I did not fight in this war and I am not an eyewitness to the events. I am writing this after analyzing the data, investigations and reports of other people and groups. The incidents after the fall of Srebrenica are highly contentious to this day, and much of what I say is likely to inflame the passions of those who have different interpretations.

In 1991, a country called the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) consisted of six republics and two provinces.

Four of the six republics were Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These four republics are now sovereign countries with the same name. For the record, "Bosnia and Herzegovina" is the full name of that country, but from hereafter I will refer to it simple as "Bosnia".

The other two republics were Serbia and Montenegro, which are now part of the same country, officially referred to as "Serbia and Montenegro". The two provinces were both within Serbia, one is Kosovo and the other is Vojvodina. Kosovo today is technically still within the jurisdiction of Serbia but is a de facto independent entity and is administrated by a domestic government under the supervision and command of the United Nations.

In 1991, both Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from SFRY and this began the civil war. Bosnia declared its independence in 1992. The civil wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia ended in 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Agreement.

The incidents in question, following the occupation of Srebrenica, occurred in July of 1995, when the civil war was still ongoing.

Bosnia today (full-size map here) is split into two separate political entities - one is the "Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina" and the second is "Republika Srpska". The government of the federation is half Croat half Bosniak while that of Republia Srpska is Serbian. Bosnia has a United Nations appointed overseer, who is the de facto head of state.

Acronyms and Terms

Serb - Refers to an ethnicity as well as the government and forces of the Republic of Serbia
Croat/Croatian - Refers to an ethnicity as well as the government and forces of the Republic of Croatia as well as forces in Bosnia
Bosniak - Refers to an ethnicity in Bosnia which is largely Muslim by religion, it also refers to the Muslim government and forces of Bosnia as opposed to the Croat forces of Bosnia
HVO - The Croat military forces of Bosnia
VRS - The Serb military forces of Bosnia, i.e. from Republika Srpska
ABiH - The Bosniak military forces of Bosnia, sometimes referred to as "BiH"
HV - The Croat military forces of Croatia
VJ - The military forces of SFTY, commanded by Serbs

It's worth noting here that the language spoken in SFTY was officially called "Serbo-Croatian". Today there are distinctions made between "Serbian", "Croatian" and "Bosniak" but they are very minor and all three groups essentially speak the same language and can understand one another.

Srebrenica

There are very few facts about what happened, and even fewer which are (mostly) uncontested. Therefore let me list them:

1. In 1993, the United Nations declared the city of Srebrenica and its environs a "safe area" or "safe haven" for civilians and the area was supposed to be demilitarized
2. The area however was not demilitarized, and ABiH forces (28th Infantry division) under the command of Naser Oric were based inside the Srebrenica "safe area"
3. A detachment of UN peacekeepers, almost all of them Dutch, were based in Srebrenica to protect the "safe area"
4. On July 11, 1995, a small detachment of VRS forces (400 men and 5 tanks) arrived in Srebrenica and took over the town without military resistance from either ABiH or the Dutch peacekeepers
5. Upon the occupation of the town, no ABiH forces were present
6. Several thousand residents, including men, women and children were removed from the area by bus. This was down at the insistance of the VRS but with cooperation by the Dutch peacekeepers
7. A group of several thousand men decided to independently (and against Dutch advice) leave the area on foot, heading north
8. At no time was anyone massacred, killed, raped, attacked, beaten or anything else inside the city of Srebrenica

The Srebrenica Genocide/Massacre

The genocide/massacre refers to men from Srebrenica, not to any incident that occurred in that city.

There are two separate chain of events that occurred following the VRS occupation of Srebrenica and they need to be tracked separately.

Potocari Victims

As the VRS forces made their way to Srebrenica, a large number of Bosniak civilians made their way to the nearby town of Potocari, which was home to a larger UN base. VRS units separated a small number of men from this group and the rest were put on buses and sent to ABiH-controlled territory.

