Behind the Srebrenica massacre

NYT, THE HAGUE Eight years after the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims, doubts linger about the degree to which the killings were coldly planned or were improvised in chaos.
.
Most of those killed were unarmed prisoners, boys and men, shot in groups, or sometimes one by one.
.
Among the executioners, only a few foot soldiers have talked about the events that turned Srebrenica – its name means the “place of silver” – into a symbol of a modern European nightmare. No architect of the crime has ever explained in public what was in the killers' minds, or what made them believe that the murderous frenzy was acceptable to their own society and to their leaders.
.
But now, two senior Bosnian Serb officers, both crucial figures involved in organizing the bloodshed at Srebrenica, have spoken out at the war crimes tribunal here, describing the countdown to the massacre and depicting a well-planned and deliberate killing operation. They say it was largely coordinated by the military security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and militarized police, forces that were on Serbia's payroll.
.
The two officers, an intelligence chief and a brigade commander, recently pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and have now given evidence against two fellow officers.
.
They provided so many names, firsthand accounts, documents and even a military log of the crucial days that one court official blurted, “They've practically written the judgment.”
.
One of the insiders referred to a directive he received that said, “The life of the enemy has to be made unbearable.” He also said it was his role to coordinate “the separation, detention and killings of the men.”
.
This officer, Momir Nikolic, a former intelligence chief, described with cool precision the steps he took in coordinating logistics, moving between army and police units, avoiding phones and radios, as preparations for the mass executions were under way.
.
The second officer, a brigade commander, Dragan Obrenovic, recounted how in the final hours prisoners were moved to different detention and killing sites in a deliberate move to avoid detection by the Red Cross and the UN mission, which were active in the area.
.
Occasionally, the two officers even offered rare glimpses of their feelings. Their accounts from the Bosnian war represent sharp departures from persistent denials on the part of the Bosnian Serbs, including a recent government report maintaining that most of the men found in mass graves – many with their hands tied behind their backs – were killed in combat.
.
The first officer to speak out, Nikolic, 48, the former chief of intelligence and security of the Bratunac Brigade, said that the countdown to Srebrenica's capture had begun a year earlier, in June 1994. During eight days of testimony, he said that his brigade commander sent out a directive detailing Bosnian Serb policy toward the Muslims in the enclave protected by UN peacekeepers.
.
“The life of the enemy has to be made unbearable and his temporary stay in the enclave made impossible so that they leave en masse as soon as possible, realizing they cannot survive there,” the directive said, as it was quoted and read in court.
.
That policy was carried out, said Nikolic, speaking with the precision of a math teacher, which he once was. Civilians were fired at, aid was blocked and fuel, food and other supplies for the UN peacekeepers were halted so that “they could not be ready for combat,” he said.
.
The harassment went on for a year, until late May 1995, Nikolic said, and then the military began to prepare its final assault.
.
Bosnian Serb troops, aided by militarized police officers and paramilitary fighters from Serbia, overran the enclave on July 11.
.
“They had been expecting Muslim forces to put up fierce resistance,” said Nikolic. “No one thought the resistance would be so short-lived.” Instead, he said, there was chaos, with thousands of civilians fleeing, many hoping for safety near a UN base at Potocari.
.
The next day, at an early morning meeting at the Bratunac Brigade headquarters, General Ratko Mladic announced his plan to kill the prisoners, according to the testimony.
.
Nikolic said he learned about it almost immediately from two of his superiors coming out of the meeting. One of them, Colonel Vujadin Popovic, told him that “women and children had to be deported to Kladanj and the men had to separated and temporarily detained,” Nikolic said.
.
“When I asked him what would happen then, he said that all balija had to be killed,” he said. Balija is a derogatory name for Muslims. “I was told my task would be to coordinate the different forces.”
.
Orders were to concentrate prisoners in Bratunac, a nearby town under Bosnian Serb control, Nikolic continued, and he and his two superiors talked about suitable places, including several schools, a sports complex and a hangar. Then the discussion turned to sites for executions, including a brick factory and a mine, he said.
.
Nikolic also described an encounter on July 13 at which Mladic addressed several hundred Muslims who had surrendered in Konjevic Polje. The general told the Muslims not to worry, that transport would be organized for them, according to the testimony.
.
Later as Mladic greeted him, Nikolic said, he asked what was to be done with the men. Mladic, who has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal and is a fugitive, responded with a gesture, Nikolic said. He repeated the gesture in court, moving his hand from left to right, palm down, in a cutting motion.
.
The prosecutor, Peter McCloskey, asked, “What did you think would happen to the prisoners?”
.
Nikolic said: “I did not think. I knew.”
.
That same day, orders came that the executions would take place not in Bratunac, but near Zvornik, some 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, farther north.
.
Nikolic said he moved from place to place, informing regional commanders personally, avoiding telephones and radios.
.
His version was corroborated in court by the second insider witness, Obrenovic, at the time the acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade. Obrenovic said his brigade's intelligence chief told him to prepare for some 3,000 prisoners in his area. Obrenovic said he asked why the prisoners were coming to Zvornik, instead of going to the prisoner-of-war camp at Batkovici.
.
The response, he told the court, was that orders were to evade the Red Cross and the UN peacekeepers.
.
“The order was to take the prisoners and execute them in Zvornik,” Obrenovic said. When he questioned the order again, he was informed that it came from Mladic, the head of the army.
.
The prosecutor asked why he had cooperated. Obrenovic replied that once he understood that the order was coming from the top, he became afraid. “I thought there was no point in standing up to it,” he said.
.
That same night of July 13, the small town of Bratunac was extremely tense, Nikolic said. About 3,500 to 4,500 prisoners were held in overcrowded schools, a warehouse, a gym, piled in buses and trucks parked around town, and more were arriving.
.
Soldiers, police officers and armed local volunteers were mobilized to guard them. During the night, Nikolic said, 80 to 100 prisoners were taken off buses and from a hangar and shot.
.
In the early hours of July 14, Nikolic said, he watched a long column of buses and trucks pull out of Bratunac, heading for Zvornik.
.
At the head of the column, as a decoy, was a white UN armored personnel carrier, one of the vehicles stolen from peacekeepers. On board were Bosnian Serb soldiers and police officers, Nikolic said.
.
In their testimony, the two officers said that they had not been present at the mass executions around Zvornik that began on July 14 and lasted four days, but that like most members of the forces in the area, they knew of them. Obrenovic said he had understood when he was asked to send engineers to dig mass graves.
.
Nikolic said he became part of the cover-up that followed the killings. He said that later, in September, he helped to oversee the operations to dig up uncounted corpses and rebury them at secret sites.
.
After the war, he said he burned all the documents that could compromise him or his brigade.
.
The insiders' accounts may well become crucial in the trial of the former Serbian leader Milosevic, who faces 66 charges, including genocide.