FILE
Naser Oric, war criminal
Murderer From Srebrenica
Muslim soldiers describe him as a man who demanded unquestioning
obedience and iron discipline from his men. Mirsad Sulejmanovic "Skejo"
remembers that "after the attack on Kravica, Naser's soldiers caught
five or six Serbs in the village of Kajici and they slit their throats"
by "REPORTER'S" INVESTIGATIVE TEAM
Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, April 10, 2001
During testimony in the case against General Radislav Krstic, accused on
the basis of command responsibility for war crimes against the Bosniak
population of Srebrenica in July 1995, the chief of staff of the BH Army
at that time, retired General Enver Hadzihasanovic was asked in a
courtroom of the Hague Tribunal why so many thousands of people were
killed after Serb forces took over Srebrenica. Without batting an
eyelash, Hadzihasanovic replied as follows: "To this very day, I have
been asking myself the question what induced those people in the
Republic of Srpska Army to simply murder completely innocent people.
Believe me, I have still not found a decent answer."
Decent answer: To the extent that there can be an explanation for a
crime, in this case it would be that there were guilty people in Srebrenica.
General Hadzihasanovic, as ill-prepared as many others in this country
to acknowledge the crimes that individual members of his people
committed against others, gave a false response because both he
personally and the entire Bosniak military and political leadership are
fully aware of the fact that crimes that took places prior to April
1993, when Srebrenica was declared "a United Nations safe haven". They
are also aware of crimes that occurred later against Serb civilians in
Srebrenica, Skelani, Bratunac and Milici municipalities. These crimes
were committed by Bosniaks from Srebrenica led by their war commander,
Naser Oric.
According to reliable testimony by Serbs and Bosniaks from this region,
through April 1993 units of the Muslim army attacked more than one
hundred Serb villages and hamlets in these four municipalities (70 of
the attacks took place through December 1992), killing approximately
1,000 civilians and members of the Republic of Srpska Army (VRS), and
wounding or injuring between 2,800 and 3,200 Serbs. In the book "A
Chronicle of Our Cemetery", Milivoje Ivanisevic, listing the names of
the people killed and the locations where crimes occurred, presents the
fact that 999 persons of Serb nationality were killed but also warns
that a completely accurate number of victims is impossible to determine
because the fate of persons who were imprisoned, captured or in any
other way found themselves in Muslim-controlled territory remains
unknown. The majority of attacks on unprotected Serb villages near
Srebrenica, Bratunac, Skelani and Milici were led by Naser Oric himself.
Oric's units and Oric personally massacred 87 persons using knives,
pitchforks, blunt objects, by crucifixion, castration, setting on fire
and torture... During this period (May 1992 - February 1993) almost 800
Serb children lost one or both parents; all villages that came under
attack were completely devastated and generally burnt to the ground.
Approximately 5,400 families lost their land and personal property while
approximately 12,800 Serbs or 45 percent of the Serb population of the
region left their homes.
Milosevic's bodyguard: Naser Oric was born in 1967 in Potocarska Rijeka,
Srebrenica municipality. He is a well-educated and trained policeman, a
member of the special forces of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MUP) who prior to the war in BH even served as a member of the personal
security team of Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Serbia.
At the end of 1991 or the beginning of 1992, he returned to Srebrenica
and was given the task by the Bosniak political leadership to organize a
training camp for armed paramilitary and para-police groups in Potocari
near Srebrenica. He had already formed several separate groups in the
town under different command structures. Feuding regarding command
authority was brought to an abrupt halt by a dispatch from Sarajevo
naming Naser Oric as the Srebrenica commander. It is not known exactly
when this order arrived but its effects were felt at the beginning of
May 1992 by the Serbs in Srebrenica and the surrounding region.
The first attacks on Serb villages in Bratunac and Srebrenica
municipalities were carried out the same day - the feast of St. George
[Djurdjevdan] on May 6, 1992. The targets were a part of the village of
Bljeceva (Bratunac municipality) and the hamlet of Gniona (Srebrenica
municipality). According to testimony by surviving Serbs, the attack on
Bljeceva was led by Hasib Ibrahimovic, the attack on Gniona by Naser
Oric himself. The people killed in Bljeceva included the elderly woman
Kosana Zekic (whose throat was slit inside her house), Milan Zekic and
elderly man Gojko Jovanovic, born in 1917. In Gniona two elderly men
were killed: Lazar Simic (1936) and Radojko Milosevic (1928), the later
an ailing and half-blind man who was burned to death inside his house.
The entire village was completely destroyed and burned to the ground.
Marko Slijepcevic and Miladin Vukadinovic, who survived the attack on
Gniona, testified that Oric, using a loudspeaker, called on the Serbs in
the village to surrender and threatened he would kill them all if they
failed to do so.
Oric's crimes: In order to make it clear to the non-Muslim population of
Srebrenica as to what awaited them in the near future unless they moved
out of the town, after the attacks described above Oric ordered the
murder of Goran Zekic, a respected Srebrenica judge and the deputy of
the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in the [former Yugoslav republic of]
Bosnia-Hercegovina Parliament. Zekic was murdered on May 8, 1992 from an
ambush near the village of Zalazje on the approach to Srebrenica. On May
9 Serbs began to leave town.
On June 1 Oric organized an attack on the hamlet of Oparci in Srebrenica
municipality; six local residents were murdered and 22 Serb houses were
burned to the ground. On June 21 the village of Ratkovici was attacked
during which five women and three men ranging in age from 64 to 71 years
were killed. Even greater crimes were committed in the village of
Brezani, Srebrenica municipality, on June 30 when 19 local residents
were murdered.
Milos Novkovic (1956) was found beheaded while Vidoje Lazic (1937) was
crucified and then set on fire. Also set on fire in her house was
Kristina Lazic (1935). Witnesses claim that the attack was led by Oric
and also identified several of his infamous accomplices: former convict
Zulfo Tursanovic, a native of the village of Suceska; Hakija Meholjic,
Akif Ustic (deceased), Huso and Resad Halilovic, Osman Zukic, and Akif
and Vehbija Jahic.
In the villages of Krnjici and Oricevi the fighters slew 16 local
residents on July 5. The throat of Vaso Paraca (1912) was slit while a
pitchfork was driven through the body of Ms. Soka Vujic. On July 12, the
same group committed the greatest crime of all during that bloody summer
in an attack on the hamlet of Zalazje in the immediate vicinity of
Srebrenica. 39 local Serbs were murdered in that hamlet; in addition to
the names already cited, Hajrudin Besic; Azem, Nezir and Hajrudin Bezic,
and Amir Mehmedovic are mentioned as perpetrators.
After a brief pause, the now hardened murderers attacked the village of
Podravanje on September 24, 1992, killing 31 people there. The attackers
were particularly brutal toward the local residents: the victims were
found burned to death, with their throats slit, beheaded, with their
stomachs slit open and killed by blunt objects. On the same day,
September 24, Oric personally led an attack against guards on the
surface excavation site of a bauxite mine 25 kilometers from Milici. The
attack was renewed on December 3 and seven security guards were murdered
and massacred. Besides Oric,
participants in this attack included Zulfo Tursunovic, Becir Mekanic,
Ibrahim Ademovic "Cagura" and Mujo Bektic from the village of Podgaji in
Srebrenic municipality.
Bloody Christmas: Attacks on the villages of Fakovici and Boljevici in
Bratunac municipality (October 5) and Bjelovac and Sikiric (December 14)
and Glogova (December 24, 1992) were preparations for the general attack
by Oric's fighters on the large Serb village of Kravica on the road from
Konjevic Polje to Bratunac. Nineteen local residents were killed in
Fakovici, eight in Boljevici, 24 in Bjelovac, 21 in Sikiric and 16 in
Glogova.
With the fall of Glogova, Kravica was completely surrounded by Muslims.
On Christmas morning, January 7, 1993, 3,000 Muslim fighters led by
Naser Oric attacked. A fierce battle ensued and thanks to the courage of
Serb fighters in the village, many civilians managed to make it out of
Kravica. Everyone who remained in Kravica was slaughtered. The final
score of "the bloody Christmas" was 46 dead and 36 injured soldiers and
civilians. According to the testimony of the survivors, even dogs and
cats were shot while all houses in the village, numbering 690, were
looted and set on fire. Grave markers at the Orthodox cemetery were
destroyed and desecrated, and even the bodies of the deceased were not
spared from looting and desecration.
Not even this was enough for Oric and his killers. On January 16, 1993
they attacked the villages of Cosici, Kostolomci, Kusici (Skelani
municipality), as well as the municipal seat of Skelani itself. On that
day a total of 48 persons were killed in the municipality.
