BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA: U.N. Role in Srebrenica Draws Cries of Foul

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31 1995 (IPS) - Did the United Nations play a role in allowing Bosnian Serbs to overrun the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and possibly kill thousands of Muslims?

For U.N. officials, the question is absurd. Some 450 Dutch U.N. troops were stationed in Srebrenica until thousands of Bosnian Serb soldiers attacked and seized the enclave Jul. 11-12.

But information provided by the Dutch government, U.S. spy satellites, and Bosnian officials all point to the idea that, at the very least, U.N. officials turned a blind eye as the Serbs captured Srebrenica and seized thousands of Muslim men and boys.

U.S. photographs show disturbed mounds of earth around Srebrenica and eyewitness accounts from Srebrenicans point to a wave of mass killings after the enclave fell. As many as 5,000 men and boys are believed to have been separated from their families, shot dead and buried in mass graves.

As Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian negotiators arrive for peace talks beginning Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, the U.N. role in the alleged massacres has vaulted to the top of the agenda. The Muslim- led Bosnian government wants an investigation into whether the United Nations left Srebrenica — and the nearby enclave of Zepa — vulnerable to capture in July.

Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said Tuesday that, following the Dutch government’s investigation of its troops’ actions, the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) mission in Bosnia must also be scrutinised.

“Why did the United Nations effectively sell out these people?” Sacirbey asked. “Certainly someone sold them out.”

He especially questioned the role of U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi (who leaves his post in the Balkans Wednesday) and Gen. Bernard Janvier, the commander of the U.N. forces in the former Yugoslavia.

“Akashi and Janvier will have a lot of questions to answer,” Sacirbey argued. “It seems that (Janvier) was preparing Srebrenica and Zepa for their fall.”

He wondered why the U.N. commanders did not forcibly rebuff the Serbs when their attack on Srebrenica was apparent. Only after the Bosnian Serbs were close to taking the enclave on Jul. 12 did they request air strikes from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). By then, it was too late, and the strikes were quickly called off.

Akashi, in an interview with IPS in earlier October, defended his decision to call off the air strikes, even though the Serbs quickly seized Srebrenica and then separated out thousands of fighting-age men and boys from their families.

“After a few hours of air action, I got a phone call from the Dutch defence minister that the (U.N.) troops were in danger,” he said. Since he had to respect the wishes of a country contributing peacekeepers to UNPROFOR, Akashi added, he had no choice but to call off the strikes.

Speaking in Zagreb Tuesday, Akashi said he had not placed the lives of the 450 Dutch troops over that of tens of thousands of Bosnians trapped in Srebrenica. Rather, he argued, neither the few Bosnian troops on the ground nor the Dutch could have done anything to deter the Bosnian Serb attack.

“What can 450 people do against thousands of Serbs?” Akashi said. “I am very impressed, very pleased, with the efficiency of the Dutch soldiers in tough circumstances.”

But the Dutch government, in a report released in the Hague Monday, criticised both the Dutch and U.N. performance.

Defence Minister Joris Voorhoeve faulted senior Dutch UNPROFOR officers for certifying that the evacuation of Srebrenica “was carried out by the Serb side correctly,” even though the soldiers observed Muslims being rounded up — and even left dead in the streets.

In the 100-page report, Dutch troops were cited in interviews refusing to investigate charges of atrocities, saying, “That’s too dangerous for me.”

Voorhoeve also faulted the United Nations and its principal members for not deploying enough troops to protect the six U.N.- declared “safe areas.” Two of the areas, Srebrenica and Zepa, fell in quick succession in July, while a third, Gorazde, has since been emptied of all U.N. peacekeepers.

“Responsibility must be shared by all member states,” Voorhoeve wrote. “They did not provide the 34,000 military personnel originally envisaged for the safe areas.”

Instead, Akashi noted in his interview earlier this month, UNPROFOR received slightly more than 7,000 lightly armed troops to defend the six enclaves. When the Serbs refused to respect their deterrent ability — as they did in Srebrenica in July — they had little choice but to relent, he said.

The lesson, Akashi stressed, is that the U.N. Security Council “should not give to a peacekeeping operation a mission which peacekeepers are not capable of undertaking.”

Sacirbey, however, argued that other factors played a role in “setting up” the enclaves for a fall. He pointed to the lack of U.N. action over Zepa after Srebrenica fell on Jul. 12, saying it indicated that UNPROFOR had wiped its hands of the tiny, Serb- surrounded town.

Zepa fell days later without any U.N. or NATO action, and as many as 2,000 Muslims are missing there since then, Sacirbey claimed.

Sacirbey said the Bosnian government has asked the United Nations for an investigation into the collapse of Srebrenica and Zepa. Security Council President Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria said the Council would take up that request shortly.

BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA: U.N. Role in Srebrenica Draws Cries of Foul

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31 1995 (IPS) - Did the United Nations play a role in allowing Bosnian Serbs to overrun the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and possibly kill thousands of Muslims?
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