Cassam Uteem
 

I owe it to the Mothers of Srebrenica to remind myself and everyone else, lest we forget, of the most terrifying massacre in Bosnia that took place in the city of Srebrenica in July 1995, described by former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe, Richard Holbrooke, as “the biggest single mass murder in Europe since World War II”. The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled the massacre of Srebrenica as genocide. Every year, on July 11th, a ceremony is held at the Memorial Centre of Potocari Graveyard, Srebrenica, to mark the “Day of Memories” also commonly referred to as the “Day of Genocide”. This year, it coincides with the World Cup final. The FIFA could seize the opportunity to condemn both racism, as the players have been doing before certain matches, and genocide.

“A great injustice has been committed: our sons and husbands have been murdered in cold blood, in a ‘safe area’, protected by UN forces which failed to defend our Men, and we are still waiting for justice to be done, while searching all around for their missing corpses in mass graves. Please ensure that the outside world doesn’t forget us.” This was the earnest appeal addressed to us by the Mothers of Srebrenica.

It was during a visit to Bosnia Herzegovina, in the context of a Club of Madrid mission, that two years ago, on March 19th, 2008 I was received by the NGO “Mothers of the Enclaves Srebrenica and Zepa”. Founded in 1996 by the family members of those who were killed or disappeared when, during the Bosnian war, Srebrenica was captured by Bosnian Serbs, the Association aims at raising national and international awareness and at discovering the truth about the range of crimes committed against the Bosniak people since Yugoslavia was torn apart in 1992 and civil war resulted in almost all of the successor states.

The former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia has large populations of the three ethnic groups, Bosniaks (the Muslims), Serbs & Croats. Since its mainly Muslim population voted to secede from the Yugoslav Federation in March 1992, it has been beset by civil war. The Ethnic Croats favoured secession from Yugoslavia but wanted to unite with Croatia rather than remain in a Muslim-dominated Bosnian state. During their conflict with the Muslims, the Croats formed a temporary anti-Muslim alliance with Bosnian Serbs. In early 1994, however, Bosnian Croats and Muslims formed an anti-Serb alliance.

Bosnia is politically decentralised and consists of two governing entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, the latter controlled by the Serbs. So many years later, intolerance and suspicion and in many instances hatred between the three ethnic groups still persist. Genuine and persistent efforts by several NGO’s to bring them to live together with better understanding and in good neighbourliness have started to bear fruit and timid improvements have been noticed, from what we have been given to witness.

Against the background of grave violations of international humanitarian law that had been committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia & Herzegovina, since 1991 and as a response to the threat to international peace and security posed by these violations, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by Security Council resolution 827 on May 25, 1993. ICTY’s mission is four-fold: to bring to justice persons allegedly responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law; to render justice to the victims; to deter further crimes; and to contribute to the restoration of peace by promoting reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.

The tribunal has so far played a decisive role in bringing the war criminals to justice. The Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, who until then was one of the world’s most wanted men for his part in civilian massacres including those during the bloody 43-month siege of Sarajevo and in Srebrenica & described as ‘a real, true architect of mass murder’, was arrested in July 2008 and is currently facing trial. The Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is still on the run. It was under the latter’s command that, on July 11, 1995, the Serbs conquered Srebrenica situated in the ‘safe area’ under the protection of the Netherlands units of the international forces (UNPROFOR). The local people had no means of defending themselves, since all the weapons had been taken away from them in 1993 and stored in a UN depot. 8000 men and boys were mercilessly and cruelly murdered and buried in mass graves in front of the helpless international forces. The Mothers of Srebrenica, in their bitterness and grief, use the word collusion against the international forces that first disarmed their sons and then did nothing to prevent them from being butchered by the Serbian troops.

One International Criminal Tribunal Judge described the Srebrenica massacre in the following terms: “Thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.”

As the World Cup matches have been an occasion for the top football teams of the world to take a stand against Racism wherever it exists, the World Cup final, falling on the very day of the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, would be an opportune time for everybody, at the stadium of Johannesburg and across the world to stand in honour of all the victims of genocide. An online petition to that effect is waiting to be signed by all those who wish to express solidarity with the Bosnian people, the Mothers of Srebrenica in particular.

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