Prisons in Srebrenica: Oric did not like to take prisoners. He took them
only when he had to exchange them for one of his fighters. Several Serbs
have testified that detainees in the basement of the police building,
the courthouse and the municipal building in Srebrenica suffered through
the most horrible torture; some of them died in hospital after being
exchanged.
Veselin Sarac, who died as a result of heavy beatings sustained in
Srebrenica prisons, testified prior to his death that Oric was among the
men who beat him. All surviving prisoners say the greatest perpetrator
of evil was Hakija Meholjic.
Captured Muslim soldiers also testified regarding Oric's crimes. They
describe him as a man who demanded unquestioning obedience and iron
discipline from his men. Mirsad Sulejmanovic "Skejo" remembers that
"after the attack on Kravica, Naser's soldiers caught five or six Serbs
in the village of Kajici and they slit their throats".
The crimes of the Srebrenica Bosniaks could not remain without reaction
on the part of the Serb units. At the end of February 1993, the joint
forces of the VRS Drina Corps launched a counteroffensive, taking
Cerska, Konjevic Polje and liberating Kravica. Oric's forces were pushed
back toward Srebrenica which on April 17, 1993 was declared a "safe
haven" from which they continued to carry out sabotage operations and
ambushes deep into RS territory.
Testimony: The commander of the [Muslim] BH Army at the time, General
Sefer Halilovic, as well as already mentioned General Hadzihasanovic,
gave the same statements before the Hague Tribunal in answer to the
question whether any crimes were committed from the Srebrenica enclave
after April 17, 1993.
"The enclave did not represent a threat to the Bosnian Serbs because the
forces that were protecting it were poorly alarmed. If there were any
sabotage operations conducted from the 'safe haven', I think that was a
mistake," stated Halilovic, while General Hadzihasanovic called the
units in the enclave "useless for combat".
"Mistakes by units useless for combat" continued to take lives of Serb
civilians. In an attack carried out on May 27, 1995 in the region of
Rupovo Brdo in Milici municipality, five Serb civilians who were cutting
wood in the forest were killed. An ambush in the area of Skelani
municipality on June 23 resulted in the murder of four civilians; three
days later, Muslim soldiers from the "safe haven" forced their way into
the village of Visnjica in Milici municipality, killing one and wounding
two civilians.
"In accordance with Oric's good old habit", the village was burned to
the ground.
These three attacks (there were many more of them) from the "safe haven"
were characterized by the fact that they were not ordered by Naser Oric.
Together with 18 "key officers", Oric left Srebrenica in April 1995 for
"training in Zenica", according to the testimony of generals Halilovic
and Hadzihasanovic. If one reads a little between the lines, Halilovic
would go on to accuse the Bosniak political leadership of abandoning the
Srebrenica enclave to the Serbs. From such a position on Halilovic's
part it is possible to draw several conclusions. The Bosniak leadership
knew of Oric's crimes committed in 1992 and 1993 and therefore wished to
remove him from Srebrenica to prevent him from possibly becoming a live
witness in the hands of the Serbs. Second, the sentiment of the Serb
fighters toward the Srebrenica Bosniaks after the above described crimes
could be discerned.
This sentiment was further fanned by the above cited sabotage operations
carried out on the eve of the Serb offensive against Srebrenica. Whether
anyone wants to admit it or not, the Serbs wanted revenge and this
development was favorable to those who wanted to suppress information
about Oric's and all other crimes committed by Bosniaks against Serbs in
the municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Skelani and Milici.
Hague logic: After Serb crimes in Srebrenica, there were few who wanted
or dared to mention Naser Oric and his bloody works in this region. The
complete documentation on the case was submitted to the prosecutors of
the Hague tribunal as early as July 1996 by Marko Arsovic, the then RS
justice minister, and his deputy and the RS liaison officer to the
tribunal, Goran Neskovic, personally. It makes sense that a that time
the Hague prosecutors did not do anything to initiate procedures
regarding any of the documented crimes because protests such as those
recently held in front of the UN headquarters in Sarajevo at that time
were not only the privilege of the women of Srebrenica.
Oric, however, sooner or later had to come before the Hague investigators.
