Investigating Srebrenica: Institutions, Facts, Responsibilities

INVESTIGATING SREBRENICA

Studies in Contemporary European History

Editors:

Konrad Jarausch, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Henry Rousso, Institut d’histoire du temps présent, CNRS, Paris

Volume 1

Between Utopia and Disillusionment: A Narrative of the Political Transformation in Eastern Europe

Henri Vogt

Volume 2

The Inverted Mirror: Mythologizing the Enemy in France and Germany, 1898–1914

Michael E. Nolan

Volume 3

Conflicted Memories: Europeanizing Contemporary Histories

Edited by Konrad H. Jarausch and Thomas Lindenberger with the Collaboration of Annelie Ramsbrock

Volume 4

Playing Politics with History: The Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany

Andrew H. Beattie

Volume 5

Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1870–1939

Christopher J. Fischer

Volume 6

A European Memory? Contested Histories and Politics of Remembrance

Edited by Małgorzata Pakier and Bo Stråth

Volume 7

Experience and Memory: The Second World War in Europe

Edited by Jörg Echternkamp and Stefan Martens

Volume 8

Children, Families, and States: Time Policies of Childcare, Preschool, and Primary Education in Europe

Edited by Karen Hagemann, Konrad H. Jarausch, and Cristina Allemann-Ghionda

Volume 9

Social Policy in the Smaller European Union States

Edited by Gary B. Cohen, Ben W. Ansell, Jane Gingrich, and Robert Henry Cox

Volume 10

A State of Peace in Europe: West Germany and the CSCE, 1966–1975

Petri Hakkarainen

Volume 11

Visions of the End of the Cold War

Edited by Frederic Bozo, Marie-Pierre Rey, Bernd Rother, and N. Piers Ludlow

Volume 12

Investigating Srebrenica: Institutions, Facts, Responsibilities

Edited by Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, and Jean-Louis Fournel

Volume 13

Samizdat, Tamizdat, and Beyond: Transnational Media During and After Socialism

Edited by Friederike Kind-Kovács and Jessie Labov

Volume 14

Shaping the Transnational Sphere: Experts, Networks, and Issues from the 1840s to the 1930s

Edited by Davide Rodogno, Bernhard Struck, and Jakob Vogel

Volume 15

Tailoring Truth: Politicizing the Past and Negotiating Memory in East Germany, 1945–1990

Jon Berndt Olsen

INVESTIGATING

SREBRENICA

Institutions, Facts, Responsibilities

Edited by

Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel,

Jean-Louis Fournel

Published by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

© 2012, 2014 Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, Jean-Louis Fournel

First paperback edition published in 2014

All rights reserved.

Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Investigating Srebrenica : institutions, facts, responsibilities / edited by Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, Jean-Louis Fournel.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-85745-472-0 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-78238-672-8 (paperback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-85745-473-7 (ebook)

1. Yugoslav War, 1991–1995—Atrocities—Bosnia and Hercegovina—Srebrenica. 2. Srebrenica (Bosnia and Hercegovina)—History—20th century. I. Delpla, Isabelle. II. Bougarel, Xavier. III. Fournel, Jean-Louis.

DR1313.32.S68I68 2012

949.703—dc23

2011041083

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed on acid-free paper

ISBN 978-0-85745-472-0 hardback

ISBN 978-1-78238-672-8 paperback

ISBN 978-0-85745-473-7 ebook

CONTENTS

List of Maps

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

List of the Srebrenica Reports and Websites

Chronology

Introduction

The Judge, the Historian, and the Legislator

Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, and Jean-Louis Fournel

Chapter 1

The ICTY Investigations

Jean-René Ruez

Chapter 2

Introduction to the Report-Form: Characteristics and Temporalities of a Production of Public Truth

Jean-Louis Fournel

Chapter 3

Reassessing the French Parliamentary Fact-Finding Mission on Srebrenica

Pierre Brana

Chapter 4

A Tale of Two Commissions: Dutch Parliamentary Inquiries during the Srebrenica-Aftermath

Christ Klep

Chapter 5

Reflecting on the Dutch NIOD Report: Academic Logic and the Culture of Consensus

Pieter Lagrou

Chapter 6

Reopening the Wounds? The Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Question of Bosniak Responsibilities

