Mass Graves – Crimes Against Humanity in Srebrenica
The following is an account from Julie Smith {not her real name} on what she witnessed working with U.S. forces stationed in Bosnia after the genocide carried out against Bosnian men by Serb forces, led by convicted war criminal, Ratko Mladic. Mladic is the name at the helm, but hundreds of Serb criminals participated and carried out atrocities in Bosnia against women and children and elders as well. The stories from the ground are beyond painful– they are descriptions that don’t fit within the framework of anything normal, even in the context of sociopathy. We remember that 24 years ago this month, the worst genocide to take place since World War II happened in Srebrenica. And we will never forget.
Srebrenica, Bosnia was part of my unit’s area of responsibility. In 1997-1998, every day we went to the mass graves of the nearly 8,000 unarmed men and boys slaughtered in July 1995 (because they were Muslim). I walked through one body on top of body; they were mostly indistinguishable bones until you looked deeper. (A 6-foot ditch/tunnel was dug out so The Hague investigators could walk through the grave. On either side, you saw “layers” of bodies.) This was when you could see they were human bodies…arm bones, leg bones, fragments of skulls poking out slightly. (The bodies were bulldozed from larger graves to smaller ones on a remote road in the mountains to hide the evidence because almost 8,000 bodies are not easy to hide).
One torso, in particular, stays in my head after 20 years plus because you could see very clearly that it was a human’s body. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was exhuming these poor souls’ bodies for the investigation of war crimes against humanity, genocide, to file charges against the monsters who committed it and, more importantly, those in command who ordered it. Also to finally lay their bones to rest with dignity and hopefully give their poor mothers and families some peace.
I also remember going to the refugee centres near Tuzla and Kladanj where our camp was and speaking with the Srebrenica mothers, wives, sisters. Devastating sadness. No words. Those women are strength. This is all the more sad because after WWII, we said ‘never again’ and again it happened on a smaller scale– but how small does the number have to be for it to be okay to slaughter thousands in a day? Especially when reporting similar horrors was happening in other places in Bosnia. And now in Syria and in other places. I mean…we knew, we just didn’t care. As long as we have our wine in hand, all is good with the world.
About the Author
About the Author: I'm a Writer, Speaker and Muslim Activist. I'm a former Board Member of the #MyJihad Public Education Campaign.
Follow my blog at yasminareality.com or follow me on Twitter: @yasmina_reality. I'm also now on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YasminaReality
Peace! More from this author.
Don't Miss the Next Great Post
If you enjoyed this blog post, subscribe below, and you'll receive an automatic email update when we publish new content.