The political moment is right because Serbs in both Belgrade and Banja
Luka are far less nauseated at the very mention of the Tribunal and
Slobodan Milosevic is in jail. In the Public Security Center in Zvornik,
Reporter learned that tribunal investigators have already spent five
days in Milici and Zvornik, where they are questioning exclusively Serb
witnesses regarding Bosniak crimes. A Public Security Center source told
us that this is their third visit in the past two years and assessed
their work as "very thorough and professional". The Zvornik police has
also provided them with new documentation and turned over 10 cases of
criminal charges filed against Naser Oric and his subordinates, whose
criminal activities were proven long ago.
The Hague indictment against Oric is slowly gathering momentum but it
will be finalized, Reporter has learned, depending on political
conditions, as always. Ultimately, it will not be stopped by the
"incomplete" generals' testimony in The Hague, protests or the
destruction of the fence in front of the UN headquarters in Sarajevo, or
even by statements given under coercion, such as Klein's "Oric has not
been arrested and indicted". The truth and justice are on the side of
the victims of the Srebrenica butchers. Justice is slow but, we hope,
within reach.
"The Chronicle of Our Cemetery"
In preparing this article Reporter is deeply indebted to Milivoj
Ivanisevic and his book "The Chronicle of Our Cemetery" in which
everything that occurred from May 1992 to February 1993 in the areas of
Bratunac, Milici, Skelani and Srebrenica municipalities is described and
demonstrated in a distinctly objective and clear manner.
Ivanisevic is an outside associate of the Belgrade Committee for
Gathering of Data on War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and
International Law. This book was published as far back as 1994,
translated into English and French, and sent to all relevant
international political and legal institutions, as
well as the media. If an appropriate response had occurred at that time,
it is possible that further tragedies of both Serbs and Bosniaks in this
region could have been avoided.
"The Chronicle of Our Cemetery" is also the primary source for the book
"Bloody Christmas" on crimes in the village of Kravica, written by
reporter and publicist Boro Miljanovic. The book was originally
published by Belgrade publisher "Magenta" in 1996; a second edition was
published in 2000. Some facts and information from this book were also
used by "Reporter" in preparation of this article.
Translated by S. Lazovic (Pascha, 2001)
http://www.cdsp.neu.edu/info/students/marko/reporter/reporter107.html
Naser Oric, war criminal
Murderer From Srebrenica
Muslim soldiers describe him as a man who demanded unquestioning
obedience and iron discipline from his men. Mirsad Sulejmanovic "Skejo"
remembers that "after the attack on Kravica, Naser's soldiers caught
five or six Serbs in the village of Kajici and they slit their throats"
by "REPORTER'S" INVESTIGATIVE TEAM
Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, April 10, 2001
During testimony in the case against General Radislav Krstic, accused on
the basis of command responsibility for war crimes against the Bosniak
population of Srebrenica in July 1995, the chief of staff of the BH Army
at that time, retired General Enver Hadzihasanovic was asked in a
courtroom of the Hague Tribunal why so many thousands of people were
killed after Serb forces took over Srebrenica. Without batting an
eyelash, Hadzihasanovic replied as follows: "To this very day, I have
been asking myself the question what induced those people in the
Republic of Srpska Army to simply murder completely innocent people.
Believe me, I have still not found a decent answer."
Decent answer: To the extent that there can be an explanation for a
crime, in this case it would be that there were guilty people in Srebrenica.
General Hadzihasanovic, as ill-prepared as many others in this country
to acknowledge the crimes that individual members of his people
committed against others, gave a false response because both he
personally and the entire Bosniak military and political leadership are
fully aware of the fact that crimes that took places prior to April
1993, when Srebrenica was declared "a United Nations safe haven". They
are also aware of crimes that occurred later against Serb civilians in
Srebrenica, Skelani, Bratunac and Milici municipalities. These crimes
were committed by Bosniaks from Srebrenica led by their war commander,
Naser Oric.
According to reliable testimony by Serbs and Bosniaks from this region,
through April 1993 units of the Muslim army attacked more than one
hundred Serb villages and hamlets in these four municipalities (70 of
the attacks took place through December 1992), killing approximately
1,000 civilians and members of the Republic of Srpska Army (VRS), and
wounding or injuring between 2,800 and 3,200 Serbs. In the book "A
Chronicle of Our Cemetery", Milivoje Ivanisevic, listing the names of
the people killed and the locations where crimes occurred, presents the
fact that 999 persons of Serb nationality were killed but also warns
that a completely accurate number of victims is impossible to determine
because the fate of persons who were imprisoned, captured or in any
other way found themselves in Muslim-controlled territory remains
unknown. The majority of attacks on unprotected Serb villages near
Srebrenica, Bratunac, Skelani and Milici were led by Naser Oric himself.