Xavier Bougarel

Chapter 7

The Long Road to Admission: The Report of the Government of the Republika Srpska

Michèle Picard and Asta Zinbo

Chapter 8

Facts, Responsibility, Intelligibility: Comparing the Investigations and Reports

Isabelle Delpla

Bibliography

Notes on Contributors

Name Index

Subject Index

MAPS

Map 1. The former Yugoslavia

Map 2. Bosnia-Herzegovina

Map 3. The frontlines in Bosnia-Herzegovina (April 1992–March 1993)

Map 4. The frontlines in Bosnia-Herzegovina (April 1993–March 1994)

Map 5. The frontlines in Bosnia-Herzegovina (April 1994–October 1995)

Map 6. Srebrenica: Execution sites and mass graves

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is part of a long-term, collective, and interdisciplinary research project, over the course of which its editors have become indebted to many people and institutions.

We first thank the institutions that have funded this research: the Action concertée incitative for young researchers (ACI 67110 Morale, politique et justice internationale au prisme des sciences humaines: concepts, discours, représentations), coordinated by the University Montpellier 3 (research unit EA 738 Crises et frontières de la pensée européenne), from 2002 to 2006; the research network GDR CNRS 2651 Crises extrêmes, which also greatly influenced the project of this book; the mixed research unit UMR CNRS 5206 Triangle (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon – University of Lyon); and the UMR CNRS 8032 Centre d’études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBAC) for their lasting support.

This book first appeared in French under the title Srebrenica 1995, Analyses croisées des enquêtes et des rapports, in Cultures & Conflits, no. 67 (Spring 2007); we wish to thank the editors of this journal and the publisher, L’Harmattan, for authorizing its translation into English. We are indebted to Didier Bigo, Estelle Durand, and Pauline Vermeren for their help. The French version of this book would not have been possible without the additional support of the Office of International Relations of the University Paris 8 and the Department of Philosophy of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, in the person of Francis Wolff.

The present book is an updated and enriched version of the French original, with additional chapters and new sections on historical developments. It has also benefited from the funding of the ACI 67110, of the EA 738, of the UMR 5206, of the UMR 8032, and of the GDR 2651 and from the support of Romain Descendre via the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF).

We are also immensely grateful to David Harland for his invaluable input about the Srebrenica events and the writing of the UN report. Likewise, the General Hervé Gobillard and Edward Joseph greatly contributed to our understanding of the fate of Žepa. For the enriching discussions that led to this book, we are particularly indebted to Pierre Bayard, Magali Bessone, Devrim Boy, Rony Brauman, Dejan Dimitrijevic, Ger Duijzings, Claude Gautier, Christian Ingrao, Yann Jurovics, Christopher Lucken, Frédéric Rousseau, Henry Rousso, Johanna Siméant, Thierry Tardy, and Arnaud Vaulerin.

A great thanks to Ethan Rundell for the translation of most chapters and to Peter Burk for his immense help in the editing process of several chapters.

Finally, we wish to express our warm thanks to all the people in Bosnia, including acquaintances and dear friends from Srebrenica and elsewhere, who gave us the desire to carry out this project and helped us in doing so. Over the years, they have shared much more with us than just information, offering us an all too rare encounter with humane presence and dignity.

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ARBiH: Army of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine)

BiH: Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina)

Dutchbat: Dutch Bataillon of blue helmets present in the Srebrenica enclave

HRC: Human Rights Chamber

ICJ: International Court of Justice

ICMP: International Commission for Missing Persons

ICRC: International Committee of the Red Cross

ICTY: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

NIOD: Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie)

RS: Republika Srpska

SBiH: Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (Stranka za Bosnu i Hercegovinu)

SDA: Party of Democratic Action (Stranka demokratske akcije)

SDP: Social Democratic Party (Socijaldemokratska partija)

SDS: Serb Democratic Party (Srpska demokratska stranka)

UNPROFOR: United Nations Protection Force

VRS: Army of the Republika Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske)

SREBRENICA REPORTS AND WEBSITES

(last updated 8 December 2011)

Assemblée nationale (président: François Loncle, rapporteurs: René André and François Lamy), Evénements de Srebrenica. Rapport d’information déposé par la Mission d’information commune sur les événements de Srebrenica, Paris, 22 November 2001:

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/11//dossiers/srebrenica.asp

Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia-Herzegovina:

http://www.hrc.ba

Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Decision on Admissibility and Merits: The Srebrenica Cases (49 Applications) against the Republika Srpska (case nos. CH/01/8365 et al.), Sarajevo, 7 March 2003:

http://www.hrc.ba/database/decisions/CH01-8365%20Selimovic%20Admissibility%20and%20Merits%20E.pdf