One allegation is that the men separated from this group at Potocari were then taken somewhere close by and massacred.

There are separate allegations that some men were permitted to board the buses at Potocari but were stopped at different checkpoints inside Republika Srpska and groups of men were removed, a total of five or six different groups removed at five or six different checkpoints. These groups were then allegedly massacred at different areas by different VRS units.

The vast majority of massacre/genocide allegations refers to this group of men, not the "northern column" group.

Northern Column

The majority of the men in the Srebrenica area however "formed a column" and headed north on foot to attempt to make their way behind ABiH lines before VRS forces occupied the town. It is unknown what percentage of these men were active members of the ABiH. The 28th Infantry Division, which had been based in Srebrenica, was entirely absent when VRS forces arrived, therefore this northern column contained most if not all of the 28th ABiH infantry.

There are allegations that VRS forces attacked this column, killing thousands. There are allegations that some people in the column who surrendered were later executed. At least 5,000 men in this column successfully made it to ABiH controlled territory however.

Included in this column were young men who were non-combatants. There are allegations that adult civilian male Bosniaks were in this column as well, although again it was largely members of the ABiH 28th infantry division. There are reports by Dutch peacekeepers that members of the column were armed, including with anti-tank weapons.

Sometimes this column is referred to as men "fleeing" from combat. Other times it is referred to as men making their way to ABiH-controlled territory to regroup with the larger ABiH military. The ICTY prosecution quite clearly states that most of the 28th division was in this column.

There are also credible reports that there was some inter-factional fighting going on between men in the ABiH column which led to members killing each other. The number of ABiH killing ABiH is reported to be in the low hundreds. The source of this contention will be explored more in-depth below.

There is only some evidence that the men who were killed in the "northern column" were massacred. It seems likely that the men who did not survive were primarily killed in "ordinary" warfare with VRS units.

According to the official Dutch government report:

A large number of the men were members of the Bosnian Muslim army (ABiH) who had attempted to break out of the enclave to Tuzla with some of the male population during the night of 11 July. The decision to break out and thus to give up further resistance was taken entirely outside the UN and UNPROFOR.

Bosniak Violations of Srebrenica Safe Area

Despite the 1993 designation of Srebrenica as a "safe area" and demilitarized zone, there is substantial documentation that the 28th Infantry division of the ABiH conducted military operations in the area for two years. From the official Dutch government report:

The supposed demilitarisation in the enclave was virtually a dead letter. The Bosnian army (ABiH) followed a deliberate strategy of using limited military actions to tie up a relatively large part of the manpower of the Bosnian Serbian army (VRS) to prevent it from heading in full force for the main area around Sarajevo. This was also done from the Srebrenica enclave. ABiH troops had no qualms about breaking all the rules in skirmishes with the VRS. They provoked fire by the Bosnian Serbs and then sought cover with a Dutchbat unit which then ran the risk of being caught between two fires.

The commander of the ABiH forces in the area was Naser Oric. The forces under Oric conducted numerous raids against Serbian villages in the area, killing between 1300 and 2000 civilians. One night in particular, January 7, 1993, (Christmas Day for Serbs), the town of Kravica was raided and hundreds of Serbs were killed and houses were systematically looted.

Oric has publically stated numerous times that he conducted these operations. His forces also videotaped their acts and Oric has provided copies to the western press, including the Toronto Star and the Washington Post.

The raids conducted by Oric were designed to terrorize the local Serb population and by July 1995, the vast majority had fled. Less than 900 Serbs remained in the Srebrenica area out of a former population of 9,300. In the nearby Bratunac area, 6,000 Serbs had fled from a former population of 13,500.

For two years, the ABiH forces used the Srebrenica "safe area" to launch attacks (almost always at night) and then would retreat behind the lines, preventing VRS forces from engaging them.