Oric's units and Oric personally massacred 87 persons using knives,
pitchforks, blunt objects, by crucifixion, castration, setting on fire
and torture... During this period (May 1992 - February 1993) almost 800
Serb children lost one or both parents; all villages that came under
attack were completely devastated and generally burnt to the ground.
Approximately 5,400 families lost their land and personal property while
approximately 12,800 Serbs or 45 percent of the Serb population of the
region left their homes.
Milosevic's bodyguard: Naser Oric was born in 1967 in Potocarska Rijeka,
Srebrenica municipality. He is a well-educated and trained policeman, a
member of the special forces of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MUP) who prior to the war in BH even served as a member of the personal
security team of Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Serbia.
At the end of 1991 or the beginning of 1992, he returned to Srebrenica
and was given the task by the Bosniak political leadership to organize a
training camp for armed paramilitary and para-police groups in Potocari
near Srebrenica. He had already formed several separate groups in the
town under different command structures. Feuding regarding command
authority was brought to an abrupt halt by a dispatch from Sarajevo
naming Naser Oric as the Srebrenica commander. It is not known exactly
when this order arrived but its effects were felt at the beginning of
May 1992 by the Serbs in Srebrenica and the surrounding region.
The first attacks on Serb villages in Bratunac and Srebrenica
municipalities were carried out the same day - the feast of St. George
[Djurdjevdan] on May 6, 1992. The targets were a part of the village of
Bljeceva (Bratunac municipality) and the hamlet of Gniona (Srebrenica
municipality). According to testimony by surviving Serbs, the attack on
Bljeceva was led by Hasib Ibrahimovic, the attack on Gniona by Naser
Oric himself. The people killed in Bljeceva included the elderly woman
Kosana Zekic (whose throat was slit inside her house), Milan Zekic and
elderly man Gojko Jovanovic, born in 1917. In Gniona two elderly men
were killed: Lazar Simic (1936) and Radojko Milosevic (1928), the later
an ailing and half-blind man who was burned to death inside his house.
The entire village was completely destroyed and burned to the ground.
Marko Slijepcevic and Miladin Vukadinovic, who survived the attack on
Gniona, testified that Oric, using a loudspeaker, called on the Serbs in
the village to surrender and threatened he would kill them all if they
failed to do so.
Oric's crimes: In order to make it clear to the non-Muslim population of
Srebrenica as to what awaited them in the near future unless they moved
out of the town, after the attacks described above Oric ordered the
murder of Goran Zekic, a respected Srebrenica judge and the deputy of
the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in the [former Yugoslav republic of]
Bosnia-Hercegovina Parliament. Zekic was murdered on May 8, 1992 from an
ambush near the village of Zalazje on the approach to Srebrenica. On May
9 Serbs began to leave town.
On June 1 Oric organized an attack on the hamlet of Oparci in Srebrenica
municipality; six local residents were murdered and 22 Serb houses were
burned to the ground. On June 21 the village of Ratkovici was attacked
during which five women and three men ranging in age from 64 to 71 years
were killed. Even greater crimes were committed in the village of
Brezani, Srebrenica municipality, on June 30 when 19 local residents
were murdered.
Milos Novkovic (1956) was found beheaded while Vidoje Lazic (1937) was
crucified and then set on fire. Also set on fire in her house was
Kristina Lazic (1935). Witnesses claim that the attack was led by Oric
and also identified several of his infamous accomplices: former convict
Zulfo Tursanovic, a native of the village of Suceska; Hakija Meholjic,
Akif Ustic (deceased), Huso and Resad Halilovic, Osman Zukic, and Akif
and Vehbija Jahic.
In the villages of Krnjici and Oricevi the fighters slew 16 local
residents on July 5. The throat of Vaso Paraca (1912) was slit while a
pitchfork was driven through the body of Ms. Soka Vujic. On July 12, the
same group committed the greatest crime of all during that bloody summer
in an attack on the hamlet of Zalazje in the immediate vicinity of
Srebrenica. 39 local Serbs were murdered in that hamlet; in addition to
the names already cited, Hajrudin Besic; Azem, Nezir and Hajrudin Bezic,
and Amir Mehmedovic are mentioned as perpetrators.