International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP):

http://www.ic-mp.org

International Court of Justice, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Serbia and Montenegro), The Hague, 26 February 2007:

http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/13685.pdf

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY):

http://www.icty.org

For the judgment of Radislav Krstić, see:

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/krstic/tjug/en/krs-tj010802e.pdf and

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/krstic/acjug/en/krs-aj040419e.pdf

For the judgment of Vujadin Popović, Ljubiša Beara, Drago Nikolić, Ljubomir Borovčanin, Radivoje Miletić, Milan Gvero, and Vinko Pandurević, see:

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tjug/en/100610judgement.pdf

For the other indictments, transcripts, and judgments related to the Srebrenica massacre, see the rubric entitled The Cases:

http://www.icty.org/action/cases/4

For a precise description of the exhumation process, see Dean Manning, Srebrenica Investigation: Summary of Forensic Evidence – Execution Points and Mass Graves, The Hague, 16 May 2000:

http://www.domovina.net/archive/2000/20000516_manning.pdf

Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (NIOD), Srebrenica – A Safe Area: Reconstruction, Background, Consequences and Analyses of the Fall of a Safe Area, Amsterdam, April 2002:

http://www.srebrenica.nl

Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina (OHR):

http://www.ohr.int

Parlementaire Enquêtecommissie Srebrenica, Missie zonder vrede [Mission Without Peace], The Hague, 27 January 2003:

https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/kst-28506-3.pdf

Republika Srpska Government – The Commission for Investigation of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10th and 19th July 1995, The Events in and around Srebrenica between 10th and 19th July 1995, Banja Luka, 11 June 2004:

http://www.domovina.net/srebrenica/page_006/rs_final_srebrenica_report.doc

Republika Srpska Government – The Commission for Investigation of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10th and 19th July 1995, Addendum to the Report of the 11th June 2004 on the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10th and 19th July 1995, Banja Luka, 15 October 2004:

http://www.domovina.net/srebrenica/page_006/rs_final_srebrenica_report_add.pdf

United Nations, General Assembly, Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 53/35: The Fall of Srebrenica, New York, 15 November 1999:

http://www.un.org/peace/srebrenica.pdf

CHRONOLOGY

April–December 1990 – Free elections are held in the six constituent republics of Yugoslavia. Nationalist parties are victorious in all republics but Macedonia. Slobodan Milošević is elected president of Serbia, Franjo Tuđman president of Croatia, and Alija Izetbegović president of the collegial presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

25 June 1991 – Independence is declared by Slovenia and Croatia.

August–December 1991 – War is waged in Croatia between the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serb militias, on the one hand, and the nascent Croatian army, on the other. The Republic of Serb Krajina is created on territories controlled by the Yugoslav People’s Army.

September–November 1991 – Serb Autonomous Regions are created by the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina on territory they claim as Serb.

14 October 1991 – The sovereignty of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is reaffirmed by the Bosnian Parliament, despite the opposition of the SDS MPs.

3 January 1992 – A cease-fire is proclaimed in Croatia. The UN Security Council decides to deploy the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) along the front lines.

9 January 1992 – The SDS merges the Serb Autonomous Regions into a Serb Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina presided over by Radovan Karadžić.

29 February / 1 March 1992 – The referendum on the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina is boycotted by the SDS. The turnout is 63.7 percent, with 99 percent voting in favor of independence.

6 April 1992 – The war begins, with the Yugoslav People’s Army laying siege to Sarajevo. The European Community recognizes the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

7 April 1992 – The SDS proclaims the secession of the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The United States recognizes the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

April–May 1992 – The Yugoslav People’s Army launches a vast offensive in eastern and western Bosnia. The first massive wave of ethnic cleansing is carried out against the Bosniak and Croat populations of these regions.

9 May 1992 – Bosniak combatants united under Naser Orić recapture control over Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia.

12 May 1992 – The Yugoslav People’s Army units stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina are transformed into the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), under the command of General Ratko Mladić.

29 June 1992 – The UN Security Council decides to deploy the UNPROFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina to ensure the functioning of Sarajevo airport and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

September–December 1992 – Bosniak combatants from the Srebrenica enclave increase the territory under their control.

2 January 1993 – The Vance-Owen peace plan is presented, in which it is proposed that Bosnia-Herzegovina be divided into ten ethnic provinces.

