Srebrenica’s Fall and the UN peacekeeping Mission’s Failure
Early in July 1995, Bosnian Serb troops overran the town of Srebrenica and the surrounding countryside, putting an end to the international community’s supposed commitment to defending the territories it had designated as “safe zones” and placed under UN protection in 1993.
The enclave was easily overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, who then carried out systematic, mass executions of hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilian men and boys as well as terrorized, raped, beat, executed, robbed, and otherwise mistreated civilians who were being deported from the area without interference from U.N. soldiers.
In its darkest hour, Srebrenica made its way into the collective consciousness of humanity. Srebrenica was designated a “safe region” by the UN Security Council in the early part of 1993. But Serb forces under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic, who was ultimately found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, invaded the UN zone.
On July 11, 1995, Serb forces that had been besieging the territory for months—which the U.N. had designated a protected zone—overran the town.As the Serbs approached Srebrenica, women, children, and the men who remained behind ran in terror along the only route out of town to the headquarters of a battalion of Dutch soldiers who were specifically stationed there to defend them.
Men and young boys were mercilessly taken from the ladies, marched away, and then killed over five days while the outnumbered U.N. blue berets looked on helplessly.When Serb forces captured the region and killed around 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone, the Dutch troops did nothing. Although 15,000 Srebrenica residents attempted to flee into the nearby mountains, Serb forces pursued and executed 6,000 of them there.
More people were killed—16% of the population—than in post-World War II France, while 90% of the city’s structures were destroyed and 50% of the populace was left homeless. Since recovery is typically measured in decades, we have lost track of how long it takes.
Approximately 1,326 victims, whose bodies were exhumed from more than 60 mass graves and whose remains were identified by DNA testing, have already been buried at a memorial site a few miles from Srebrenica in a place called Potocari, directly across from the gloomy and deserted headquarters of the Dutch troops in a former battery factory. At the memorial ceremony, which might draw as many as 30,000 people, including the surviving spouses, daughters, and children of the deceased men, as well as local and global politicians and dignitaries, another 610 victims are being laid to rest.
One-third of the 40 000 people who went missing during the conflicts of the 1990s are yet to be accounted for, with a thousand of them found to be victims of the Srebrenica genocide. Families are still unable to find out where their loved ones are due to a lack of political will, inadequate Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbian collaboration, and insufficient personnel and financial resources.
The relatives of the victims continue to grieve in silence. Mothers pass away before they can inter their children’s remains. In Srebrenica before the conflict, there were 37,000 residents, 73% of whom were Bosniaks, and 23% were ethnic Serbs. There are now 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Muslims living there, which reflects both the sharp decline in the total population and the significant change in the ethnic composition of the area.Painfully sluggish returns from survivors have been observed.
More than 1 million people in Bosnia have returned home in the past ten years, even to a location where genocide occurred, following a conflict in which at least 200,000 people were killed, 2.2 million were rendered homeless, and the whole population was severely traumatized. On Monday, July 11, the town and a chastened international community commemorate the 28th anniversary of the massacre.