5.2.
July 14th, 1995
Executions
Intercepted telephone conversation
“We have to kill them”
BSA officer codenamed “Hawk” → BSA fellow officer on the other end, codenamed Crnogorac, radio connection
“Hawk” said that he had found 50 men in the forest and that “We must kill them.”
The officer told him: “Surround them and kill them slowly.”
Punishment and justice: ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia)
“The attitude of any international prosecutor should be, and I think it has been, to investigate and bring out indictments against the most guilty. And the most guilty are the people, the leaders, whether political or military, who organised, aided and abetted in the perpetration of these massive crimes, especially genocide and crimes against humanity.“
- Richard Goldstone, the first Chief Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal
Column movements
Ambush
The Bosnian Serb Army mounted an ambush at Mount Velja Glava that broke the column. The column returned towards Mladjenovac. It stopped at Josanica Gaj and waited to regroup. After 16 hours it continued moving again. In the area of Marcici-Snagovo village the Bosnian Serb Army staged another ambush with a combination of tanks and APCs and the support of Ministry of Interior special forces. The column continued towards Tuzla.
World media
Reports of the disappearance of Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica began to appear in the world media.
Prelude to genocide
“But note that I said 'Bosnian genocide'; the Srebrenica killings of July 1995, by themselves, did indeed constitute the “Srebrenica genocide,” but I believe it is important to view what happened in and around Srebrenica as the local climax of a genocide that was Bosnia-wide in scope, and a product of a series of plans and policies that originated with the republic-level leadership of the Bosnian Serb nationalists. The project as a whole, from its origins to its end, and across the entire republic, was indeed the Bosnian genocide.“
- Dr Robert Donia, Historian
Transfer of prisoners
Bratunac – various locations
The Bosnian Serb Army set in motion its systematic killings of thousands of Muslim prisoners. They began by transferring prisoners from Bratunac to various locations. During July 14th, 2,000-2,500 men in a convoy of 30 buses were transported from Bratunac to Zvornik. They were held in the gymnasium of an elementary school in Grbavci (near Orahovac), as well as other schools.
Executions
Orahovac
For the executions, two adjacent meadows were used. The men were lined up and shot in the back; those who survived the initial gunfire were killed with an extra shot. Once one meadow was full of bodies, the executioners moved to the other. While the executions were in progress, earth-moving equipment was digging the graves.
New York
UN Security Council
The UN Security Council was “especially concerned about reports that up to 4,000 men and boys had been forcibly removed from the Srebrenica safe area” and demanded that “in conformity with internationally recognized standards of conduct and international law the Bosnian Serb Party release them immediately.”
Executions
Petkovci
The Serb forces transported 1,500-2,000 prisoners to Petkovci, and detained them in the hall of a primary school.
Hague Tribunal
Mass graves
Prisoners killed between the 14th and 17th of July were buried within 24-48 hours in mass graves in the immediate vicinity of the execution sites. In some cases, victims were forced to dig their own graves. In other cases, they were lined up and shot in the graves themselves.
Historical context: The Fall of Yugoslavia
“The war in Bosnia began in April 1992 with a creeping genocide and ended with the final act of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which the international community reacted. At the Hague tribunal only Srebrenica was qualified as genocide.“
- Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia