Late on 9 July 1995, emboldened by early successes and little resistance from largely demilitarised Bosniaks, as well as the absence of any significant reaction from the international community, Radovan Karadžić issued a new order authorising the VRS Drina Corps (Army of Serbian Republic) to capture the town of Srebrenica
Terrible…the world, especially Europe owns this massacre. It is their failure, their explicit and tacit support of the Serbs and their maniacal obsession with Greater Serbia and their lunatic psychology of being a victim.
On the ground, the Dutch failed not only in their actions, but in their failure to understand the dynamics of power real and perceived. Their posturing was based on fear and not moral righteousness or soldier’s code; and only signified weakness and vulnerability that even a child could exploit; and the Serbs certainly did exploit their cowardice. Too busy worrying about their careers to care about their mission or the people they had to protect. Perhaps the commander of the UN troops should have dug in and acted like honourable soldiers. Or even better the commander should have taken Maldic hostage in their first encounter and refused to give him up until the Serbs retreated and UN reinforcements arrived…as a friend of mine from a tough neighbourhood of a big US city always says, “you are always alert and on the offensive…offense is defense.” What was the UN, Europe and the west afraid of? Shame.
Shame!