22 February 1993 – The UN Security Council creates the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

March 1993 – The VRS launches an offensive against the enclave of Srebrenica and threatens to capture the town.

11–12 March 1993 – General Philippe Morillon, commander of the UNPROFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina, travels to Srebrenica and declares the town a zone under the protection of the United Nations.

16 April 1993 – The UN Security Council transforms the Srebrenica enclave into a UN safe area.

6 May 1993 – The UN Security Council creates five new safe areas in Sarajevo, Tuzla, and the Bosniak enclaves of Bihać, Goražde, and Žepa.

May 1993–March 1994 – Fighting breaks out in Herzegovina and in central Bosnia between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (ARBiH) and the Croat Defence Council (HVO).

20 August 1993 – The Owen-Stoltenberg peace plan is presented, in which it is proposed that Bosnia-Herzegovina be divided into three ethnic republics.

18 March 1994 – An agreement is signed in Washington, DC, to end the fighting between Croats and Bosniaks and create the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, consisting of eight ethnic, Bosniak and Croat cantons.

April 1994 – The VRS launches an offensive against the enclave of Goražde, which is stopped by a NATO ultimatum.

5 July 1994 – The Contact Group’s peace plan is presented, in which it is proposed that Bosnia-Herzegovina be divided between the Federation (51 percent of the territory) and the Republika Srpska (49 percent of the territory).

October–November 1994 – The ARBiH carries out an offensive from the Bihać enclave, followed by a counter-offensive by the VRS.

January–April 1995 – A cease-fire is maintained in Bosnia-Herzegovina for four months.

25 May 1995 – Seventy-one people are killed by a Serb shell in the safe area of Tuzla.

26 May 1995 – NATO launches air strikes against Serb positions. The VRS retaliates by taking four hundred UNPROFOR blue helmets hostage.

June 1995 – The ARBiH offensive to end the siege of Sarajevo fails. France and Great Britain create the Rapid Reaction Force (RRF)

18 June 1995 – The last of the blue helmets being held hostage are released.

6 July 1995 – The VRS begins its offensive against the enclave of Srebrenica.

11 July 1995 – The VRS captures Srebrenica.

13–18 July 1995 – The VRS carries out the evacuation of women and children to territories under Bosnian control and the mass execution of men.

14 July 1995 – The VRS begins its offensive against the enclave of Žepa.

25 July 1995 – The VRS captures Žepa.

4–9 August 1995 – The Croatian army launches its offensive against the Republic of Serb Krajina. In five days, the Croatian army takes back most of the territories lost in 1991.

29 August 1995 – NATO launches massive air strikes against Serb positions following the deadly shelling of a Sarajevo marketplace.

9–19 September 1995 – A joint offensive is launched by the ARBiH and the Croatian army. In ten days, Bosnian and Croatian forces capture a significant amount of territory in western Bosnia.

20 September 1995 – NATO ends air strikes against Serb positions.

1 November 1995 – Peace negotiations begin on the American air base in Dayton, Ohio.

16 November 1995 – The ICTY charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide.

21 November 1995 – Peace agreements provide for the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina into the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (51 percent of the territory) and Republika Srpska (49 percent of the territory). Srebrenica and Žepa remain in Republika Srpska.

14 December 1995 – Dayton peace agreements officially signed in Paris, France.

1 August 1996 – A debate concerning the circumstances of the fall of Srebrenica is held in the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

15 November 1999 – The UN report on the fall of Srebrenica is presented by Kofi Annan.

5 October 2000 – The regime of Slobodan Milošević is overturned in Serbia.

28 June 2001 – Slobodan Milošević is transferred to the Netherlands for trial at the ICTY.

2 August 2001 – The ICTY finds General Radislav Krstić, former commander of the VRS Drina Corps, guilty of genocide.

22 November 2001 – The French Parliamentary Fact-Finding Mission publishes its report.

10 April 2002 – The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) publishes its report.

27 January 2003 – The Dutch Parliamentary Inquiry Commission publishes its report.

11 June 2004 – The Government of the Republika Srpska adopts a report recognizing the Srebrenica massacre.

June 2005 – The United States Senate and House of Representatives adopt a resolution qualifying the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

11 March 2006 – Slobodan Milošević dies before the end of his trial.

26 February 2007 – The International Court of Justice renders a decision finding Serbia in violation of its obligation to prevent and punish genocide in Srebrenica.

