Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime

by Jan Willem Honig, Norbert Both

Overview

"A chilling testimony to the evil that executed—and the bungling that coud not pevent—an 'ethnic cleasing' massacre, the single worst atrocity in Europe since World War II."—The New York Times Book Review.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140266320
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/1997
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.09(w) x 7.83(h) x 0.58(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Note to the Reader
Maps
Introduction

Part One: The Fall of Srebrenica, July 1995
Chapter One The Attack
Chapter Two The Deportation
Chapter Three The Massacre

Part Two: Srebrenica, Safe Area
Chapter Four The First Srebrenica Crisis, March–April 1993
Chapter Five 'Mission Impossible': Designing a Safe-Area Policy
Chapter Six 'A Principled Course': The Dutch and Srebrenica

Part Three: Countdown to Massacre
Chapter Seven 'Breaking The Machine': The Search for a New UNPROFOR Strategy
Chapter Eight 'Negotiating with a Mafia Boss': The Failure of the Frasure-Milosevic talks

Post Mortem

Index

Editorial Reviews

By focusing on the single most horrific event in the Bosnian war, the authors reveal in compelling detail the complex and ambiguous nature of international involvement in that conflict.

In July 1995 the "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia fell to Bosnian Serb forces, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops. Some 20,000 women and children were deported. Several thousand Muslim men, both soldiers and civilians, were killed in cold blood by the Bosnian Serb army. Honig and Both's presentation of these enormously complex and frustrating events serves as a general indictment of all the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. The authors are Dutch specialists in war and defense studies, and their account dwells heavily on the military and political considerations, including the role of Dutch combat forces, the only UN forces serving in that area. This meticulous and honest reconstruction of events leaves no party unblemished, from the warring armies to UN officials. (Dutch soldiers, for instance, were held hostage by both Bosnian Army and Bosnian Serb forces.) Sharp accusations are leveled at the Serbian leadership itself, whom the authors consider guilty of pursuing genocide as "part of a deliberate strategy." If there is a clear villain in this story, it is General Ratko Mladic, commander of the Bosnian Serb army. If there is a hero, it is certainly General Phillippe Morillon, of the UN forces, who valiantly attempted to save Srebrenica by personal initiative. Above all, Srebrenica questions the morality of the international community's policies in Bosnia. "Was it right," the authors ask, "to have opposed ethnic cleansing and instituted `safe areas' in eastern Bosnia, if one was unwilling to put one's life at risk to protect the people in those areas?"

Srebrenica is a penetrating and thoughtful response to this vexing and complex question.

Kirkus Reviews