Srebrenica – 10 years later | The Philosopher's Attic

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Posted by yseult on Jul 12, 2005 in Politics/History | 0 comments

These days, ten years ago the world saw – or more likely turned its eyes on – one of the most brutal genocide massacres and war crime since the Second World War. Srebrenica.
Almost exactly 10 years ago Serbian Troops entered the UN protected city of Srebrenica after the Dutch UN Commander and troops were at first refused any support by the French General Command at Sarajevo, then granted the support, but to pull out and leave the city to the Serbs. Until today the number of victims is unknown. Only 2000 have been identified, 610 bodies are buried. Every month new mass graves are unearthed while the responsible – Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic – are still free and living in Serbia today, partly being protected by the ever changing leadership of the Serb Republic.

610… Buried in a memorial site ready to receive 10’000 missing, right beside the former UN barracks. 10’000 (?) killed in what was supposed to be a UN protected zone (declared a ‘safe zone’ by the UN in 1993). Thousands thrown into the earth like animals. No right to live. No right to rest in peace.

I remember those days 10 years ago quite clearly. I remember how the world looked away and how I could not believe it. Retrospectively I guess that this was the moment when I had lost my political innocence and the primeval faith in higher authorities and names as mighty as the ‘United Nations’, the ‘NATO’, ‘Security Council’ and the ‘UNHCR’… It’s when I felt the terrible force of History repeating itself no matter how much is done to prevent it. It’s when I understood that if you lack the lobby to be helped, you will not be helped. And it’s when I saw that all the enthusiasm and idealism people have around you does not mean that they act upon it.
In Switzerland people remained unimpressed. My memory was that they couldn’t have cared any less whether in some God forsaken place some former Soviet subjects killed themselves. And I remember the articles and letters I wrote at that time. The tears I had shed because I couldn’t believe that we – the free world – would stand by again and again and see the horror happening without saying a word, without doing anything.

Of course, in the years that followed everyone was quick to condemn this, to offer their support, to help and welcome the refugees into their countries. I supposed it’s the easier thing to do. Easier than exceeding a UN mandate that was humanitarian. Easier than to step up to protect civilians from a war that was one of the – still unspoken of – most barbaric war crimes to be committed since Nazi Germany. At the time of the great generation, when our grandparents stepped up to help Europe they didn’t have the means to prevent the genocide of Hitler’s ideology. 10 years ago, the world had the means to prevent it, to act upon it. And still nothing was done. If there is no will… there is politics.

I wonder if people remember where they were ten years ago when it happened. If they even remember assisting this chapter of the past by tuning into their news networks or if it was just a normal day or week for them, filled with all kinds of atrocities all over the world.
I have never forgotten Srebrenica. Every time I heard the name I am filled with horror. With my still childlike revolt that now simply has become a reality like so many others. The sad truth is that the Serbs didn’t play by the rules the UN had set up. Neither do the terrorists we’re fighting now…

What follows is the story of one survivor:
Safet Malagic – now living in Switzerland with his wife and sons – was one of them. Together with the other men – and his seven brothers – he marched from Srebrenica to Tuzla. Hunted by the Serbs on foot and tank, after a night of sheer horror, he was at the verge of killing himself to finally end it. The next morning they bordered upon a ridge and a bullet his a 15 year old just in front of him. The father of the boy started to shout: “The Serbs have killed my SON… my son…” took Safets gun from him and shot himself on the spot. That’s when Safet and his brothers knew that they couldn’t go on like this. They decided that the youngest two and the oldest two were to surrender to the Serbs and that since they never were in the Army they would probably be spared.
Safet Malagic never saw his brothers again.