Вести

Rasprava u vezi sa Srebrenicom ulazi u novu fazu. Upravo je objavljena nova studija na engleskom koja obuhvata ažurirani dokazni materijal

Сребреница Историјски пројекат, 20.02.2011

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na tu temu i iznosi svestranu kritiku svih do sada predočenih dokaza (ili onoga za šta se tvrdi da predstavlja dokaze). Radi se o monografiji u izdanju Istorijskog projekta Srebrenica koju je pripremila grupa autora pod naslovom „Deconstruction of a virtual genocide: An intelligent person’s guide to Srebrenica.“

Načelo kojim su se autori rukovodili bilo je da se dotaknu svih ključnih pitanja u ovoj raspravi, i da to postignu u okviru jednog širokoj javnosti dostupnog i opsežno dokumentovanog toma. Kao što smo uvek činili od kako smo počeli sa radom, i sada smo se trudili da budemo maksimalno balansirani i fer, uz minimum emocija. Na prvi pogled izgleda veoma teško, pa čak i nemoguće, odstraniti emocije iz razgovora na jednu toliko naelektrisanu temu kao što je to Srebrenica. Ali to ipak nije nesavladiv zadatak ako mu se priđe na pravi način. Sunovrat u emotivnost, na šta smo već navikli kada je Srebrenica u pitanju, događa se samo onda kada o tome raspravljaju osobe koje su opterećene nekom zadnjom namerom ili agendom. Oni obično zauzimaju ekstremne stavove, a pošto njihove tvrdnje najčešće nisu potkrepljene činjenicama oni su prinuđeni da pribegavaju emocijama, a uz to i vrlo ružnim rečima i ad hominem napadima, u nastojanju da na takav način nadoknade nedostatak argumenata.

Mi se ne nalazimo u takvom položaju zato što mi nemamo nikakvu agendu, pa samim tim ni potrebu da se „poštapamo“ emocijama. Nas zanima jedino istina, šta god se na kraju ispostavilo da ona jeste, i prema tom cilju stremimo neodustajno i bez ikakvih strasti.

Pošto naš zadatak još uvek nismo priveli kraju mi ne možemo izvoditi konačne zaključke. Ali možemo navesti neke uslovne nalaze koje dokazi koje smo videli do sada ubedljivo potvrđuju. Ono što se dogodilo u Srebrenici između 1992. i 1995. godine predstavlja neopisivu ljudsku tragediju. Dve susedne i isprepletane ljudske zajednice skoro da su uništile jedna drugu. U srebreničkoj priči nema pobednika.

Hronološki, prva zajednica da bude upropašćena bila je srpska. Srbi su pre svega 1992. godine bili prognani iz samog grada, da bi zatim njihova sela koja su se nalazila u blizini bila izložena sistematskim napadima i paljenju; deo stanovništva na najsuroviji način bio je pobijen a preostali deo prognan. Kada se, kao što se lako moglo predvideti, bumerang vratio prvo 1993. zatim na još žešći način 1995. godine, došao je nažalost red na lokalno muslimansko stanovništvo da pati. Oni su platili strahovitu cenu za suludu politiku njihovog nesposobnog i pohlepnog vođstva.

Kontroverza koja je od tada vezana za temu Srebrenice odoleva svakom pokušaju da se racionalno shvati. Postoje utvrđene osnovne činjenice o dešavanjima u Srebrenici (ako je reč o julu 1995.) u vezi kojih će se svi razumni ljudi lako moći složiti: (1) nakon što su srpske snage zauzele Srebrenicu 11. jula 1995. godine, veliki broj muslimanskih zarobljenika bio je pogubljen, i (2) taj masakr predstavlja ratni zločin čiji počinioci moraju biti pronađeni i kažnjeni. Neshvatljiva, i po preterivanju svojstveno balkanska, strana ove debate odnosi se na agresivnu kampanju muslimanskog političkog vođstva iz Sarajeva da nametne svoje političko i dogmatsko tumačenje tih činjenica. Bez obzira na notorno nepostojanje adekvatnih fizičkih dokaza posle petnaest godina upornog traženja, oni od celog sveta traže da veruje, ili barem da se licemerno u javnosti pretvara da veruje, da je broj pogubljenih zarobljenika bio 8,000. Oni su takođe objavili dogmu da streljanje zarobljenika predstavlja genocid iako, na osnovu do sada pronađenih dokaza, ničega nema što bi moglo da potvrdi takvo radikalno tumačenje tog masakra. Naša monografija zamišljena je da bude parastos upravo takvoj politički izopačenoj verziji događaja u Srebrenici.

