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Do you remember ?
<B>By Cassam UTEEM</B>
The news of his arrest was received with unbridled manifestations of joy in Sarajevo by Bosnians ? Muslims and Croats alike. Radovan Karadzic went into hiding after his indictment by the UN war crimes tribunal in July 1995. Along with his military commander Ratko Mladic, also in hiding, he is summoned to answer to charges of the killing of innocent civilians during the siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995 and of the genocide committed against the Bosnian people.
Karadzic?s arrest is seen as an important step taken by Serbia in its bid to meet one of the conditions required for its membership to the European Union, while it also serves to confirm the views of those who believed that Belgrade knew all along where to find Karadzic. His hiding place was an open secret for the Serbian authorities! Be that as it may, after the International Court of Justice verdict found, last year, that Serbia had violated the obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent the specific instance of genocide committed at Srebrenica in 1995 by institutions of Replublika Srpska from taking place, the latter?s ex-president in the person of Radovan Karadzic stands both accused and guilty of the crime of genocide in Srebrenica.
<B>Mothers of the enclaves </B>
In the context of the Club of Madrid?s Shared Societies Project , I led a mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina earlier in the year and had the opportunity of visiting Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka, Srebrenica and so many other cities and villages that we discovered only in the early 1990s with the bloody war raging in the Balkan States following the dismantling of Yugoslavia hitting the headlines of the world media.
During the course of our mission, we visited Srebrenica, met with its Mayor and also with the NGO Mothers of the Enclaves Srebrenica and Zepa («Mothers») that gathers family members of those who were killed or disappeared in 1995 with the fall of the UN-safety zones Srebrenica and Zepa. The «Mothers» had only one message that they wanted us to carry with us and to convey to the rest of the world. «Don?t ever forget Srebrenica».
A message pregnant with meaning, a poignant message from the mothers, whose children and husband were snatched away from them and who, since then, have been weeping to their last tears looking for them or their bones buried in mass graves. They have embarked upon the mission of spreading the truth about Srebrenica that will end only when they obtain Justice.
What to remember?</B>
We were asked not to forget the recent history of Bosnia-Herzegovina as the «Mothers» described it to us: Following the referendum for independence from Yugoslavia in February and March 1992, boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, open warfare began in Sarajevo with the active participation of the Yugoslav People?s Army (JPA). Under intense international diplomatic pressure, the army withdrew but the Bosnian Serb members of the JPA continued the fighting, armed and equipped from JPA stockpiles in Bosnia while receiving extensive logistical and financial support from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Ethnic cleansing and civil rights violations against non-Serbs were rampant in the Serb-controlled region of Srpska and in 1995, genocide occurred in Srebrenica. The number of identified victims is at 97,207 and recent research estimates the total number at some 110,000 killed and 1.8 million displaced.
«Ethnic cleansing and civil rights violations against non-Serbs were rampant in the Serb-controlled region of Srpska and in 1995, genocide occurred in Srebrenica.»</I>
On July 11, 1995, while Srebrenica was under the protection of the international forces (UNPROFOR) following a UN Security Council Resolution, sudden and heavy attack started on the «safe area» under UN protection. The Serb units, under the command of General Ratko Mladic conquered Srebrenica in the presence of the Netherlands units of UNPROFOR. The local people had no possibility of defending themselves since all weapons had been taken away from them in 1993 and stored in a UN depot.
The mass massacre which the «Mothers» define as the Holocaust of the recent history of the world, began for thousands of Bosnians. Some were strangled and others had their throats slit as evidenced by the scattered bones discovered in the mass graves. The political and military officials of the United Nations were simply helpless or, according to the «Mothers», did not want to protect helpless civilians from the massacre although they should have done so. They are largely responsible for the scenes of Golgotha witnessed by the Bosnians of Srebrenica.
<B>Potocari memorial centre, Srebrenica</B>
The «Mothers» have decided to preserve the memory of the Srebrenica massacre by setting up the Memorial Centre of Potocari. Set up in 2000 and formally dedicated by President Clinton in 2003, the Centre is a reminder of the terrible slaughter of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims after the fall of Srebrenica to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.
The Memorial is an adjunct of the cemetery. Each anniversary, several hundred newly-identified bodies are buried there. All those who, like me, have had the opportunity of visiting that site cannot help reflecting on the blind folly, inhumanity and cruelty brought about by the politics of hatred and intolerance that leaves behind it a trail of death, desolation, tears, grief and lamentation.
On the 11th of every month, the «Mothers» meet and pray God for the souls of their dead. They go regularly to the Memorial Centre, attend exhumation of mass graves and follow the preparations of the burial. They visit families of those buried, they take care of the returnees and of children without one or both parents.
«We are looking for justice and we testify the truth,» they keep telling the visitors ever since they went into mourning. Will the arrest of Radovan Karadzic and his transfer to the custody of the Hague Court, followed by his condemnation, pave the way for the justice they are hoping for?
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