Military Significance of Srebrenica

Prior to the war, Srebrenica was home to a large concentration of Bosniaks. In 1995, Bosniak forces controlled a line that ran roughly from Sarajevo to Tuzla. Srebrenica, and the area around Zvornik, were two "front line" areas, inside Republika Srpska, and close to the SFRY border.

If the VRS could remove ABiH forces in these two areas, they would secure their "rear" lines and solidify the control over Republika Srpska. If the Bosniaks could kill or drive away the majority of the Serbs in the area, it would help the ABiH control a contiguous area. It must be remembered here that both ABiH and VRS were fighting to control all of Bosnia - the partitioned state in existance now was the result of the Dayton Agreement compromises.

As the ICTY sentencing judge Almiro Rodrigues stated:

Srebrenica is located in a part of eastern Bosnia, central Podrinje, which was of particular interest to both parties involved. To the Bosnian Muslims because the town was predominantly Muslim before the conflict; because it is located between Tuzla to the north and Zepa to the south both of which were under Muslim control; because the fall of Srebrenica could have extremely negative consequences for Sarajevo under siege at the time. To the Bosnian Serbs because the region known as central Podrinje was in that part of Bosnia bordering Serbia and because it was important to establish the continuity, in Bosnia like in neighbouring Serbia, of the territories under Serbian control; and, of course, for the opposite reasons of those of the Bosnian Muslims.

Wider War

The VRS occupation of Srebrenica, along with the allegations of massacres/genocide, had two direct consequences. The first was that it solidified NATO support of the Bosniak government (under the leadership of Alija Izetbegovic) and subsequent air and artillery strikes in support of ABiH offensives.

Secondly, the VRS occupation of Srebrenica, along with the allegations of massacres/genocide, led to the greenlighting of Operation Storm on August 4, 1995.

Inside the Republic of Croatia, the predominately Serb area of Krajina formed its own government and military forces, under the title Republika Srpska Krajina. Operation Storm of the HV (Croatian military), drove out 150,000 to 200,000 ethnic Serbs from the area, the vast majority of them civilians. It is uncontestedly the largest incident of ethnic cleansing that occurred during these wars.

There is credible evidence that between 715 and 1,542 civilian Serbs were killed during Operation Storm, including during the shelling of a refugee column. Currently there is only one major Croatian official being charged by the International Court Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and that is General Ante Govina.

It is also conclusive that the United States military not only authorized Operation Storm but provided tactical support and intelligence for this operation (via a private contracting company). HV forces, after driving the Serbs out of Krajina, combined with HVO forces to fight the VRS.

I might add here that Operation Storm garnered a lot of international criticism, which was largely deflected by the reports of the massacres/genocide in Srebrenica. With increased NATO help, Bosniak forces overran much of the VRS and put enormous pressure on the Serb leadership to accept the Dayton compromise shortly thereafter.

Furthermore, NATO politicians in 1999 urged the support of the War On Serbia by saying they did not want "another Srebrenica" to occur in Kosovo. The Srebrenica massacres/genocide have been the single largest emotional "trump" card in justifying military action against Serb forces in both the civil wars and the 1999 invasion of Serbia, and is the single most remembered or highlighted incident of all of those wars.

It is also referred to quite often as the "single worst incident of genocide since World War 2" in Europe.

The Srebrenica Massacres Become Genocide

The very first person convicted of the crime of genocide by the ICTY was Radislav Krtic on August 2, 2001. He was convicted and sentenced to 46 years imprisonment for three reasons:

• There were massacres of unarmed men, whose bodies had been located in several different graves in differing areas, and their sum deaths was determined to be genocide. The genocide was not pre-determined or planned. The number of dead were estimated to be between 7000 and 8000 although forensic evidence had not conclusively identified more than a few hundred;
• General Krtic was the deputy commander of the Drina Corps of the VRS. The Drina Corps oversaw the evacuation of civilians from Potocari. Although Krstic was determined not to have been in Potocari or the locations where massacres took place, as commander he was responsible for their actions. Paragraph 150 of the judgement against him reads, "it was unnecessary for the Trial Chamber to conclude that Radislav Krstic was actually aware that those other criminal acts were being committed; it was sufficient that their occurrence was foreseeable to him and that those other crimes did in fact occur"; and
• Testimony by Private Drazen Erdemovic, a member of the 10th Sabotage Group of the VRS, who admitted participation in two separate massacres of unarmed Bosniaks

After this point, the incidents following the occupation of Srebrenica have officially been condemned as "genocide".