Koliko je ovakav stav sluđen očigledno je svakome čiji intelekt ne funkcioniše na balkanski način. Ako želite nekoga da prikažete u lošem svetlu, u principu sasvim je dovoljno da ga optužite za ubistvo nekoliko stotina zarobljenika; nećete mnogo naškoditi njegovoj reputaciji ako tu cifru naduvate desetostruko ali ćete značajno naškoditi svojoj ako se na kraju ispostavi da ste smišljeno svetu nametali jednu izmišljenu priču. Na isti način, bezpredmetno je (da ne kažemo smešno) temeljiti „genocid“ na cifri od 8,000, bez obzira bila ona tačna ili ne, kada se sve to navodno događa u veku koji se ističe po nekoliko pravih genocida sa mnogo ozbiljnijim ljudskim žrtvama, od 1,5 miliona (jermenski) do šest miliona (jevrejski). Jedno je sigurno: ni jednom sudu neće poći za rukom da muslimansko rukovodstvo u Sarajevu osudi za suptilnost.
Mi smo se i dalje trudili da izbegnemo sva moguća minska polja u našem radu. Naš cilj bio je da razjasnimo što više dilema o Srebrenici u svetlu najsvežijih raspoloživih dokaza. Kao što se uvek kaže u ovakvim prilikama, mi sada naše delo predajemo u ruke čitalaca i – to se podrazumeva – spremni smo da uvažimo njihov konačni sud.

U produžetku nalazi se Predgovor iz pera bivšeg novinara BBC i političkog analitičara devedesetih godina, Džonatana Rupera. Gospodin Ruper je ostao živo zainteresovan za dešavanja na prostoru bivše Jugoslavije od tih događaja pa do danas. Njegove opservacije su u toliko dragocenije jer potiču iz pera jednog profesionalno kompetentnog stranog posmatrača. Toplo ih preporučujemo čitaocima koji vladaju engleskim jezikom.

Sa priloga može se skinuti integralni tekst monografije „Deconstruction of a virtual genocide: An intelligent person’s guide to Srebrenica.“

Srebrenica Historical Project
Postbus 90471
2509LL
Den Haag, The Netherlands
+31 64 878 09078 (The Netherlands)
+381 64 403 3612 (Serbia)
Internet site: www.srebrenica-project.com
E-mail: srebrenica.historical.project@gmail.com

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INTRODUCTION

One question that anybody who takes up the critical study of the regnant narrative of the „Srebrenica massacre“ always faces is ‘why?’

As a field of research and inquiry, hasn’t the basic outline of the events that befell the Srebrenica ‘safe-area’ population after the enclave was captured by the Bosnian Serb army on 11 July 1995 been well-established since the second-half of that year, when Western reporters such as the Christian Science Monitor’s David Rohde allegedly stumbled upon a ‘decomposing human leg protruding from the freshly turned dirt’ in a landscape that, Rohde claimed, he recognized from ‘spy-satellite photos’ that had been faxed to him just days before by ‘American officials’?

Why then would it occur to someone to challenge what appears to be well-known about the ‘Srebrenica massacre’? And why should this task be of interest and importance to anyone outside survivors and a relatively small coterie of fanatics?

The critical study of the ‘Srebrenica massacre’ that Stephen Karganović collects in this volume is important because, taken as a whole, they show that within a very brief period of time – no longer than a handful of weeks – what had originated in self-serving wartime propaganda and whispers about an atrocity that symbolized Serb evil, became institutionalized as The Truth, effectively removing the actual event from inquiry, and placing it under seal in a sacrosanct realm of myth where it has flourished ever since.

Initially generated by a nexus between the NATO-bloc powers that had intervened on behalf of the Bosnian Muslim and Croat sides in the civil wars that destroyed the unitary Yugoslavia, and Western news media and human rights organizations committed to proving the veracity of this wartime propaganda, the myth of the ‘Srebrenica massacre’ has been re-institutionalized with every Srebrenica-related judgment at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (e.g., Krstic in August 2001) as well as the International Court of Justice (February 2007).

As this book reminds us, it serves also as a „mass mobilisation vehicle“ every year during the 11 July internment ceremony at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide, where yet new layers of propaganda are laid upon the propaganda of the earlier years.

