WAR CRIMES AND ATROCITIES (True Crime) (35 page)

Sabra And Shatila Massacres

1982

Sabra and Shatila were two refugee camps on the outskirts of Muslim Western Beirut. The camps were established when a large number of Palestinians sought refuge from Israel during the 1967 Six Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The issues leading up to the massacres, which the UN General Assembly condemned as an act of genocide, have been many years in the making and are extremely complex.

EVENTS
 
LEADING
 
TO
 
THE
 
MASSACRES

To put it as simply as possible, the Sabra and Shatila massacres were the outcome of an alliance between Israel and the Lebanese Phalangists. The Phalangists were a Christian political party and militia, who attracted Christian youths from the mountains north-east of Beirut as well as students from Beirut itself. At the start of the Lebanese Civil War, the Phalangists cooperated with Syria, but after 1982, Israel became their most important ally. In their long-standing war against Palestinian nationalism and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Israel were pleased to have the support of the Phalangists. Even though it was Israel who was responsible for the mass exodus of Palestinians, the hostility felt by the Israelis and the Phalangists against the Palestinians, led to them forming a secret alliance. Under the terms of this alliance, the Israelis supplied the Phalangists with money, arms and equipment to help them fight the PLO in Lebanon.

Although many have suggested that the massacres were a direct result of the murder of President Bachir Gemayel of the Lebanon and leader of the Phalangists, it was not a spontaneous act of vengeance, but a well planned operation. The Israelis were keen to motivate a mass exodus of Palestinians from Beirut and other parts of the Lebanon by means of mass terror. They had used this tactic before in a previous number of massacres, and it was a disturbing pattern of political struggle directed against innocent civilians – women, children and the aged population.

ISRAEL
 
MOVE
 
TO
 
WEST
 
BEIRUT

Initially, the Israeli government announced that its intention was to only penetrate as far as 40 km (25 miles) into the Lebanese territory. However, this was just a ruse, as Sharon had already planned a more ambitious project some months earlier. Having already committed a serious of violations against the civilian population in the south of the country, the Israelis proceeded to penetrate as far as Beirut. By 18 June, 1982, the Israelis had surrounded the PLO armed forces in the western part of the capital. The intensive shelling of Beirut resulted in the deaths of 18,000 people and a further 30,000 injuries, the majority of which were civilians.

The fighting went on for a period of two months, after which a ceasefire was negotiated via the US Envoy, Philip Habib. Under the terms of the ceasefire, the PLO was to evacuate Beirut under the watchful eye of a multinational force. The USA told the Palestinians that they would take control of the security of the civilians in the camps after the evacuation was completed on 1 September, 1982, but no such supervision was ever put into operation.

The decision to move to West Beirut was taken by the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin and Israeli Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon, even though it violated the ceasefire and broke Israel’s promise to US President Reagan, not to enter Beirut after the PLO’s evacuation. On 10 September, the multinational forces evacuated Beirut and the next day, Ariel Sharon announced that 2,000 ‘terrorists’ had stayed inside the refugee camps around Beirut.

PLANNING
 
THE
 
MASSACRE

On the evening of 14 September, Ariel Sharon and Israel’s Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, had a meeting in which plans were made to have the Phalange forces storm the two refugee camps. By dawn, on 15 September, Israel stormed West Beirut and cordoned off the Sabra and Shatila camps.

The following day a high-level meeting was held and the job of carrying out the operation was assigned to a major security official in the Lebanese forces, Eli Haqiba. Also present were the Supreme Commander of the Northern Forces, General Amir Dawri and Fadi Afram, Commander of the Lebanese forces.

The attack on the camps by the Phalangists militiamen started just before sunset on Thursday, 16 September, under the watchful eye of their Israeli allies. The Israeli army surrounded the camps, providing the Phalangists with the necessary support to carry out their heinous crime. They gave them bulldozers and a maps of the insides of the camps. Fired by the death of their Christian president, Bachir Gemayel, and the years of brutality they had suffered at the hands of the Palestinians during the PLO occupation of Lebanon, the Phalangists set about their three-day orgy of rape and slaughter. To give them more light, the Christian militia set off incandescent bombs into the air so that none of the Palestinians would be able to escape. Those who did try to escape the killing and rape – women, children and the elderly – were quickly brought back to the camps by the waiting Israeli soldiers. By Saturday morning, 18 September, the massacre had reached its peak and thousands of Sabra and Shatila camp refugees had been slaughtered.

By the end of the third day, there were bodies everywhere and it was a nauseating scene. Many of the victims had been mutilated by axes or knives; others had their heads smashed, their eyes removed, their throats cut, and the skin had literally been stripped from their body. Severed limbs lay strewn around the floor and others had been disembowelled. It was one of the most indecent acts of genocide that the world had ever witnessed.

