By Fahmi Howeidi
The genocide waged by the Serbs against the Muslims of Bosnia claimed the lives of 300,000 Muslims. 60,000 women and girls were raped. 1.5 million were displaced.
Do we remember it? Or have we forgotten? Or perhaps, do we know nothing about it at all?!
A CNN anchor discusses the anniversary of the Bosnian massacres and asks the famous correspondent, Christiane Amanpour:
“Does history repeat itself?”
Christiane Amanpour from CNN comments on the Bosnian anniversary:
“It was a medieval war—killing, sieges, and starving Muslims. Europe refused to intervene, claiming it was a civil war. That was a myth…!”
The Holocaust lasted about four years, during which the Serbs destroyed more than 800 mosques, some dating back to the 16th century. They burned the historic library of Sarajevo. The United Nations intervened by placing checkpoints at the entrances of Islamic cities like Goražde, Srebrenica, and Žepa. Yet, these cities remained under siege and bombardment, and the so-called protection was worthless.
The Serbs placed thousands of Muslims in detention camps, where they tortured and starved them until they became skeletons. When a Serbian commander was asked why they did this, he replied:
“Because they don’t eat pork!”
During the Bosnian massacres, The Guardian published a full-page map showing the locations of rape camps for Muslim women—17 massive camps, some even inside Serbia itself.
The Serbs raped children, including a four-year-old girl. The Guardian published a report titled: “The Girl Whose Only Crime Was Being Muslim.”
The butcher, Ratko Mladić, invited the leader of the Muslims in Žepa to a meeting, offered him a cigarette, shared a laugh with him, then suddenly attacked and slaughtered him. They committed countless atrocities in Žepa and against its people.
But the most infamous crime was the siege of Srebrenica. International (crusader) soldiers partied and danced with the Serbs. Some soldiers even bartered food in exchange for the honor of Muslim women.
The Serbs besieged Srebrenica for two years, bombarding it relentlessly. A large portion of the aid that reached the city was taken by the Serbs. Then, the West handed the city over to the wolves. The Dutch battalion responsible for protecting Srebrenica conspired with the Serbs and pressured the Muslims to surrender their weapons in exchange for safety.
Exhausted and tormented, the Muslims complied. Once the Serbs were confident, they attacked Srebrenica, separating the men and boys from the women. They rounded up 12,000 males (boys and men), slaughtered them all, and mutilated their bodies.
One form of mutilation was for a Serbian soldier to carve an Orthodox cross into the face of a Muslim man while he was still alive (as reported by Newsweek or Time). Some Muslims would beg the Serbs to kill them quickly to end their suffering. Mothers would grab the hands of Serbian soldiers, pleading with them not to slaughter their children. The soldiers would sever the mother’s hands before beheading her child in front of her.
The massacre unfolded, and we saw, heard, ate, played, and laughed.
After the slaughter in Srebrenica, the butcher Radovan Karadžić entered the city triumphantly and declared:
“Srebrenica has always been Serbian, and now it has returned to Serbian hands.”
The Serbs would rape Muslim women and imprison them for nine months to force them to give birth. When asked why, a Serbian man told a Western newspaper:
“We want Muslim women to give birth to Serb babies.”
As we remember Bosnia, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and Srebrenica, we say and repeat:
We will not forget the Balkans.
We will not forget Granada.
We will not forget Palestine.
On the 30th anniversary of Europe’s and the Serbs’ crimes in Bosnia, we say:
We will not forget, we will not forgive, and we will never, ever believe in the slogans of tolerance, coexistence, and human rights.
During the height of the killings in Bosnia, a French newspaper wrote:
“It is clear from the details of what is happening in Bosnia that Muslims alone possess a beautiful and civilized culture.”
And here, we must record with a pen of shame the stance of the Orthodox elder Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was the UN Secretary-General at the time and blatantly sided with his Serbian brethren.
Yet, 30 years later, we have not learned the lesson.
One essential note: the Serbs specifically targeted scholars, mosque imams, intellectuals, and businessmen. They tied them up before slaughtering them and throwing their bodies into rivers.
When the Serbs entered a town, they began by demolishing its mosque. A Muslim survivor said:
“If the Serbs destroyed the town’s mosque, we knew we had no choice but to leave. The mosque represented everything to us.”
I recall a British newspaper describing the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia with this phrase:
“A 20th-century war waged with medieval methods.”
(An open message to those infatuated with Western civilization and its false rhetoric of human rights.)
History is not told to children to put them to sleep.
It is told to men to wake them up.
