THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
July 4, 2005
The New York Times

Details of Srebrenica Emerge as Hague Prepares for a Trial

by Marlise Simons

THE HAGUE - To carry out the most notorious massacre of the Bosnian war, the organizers devised an elaborate ruse. They stole the blue helmets and white vehicles of United Nations peacekeepers so they could trick and capture their victims. They blocked access roads to keep away outsiders like Red Cross workers and journalists.

On July 11, 1995, as gunshots rang in the night, the Bosnian Serb military leader, Gen. Ratko Mladic, met in a local hotel with a man summoned to speak for the frightened people in the mountain town of Srebrenica. "I guarantee that all those who surrender their weapons will live," the general said. "I need a clear answer so I can decide both as a man and as a commander."

But the next morning, a five-day killing frenzy began. By the time it was over, the Bosnian Serb Army and police forces had systematically tracked down and executed close to 8,000 boys and men.

General Mladic and the Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic, who were indicted as the main architects of Europe's worst massacre since World War II, have evaded capture. . . .

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VIDEO Narrated by Bill Moyers: "SREBRENICA: A CRY FROM THE GRAVE," WNET New York

Anthony Loyd, "Bosnia Ethnic Cleansing to Go Unpunished," Times (UK), November 15, 2003

"BOYLE SAYS RS IS GENOCIDAL PRODUCT AND SHOULD BE ABOLISHED," ONASA News Agency, July 9, 2005

Edward P. Joseph, "Bystanders To a Massacre: How the U.N. Failed Srebrenica," Washington Post, July 10, 2005

Nicholas Wood, "More Prosecutions Likely to Stem From New Srebrenica Report," New York Times, October 6, 2005

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