A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

The International Community Toughens Its Position

The summer and fall of 2000 proved to be a turning point in Srebrenica’s reconstruction. Suddenly, the resistance of the Serb nationalists showed signs of crumbling, and the international community’s resolve began to stiffen.

NATO established a base in Glogova, near Bratunac. This gave would-be returning Muslims a stronger sense of security, and they began returning in respectable numbers to the valley overlooked by the Glogova base.

But inside Srebrenica itself security remained difficult during the early months of the year. Muslim activists called for the establishment of a multi-ethnic police force in Srebrenica on the argument that returning Muslims would not feel secure without Muslim police in the town. The Office of the High Representative agreed and efforts began at recruitment.

International authorities also took measures to strengthen the implementation of property laws. The High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch fired the head of the Srebrenica branch of the Serb Entity’s Ministry for Refugees, who had blocked return in both directions.

Petritsch’s office had created a branch office in Srebrenica, but the office director had been viewed as insensitive and inexperienced by many Muslims as well as biased towards the Serbs living in the town. He was later replaced. 


Showing the Flag: NATO troops in Srebrenica in late 2000 deterred violence against returning refugees.

In January 2000, the UN's International Police Task Force stationed a unit of international police observers in Srebrenica. This encouraged the Muslim members of the municipal council to resume participation in that body. The UNHCR also began organizing regular bus visits to Srebrenica from Tuzla and Sarajevo. The first Muslim police officer was finally assigned to Srebrenica’s police force in August.

Municipal elections were finally held in Srebrenica on November 11, 2000 after a long delay. These proved critical in further breaking the grip of the Serb nationalists. The polling was carefully monitored by international observers from the OSCE and widely viewed as a test case of the international community’s resolve.

Before the vote, Momcilo Cvijetinovic was forced to resign his position as head of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), the hardline nationalist party which had previously been led by Radovan Karadzic. Cvijetinovic remained highly influential, however, and he campaigned aggressively for SDS candidates before the election. One public appearance at Potocari (near the scene of the 1995 massacre) was particularly inflammatory and deemed to violate the electoral rules (which forbade hate speech).

During the voting there were reports that voters tried to vote more than once (usually by using false ID cards) at six polling stations. Some members of polling station committees were also observed falsifying the number of signatures at the start of counting. The abuses were so widespread that the Provisional Election Committee (PEC), which oversaw the country-wide elections, concluded that the local Srebrenica Electoral Commission must have known about them.

Electoral gamble:a young Serb waits for his parents to vote at the Potocari polling station in the November 11, 2000 elections. The station was situated opposite the scene of the 1995 massacre.

In the event, the SDS won a sweeping majority among the Serb voters, dashing hopes that the more moderate party headed by Biljana Plavsic would erode support for the SDS in this bastion of nationalism. The PEC then showed its teeth by announcing that half of the SDS votes would be declared invalid, because of the reported fraud, and the SDS was required to issue a press release announcing the dismissals. Otherwise, it would lose the remaining half of its votes. The Commission also removed the president of the local electoral commission, Rado Goljic, and two other Serb members. All three would be banned from holding public office in the future. 

The SDS appealed, and the Election Appeals committee relented slightly by reducing the number of banned SDS councilors from a half to a third. But the result still showed Srebrenica’s local politicians that they would now be held to a much stricter standard than before. When the new council met for the first time after the November elections, the mood was considerably more cooperative, and local Muslim and Serb politicians sat down together for their first substantial session. This in turn persuaded the aid agencies to start lifting the economic boycott on a selective basis.

 The nightmare was not completely over. The Muslims had retained control of the council, but the SDS had re-asserted its political control of the predominantly Serb population. This meant that the returnees would probably still face stiff opposition. In other words, the goal of reintegrating Srebrenica’s multi-ethnic population had been compromised by another equally important principle -- restoring respect for the right to vote.

Hungry for Democracy? Serb voters pressed to cast their vote at the November 2000 elections, but most supported the hardline nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS).

Biljana Plavsic, the former President of the Serb Republic whose party was considered "moderate" by the international community in November 2000, and the best hope for unseating the ultra-nationalist SDS, voluntarily surrendered to the Hague Tribunal on January 11. She is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.