BOSNIAK POLITICIANS ARE MANIPULATING THE NUMBER OF SREBRENICA VICTIMS FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

BANJA LUKA, JULY 11 /SRNA/ - Historian Georgije Vulić told SRNA that certain Bosniak politicians and intellectuals often present differing and mutually contradictory claims in public about the number of victims in Srebrenica in July 1995, thereby reducing the entire issue to manipulation of victim numbers for the sake of short-term political goals.

Vulić stated that Serbian historiography has a duty to respond to such tendencies and contribute to spreading the truth about Republika Srpska by presenting historical facts. He emphasized that Muslim forces committed the gravest crimes against the Serb population in Middle Podrinje during 1992 and at the very beginning of 1993, that is, during the period before the organizational structure of the Drina Corps of the Republika Srpska Army /RSA/ had been fully established. "This is yet another piece of evidence of the enormous importance of the RSA in preventing a new genocide against the Serb people, as the events in Middle Podrinje, especially those from 1992, demonstrated that Muslim units in this area were attempting to continue what local Muslims had done to Serbs during the existence of the NDH /Independent State of Croatia/," Vulić emphasized. He stated that relevant actors in the international community must become aware of the truth about the scale of Serb suffering in this region, which has been repeated throughout history. "It would be extremely important for all relevant actors in the international community to recognize that Republika Srpska is the result of genocide committed against the Serb people, not by them against others, as the late academician Milorad Ekmečić so insightfully concluded," Vulić said. A commemoration will be held today at the Memorial Center in Potočari to mark 30 years since the suffering of Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995. At the ossuary and two memorials dedicated to Serbs who died in the last two wars in the village of Zalazje, a memorial service will be held tomorrow to honor the Serb civilians and soldiers from this area who were killed on Petrovdan /St. Peter’s Day/ in 1992 near Srebrenica, as well as all Serbs from Middle Podrinje who died in the last war and those who perished in Zalazje during the Second World War. During the last war, members of the so-called Army of BiH, under the command of Naser Orić, killed 3,267 Serbs from Middle Podrinje and the Birač region. On Petrovdan /St. Peter’s Day/, July 12, 1992 alone, Muslim soldiers killed 69 Serbs and captured 22 soldiers and civilians in the villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac, none of whom survived.