Kravica
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Kravica (Serbian Cyrillic: Кравица) is a predominantly Serb populated village in Bratunac county near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1991 it had a population of 357, of whom 353 were declared as Serbs, with no declared Bosniaks, Croats or Yugoslavs. During the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, the village was badly damaged in the 1993 attack, and in 1995 was place of a major killings during the Srebrenica massacre.
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[edit] September 1991 killing
On 3 September 1991, on the brink of the war, the Eastern Bosnia's first victims of ethnic violence were killed when a group of Kravica policemen and paramilitary nationalists ambushed a car of Bosniaks, killing two out of three people inside. None of the Policement and accomplices in the attack were ever brought to trial[citation needed].
After the Kravica incident, Bosniaks started to organize armed patrols in their villages and settlements with the few arms they had, and the Serbs did the same in their villages. Tensions between local Serbs and Bosniaks soared to unprecedented heights[citation needed].
[edit] January 1993 Bosniaks attack
On 7 January 1993 (Orthodox Christmas day), the Bosniak forces under Naser Oric attacked and captured Kravica, a Serb military stronghold at the time. An estimated 25 Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) soldiers were killed and 36 wounded. 11 civilians were also killed and most of the houses were burned down, and the village graveyard desecrated.[1]
As for the destruction in Kravica village the judgment in Naser Orić case states that the prosecution failed to present convincing evidence that the Bosnian forces were responsible for them, because the Serb forces used artillery in the fighting in the surrounding villages. For instance, in the case of the village of Bjelovac, Serbs even used the warplanes.[2]
The fall of Kravica, which in the past had always been an important symbol of Serb resolve, created a shock wave in Eastern Bosnia; the population of Bratunac panicked and the authorities had to close the bridges over the Drina to prevent people from crossing the river en masse. For the Bosniaks, however, the victory over Kravica was a considerable boost; this conquest allowed Oric to connect with the resistance forces in Konjevic Polje and Cerska, yielding one large Bosnian terrain from Zepa and Srebrenica almost to Zvornik.
Soon after the attack on Kravica, Serb forces launched a major offensive resulting in United Nations declaring Srebrenica a "safe area".[citation needed]
[edit] July 1995 massacre
On 13 July 1995, executions were conducted in the largest of four warehouses (farm sheds) owned by the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica. Between 1,000 and 1,500 Bosniak males trying to escape Srebrenica had been captured in fields near Sandici and detained in Sandici Meadow. The captives, both civilians and prisoners of war, were brought to Kravica, either by bus or on foot, the distance being approximately one kilometre. A witness recalls seeing around 200 men, stripped to the waist and with their hands in the air, being forced to run in the direction of Kravica. An aerial photograph taken at 14.00 hours that afternoon shows two buses standing in front of the sheds.
At around 18.00 hours, when the men were all being held in the warehouse, VRS soldiers threw in hand grenades and opened fire with various weapons, including an anti-tank gun. In the local area it is said that the mass murder in Kravica was unplanned and started quite spontaneously when one of the warehouse doors suddenly swung open. Armed guards shot at the men who tried to climb out the windows to escape the massacre. When the shooting stopped, the shed was full of bodies. There were three survivors of the slaughter in the farm shed.
Supposedly, there was more killing in and around Kravica and Sandici. Even before the murders in the warehouse, some 200 or 300 men were formed up in ranks at the point of their capture near Sandici and then mown down with machine guns. At Kravica, it seems that the local population had a hand in the killings. Some victims were mutilated and killed with knives. The bodies were taken to Bratunac or simply dumped in the river that runs alongside the road.
[edit] Evidence and responsibility
Analyses of hair, blood and explosives residue, collected at the Kravica Warehouse, provide strong evidence of the killings. Experts determined the presence of bullet strikes, explosives residue, bullets and shell cases, as well as human blood, bones and tissue adhering to the walls and floors of the building. Forensic evidence presented by the ICTY Prosecutor link between the executions in Kravica and the 'primary' mass grave known as Glogova 2, in which the remains of 139 people were found. No blindfolds or restraints were found. In the 'secondary' grave know as Zeleni Jadar 5, there were 145 bodies, a number of which were charred. Pieces of brick and window frame which were found in the Glogova 1 grave that was opened later also established a link with Kravica. Here, the remains of 191 victims were found.
Precisely which Bosnian Serb units were involved in the Kravica executions cannot be stated with any certainty. There were certainly personnel of the Drina Corps in the area at the time, and the headquarters of one of the Bratunac Brigade battalions was only 400 metres from Glogova. However, there are also indications that a detachment of Military Police could have been involved in burying the victims. One Bosnian Serb witness observed soon after the executions that both VRS and Special Police could well have been involved. Given the proximity of the headquarters, the request for the earthmover, and the fact that military transport was making regular use of the road through Kravica, it is almost inconceivable that the Drina Corps could have been unaware of what was going on in the area.
[edit] References
- ^ Research and Documentation Center
- ^ ICTY: Naser Orić verdict [1]
[edit] External links