It is of course also one of the two most frequently cited symbolic bloodbaths in the Western canon (the other being Rwanda 1994) whenever someone invokes the ‘Never again’ imperative of the Nazi holocaust to urge the great powers towards ‘humanitarian intervention’, the ‘responsibility to protect’, and most recently ‘mass atrocity response operations’.

Because this ‘Srebrenica massacre’, with its alleged 8,000 victims, conformed so well to framework of what could be expected from the monster Serbs held responsible for the wars, very few inquiries into the real, if far smaller, massacres and executions carried out against the males of the fleeing ‘safe area’ population have ever been undertaken.

This is why the critical study of the ‘Srebrenica massacre’ undertaken here is vital and stands as a far more honest tribute to these real victims than does the vast literature which it challenges and helps to overturn.

There is a further pertinent question to answer: why has it taken so long for the core facts about Srebrenica, so clearly expressed in this book, to be collected in this way?

The answer comes in two parts. First, the process of international investigation and prosecution was very slow and much of the ‘evidence’ supporting the judgements handed down by the ICTY was not revealed in any form until years after the events.

Second, few people have tried to make an independent assessment of what happened. For example, of all the journalists who have ever written or broadcast about Srebrenica, only a handful appear to have made any real efforts to investigate the official account. It has, as a result, been solely through the efforts of a loose collaboration of individuals around the world that we now have a thorough analysis of what happened in July 1995.

Predictably, many attacks have been made on these people. They have been repeatedly accused of genocide denial. Serious attempts have been made, in Europe and elsewhere, to criminalise their investigative efforts.

The collaborations which have finally led to the publication of this book have developed almost entirely by chance. In the UK a number of us began to collect reports and broadcasts, building a chronology of events and a background database. We did this separately at first, but by 1995, thanks to the former “Observer” journalist Nora Beloff, a group of us were in touch with one another, exchanging information and ideas.

We had become quite an efficient monitoring machine by the time the Bosnian Serb Army took control of Srebrenica in July 1995. We archived hundreds of reports. As we went along, we noted many pieces of information which conflicted with the consensus narrative in the media in the UK, the USA and Europe.

We were conscious of Srebrenica’s short-term political importance in drawing attention away from the US-backed invasion of Krajina and the final abandonment of the international ‘neutrality’, which led to the ending of the civil wars and the terms imposed at Dayton in November. But we did not yet foresee the full extent to which the ‘Srebrenica massacre’ would become the most complete symbol of Serbian evil in the Balkan conflicts. Our work was therefore much more widely focused until at least 1997, and was further diverted by the Kosovo war in 1999.

Our network was gradually expanding. Through the internet, people researching aspects of the Balkan conflicts eventually became aware of each other and often made contacts that would lead to new partnerships.

One such development was the Srebrenica Research Group [1] an international collective brought together by Professor Edward Herman in the summer of 2003. This was not only a platform for the free exchange of knowledge, information and ideas, but a determined attempt to investigate exactly what had happened on the basis of academic rigour.

The work of the group was exciting and, I think, highly productive. The outcome was in my opinion about the best analysis that could be made on the basis of available information. Our constraint was that we had no resources beyond the limited amounts of our own time we could devote to Srebrenica research. And we certainly had no means of carrying out our own fundamental investigations.

In September 2008 I was contacted by Stephen Karganović, who had recently set up the Srebrenica Historical Project. Based in Holland, this organisation had secured funding to mount conferences and to commission its own investigations and expert analysis of key questions about Srebrenica.

The extent and quality of the work done by the SHP since that time has been remarkable. In a little over two years they have taken on a range of challenges that would daunt the most skilled data crunchers. I believe this work has rewritten the Srebrenica narrative decisively.

The purpose of this Introduction is not to summarise the many revelations published on the pages that follow. It is, rather, to commend this book in the strongest terms. This collection demonstrates that the stories about ‘the worst war crime in Europe since the 2nd World War’ are fictions, unrelated to what took place.

It is vital that the unadorned truth about the Balkan conflicts should be freed from the lies and misrepresentations that have characterised the first draft of this history. Only then can there be some kind of genuine process of truth and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Balkan wars. This work provides a platform from which such a process can begin.

Jonathan Rooper

Jonathan Rooper was a BBC TV News & Current Affairs journalist from 1983 – 1999. After several years as a desk producer on daily programmes, he became a field producer making short investigative films on social and political affairs issues. He was head of the BBC News Features department for four years. Since leaving the BBC he has worked in corporate communications and now earns his living as a freelance, specialising in corporate video production and editing, media and presentation training and corporate journalism.