Surviving the Bosnian Genocide by Selma Leydesdorff

Author:Selma Leydesdorff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2020-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

VIOLENCE

Srebrenica fell on July 11, 1995. The inhabitants were driven out by the troops and fled to Potočari. Later, the refugees were either deported or murdered. This chapter deals with the memory of that slaughter and the cruelty of those days, and is written from the perspective of those who saw their loved ones perish. The survivors accept no defense or excuse for what happened there; their only aim in talking about it is to give witness. I was puzzled by how to present this material, how to convey what a genocide looks like when seen through the memories of eyewitnesses. There is so much that cannot be put into words, and so much “truth” that has been repeated again and again. At the same time, the interviewees also searched for ways to tell about their shattered lives and struggled to make their stories logical.

There are three categories of eyewitnesses to Potočari. The first is the murderers, who undoubtedly have stories to tell from their own perspective. The second is the people who saw it happen, in this case the Dutch soldiers. There are various legal gag orders and enormous social pressure on former DutchBatters, but it is safe to assume that their psychological focus is on pleading their own case. The third category is the survivors. They are the only ones with no reason to be silent, but it is often difficult for them to be heard. Only they can tell of the enormity of the violence and horror, and of what was done to them individually.1

The history of Potočari is one of deliberately staged terror, but terror is not something one can prosecute in an international court of law; it is juridically untenable. Yet terror and chaos are the central themes from the interviews; they are crucial for understanding the events and the trauma. A history of those days cannot be written without that panic, and we can only learn about it from those who lived through it. What results is not a historically chronological account, but rather an impression of what has not been psychologically integrated. The terror and chaos of those days in July were a deliberate strategy staged by the Serbs to reduce the chances of resistance among the victims. Nobody knew who could be trusted, or what the best way out was; everybody wanted to find at least a glimmer of hope. Because the Dutch soldiers had urged the refugees to go there and because they believed the soldiers’ promise of protection, part of the survivors’ rage is now directed at those soldiers.

Potočari was total bedlam, and the women who survived were part of a sea of people. They could not see everything that was happening, making it difficult to view the history through their eyes. In the NIOD Report, the many pages on Potočari were written from the perspective of examining the role of DutchBat. The report concluded that there were large discrepancies between the accounts of the soldiers and the refugees,2 which is to be expected.

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