Srebrenica, Bosnia, Anniversary of Massacre, July 1995
A response from Mike Walker, Colonel, MSMC (retired) to a letter concerning Srebrenica. This is an interesting letter that gives a different perspective from someone who was there and experienced the problems of entities such as the UN and their inability to control the situation. Reminds us how aware we must be.
Mike,
Yeah, that was part of my AO on my second assignment in FRY. Of course, I got to Srebrenica a few years after the massacre. At that time, one of our priority requirements was trying to find PIFWC's like Mladic. In a different part of the AO we were working on PLIE's/PFIE's or Possible Local/Foreign Islamic Extremists. They were much more dangerous than the PIFWC's.
That was where I lost my "cherry" regarding the true nature of radical Muslims and their "civil war" with moderate Muslims that is ripping the Islamic world apart. Most people don't realize that the first hard intelligence on the formation of al Qaeda was obtained in Bosnia.
Srebre refers to silver as it was the site of a silver mine during the Roman times. It is currently a site of small hotels with warm spring spas like Sarajevo. Ran one operation in Srebrenica that was a bit dicey. It is located in beautiful country, rich green forested hills with clear flowing streams, and idyllic farm country.
Unfortunately, you could still see bleached bones with scraps of cloth in the more remote wooded areas. There were so many unmarked mines and booby-traps plus gobs of unexploded ordinance that it was not possible for the local people to retrieve the bodies for a proper burial.
The 1995 massacre was highly organized, a true war crime. It took days of preparation and a lot of resources to put it together. The operations section wrote up the plan, subordinate commanders were tasked with providing security and "assault" elements. The killing field was carefully selected to include close proximity to a garbage dump for disposing of the bodies. Holding areas for the victims, transportation, and ammunition requirements were covered by the logistics section. The actual killings were systematically efficient. The wall where most of the men and boys were lined up and shot still had fresh bullet marks when I was there but all traces of the blood were gone. General Mladic directed the planning and had overall command of the operation during the execution phase.
Had the Dutch battalion been aggressively backed up with air support, it never would have happened. Instead, the Dutch soldiers surrendered to Mladic without firing a shot, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Bosniaks there hated the UN leadership, especially Akashi Yasushi. He was nearly an absolute pacifist who considered following that philosophical ideal more important than facing the reality that unbounded pacifism does NOT stop the killing. His "social experiment" failed tragically.
Unfortunately, some Americans are just like Akashi. Thank God they will never have the authority to put their beliefs into practice in a place like Srebrenica. I wonder if they should thank God for that "passing of the cup"as it allows them to continue to live in ignorant bliss?
Semper Fi,
Mike
