"U.S. and Britain abandoned Srebrenica to its fate"

"U.S. and Britain abandoned Srebrenica to its fate"

"A survey of the mass of evidence," they write, "reveals that the fall of Srebrenica formed part of a policy by the three 'great powers' - Britain, France and the U.S. - and by the UN leadership, in pursuit of peace at any price; peace at the terrible expense of Srebrenica, which gathered critical mass from 1994 onwards, and reached its bloody denouement in July 1995."

"Until now, it has always been asserted that the so-called 'endgame strategy' that forged a peace settlement for - and postwar map of - Bosnia followed the 'reality on the ground' after the fall, and ceding, of Srebrenica. What can now be revealed is that the 'endgame' preceded that fall, and was - as it turned out - conditional upon it," said the article.

It presents a chronology of the events related to Srebrenica, and statements that go in favor of the assertion that the crime in Srebrenica was "expected."

The article mentions a that in April 1993 the UN Security Council "passed a resolution whereby any peace in Bosnia must be based on withdrawal from territories seized by the use of force and ‘ethnic cleansing’," and that the same month, "a report from that same Security Council" warned of a “potential massacre in which there could be 25,000 victims if Serb forces were to enter Srebrenica."

It adds that "great powers" had the goal of ending the existence of enclaves and were aware that ethnic cleansing of Srebrenica would follow, but that UNPROFOR members left civilians unprotected and refused to help them.

"According to declassified U.S. cables details of the killings reached western intelligence and decision makers soon after they began on 13 July; CIA operatives watched almost 'live' at a satellite post in Vienna," write Hartmann and Vulliamy.

The article describes meeting between western officials and representatives of Muslims in Bosnia, abut also with Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

"Not a single politician, diplomat or senior soldier saw fit to resign over the betrayal of Srebrenica. It will be interesting to see if anything approaching an apology - let alone a reckoning - by Britain, America or France is spoken next weekend. Most of those involved were promoted or moved on to lucrative positions," said the article.