Mass Graves and Physical Evidence

There are numerous problems with the mass graves, the existance of which either prove or disprove that a massacre took place.

One of the biggest problems is that the majority of the corpses discovered so far have not been identified. This is partly due to a lack of funding, and partly because of the slow pace of forensic science. Many of the exhumed bodies have been transferred to a holding area in Bosnia and are awaiting identification today through DNA comparisons with relatives of missing people.

This leads to the possibility that some of the corpses in graves that have been discovered may have died in conflicts other than the those related to Srebrenica, may be from an older (or later) date, or may be Serbs or other ethnicities. Furthermore, many of the graves contained "disarticulated" body parts, which is a fancy way to say they were dug up from elsewhere and reburied in the second (or third) location, making it even more difficult to determine cause of death. Varying groups say different people moved the corpses for varying political reasons, whether to attempt to hide the atrocities or to perpetrate the story of them.

Because of this, it's very difficult to determine exactly how many bodies have been recovered related to Srebrenica, or how they died. The reports I've seen estimate between 3,000 and 6,000 total bodies have been recovered, all of which or only part, may be related to Srebrenica. Furthermore, some bodies were found unburied in the area of Srebrenica, as opposed to mass graves.

A few examples:

A grave was found in Liplje, near Zvornik, with approximately 200 bodies. This grave contained bodies which had been reburied from another location.

A grave was found near Kamenica, with approximately 15 bodies. Some of the corpses were incomplete, while others had their hands bound by wire.

A grave was found in Crni Vrh, near Zvornik, with approximately 700 bodies. The graves contained bodies which had been reburied from another location.

It is very difficult to get totals, I've seen anywhere from 43 to 60 different mass graves have been discovered which are allegedly from the incidents following Srebrenica.

The fact that there are so many different graves in varying locations, with varying totals of people buried there, counterindicates any organized plan to commit genocide. Considering that many of these graves contained reburied corpses, the total number of original grave sites may be much higher.

Furthermore, various allegations of mass graves have been disproved. A CIA satellite photograph of a soccer field near Nova Kasaba was supposed to show evidence of a mass grave, however investigation into the area failed to discover it.

There are also very few stories of survivors of the different massacres, strangely convergent from other genocidial mass killings such as perpetrated by Nazi Germany.

Similarly, a reported mass grave site at Ljubija was explored by British troops without discovering any bodies.

In the cases of Pilica and Branjevo Farm (see below), evidence of blood, hair and human tissue was discovered. Only a limited number of bodies have been discovered in this area, with some alleged bodies from these incidents found reburied in other areas.

According to the International Commission on Missing Persons, a total of 2,070 people have been identified as Srebrenica victims. I might add that the ICMP is a Bosnia-based agency, which receives funding from NATO countries and private foundations.

Drazen Erdemovic

There's a link to some of his official testimony below, but it is clear that a large percentage of the "proof" of a massacre/genocide following Srebrenica is based on his testimony. A summary of what is known about him and what he has stated on the record:

• Erdemovic is an ethnic Croat, who was born and raised in Tuzla, Bosnia
• Previously he was a soldier for both the ABiH (Bosniak military) as well as the HVO (Bosnian Croat military)
• Erdemovic testified he left the ABiH precisely because he wanted to avoid combat operations
• According to his testimony, he was beaten up by fellow Croats in the HVO for "helping" Serbs leave Bosnian territory. Other reports say he made money doing this
• Erdemovic said he went to Republika Srpska because a Serb told him he could help Erdemovic (and his pregnant wife) escape to Switzerland. This Serb man has never been identified and this claim was never verified
• Erdemovic said he was forced to join the VRS, and chose the 10th Sabotage Group because it was mostly a reconnaissance group that did not engage in fighting. Erdemovic said in the ABiH, HVO and VRS he always chose postings where he wouldn't have to kill anyone
• Erdemovic was arrested in 1996 in Yugoslavia by Yugoslav forces after publically stating he had participated in a massacre (more on this below). He was then turned over voluntarily by the Yugoslav gov't, then still under the control of Slobodan Milosevic
• Erdemovic's testimony about massacres in two locations (Pilica and Branjevo) was the first evidence that ICTY prosecutors had that anything had even occurred there, much less a massacre.
• Erdemovic testified that he guessed the victims of Pilica and Branjevo came from Zvornik, but admitted he had no actual knowledge of their origin
• The 10th Sabotage Group was paramilitary in nature, composed of different ethnicities (including a Muslim Bosniak) and was only partially under the control and command of the VRS. There is evidence that this was a paramilitary or even mercenary group (paid contractors)
• Erdemovic testified that the massacres he witnessed and participated in took place on July 16, five days after the fall of Srebrenica
• Erdemovic's testimony was that he and seven other men (total of 8) of the 10th Sabotage Group, were ordered to kill approximately 200-300 unarmed men in a barn (referred to as the Branjevo Farm). Erdemovic stated he killed between 10 and 100 men himself
• Immediately after this massacre, he was ordered to join a group of other soldiers who were killing a group of unarmed Muslim Bosniak men inside of a government hall in Pilica. Erdemovic and at least 4 of his comrades (out of 8) refused to do so, but witnessed other soldiers killing some people who attempted to escape the building. Erdemovic did not see anything going on inside the building, but stated that he heard shooting and screaming
• According to Erdemovic's testimony, a few days later (July 22), while drinking heavily in a bar with other soldiers, one Serb soldier was angry with his non-participation in the Pilica gov't building massacre and shot him four times, seriously injuring him. Erdemovic was removed to a hospital inside Yugoslavia (Belgrade) and treated for his wounds
• A short while later, he stated to the media that a massacre had occurred in Pilica and he had participated in it

Erdemovic, although he confessed the murder of between 10 and 100 unarmed men, was given a five year sentence by the ICTY. This was partly because he showed "remorse" and partly because his testimony was key in convicting General Krtic and evidence for the indictments against Mlatko Radic and Radovan Karadzic.

There are several problems with his testimony however:

• Erdemovic was diagnosed with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which delayed his testimony to the ICTY
• Erdemovic had difficulty describing the men he shot and could not say if they were blindfolded or not, were facing towards him or not, or whether their hands were bound or not or even approximately how many there were
• Erdemovic said his unit was deployed to Pilica by a "Lieutenant Colonel", but this man has never been named by the ICTY or in ICTY testimony and it is not even clear whether this Lt. Colonel was in the VRS or another military organization. In fact, Erdemovic stated he knew the man was a Lt. Colonel because he saw his "rank and insignia" on his uniform, but he did not have his name on the uniform
• Erdemovic said only he and 7 other members of the 10th Sabotage Group were ordered to commit the first massacre (the Branjevo Farm incident) yet earlier stated that unit did not engage in combat and had never killed anyone and was primarily a reconnaissance unit
• Erdemovic said he only obeyed the order to kill the unarmed men because he feared for his life and was warned he would be executed too if he did not obey, yet later the same day he refused a direct order from the same commanding officer to participate in the Pilica gov't building massacre
• Erdemovic refused to press charges against the Serb soldier who (allegedly) shot him four times
• While in the hospital in Serbia (Yugoslavia) recovering from his wounds, Erdemovic met another member of the group of soldiers who participated in the Pilica gov't building massacre. That soldier said he had been paid a large sum of gold for participating (Erdemovic was not). It was only after this that he told the media about the incidents
• Erdemovic testified that he had not been paid for a year and a half before he spoke to the media
• Erdemovic testified he could not remember how much he was paid as a member of the 10th Sabotage Group, or what his responsibilities were, or what his military contract stated
• Some of Erdemovic's testimony was given during closed sessions, for which transcripts do not exit