22 July 2008 – Radovan Karadžić is arrested in Belgrade and transferred eight days later to the Netherlands for trial at the ICTY.

15 January 2009 – The European Parliament passes a resolution qualifying the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

26 October 2009 – The trial of Radovan Karadžić begins at the ICTY.

9 January 2010 – The Serbian president, Boris Tadić, asks the Parliament of Serbia to adopt a resolution on the massacre of Srebrenica.

31 March 2010 – The Parliament of Serbia votes a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, accepting the decision of the International Court of Justice and requiring the arrest of General Ratko Mladić.

26 May 2011 – Ratko Mladić is arrested in Serbia and transferred five days later to the Netherlands for trial at the ICTY.

MAP 1. The former Yugoslavia

MAP 2. Bosnia-Herzegovina

Introduction

THE JUDGE, THE HISTORIAN, THE LEGISLATOR

Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, and Jean-Louis Fournel

On 11 July 1995, the enclave and town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia fell into the hands of General Mladić’s Serb nationalist forces. They organized the forced transfer of women and children, massacred about eight thousand Bosniaks,¹ and, in the months that followed, unearthed and transported the corpses to secondary graves in order to conceal evidence of their crimes.² Yet the enclave had officially been declared a safe area by the United Nations in 1993 and its inhabitants—including thousands of refugees from across eastern Bosnia—had been put under the protection of the international community, which was represented in this case by a battalion of Dutch blue helmets (Dutchbat). The Srebrenica massacre quickly came to be seen as the symbol of the contradictions, errors, faults, and even crimes that had marked the policy of peace keeping advocated in the former Yugoslavia by the great powers and the UN. The horror of this last great massacre of the war in Bosnia (1992–1995) no doubt played an important role in NATO’s decision to intervene against the Bosnian Serbs in late summer 1995, which in turn led to the conclusion of the Dayton agreements several months later. The Srebrenica massacre was thus a sad milestone for post–Cold War Europe and, more particularly, for the development of a European security and defense policy. At a more global level, the tragic result of the safe areas policy in eastern Bosnia contributed to redefining the rules of engagement and establishing national and international responsibility in operations of a military-humanitarian nature.

The fall of Srebrenica and the massacre that followed have been the object of a large number of investigations and reports conducted by the institutions and countries that were party to the events, most notably the UN, the Netherlands, and France. In this respect, too, the case of Srebrenica is exceptional: few events in contemporary history have given rise to so many reports from such different perspectives, institutions, and places. Srebrenica became a universal object of investigation even before the massacre was acknowledged by the Serb side. Through critical examination of these investigations and reports, this book seeks to analyze a threefold process: (1) writing the history of the events in Srebrenica in 1995; (2) determining criminal, political, and moral responsibility; and (3) constructing a public debate about foreign policy. In regards to the writing of history, the focus here is on the inquiry, as such (rather than the judgment process, for example), and the means for establishing knowledge about and patterns of intelligibility for the events. These investigations and reports also raise the question of the manner in which the countries and institutions involved confronted their own responsibility. In so doing, these international or state institutions contributed to the creation of a debate and to official awareness and recognition of the scale of the massacre. It is thus necessary to understand how these diverse institutions conceive of the publicity of debates, make their sources accessible and see themselves (or not) as sources of documentation contributing to history. In examining these texts, the present work thus devotes particular attention to the overlapping issues of justice and the writing of history. Before presenting these reports and setting out this book’s framework of analysis in more detail, however, we should first set the fate of Srebrenica in the broader context of the war in Bosnia.³

