Global Policy Forum

By James Burnet

Britain must share the blame with France and the United States for failing to stop the massacre in 1995 of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in the United Nations safe area of Srebrenica, according to a French report released yesterday.

The parliamentary inquiry, which began last year after allegations that a French UN commander in the area deliberately allowed the Serbs to capture the town, said UN peacekeeping operations had been half-hearted and poorly equipped.

The report criticised France, Britain and the United States - as permanent members of the UN Security Council, which directed operations - for "undertaking commitments they did not respect because they did not equip themselves with the means".

"The reason for the fall of Srebrenica is to be found in the lack of strong political will to intervene - by France, Britain, the United States and the Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo themselves," the report concluded. It said a French commander, General Bernard Janvier, committed a "manifest error of judgment" by refusing to sanction air strikes against Serbs to stop them taking control of Srebrenica, but said no evidence had been found that he had deliberately helped them.

France's blame was particularly marked as a member of the UN Security Council and of the international Contact Group formed to try to end the war, and as the largest contributor of troops to the international mission in Bosnia, the report said, adding: "Srebrenica is a failure for France."

Some Bosnians believe UN officials deliberately sacrificed Srebrenica to "straighten out" future borders, while others say the French prevented air strikes against the Serbs to secure the release of French soldiers taken hostage that summer.

The report also noted the "astonishing absence" of two British commanders of the UN operation during the siege of Srebrenica.

At the time, Gen Janvier's reluctance to use air power brought him into conflict with the British commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia, General Rupert Smith. Gen Smith, who was in favour of taking a much tougher line with the Serbs, was so furious after being overruled by the UN special representative to the region, Yasushi Akashi, that he took a leave of absence.

Mr Akashi has said in interviews that he authorised Gen Janvier to meet the Bosnian Serb commander, Gen Ratko Mladic, for talks after the UN peacekeepers were seized. The plan was for the hostages to be released and air strikes called off. Until the fall of Srebrenica prompted the international community to respond with the threat of major NATO strikes, that is exactly what happened.

In earlier closed testimony that was leaked to French media, Gen Janvier denied to the parliamentary committee that he negotiated with the Serbs. He further said he had never received instructions from the French government on how to handle operations.

What has been described as Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War was committed in July 1995. Bosnian Serb forces steadily tightened their siege of the small town in eastern Bosnia, crammed with tens of thousands of Muslim refugees.

A small force of Dutch UN troops stationed in the town repeatedly requested air support from Gen Janvier, who declined the requests - on one occasion because it had been submitted on the wrong form.

Finally taking control of the town, Serb forces ferried women and children to Muslim territory on Serb buses and on 13 July began systematically executed Muslim male prisoners, including teenagers, mostly by shooting.

The former Bosnian Serb general, Radislav Krstic, a direct subordinate to Mladic, was sentenced to 46 years' in jail in August for the massacre. He was the first person convicted of genocide by The Hague war crimes court.

The French report concluded that it was now up to France, Britain and the US in particular to capture Mladic and the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, Radovan Karadzic.