“The surrender of Srebrenica to the Serbs was of strategic importance – both for the Serbs and for the UN negotiators – because Srebrenica had to be on the Serb side in order to be able to clinch a ‘deal.’

It would become part of the Greater Serbia. The enclave was never joined to the main body of the Government-held territory further west, leaving it vulnerable to isolation and attack by Serb forces....

What the Secretary General, the UN negotiators [and] the permanent members of the Security Council failed to
consider was the potential cost of such a course of action, that would lead to the massacre of almost eight thousand innocent people who had the misfortune to live in the neighboring side of Serbia proper.

Today Srebrenica is in Serb hands in the Republika Srpska.”

Testimony of Diego E. Arria, former ambassador to the UN from Venezuela, given on February 10, 2004, on behalf of the prosecution in the Milosevic trial at the ICTY.

For the transcripts of the ICTY case on Milosevic, see: www.un.org/icty, “ICTY Cases and Judgements,” Milosevic, Slobodan. The Bosnia indictment issued in November 2001 charged Milosevic with genocide, complicity to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the war in Bosnia. Milosevic's alleged guilt was based on his command responsibility and/or participation in "a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Milosevic was charged with carrying out this “joint criminal enterprise” with Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), and Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb army (VRS), among other individuals. Milosevic was president of Serbia and then of Yugoslavia. He was the first head of state to be charged with genocide, but died in prison in March 2006 prior to the completion of the defense portion of his trial.