, where it comes from and what its purpose is. The “Rasvjetljavanje” series published by Raskrinkavanje tries to contribute to that, and in the texts that follow in the coming days, read more about other aspects of disinformation regarding the genocide in Srebrenica.
Read all the analyses from our “Rasvjetljavanje” series at this link.
(Mladen Lakić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)