NEWS SPREADS

News of the massacre started to spread quickly after a number of women and children had successfully escaped to the Gaza Hospital in the Shatila camp. They told the doctors there exactly what was happening, and before long foreign media had got hold of the news. Journalists who went into the camps after the massacre were nauseated by what they saw. Loren Jenkins of the
Washington Post
described the scene:

The scene at the Shatila camp when foreign observers entered Saturday morning was like a nightmare. Women wailed over the deaths of loved ones, bodies began to swell under the hot sun, and the streets were littered with thousands of spent cartridges. Houses had been dynamited and bulldozed into rubble, many with the inhabitants still inside. Groups of bodies lay before bullet-pocked walls where they appeared to have been executed. Others were strewn in alleys and streets, apparently shot as they tried to escape. Each little dirt alley through the deserted buildings, where Palestinians have lived since fleeting Palestine when Israel was created in 1948, told its own horror story.

The exact number of victims may never be fully ascertained. At the time the international Red Cross counted 1,500 bodies, but by 22 September, this number had risen to 2,400. The following day a further 350 bodies were uncovered, but because the Lebanese authorities forbade the opening of mass graves, the true number will probably never be known. Realistically, the number of victims is somewhere around 3,000 to 3,500, one quarter of whom were Lebanese, while the remainder were Palestinians.

The Israeli public were sickened when they discovered what had taken place, and on 25 September a huge demonstration of 300,000 Israelis was held in Tel Aviv, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Ariel Sharon. They also demanded the establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the massacre.

Even though Sharon insisted that he could not have known that the Phalangists were going to commit the atrocities in the Sabra and Shatila camps, he was still forced to resign his post as Defence Minister. Sharon’s reputation worldwide deteriorated to such a degree that it nearly ended his political career.

The Phalangist leader, Elie Hobeika, who was held directly responsible for carrying out the massacres, was under investigation for several years before his sudden death in 1985. Apart from his involvement in the massacres, Hobeika was also linked to several other crimes, including the 1978 assassination of Zghorta MP, Tony Franjieh, and a 1985 car bomb attack that severely injured Sidon MP, Mustafa Saad and killed his daughter, Natasha. It is believed that the Syrians discovered Hobeika’s involvement with the CIA and arranged for his death in a part of Beirut that was heavily patrolled by Lebanese security forces. He was killed in a bomb blast on 24 January, 2002, just one day after he said he was ready to testify in a case brought by Palestinians in Belgium accusing Ariel Sharon of sanctioning the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

The secrets of the Palestinian camp atrocities have probably gone to the grave with the death of Hobeika. A Belgian court has now postponed a decision over whether to indict Ariel Sharon for his role, while lawyers for the survivors try to gather more evidence. However, as two more Phalangist militia have been mysteriously murdered since the death of Hobeika, there is major concern that the true events may never be uncovered as the death list continues to grow.

Srebrenica Massacre

1995

The Srebrenica massacre has become the symbol of Serbian evil and has been described as ‘a horror without parallel’. It was a cold-blooded execution of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys, while the international community and UN peacekeepers simply looked on. The massacre took place between 10 and 19 July, 1995, in and around the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, when Serb forces segregated civilian men from the women and killed them
en masse
.

BACKGROUND

The events that took place at Srebrenica mark the climax of a civil war in Bosnia–Herzegovina, a country that lies on the Balkan peninsula of southern Europe. It has an estimated population of around four million people and is the homeland to three ethnic groups – Bosnians, Serbs and Croats. The conflict began in 1992 and has been described as one of the most violent and genocidal periods in the history of the war. Atrocities were committed by all sides and against all sectors of the population, but the Serb strategy of gender-selective mass executions of non-combatant men, was the most severe and systematic atrocity of all.

One of the largest massacres during the early part of the war took place at a gymnasium in the village of Bratunac in April 1992. An estimated 350 Bosnian Muslim men were literally tortured to death by the Serb paramilitaries and special police. Bratunac was not far from Srebrenica, but although they were able to capture Bratunac, the city of Srebrenica was heavily defended by Naser Oric. Oric was a former Bosnian military officer who commanded the army of the Republic of Bosnia forces in Srebrenica with the help of associated squads of civilian
torbari
(or ‘bag people’). He has been described as a ‘Rambo-like’ figure with a reputation for carrying out atrocities on Serb villagers.

In April 1993, the Serb forces managed to close in on Oric and succeeded in overcoming his army, taking control of Srebrenica. The leader of the Serb forces, General Ratko Mladic, had already made it quite clear that he disliked the menfolk of Srebrenica, whether they were involved in the war or not, and in horrific scenes that soon captured the world’s attention, he started to segregate the inhabitants of the village. Literally hundreds of women and children were evacuated from Srebrenica before he finally tightened the noose and stemmed the flow of any further refugees.

Worried about what was happening in the village, the international community declared Srebrenica to be one of five ‘safe areas’, the other four being Zepa, Gorazde, Tuzla and Sarajevo. However the term ‘safe area’ was never really defined, and sufficient forces were never supplied to ensure the occupants safety. As the events at Srebrenica two years later proved, they were probably among the most ‘unsafe’ places in the entire world.

