US media and public diplomat, Richard Grenell, denied last Saturday that there was genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. “Not every war crime is genocide,” he said. This statement comes on the eve of the discussion and voting at the UN to declare July 11 as “Genocide Remembrance Day” in memory of the Serbian massacre against Bosnian Muslims. During those hot days of July 1995, Serbian soldiers fighting against this state, which had declared independence three years earlier, massacred and buried in mass graves more than 8,300 men and young men aged 13 to 77. The entire genocidal operation lasted a few days.
The genocidal massacre in Srebrenica is considered to this day the most barbaric act to have occurred after World War II in Europe and is compared to Hitler’s Nazi genocide against the Jews. On December 9, 1948, the UN adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. That convention was initiated by the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. The convention clearly defines what genocidal acts are in ethnic, religious, and other inter-ethnic conflicts. Persecution and apartheid aimed at ethnic cleansing through emigration are preparatory parts of crimes against humanity. Apartheid, therefore, the treatment of second and third-class citizens, was a characteristic of the treatment, especially of Albanians in Kosovo. Then came collective expulsion. The Convention finally entered into force in 1952. In fact, the UN as early as 1947, through resolution 180, had defined genocide as an international crime.
The notion of “genocide” was first mentioned by Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, at the end of World War II, during his research on the Jewish Holocaust caused by Hitler’s Nazis. Lemkin expanded the term genocide to include crimes not only against ethnic and religious groups but also against social, economic, and political groups. Genocide is the highest level of crimes against humanity after the Holocaust. The Holocaust is unique in human history. But not only because of the large number of Jews exterminated, but especially because of the way and means of their annihilation.
The Srebrenica massacre and the crimes against humanity in Kosovo have exclusive features of Serbian genocide based on all the determinations of international documents and should be condemned by international organizations, especially by the UN. Grenell’s statement, that not every war crime is genocide, has to do with the violation of human rights during an armed conflict, when these crimes are committed for certain suspicions, such as treason, espionage, etc., without applying specific procedures for investigation and punishment in such cases. All massive crimes like those in Srebrenica and Kosovo are not such crimes. They are criminal acts aimed at ethnic cleansing for the occupation of Albanian and Bosnian territories.
This is because the over 8,300 Muslims massacred in Srebrenica are not cases of war crimes. They were massacred in the name of their extermination because they were different from the Serbs. Because the 1,432 children aged several months to 14 years exterminated and massacred in Kosovo by the Serbian army and police could not be accused of any criminal activity. They were simply exterminated because they were born to Albanian mothers. The other over 13,000 killed and massacred were unarmed and unprotected people, simply taking care of their property and families. The over 20,000 raped women and girls testify to the highest level of ethnic hatred by Serbian police, soldiers, and paramilitaries. The burning of houses, public and private property, the destruction and leveling of Albanian historical and cultural heritage objects were also attempts to erase the traces of this heritage of Bosnians and Albanians. The massacre and deportation of the bodies to the territory of Serbia of about 4,000 Albanians killed in Kosovo was done to erase the traces of the crime and is also undeniable evidence of Serbian genocide in Kosovo. The expulsion of millions of Muslims and about a million Albanians from their homes for ethnic cleansing of Bosnia and Kosovo is also an act of genocidal violence and terror. Everything that happened in Srebrenica and Kosovo during the war is the predicted act of genocide in the UN Convention and in endless resolutions of this organization. Moreover, all these crimes have been proven in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
But that’s not all! Genocidal acts are also those planned and programmed by the state, academia, church, or other structures of a state and a country. Serbia has committed genocidal crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo with a clear program, with preliminary projections, with perfect civil and military organization. In the case of BH, Belgrade may say, “It is not responsible for genocide in Bosnia, as the conflict was of the civil war type between Serbs and Bosniaks”! This is not true at all, despite the International Court of Justice in The Hague not initiating investigations into this genocide against Serbia based on this justification.
In Kosovo, and against Albanians, there have been so many plans and projects for their annihilation through physical extermination, displacement, discrimination, and apartheid, that no one, not even Grenell, has minimal power to deny the participation of the Serbian state and its violent structures against them. Serbian genocide against Bosniaks and Albanians is already a truth, which even Serbs cannot deny, let alone its spokespeople in various capitals of the world. Grenell could say what Baton Haxhiu said, that “we don’t need to deal with Serbia’s responsibilities for crimes against humanity and genocide against Bosniaks Muslims and Albanians after 25 years, or 30 years.” But never compare Srebrenica and its Serbian massacre with war crimes. War crimes happen in every conflict, even out of carelessness or lack of control of the situation. Crimes against humanity, thus genocide, are planned and go far beyond war crimes; it is the extreme of anti-humanity, with motives and aims of ethnic cleansing and not resistance for survival. The very word genocide comes from ancient Greek – Gen – thus gene and cid – eradication, murder, execution. Which means killing, execution, extermination of genes. This happened in Srebrenica and in Kosovo.
I believe that Richard Grenell and any diplomat who dares to defend Serbian genocide in Bosnia (Srebrenica) and in Kosovo does so not out of ignorance. He does it for clientelistic reasons. But to deny the genocide of a state like Serbia, this is a serious insult to the victims of this genocide. To insult the victims of genocide, in the specific case of the Serbian one, thus Albanians and Bosniaks, is actually a manifestation of the Nazi character of any diplomat, politician, or anyone else who does this. It is also complicity with the authors of this genocidal crime! This is a political, social, psychological problem and demonstrates deformities of human character! For this reason, the UN must decide to condemn and punish those, whether him or Grenell, who deny genocide in Srebrenica today, and in Kosovo tomorrow.
Srebrenica today and Kosovo tomorrow should be declared acts of genocide by Serbia against Bosniak Muslims and Albanians in Kosovo. Albania and other states should initiate the recognition of this genocide, especially in Kosovo. Otherwise, Serbia will not stop committing not only new wars but also repeating its genocide against non-Serbian peoples, especially against Albanians and Bosniaks. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still active today in Banja Luka and Belgrade. They need to be stopped and then punished!
Source: Botasot.net
