Writ of summons - Van Diepen Van der Kroef

12. The Yugoslav People’s Army (or: JNA, Jugoslavenska Narodna Armija), which wasdominated by Serbs, began in the autumn of 1991 to arm strategically situated villages inEast Bosnia. That also happened in the Municipality of Srebrenica. In Srebrenica Townitself the Bosniacs temporarily retained the upper hand. The most important cities inEast Bosnia were brought under Serb control and hundreds of Bosniacs were arbitrarilymurdered in that process. Thereafter, the Serb attention focused on taking control also ofthose villages and cities in East Bosnia with a Bosniac majority. That occurred, forexample, in Bratunac, a small city less than ten kilometres from Srebrenica, at thebeginning of April 1992. The local police force was divided between Serbs andBosniacs, whereupon the town was overrun by Serb military and paramilitary forces andeffectively came under Serb control. Then the local TV-masts were blown up to ensurethat the civilian population could only receive Serb television channels. An ultimatumwas given to the Bosniac authorities to leave the town, and those authoritiessubsequently fled the town (see page 1206 of the NIOD Report and page 37 of theSummary of the NIOD Report).13. Despite the predominance of Bosniacs in and around Srebrenica, the Serb paramilitariessucceeded within a few weeks in bringing a significant part of East Bosnia under theircontrol, including Srebrenica (see page 5, point 13 of the decision of the YugoslaviaTribunal at first instance). The Bosniacs began slowly to unite forces and in May 1992succeeded in retaking Srebrenica and the surrounding areas. Attacks by both sides thenfollowed. The enclave had been compressed from 900 to 140 square kilometres byJanuary 1993 and the civilian population in Srebrenica had grown to between 50,000and 60,000 persons. This included a large number of refugees from the villages andsmaller towns around Srebrenica. Reports of terror acts against civilians circulated onboth sides during the succeeding months. Groups of Bosniacs in reaction to the terrororganized violent sorties against Serb villages in the areas surrounding the enclave andSerb settlements and houses were plundered and burnt to the ground without respect forperson. These sorties took on the character of raids as the food situation in Srebrenicaincreasingly became more acute. Between April 1992 and March 1994 there were atleast 1,000 Serb civilian victims, while in the same period some 2,000 Bosniacs died in© Van Diepen Van der Kroef Advocaten 2007www.vandiepen.com13