THE MASSACRE

Srebrenica was the home to tens of thousands of civilians who had taken refuge there from earlier Serb offensives in the north-east of Bosnia. They had been placed under the protection of about 600 lightly armed Dutch infantry troops when it had been designated a United Nations ‘safe area’. Supplies in the village were running low as nothing had been brought into the enclave since early May.

In July 1995, Serb forces, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the area of the Muslims living in the enclaves, tightened their noose further on the so-called ‘safe areas’. Serb forces started shelling Srebrenica, and Muslim fighters in the village asked for the return of their weapons that had been surrendered to peacekeepers. Their request was denied.

The commander of the Dutch forces requested for backup after shells and rockets fell close to the refugee centres, but help was slow in coming.

On 9 July, the Serbs stepped up their bombing and mass panic took hold of the civilian population. Thousands of refugees fled into the village centre ahead of the advancing Serbs, who attacked the Dutch observation posts, taking approximately 30 hostages. By the evening around 4,000 refugees were in the village and large crowds had gathered around the Dutch positions. The Dutch tried to pacify the crowd by telling them that NATO planes would launch massive attacks on the Serbs if they had not withdrawn from the safe area by 6.00 a.m. the following morning.

However, the Serb forces did not retreat, and the Dutch request for backup had been denied, as they said it had been ‘submitted on the wrong form’! The promised NATO planes, which had been airborne since 6.00 a.m., had to return to refuel, and the citizens of Srebrenica feared the worst. By midday, more than 20,000 refugees had gathered at the UN base at Potocari.

At 2.30 p.m. two Dutch fighters dropped bombs on the Serb troops surrounding Srebrenica. They responded by saying they would kill their Dutch hostages and continue with the shelling of the refugees. Taking their threat seriously, the Dutch decided not to attack further.

By mid-afternoon the Serb commander, Ratko Mladic, entered the village, accompanied by Serb cameramen. In the evening Mladic demanded a meeting with the Dutch Colonel Karremans, at which he delivered an ultimatum that the Muslims must hand over their weapons to guarantee their safety.

The next day, 12 July, buses arrived to transport the women and children to safety. Meanwhile, the Serbs started to round up all the men aged between 12 and 77 for what they called ‘interrogation for suspected war crimes’. In the next 24 hours, it is estimated that as many as 23,000 women and children were deported, while the men were held hostages in trucks and warehouses. Around 15,000 Muslim fighters managed to escape Srebrenica and fled to the hills in their effort to get to Muslim protected territory, but they were shelled in their attempt and the majority were killed.

The first massacre of unarmed Muslims took place in a warehouse in the neighbouring village of Kravica. In return for the release of the 14 Dutch officers, peacekeepers handed over about 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltering at the Potocari base. Following talks between the UN and the Serbs, the Dutch were eventually allowed to leave the enclave as long as they left their weapons, food and medical supplies behind.

In the five days that the Serb forces occupied Srebrenica, it is believed that more than 7,000 Muslim men were brutally massacred. Many of them were killed in the school gymnasium in Bratunac, the site of an earlier genocide of Muslim men. Many more were slaughtered at a football pitch near Nova Kasaba, which turned out to be the worst killing ground in the period of the massacre. It is alleged that some of the refugees were forced to dig their own graves, after which they were simply lined up in front of them and shot one by one. In a radio broadcast, which was intercepted by westerners, the Bosnian Serb commander, General Radivoj Krstic, told his forces, ‘You must kill everyone. We don’t need anyone alive’.

Muslims who had fled to the hills had become trapped by the Serb bombardment and, through lack of food, water and sleep, many of them succumbed to hallucinations and paranoia, which resulted in them turning on one another. Some even resorted to shooting themselves, believing that the Serbs would take pity on the wounded. Others simply committed suicide in an attempt to escape the nightmare they found themselves in. Thousands, with the promise of safe passage, surrendered to the Serbs, only to be taken to nearby fields and warehouses, where they were brutally executed and buried in mass graves.

FINAL DEATH COUNT

The estimated number of men killed range from 7,000 to as high as 10,000, but that doesn’t account for the 18,406 Muslims, Serbs and Croats who are still listed as missing. It has certainly gone down in history as one of the worst cases of concentrated genocide in Europe during the past 50 years. As to who is responsible – the executions were reportedly carried out under the orders of General Ratko Mladic and Radislav Krstic, who ironically was promoted to general within a few days of the killings.

In 1996, the International Criminal Tribunal indicted both Mladic and Krstic for ‘crimes against humanity’. In July 1999, the Tribunal found that the atrocities at Srebrenica had been operating under a ‘direct chain of military command’ from Belgrade and the Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. Before he could be brought to justice, Milosevich died on 11 March, 2006, while on trial at The Hague.

The United Nations should also feel compelled to share responsibility for allowing the massacre to happen right under their noses. They released a self-critical statement in November 1999, which stated:

Through error, misjudgement and the inability to recognize the scope of evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to save the people of Srebrenica from the Serb campaign of mass murder.

The memory of the Srebrenica men has been kept alive by their women, who have organized themselves into a group called ‘The Women of Srebrenica’. They continue to press for further forensic investigations, which so far has turned up some 3,000 bodies.