After a brief pause, the now hardened murderers attacked the village of
Podravanje on September 24, 1992, killing 31 people there. The attackers
were particularly brutal toward the local residents: the victims were
found burned to death, with their throats slit, beheaded, with their
stomachs slit open and killed by blunt objects. On the same day,
September 24, Oric personally led an attack against guards on the
surface excavation site of a bauxite mine 25 kilometers from Milici. The
attack was renewed on December 3 and seven security guards were murdered
and massacred. Besides Oric,
participants in this attack included Zulfo Tursunovic, Becir Mekanic,
Ibrahim Ademovic "Cagura" and Mujo Bektic from the village of Podgaji in
Srebrenic municipality.
Bloody Christmas: Attacks on the villages of Fakovici and Boljevici in
Bratunac municipality (October 5) and Bjelovac and Sikiric (December 14)
and Glogova (December 24, 1992) were preparations for the general attack
by Oric's fighters on the large Serb village of Kravica on the road from
Konjevic Polje to Bratunac. Nineteen local residents were killed in
Fakovici, eight in Boljevici, 24 in Bjelovac, 21 in Sikiric and 16 in
Glogova.
With the fall of Glogova, Kravica was completely surrounded by Muslims.
On Christmas morning, January 7, 1993, 3,000 Muslim fighters led by
Naser Oric attacked. A fierce battle ensued and thanks to the courage of
Serb fighters in the village, many civilians managed to make it out of
Kravica. Everyone who remained in Kravica was slaughtered. The final
score of "the bloody Christmas" was 46 dead and 36 injured soldiers and
civilians. According to the testimony of the survivors, even dogs and
cats were shot while all houses in the village, numbering 690, were
looted and set on fire. Grave markers at the Orthodox cemetery were
destroyed and desecrated, and even the bodies of the deceased were not
spared from looting and desecration.
Not even this was enough for Oric and his killers. On January 16, 1993
they attacked the villages of Cosici, Kostolomci, Kusici (Skelani
municipality), as well as the municipal seat of Skelani itself. On that
day a total of 48 persons were killed in the municipality.
Prisons in Srebrenica: Oric did not like to take prisoners. He took them
only when he had to exchange them for one of his fighters. Several Serbs
have testified that detainees in the basement of the police building,
the courthouse and the municipal building in Srebrenica suffered through
the most horrible torture; some of them died in hospital after being
exchanged.
Veselin Sarac, who died as a result of heavy beatings sustained in
Srebrenica prisons, testified prior to his death that Oric was among the
men who beat him. All surviving prisoners say the greatest perpetrator
of evil was Hakija Meholjic.
Captured Muslim soldiers also testified regarding Oric's crimes. They
describe him as a man who demanded unquestioning obedience and iron
discipline from his men. Mirsad Sulejmanovic "Skejo" remembers that
"after the attack on Kravica, Naser's soldiers caught five or six Serbs
in the village of Kajici and they slit their throats".
The crimes of the Srebrenica Bosniaks could not remain without reaction
on the part of the Serb units. At the end of February 1993, the joint
forces of the VRS Drina Corps launched a counteroffensive, taking
Cerska, Konjevic Polje and liberating Kravica. Oric's forces were pushed
back toward Srebrenica which on April 17, 1993 was declared a "safe
haven" from which they continued to carry out sabotage operations and
ambushes deep into RS territory.
Testimony: The commander of the [Muslim] BH Army at the time, General
Sefer Halilovic, as well as already mentioned General Hadzihasanovic,
gave the same statements before the Hague Tribunal in answer to the
question whether any crimes were committed from the Srebrenica enclave
after April 17, 1993.
"The enclave did not represent a threat to the Bosnian Serbs because the
forces that were protecting it were poorly alarmed. If there were any
sabotage operations conducted from the 'safe haven', I think that was a
mistake," stated Halilovic, while General Hadzihasanovic called the
units in the enclave "useless for combat".
"Mistakes by units useless for combat" continued to take lives of Serb
civilians. In an attack carried out on May 27, 1995 in the region of
Rupovo Brdo in Milici municipality, five Serb civilians who were cutting
wood in the forest were killed. An ambush in the area of Skelani
municipality on June 23 resulted in the murder of four civilians; three
days later, Muslim soldiers from the "safe haven" forced their way into
the village of Visnjica in Milici municipality, killing one and wounding
two civilians.
