{"id":48112,"date":"2022-07-11T10:31:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T08:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/von-srebrenica-nach-butscha-beck\/"},"modified":"2022-07-22T10:19:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T08:19:19","slug":"from-srebrenica-to-bucha-beck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/from-srebrenica-to-bucha-beck\/","title":{"rendered":"From Srebrenica to Bucha"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Foto: Haris Memija \/\u200b Imago Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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What happened in Srebrenica 27 years ago is now occurring in Bucha, Mariupol and other areas of Ukraine conquered by Russia. An essay by Marieluise Beck<\/h2>\n

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Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine is not the first one in post-war Europe. The disso\u00adlution of the socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia resulted in four wars. Little Slovenia got off lightly. After ten days of sabre-rattling, the Yugoslav army withdrew from the country and complied with the procla\u00admation of a sovereign state.<\/p>\n

When Croatia announced its withdrawal from the socialist feder\u00adation as well, the Yugoslav military launched an attack. It had become an army of Serbian nation\u00adalism. Slobodan Milosevic was the political leader of the idea of estab\u00adlishing a Greater Serbian Empire. \u201cWhere a Serb lives \u2013 this is Serbia\u201d was the slogan of his bloody campaigns. Former Yugoslavia was to become Greater Serbia.<\/p>\n

To this day, the fairy story persists that the war against Croatia broke out because Germany \u2013 and decisively its then Foreign Minister Genscher \u2013 recog\u00adnized the country\u2019s sover\u00adeignty. Historical facts prove the opposite. The murderous campaign of the Serbian military ended after the West accepted Croatia\u2019s striving for indepen\u00addence as legitimate.<\/p>\n

The multi-ethnic Republic of Bosnia also declared its withdrawal from the Yugoslav state. Hundreds of thousands of the country\u2019s citizens opposed the threat of war with a peace demon\u00adstration in Sarajevo. Bosnia was not prepared for a military conflict. The Serbian generals controlled large parts of the once common military, with its extensive arsenal of weapons. Bosnia was effec\u00adtively unarmed. Thus, Serbian paramil\u00adi\u00adtaries were able to take over large parts of the east within a few days, followed by expulsion, murder and terror. Religious affil\u00adi\u00adation was redefined as a national ethnic group. Catholics were declared Croats, Serbian Orthodox Serbs and Muslims became Bosniaks. All this happened in a country that was largely secular after almost 50 years of socialism.<\/p>\n

This marked the beginning of the years of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d, a cover word for mass murder and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people. The West reacted hesitantly. Military inter\u00advention was rejected. It was too risky and entailed the danger of escalation. The arguments for waiting and watching are repeating!<\/p>\n

What charac\u00adterises Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine today also dominated the nation\u00adalist campaign of Serbian extremists. Countries were invaded that did not want war, but only sought indepen\u00addence. There was an extreme imbalance of military power. The West stuck to its formula of no weapons in crisis areas. In doing so, victims were hit, and the position of the aggressor was strengthened.<\/p>\n

Hesitation and self-deception became the standard of the inter\u00adna\u00adtional community over the years. Thus, the military mandate of the UN Blue Helmets (peace\u00adkeepers) was limited to their self-protection. Mediation officers from the European Union dressed in white rushed to the places of attack when the murderers had already left. The UN Secretary General declared the towns of \u017depa and Srebrenica as protection zones \u2013 and did not find any inter\u00adna\u00adtional troops to protect these places.<\/p>\n

The outcome is well known. In Srebrenica, terrified Dutch Blue Helmets handed over some 8,000 men into the hands of Serbian troops, which was their death sentence. Srebrenica became one of the United Nations\u2019 darkest hours. Shocked as it was by the policy of backing down, the \u201cRespon\u00adsi\u00adbility to Protect\u201d was established.<\/p>\n

The year 1999 proved that \u201clessons learned\u201d were possible. Under the watchful eyes of the OSCE, the Serbian military marched up in Kosovo on a new campaign of exter\u00admi\u00adnation and expulsion. The first mass grave of Kosovar civilians was found in Ra\u010dak. The German Red-Green coalition government under Federal Chancellor Schr\u00f6der and the ministers Fischer and Trittin partic\u00adi\u00adpated in a NATO operation that repelled the Serbian attack.<\/p>\n

Unlike in Bosnia, 200,000 people did not have to die before the West had the courage to intervene.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine is entering its ninth year. The annex\u00adation of Crimea was met with only mild sanctions being imposed by the inter\u00adna\u00adtional community. There was a great deal of sympathy for the \u201crecla\u00admation\u201d of Crimea by the all-powerful Russia. The occupation of the Donbas was followed by negoti\u00ada\u00adtions in the Minsk format, in the success of which the aggressor was clearly not inter\u00adested. However, there were no consequences.<\/p>\n

Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia, was not suffi\u00adciently strong in terms of military to make further actions by the aggressor an incal\u00adcu\u00adlable risk. On the contrary, although President Putin already declared in the summer of 2014 that his goal was to return to the zones of influence of the Cold War, and although he had almost 150,000 soldiers deployed on Ukraine\u2019s borders from the summer of 2021 onwards \u2013 the German government still declared in January 2022 that it would not supply \u201cweapons to the crisis area\u201d. That was not Germany\u2019s role, it stated.<\/p>\n

The progress of the story is well known. Renowned experts on inter\u00adna\u00adtional law assume that Russia\u2019s war of aggression bears all the hallmarks of genocide. What happened in Srebrenica is now occurring in Bucha, Mariupol and other areas conquered by Russia. An inter\u00adna\u00adtional court will determine this, if at all, posthu\u00admously. Too late, history will probably say.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Russian military rages on. Young, poorly armed Ukrainians die in a desperate attempt to protect their citizens from Russian despotism. A German defence minister points out that Germany will not allow the Bundeswehr\u2019s stocks to be \u201cplundered\u201d for the benefit of Ukraine. The question may be asked which defence case the minister expects in the short term, for which we need all available weapons. A blitzkrieg by the Russian army through Poland and the Baltic States, so that we have to be ready to defend ourselves at the river Oder? Anyone who sees us so dramat\u00adi\u00adcally close to war has to answer questions. Or is it a question of not enraging the Russian aggressor?<\/p>\n

It can be assumed that her former counterpart Peter Struck would have seen things differ\u00adently. \u201cOur freedom is being defended in Ukraine,\u201d he would have said. And Germany would have to stand resolutely and in solidarity with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"Textende\"[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Hat Ihnen unser Beitrag gefallen? Dann spenden Sie doch einfach und bequem \u00fcber unser Spendentool. Sie unter\u00adst\u00fctzen damit die publizis\u00adtische Arbeit von LibMod.<\/p>\n

Spenden mit Bankeinzug<\/h2>\n

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