The Place of Srebrenica in the War in Bosnia

How did Srebrenica, a small town in eastern Bosnia, become the theater of the largest massacre in Europe since the end of the Second World War and the symbol of the failure of the international community in former Yugoslavia? In order to understand this, the war in Bosnia must first be put in the broader context of the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.⁴ Against the backdrop of the collapse of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, free elections were organized in 1990 in all republics of the Yugoslav Federation. However, these elections were won by nationalist parties, including in Bosnia, a republic populated by Bosniaks (43.7 percent of the population), Serbs (31.4 percent), and Croats (17.3 percent)⁵ where the three nationalist parties—Bosniak, Serb, and Croat—together received 71.1 percent of the vote.⁶ From that point on, Bosnia faced a double threat. On the one hand, it became the object of territorial claims on the part of the neighboring republics of Serbia and Croatia. This external threat increased with Croatian independence in June 1991, when a war pitted the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) against the newly created Croatian army, leading to the formation of a Republic of Serb Krajina covering a third of Croatia’s territory (see map 3).⁷ On the other hand, the three nationalist parties, although sharing power, found themselves in ever more severe conflict over the future of Bosnia.⁸ The Party of Democratic Action (SDA, Bosniak), the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ), and the non-nationalist parties reaffirmed the sovereignty of Bosnia on 14 October 1991. The Serb Democratic Party (SDS), for its part, opposed this step toward independence and proclaimed on 9 January 1992 a Serb Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina covering the territories that it considered as Serb. On 1 March 1992, 63.7 percent of Bosnian voters turned out for the self-determination referendum boycotted by the SDS, with 99 percent voting for independence. The referendum was immediately followed by the erection of Serb barricades around the capital Sarajevo. One month later, on 6 April 1992, the European Community recognized the independence of Bosnia. The next day, the SDS proclaimed the secession of the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska, RS) in the territories that it controlled. Sarajevo thus found itself encircled by Serb forces and, in the weeks that followed, the entire country spilled over into war.⁹

Initially, the war in Bosnia pitted the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), which was drawn from the Yugoslav People’s Army,¹⁰ against the Army of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (ARBiH), which was drawn from the Bosnian Territorial Defense¹¹ and mainly consisted of Bosniaks, and the Croat Defense Council (HVO). With the support of neighboring Serbia, the VRS endeavored to link up Serb population areas and in a few months seized 70 percent of the territory of Bosnia (see map 3).

This Serb offensive was accompanied by a first wave of ethnic cleansing, the violent expulsion of populations on the basis of ethno-national criteria. This ethnic cleansing took particularly violent forms in certain strategic municipalities mainly populated by non-Serbs, such as Prijedor and Sanski Most in western Bosnia, Brčko in the valley of the Sava, and Foča, Višegrad, and Zvornik in the valley of the Drina in eastern Bosnia.¹² It was then accompanied by massive or selective (i.e., above all targeting men) executions, sexual violence (mainly against women), and the opening of camps, including the infamous camps of Omarska and Keraterm in the municipality of Prijedor. Beginning at this time, Srebrenica occupied a particular place in the war. Indeed, in April 1992, it was among the towns of eastern Bosnia that had been conquered by Serb forces in their effort to gain control over this region bordering with Serbia. The Bosniak population of Srebrenica was thus also victim of ethnic cleansing. But, one month later, Bosniak combatants led by Naser Orić succeeded in retaking control of the town. From that point on, Srebrenica became a refuge for the Bosniak populations of eastern Bosnia who had been driven out by ethnic cleansing, with the number of its inhabitants growing from around thirty thousand to around sixty thousand people. Given the lack of housing, provisions, and medicine and the difficulty of moving in humanitarian aid, living conditions in the enclave rapidly became dire. In order to obtain supplies, the enclave’s inhabitants carried out raids against neighboring Serb villages that sometimes resulted in several dozen deaths among the local Serb population. At the same time, the Bosniak combatants succeeded in enlarging the territory under their control, joined up with other, smaller Bosniak enclaves, and even threatened to cut the Serbs laying siege to Sarajevo off from their supply lines (see map 3). In March 1993, the VRS launched an offensive against the Srebrenica enclave, considerably reducing its size and threatening to take the town (see map 4).

MAP 3. The frontlines in Bosnia-Herzegovina (April 1992–March 1993)

MAP 4. The frontlines in Bosnia-Herzegovina (April 1993–March 1994)

But the intervention on 16 April 1993 of General Philippe Morillon, commander of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) deployed in Bosnia to ensure that humanitarian aid reached its destination, led to the Srebrenica enclave being transformed into a safe area. Placed under UN protection, the latter was supposed to be protected by a contingent of blue helmets and, if needed, by NATO aircraft. One month later, five other safe areas were created for Sarajevo, Tuzla, and the Bosniak enclaves of Bihać in western Bosnia and Goražde and Žepa in eastern Bosnia. Srebrenica was thus at the origin of a profound redefinition of the UNPROFOR mandate in Bosnia.¹³ But, straightaway, the safe areas appeared as highly vulnerable: of the 34,000 blue helmets requested by the UN to protect these zones, only 7,600 were granted and deployed.

From March 1993 to March 1994, the war in Bosnia