|
|
| 4 of 6 |
Genocide |
| |
Ratko Mladic
|
In 1993, the Bosnian city of Srebrenica was designated as a UN safe area for Bosnian Muslim refugees. In the summer of 1995, however, Bosnian Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, overran the city. The city was guarded by lightly armed Dutch troops who were operating under a UN mandate. That mandate was for peacekeeping, not enforcement. This meant the Dutch forces had neither the legal authority nor the heavy weapons to engage Serb forces in combat. The Serb forces attacked Dutch observation posts around Srebrenica and took 30 soldiers as hostages.
One of 550 exhumed mass graves of Bosnian victims near Srebrenica
|
Mladic and his forces eventually entered Srebrenica and began rounding up all Muslim men aged 12 to 77 while some 23,000 Muslim women and children were bused to Muslim areas in Bosnia. Finally, the Dutch peacekeepers handed over to Serb forces 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltered at a Dutch base nearby in return for the release of the Dutch soldiers. Upon instructions from their government, the Dutch peacekeepers left Srebrenica after the killing of one Dutch soldier. In the days that followed, more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb forces.
|
 |
How far should a country go to secure the safety of citizens who have been taken hostage?
The Genocide Convention calls on all members to prevent and punish genocide. Why then do genocides still occur?
|
|
|
|
|
