Victims of war and relatives of the dead of Srebrenica call out for justice: crime must not go unpunished!

Dear Secretary-General,

The Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) / Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) takes the opportunity of your visit to the Srebrenica Memorial Centre at Potocari to bring to your attention the pressing demands of the undersigned 66 associations and organisations representing expulsees and war victims from across Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Many survivors of the Bosnian war fear that the crimes against humanity committed between 1992 and 1995 are largely being left unpunished while perpetrators escape judgment and this de facto partitioned country faces the prospect of never being reunited. If these people are to obtain the justice they seek and an independent international court is to be allowed to reach a proper conclusion regarding Serbia's responsibility, it falls to you as Secretary-General of the United Nations to insist that the Serbian government provide uncensored copies of certain documents relating to the conduct of the war. So far only versions that have entire passages blocked out have been produced. These were supposedly made available to be used only for the purpose of trying Slobodan Milosevic, under the terms of an agreement entered into by former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals Carla del Ponte in 2003 over the heads of the victims.

The surviving relatives of at least 8372 dead residents of Srebrenica still find it difficult to believe that in 2005/2006 more than 1000 personal items recovered from mass graves were destroyed, allegedly on Carla del Ponte's instructions. We urge you to order an investigation into this shocking action to determine how it was possible for watches, items of jewellery, identity documents, photographs, shreds of clothing, and other evidence and personal reminders of the murder victims to be so irretrievably disposed of.

We most emphatically urge you also to conduct an inquiry into the personal responsibility of UN officials and blue-helmeted UN forces for the handing-over of Srebrenica to Serb forces in July 1995 and for allowing genocide to be perpetrated in the so-called UN "safe area". These individuals must not be allowed to continue sheltering behind the privilege of immunity. Too many of those who relied on the UN to protect them paid for that trust with their lives.

You owe it to the victims, if you wish to see the credibility of the UN restored, to identify those responsible by name.

And finally we appeal to you not to remain silent while statesmen and politicians in Serbia treat genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a subject of public taboo despite the numerous rulings by international courts. Not only did the new Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic in one of his first public appearances deny that genocide was committed at Srebrenica, a steady succession of public events have acclaimed Ratko Mladic as a Serbian hero while the authorities have made no effort to prevent or punish the glorification of this war criminal.

Yours sincerely,

Tilman Zülch, Founder of Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) / Society for Threatened Peoples

List of co-signatory victims' associations on whose behalf this appeal is issued:

Mothers of Srebrenica (Srebrenica), 2. Women of Srebrenica (Tuzla), 3. Srebrenica Citizens' Forum (Srebrenica / Tuzla), 4. Srebrenica 99 (Tuzla), 5. Srebrenica Intellectuals' Club (Srebrenica), 6. Society for the Prevention of Genocide (Srebrenica), 6. Students' Association (Srebrenica), 7. Bosfam Women's Union (Srebrenica / Tuzla), 8. Association of Former BiH Concentration Camp Detainees (Sarajevo), 9.Women's Section of the Association of Former Camp Detainees (Canton of Sarajevo), 10. Women - Victims of War (Sarajevo), 11. Return - Union of Returnees to Bijeljina, 12. Mostovi - Union of Families of the Missing (Bosanska Krupa), 13. Union in Search of the Missing (Brcko), 14. Union of Camp Inmates (Brcko), 15. Union of Families of Prisoners and Missing Persons from the Prozor Area (Prozor), 16. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Hadzici), 17. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Kladanj), 18. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Kljuc), 19. Union of Families of Prisoners and Missing Persons from Neretva Canton, Herzegovina (Mostar), 20. Union for the Missing (Mostar), 21. Zepa Union of Returnees (Zepa), 22.Vrbanja Union of Families of the Missing (Kotor Varos, Travnik), 23. Union of Families of the Missing from Zvornik (Tuzla), 24. Kotorsko Union of Returnees (Kotorsko - Doboj), 25. BiH Roma Union (Sarajevo/Lukavac), 26. Sae Roma Roma Union (Tuzla), 27. Zenica Roma Union (Zenica), 28. Roma Union (Kalesija), 29. The Future Roma Union (Sarajevo), 30. Roma Women's Union (Tuzla), 31. Association of Drina Valley Unions, 32. Women of the Drina Valley (Bratunac), 33. Women of the Drina Valley (Vlasenica), 34. Women of the Drina Valley (Sarajevo), 35. Vrbanja Union of Returnees (Banja Luka), 36. Coalition for Return (Banja Luka), 37. Visegrad 92 Union of Families of the Missing from Visegrad (Sarajevo), 38. Women's Strength Women's Union (Tuzla), 39. Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals (Sarajevo), 40. Institute for the Recording of War Crimes (Sarajevo), 41. Serb Citizens' Council (Sarajevo), 42. Serb Citizens' Council (Tuzla), 43. Serb Citizens' Council (Zenica), 44. Serb Citizens' Council (Mostar), 45. Croat People's Council (Sarajevo), 46. Justice for Bosnia and Herzergovina Foundation (Sarajevo), 47. Obrazovanje gradi BiH [Education Builds BiH] Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 48. Democratic Council of Bosniaks (Bijeljina), 49. Terra Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 50. Mak-Bosanka Women's Union (Sarajevo), 51. Merhamet Humanitarian Union (Sarajevo), 52. Children of Sarajevo Union of Parents of Murdered Children (Sarajevo), 53. FOKUS-BiH Association of Women's Organisatsions from Bosnien and Herzegovina, 54. Medica (Zenica / Visoko), 55. Eho Union (Ljubuski), 56. Women of BiH Women's Union (Mostar), 57. Youth Forum Citizens' Union (Stolac), 58. Return and the Right of Residence Returnees' Union (Bijeljina), 59. Astra Women's Union (Bijeljina), 60. Republika Srpska Helsinki Committee (Bijeljina), 61. Woman's Future Women's Union (Kalesija), 62. For The Missing Union of Families of the Missing (Hadzici), 63. Trebinje Returnees, 64. Union (Trebinje), 65. Deblokada Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 66. Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Sarajevo)