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Srebrenica was the first act of the Bosnian genocide

The international legal system accepts Srebrenica massacre  as genocide

 

The elimination of the Bosnian Muslim /Bosniak population of Srebrenica (that began in 1992, not 1995) was part of a project that was intended to achieve the permanent removal of the non-Serb population from a unified Serb territory extending from Serbia, through an arc of Bosnia and eastern Croatia as far as the Croatian Krajina. The killings at Srebrenica in 1995 were so horrendous that it was impossible to overlook them in the way that other systematic measures aimed at ensuring that a viable non-Serb community could ever reconstitute itself in that territory had been ignored - for example the operation of the Prijedor camp system and the Visegrad rapes and killings. The crucial element in the crime of genocide is intent. Mladic intended to destroy the Bosniaks of the prospective Greater Serbia and he was determined to destroy the Bosniaks of Srebrenica. His awareness that the eyes of the international media were on him deprived him of what might have been the most effective means of accomplishing that end, slaughtering the women and children as well (not to mention the logistical considerations). But Mladic physically removed the women and children with the intent that the putatively leaderless survivors of Srebrenica should never be capable of reforming the group and returning it to the location from which Mladic had expelled them with no legitimate excuse for removing them other than to help them escape the terror that he himself controlled. The ICTY found the removal of the women and children confirmatory evidence of the genocidal intent of the Bosnian Serb Army.

 

 

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts that Srebrenica was genocide

 

It is the judges at the International Criminal Court and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia who, after carefully considering the case and the evidence, concluded that what happened at Srebrenica was consistent with the international legal definition of genocide.

 

Judge Theodor Meron (Holocaust survivor) presided over the Krstić appeal when the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia unanimously agreed:

 

“Among the grievous crimes this Tribunal has the duty to punish, the crime of genocide is singled out for special condemnation and opprobrium… The gravity of genocide is reflected in the stringent requirements which must be satisfied before this conviction is imposed. These requirements – the demanding proof of specific intent and the showing that the group was targeted for destruction in its entirety or in substantial part – guard against a danger that convictions for this crime will be imposed lightly. Where these requirements are satisfied, however, the law must not shy away from referring to the crime committed by its proper name. By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand [40,000] Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity. The Bosnian Serb forces were aware, when they embarked on this genocidal venture, that the harm they caused would continue to plague the Bosnian Muslims. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act.”

 

Srebrenica Genocide is judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia {ICTY} and subsequently by the International Court of Justice {ICJ}

 

1.      The Srebrenica Genocide is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II.

2.       In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the "Prosecutor v. Krstić" case, ICTY ruled that the massacre of the enclave's male inhabitants constituted a crime of genocide.

3.      Theodor Meron, the presiding judge, stated: “By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity”.

4.      In February 2007 ICJ concurred with the ICTY judgement that the atrocities committed at Srebrenica constituted a genocide, stating: The ICJ concludes that the acts committed at Srebrenica falling within Article II (a) and (b) of the Convention were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina as such; and accordingly that these were acts of genocide, committed by members of the VRS in and around Srebrenica from about 13 July 1995.

 

Srebrenica was the first act of the Bosnian genocide

 

Numerous relevant sources of different provenance reliably suggest the two initial and basic, essential fundamental settings and provisions for the contemporary events and episodes in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of XX century:

 

First, a classic armed aggression was conducted against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was crime against peace and safety of mankind which is according to the basic understanding and definition an international armed conflict and

 

Second, the worst crimes – crime of genocide was committed in the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Bosniaks under siege.

 

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proved — at least five times — that the Bosnian war was not a ‘civil war’ but a classic armed aggression against Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Presently, there are four legal judgements in which genocide was proven to have happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina, other than Srebrenica.

 

The three international judgments acknowleding that genocide, indeed did take place in Bosnia, other than Srebrenica, include: Prosecutor v Nikola Jorgic (Doboj region), Prosecutor v Novislav Djajic [Dzajic] (Foča region), Prosecutor v Djuradj Kuslic [Kusljic] (Kotor Varos) and Prosecutor v Maksim Sokolovic (Kalesija, Zvornik region).

 

 

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