Report on Višegrad by Prof. David Pettigrew
Witnessing Exhumations on the Drina: Fifteen Years After Dayton:
Note: photographs that accompany the report can be found here.
In July 2009, the Lukić cousins, Milan and Sredoje, were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of war crimes committed in Višegrad, a town in Eastern Bosnia, between 7 June 1992 and 10 October 1994. Milan Lukić was a leader, and Sredoje Lukić a member, of the “White Eagles,” a special military unit under the authority of the Bosnian Serb Army. The White Eagles terrorized many other towns in eastern Bosnia as well, including Zvornik. As part of the general pattern of “ethnic cleansing” that characterized the founding of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb Army forcibly displaced some 10,000 Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) from the Višegrad municipality and destroyed local mosques. The mosque in the center of Višegrad, for example, was leveled, and it has not been rebuilt. In addition, Serb forces murdered nearly 3,000 Bosniaks in the Višegrad area. The murders were both systematic and random. Under the local “Crisis Committee” that coordinated civil and military units, many community and religious leaders were identified and targeted. Other residents were caught in periodic round-ups. The Lukić cousins themselves were convicted of two separate incidents of forcing 120 civilians into two houses and setting the houses on fire, killing nearly all of the occupants: women, children and elderly. Many other civilians were viciously murdered on the town’s Ottoman bridge and on the riverbank. Their bodies were thrown into the Drina river. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 of the victims are still missing.
Upon the reading of his guilty verdict in 2009, Milan Lukić–who had been apprehended in Buenos Aires in 2005– shook his head, expressing his disdain and denying his crimes. His denial is indicative of widespread denial in Višegrad and in Republika Srpska today. This past July 12, the day after the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the genocide at Srebrenica, the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, denied that the genocide at Srebrenica had occurred.
However, recent work on a nearby dam caused the level of the Drina river to drop dramatically. In defiance of the denials of Lukić and Dodik, the bones of the victims were suddenly visible on the riverbanks and in the riverbed.
The Bosnia Missing Persons Institute (MPI) was able to begin combing the riverbanks and marking the bones. Here a bone protruded from the mud, there a collection of bones was visible on the surface: a finger, a radius bone and a vertebrae. Yellow flags marked the bones and orange flags marked unexploded grenades and shells.
During one of their first forays on July 27, the Institute’s team was fired upon by an unidentified gunman. Approximately a week later, on August 4th, the Institute organized a convoy to return to the site with forensic investigators from the International Commission for Missing Persons, as well as public service workers from Sarajevo (parks and mortuary employees) equipped with tools to assist in the task of scraping away layers of the riverbed.
The Missing Persons Institute’s director, Amor Mašović, along with his staff and the specialists from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) — young professionals from the US, England and Canada– spent hours working on the riverbed, exposed to potential snipers, unexploded ordnance and poisonous snakes. Each ICMP forensic investigator was assigned five public employees. Under the careful guidance of the ICMP specialist, the workers began digging at the mud on the surface. As the bones beneath became more visible, the forensic specialist would move in and do the delicate work of clearing the mud and freeing the skeleton from the riverbed. In one location alone, near Mušići village, a tangle of four or five full skeletons was soon to be revealed.
The identification of the bones will help bring some closure to the surviving relatives of the victims. Further, these discoveries will offer additional proof of the war crimes that were committed in Višegrad, crimes for which only a few of the perpetrators, including the Lukićs, and Mitar Vasiljević, have been convicted. The value of this work, then, cannot be underestimated as part of a continuing effort to uncover the truth of the genocidal crimes in the face of official denials.
In the town of Višegrad today, there is small park in honor of Ivo Andrić, –author of the Nobel prize-winning novel Bridge on the Drina—located at the entrance to the Ottoman bridge that was constructed from 1571 to 1577. Directly across the street, a poster is clearly visible on a storefront. The poster bears a color photograph of the indicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj, founder of the Serbian Radical Party. His head is framed by the insignia of the White Eagles, a symbol of Serbian nationalism and also of the military unit responsible for many of the acts of depraved violence against the Bosniak civilians in Višegrad. The poster bears the phrase “Free Šešelj! [Слобода Шешељу-Sloboda Šešelju.] For Bosniaks who would seek to return to their homes and neighborhoods in Višegrad, as part of the social reintegration promised by the Dayton Peace Accords, this poster is a form of cruel psychological violence.
The bones in the Drina, however, and those who are laboring to uncover the truth that rests in the riverbed, say that these crimes will not be denied and these victims will not be forgotten.
Post script: by August 18, 2010, it was reported that 73 skeletons had been found.
Note: photographs that accompany the report can be found here.
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This report is a result of two visits to Višegrad, July 31 and August 4, 2010, as well as research and personal interviews. My thanks to Amor Mašović, Director of the Bosnia Missing Persons Institute, for inviting me to accompany the convoy August 4th, 2010. Thanks to my friends Aldin Hadžić, Hikmet Karčić, Velma Šarić, Omer Sulejmanović, and Jack Hitt, for all their help in the preparation of this brief report. Special thanks to Rialda Ocuz at BHRT.
Hellish Suffering of Bosniaks in Besieged Srebrenica (1993)
Author: Daniel Toljaga
Part I/III – Starvation in Pre-Genocide Srebrenica: There was a constant and serious shortage of food in pre-genocide Srebrenica causing starvation to peak in the winter of 1992/1993. Many Bosniak refugees, particularly women and children, were in an extremely emaciated state due to malnutrition and many of them died from starvation.