Erdemovic's testimony was also allowed to be used in an "Article 61" hearing against Ratko Mladic (VRS military commander) and Radovan Karadzic (VRS political leader). This is highly controversial because under ICTY rules, this testimony is not allowed to be cross-examined. In other words, Erdemovic's confession was never allowed to be cross-examined by anyone.

Hakija Meholjic and Nesib Buric

There is evidence that the Bosniak leadership, under President Alija Izetbegovic, wanted Srebrenica to fall into Serb hands to gain a political victory. Certainly the allegations of massacres/genocide subsequent to the fall of Srebrenica greatly helped their cause.

According to a UN report from 1993:

Representatives of the Bosniac community gathered in Sarajevo on 28 and 29 September to vote on the peace package. A delegation of Bosniacs from Srebrenica was transported to Sarajevo by UNPROFOR [UN forces in Bosnia] helicopter to participate in the debate. Prior to the meeting, the delegation met in private with [Bosnian] President Izetbegovic, who told them that there were Serb proposals to exchange Srebrenica and Zepa for territories around Sarajevo. The delegation opposed the idea, and the subject was not discussed further. Some surviving members of the Srebrenica delegation have stated that President Izetbegovic also told them he had learned that a NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina was possible, but could only occur if the Serbs were to break into Srebrenica, killing at least 5,000 of its people."

There were two key factors at work here:

• Izetbegovic was working on consolidation of power over the Bosniak government and forces. He had full control over the Bosniak forces in Sarajevo but there were anti-Izetbegovic forces amongst the units in Srebrenica
• The fall of Srebrenica would consolidate NATO military support for his forces and help stem opposition from members of the United Nations

Izetbegovic denied making the offer listed above but it was confirmed by none other than Hakija Meholjic, who was the (Bosniak Muslim) chief of police for Srebrenica. On June 22, 1998 he stated:

'You know, I was offered by Clinton in April 1993 (after the fall of Cerska and Konjevic Polje) that the Chetnik [VRS] forces enter Srebrenica, carry out a slaughter of 5,000 Muslims, and then there will be a military intervention.' ...our delegation was composed of nine people, one among us was from Bratunac and unfortunately he is the only one not alive now, but all the others from the delegation are alive and can confirm this."

It is an uncontested fact that the leadership of the 28th ABiH Infantry Division, including Naser Oric, had departed the Srebrenica area before the VRS occupied the town. Why were the top 18 leaders of the unit missing?

According to [Muslim Bosniak] Nesib Buric, a former member of the 28th Division defending Srebrenica, they were left to be slaughtered:

"I know that they are now trying to humiliate people from Srebrenica and spread rumors that we supposedly did not fight and were slain while running away from Srebrenica. No one can deny that in the Srebrenica municipality there are 2,000 buried fighters. No one can deny that we set up a large free territory. However, without assistance from outside we could not hold out for long surrounded by the enemy. You can write that I absolutely support the statement by Hakija Meholjic that we were betrayed.

Again, there are credible reports that members of the "northern column" fought one another, perhaps over this very issue, some arguing that they should've stayed behind and tried to defend the territory, others saying that there was a political purpose in letting the town fall.

The Srebrenica Massacre Videotape

On June 2, 2005, a videotape was shown during Slobodan Milosevic's trial that allegedly showed Serb units killing unarmed Bosniak prisoners as part of the Srebrenica Massacre. This videotape was later played on both Serbian and Bosnian television.