"In accordance with Oric's good old habit", the village was burned to
the ground.
These three attacks (there were many more of them) from the "safe haven"
were characterized by the fact that they were not ordered by Naser Oric.
Together with 18 "key officers", Oric left Srebrenica in April 1995 for
"training in Zenica", according to the testimony of generals Halilovic
and Hadzihasanovic. If one reads a little between the lines, Halilovic
would go on to accuse the Bosniak political leadership of abandoning the
Srebrenica enclave to the Serbs. From such a position on Halilovic's
part it is possible to draw several conclusions. The Bosniak leadership
knew of Oric's crimes committed in 1992 and 1993 and therefore wished to
remove him from Srebrenica to prevent him from possibly becoming a live
witness in the hands of the Serbs. Second, the sentiment of the Serb
fighters toward the Srebrenica Bosniaks after the above described crimes
could be discerned.
This sentiment was further fanned by the above cited sabotage operations
carried out on the eve of the Serb offensive against Srebrenica. Whether
anyone wants to admit it or not, the Serbs wanted revenge and this
development was favorable to those who wanted to suppress information
about Oric's and all other crimes committed by Bosniaks against Serbs in
the municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Skelani and Milici.
Hague logic: After Serb crimes in Srebrenica, there were few who wanted
or dared to mention Naser Oric and his bloody works in this region. The
complete documentation on the case was submitted to the prosecutors of
the Hague tribunal as early as July 1996 by Marko Arsovic, the then RS
justice minister, and his deputy and the RS liaison officer to the
tribunal, Goran Neskovic, personally. It makes sense that a that time
the Hague prosecutors did not do anything to initiate procedures
regarding any of the documented crimes because protests such as those
recently held in front of the UN headquarters in Sarajevo at that time
were not only the privilege of the women of Srebrenica.
Oric, however, sooner or later had to come before the Hague investigators.
The political moment is right because Serbs in both Belgrade and Banja
Luka are far less nauseated at the very mention of the Tribunal and
Slobodan Milosevic is in jail. In the Public Security Center in Zvornik,
Reporter learned that tribunal investigators have already spent five
days in Milici and Zvornik, where they are questioning exclusively Serb
witnesses regarding Bosniak crimes. A Public Security Center source told
us that this is their third visit in the past two years and assessed
their work as "very thorough and professional". The Zvornik police has
also provided them with new documentation and turned over 10 cases of
criminal charges filed against Naser Oric and his subordinates, whose
criminal activities were proven long ago.
The Hague indictment against Oric is slowly gathering momentum but it
will be finalized, Reporter has learned, depending on political
conditions, as always. Ultimately, it will not be stopped by the
"incomplete" generals' testimony in The Hague, protests or the
destruction of the fence in front of the UN headquarters in Sarajevo, or
even by statements given under coercion, such as Klein's "Oric has not
been arrested and indicted". The truth and justice are on the side of
the victims of the Srebrenica butchers. Justice is slow but, we hope,
within reach.
"The Chronicle of Our Cemetery"
In preparing this article Reporter is deeply indebted to Milivoj
Ivanisevic and his book "The Chronicle of Our Cemetery" in which
everything that occurred from May 1992 to February 1993 in the areas of
Bratunac, Milici, Skelani and Srebrenica municipalities is described and
demonstrated in a distinctly objective and clear manner.
Ivanisevic is an outside associate of the Belgrade Committee for
Gathering of Data on War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and
International Law. This book was published as far back as 1994,
translated into English and French, and sent to all relevant
international political and legal institutions, as
well as the media. If an appropriate response had occurred at that time,
it is possible that further tragedies of both Serbs and Bosniaks in this
region could have been avoided.
"The Chronicle of Our Cemetery" is also the primary source for the book
"Bloody Christmas" on crimes in the village of Kravica, written by
reporter and publicist Boro Miljanovic. The book was originally
published by Belgrade publisher "Magenta" in 1996; a second edition was
published in 2000. Some facts and information from this book were also
used by "Reporter" in preparation of this article.
Translated by S. Lazovic (Pascha, 2001)
http://www.cdsp.neu.edu/info/students/marko/reporter/reporter107.html