A very rare footage you are about to see shows just how desperate the humanitarian situation was in Srebrenica in March 1993, more than two years before the Srebrenica genocide. What follows is the first of three extracts of news programmes broadcast by ABC News with footage shot by Tony Birtley, a British reporter, showing the scenes of starvation in Srebrenica in March 1993. I’ve obtained the clip from the “ICTY Court Records” database of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Please watch it ↓ Read more
Toronto, Canada – 15th Commemoration of Srebrenica Genocide
An update from Toronto (Canada), including the text and beautiful photographs, kindly provided by Dina Bajric of FacePhotography.ca. Thank you Dina, we’re proud of you. (More photos are available at this link!)
Two Honorable Canadian MPs, Mr. Brian Masse and Mr. Rob Oliphant, commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide in Toronto, Canada.
Canadians Remembering Srebrenica Genocide – Promoting education, remembrance and research of the Srebrenica genocide
July 11th 2010 marked the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide. In commemoration of this tragedy Toronto’s Bosnian community hosted a series of well organized and well received events: a photo exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel, a silent march in downtown Toronto, and a commemoration ceremony in Etobicoke. Events were organized in partnership with the Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Institute for the Research of Genocide-Canada.
15th Anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide on Capitol Hill
On July 13, 2010 BAACBH (Bosniak Advisory Council for Bosnia-Herzegovina) together with the Co-Chairs of the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Rep. Christopher Smith and Rep. Russ Carnahan commemorated the 15th Anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide on Capitol Hill. The commemoration took place in 2255 Rayburn Office Building, were Congressmen Christopher Smith and Brian Baird, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Roy Gutman, International Commission on Mission Persons (ICMP) Commissioner and Chairman James V. Kimsey, Holocaus Survivor Mrs. Margit Meissner, and Amb. Damir Dzanko addressed an audience of distinguished guests, U.S Department of State officials, Congressional staff members, local NGO representatives, the media and friends of BiH. Read more
15th-anniversary-of-the-srebrenica
President-obama-marks-15th-anniversary-of-srebrenica genocide
The statement from President Obama marking the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the largest mass murder in Europe after World War II:
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the genocide at Srebrenica, and on behalf of the United States, I join my voice with those who are gathered to mourn a great loss and to reflect on an unimaginable tragedy.
Fifteen years ago today, despite decades of pledges of “never again,” 8,000 men and boys were murdered in these fields and hills. They were brothers, sons, husbands, and fathers, and they all became victims of genocide.
I have said, and I believe, that the horror of Srebrenica was a stain on our collective conscience. We honor their memories and grieve with their families, as many of them are laid to rest here today. They were people who sought to live in peace and had relied on the promise of international protection, but in their hour of greatest need, they were left to fend for themselves. Only those of you who suffered through those days, who lost loved ones, can comprehend the unspeakable horror. You have carried this burden and live with pain and loss every moment of your lives.
This atrocity galvanized the international community to act to end the slaughter of civilians, and the name Srebrenica has since served as a stark reminder of the need for the world to respond resolutely in the face of evil.
For fifteen years, the United States has joined with you to foster peace and reconciliation in this troubled land. We recognize that there can be no lasting peace without justice, and we know that we will all be judged by the efforts we make in pursuit of justice for Srebrenica’s victims and those who mourn them.
Justice must include a full accounting of the crimes that occurred, full identification and return of all those who were lost, and prosecution and punishment of those who carried out the genocide. This includes Ratko Mladic, who presided over the killings and remains at large. The United States calls on all governments to redouble their efforts to find those responsible, to arrest them, and to bring them to justice. In so doing, we will honor Srebrenica’s victims and fulfill our moral and legal commitments to end impunity for crimes of such awful magnitude.
We have a sacred duty to remember the cruelty that occurred here, and to prevent such atrocities from happening again. We have an obligation to victims and to their surviving family members. And we have a responsibility to future generations all over the globe to agree that we must refuse to be bystanders to evil; whenever and wherever it occurs, we must be prepared to stand up for human dignity.
May God bless you all, and may God bless the memory of all those who rest here.
RUDOLF HREN (CATHOLIC) TO BE BURIED IN THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE MEMORIAL CEMETERY
RUDOLF HREN (CATHOLIC) TO BE BURIED IN THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE MEMORIAL CEMETERY
WARTIME RAPES OF WOMEN & CHILDREN AROUND SREBRENICA (BREAKING THE SILENCE)
WARTIME RAPES OF WOMEN & CHILDREN AROUND SREBRENICA (BREAKING THE SILENCE)
6481 Srebrenica Genocide Victims Identified Through DNA Science
DNA Results of the International Commission on Missing Persons Reveal the Identity of 6,481 Srebrenica Victims
By analyzing DNA profiles extracted from bone samples of exhumed mortal remains and matching them to the DNA profiles obtained from blood samples donated by relatives of the missing, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has revealed the identity of 6,481 persons missing from the July 1995 fall of Srebrenica. Of this, 775 DNA-identified victims will be buried on July 11th in the Potočari Memorial Center, Srebrenica.
The number of reported missing for whom ICMP has blood samples as well as the matching rate between DNA profiles extracted from these bone and blood samples leads ICMP to support an estimate of around 8,100 individuals missing from the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. Read more
President Obama Announces Presidential Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina to Attend the Ceremony Commemorating the 15th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide
WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama today announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina that will attend the Ceremony Commemorating the 15th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide on July 11, 2010.
The Honorable Charles L. English, U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, will lead the delegation. Read more
