June 21, 2005
Expert talks about Srebrenica massacre on eve of 10th anniversary
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Talking about the Srebrenica massacre that took place 10 years ago in the former Yugoslavia is more important now than ever, says a Purdue University expert.
"A decade after the worst massacre Europe has seen since the days of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the Serbian people are just beginning to confront what their military heroes did in the name of patriotism," says Charles Ingrao, a professor of history and director of the Scholars' Initiative, a group of more than 250 scholars who are trying to set the record straight about what happened in the former Yugoslavia.
"American and European officials were criticized by the international media and human rights groups for their inconsistent and often cynical policies in Bosnia. This anniversary is a reminder of the terrible cost of inaction, be it in Bosnia or Rwanda in the 1990s or in Sudan's Darfur today."
On July 11, 1995 more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica were massacred by the Serbs. This event prompted United States, French and British air strikes against the Serbs, followed by a peace agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio. In 1999 NATO launched new air strikes against Yugoslavia following the commission of additional crimes in Kosovo by Serbian forces, led by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Ingrao is speaking in London, Sarajevo, New York City, Belgrade, Pristina and the Bosnian Serb capital of Banja Luka.
"Just a couple of weeks ago, all of Serbia was in an uproar over newly discovered video footage of the execution of six Bosnian Muslims – four of them teen-age boys – that was taken by the special police unit that tortured and shot them for enjoyment," Ingrao says. "There is still a tremendous amount of healing and understanding that needs to take place in that part of the world. Each side has a different story about what has happened as a consequence of Yugoslavia's dissolution of 1991-92."
The scholars – representing more than 25 countries from five continents – are addressing 11 controversies from 1986 to 2000, including the wars and ethnic cleansings involving Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Kosovo. The scholars have met annually since 2001, and most recently met in Washington, D.C., in April where they briefed officials in the State Department and Congress on the group's findings.
Yugoslavia was formed after World War I, when a victorious Serbia merged with the southern Slav lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slovenia and Vojvodina) and the independent state of Montenegro. Germany and its Axis allies partitioned and occupied the country during World War II, after which the partisan leader Josip Broz Tito recreated it as a communist state.
A news release about the Scholar's Initiative, an international project devoted to studying the history of the former Yugoslavia, is available.
CONTACT: Charles Ingrao, (765) 494-8385, (765) 463-9001 or ingrao@purdue.edu through June 26. Starting June 30, he can be reached at (011-381-63) 747-1334. From July 13-15, he can be reached at (765) 714-5447 on July 13-15.
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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