While horrific, the tape shows only six people being killed. The perpetrators were identified as being members of a group called the "Scorpions", which were a paramilitary unit. They did not report to, nor were they part of, the VRS. In fact, the Scorpions were comprised of Serbs from Krajina (Croatia) and reported to the Republika Srspka Krajina, a completely separate entity (this was before Operation Storm ethnically cleansed the area).

Furthermore, the killings shown on the videotape took place in Mt. Treskavica, which is near Pale. This is nowhere near the other reported massacres (of men from Srebrenica), in fact it is in completely the opposite direction.

It should be noted that most of the members of the Scorpions shown on the videotape were arrested shortly after its release, most of the men living in Croatia, where that unit had been based.

So while the incident on videotape is horrific, it is completely and utterly unrelated to the Srebrenica massacres/genocide.

Conclusion

Approximately 260,000 people of all ethnicities were killed between 1992-1995. Almost 2 million people were displaced, most of this in what can be accurately referred to as "ethnic cleansing".

There is sufficient evidence to reasonably say that some Muslim prisoners were killed by Serb or Serb-allied forces following the occupation of Srebrenica. How many people were killed in "mass executions" versus ordinary combat is not known and with the reburial of so many corpses, may never be accurately known.

The bulk of the direct testimony of massacres came from a single man - Drazen Erdemovic. The rest of the evidence is secondary, which does not negate its value however.

No verbal or written orders of genocide or mass murder to be conducted by the VRS against the Bosniaks has ever been produced in court.

The allegations of genocide in Srebrenica had vast political ramifications, including the exclusion of VRS leaders from the Dayton Accord negotiations, the strengthened NATO alliance with Bosniak forces, and U.S. mercenary trained Croatian forces fighting in Bosnia.

It should be noted that the United Nations, as an indicator of world opinion, had opposed NATO involvement in the war prior to the fall of Srebrenica as well.

There are other mass graves that have been discovered with bodies of people who died in incidents completely unrelated to Srebrenica.

The fact that Yugoslav authorities turned over Drazen Erdemovic to the ICTY completely puzzled the trial judge:

THE PRESIDING JUDGE: A question I might ask the Prosecutor. How do you interpret this relative co-operation on the part of a country which we can say up to this point has not really demonstrated any strong desire to co-operate with the Tribunal? Do you have any idea about this question? Can you answer this question?

MR. HARMON: I have often asked myself the same question, your Honour, but I have been unable to answer the question and cannot answer the question today.

Considering the importance of Erdemovic's testimony, why would the Yugoslav government turn him over to the ICTY if they had ordered genocide or mass executions of Bosniak prisoners?

Frankly, the civil war was a brutal inter-ethnic conflict with atrocities committed by all sides on multiple occasions. It is my belief however that the incidents of Srebrenica, while tragic and horrible, did not amount to "genocide" and the evidence provided in ICTY testimony for this is extremely weak. I do believe a number of unarmed people were killed in both "Srebrenica" incidents as well as elsewhere during the war, all of which is unforgivable and completely wrong.

It is my belief that a number of groups, including journalist David Rohde as well as Natasa Kandic, have inflated and hyperbolized the existing facts about what happened.

I know it is futile to hope that a dispassionate investigation into what happened will ever be conducted. My hope in writing this article however was to assess and analyze the situation. Again I fully understand and expect that different people have different views on this highly emotional issue.

References

The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation conducted an extensive investigation into Srebrenica for the Dutch government, which can be found here (in English).

The testimony of Drazen Erdemovic to the ICTY.

The ICTY official judgement against Radislav Krstic

Slobodan Milosevic's rebuttal to the conviction of Radislav Krstic.

Information about Izetbegovic's engineering of the fall of Srebenica and betrayal of its defenders.

The most comprehensive analysis of Srebrenica and its place in the larger context - from a blog (of course).

A pro-Serbian website about the allegations of Srebrenica

A website entitled the Widows of Bosnia has a lot of information and photos about Srebrenica

Pax