Debate: The Srebrenica Massacre

This letter from Julie Wornan to ZNet followed her original response to Edward Herman, and his reply.
ZNet refused to publish the letter below.

Dear ZNet,

I see it's your policy to always give Herman the last word. However, it was almost physically painful to me to read his response to Stela Rajic's letter of July 24th. Insensitivity aside, what do you expect your readers to make of an allegation that Stela's intimate experience of the events in Bosnia render her less credible than Herman's own first-hand ignorance?

I have previously analyzed Herman's manipulative techniques, so I won't dwell on his persistent use of the sneer as pseudo-refutation ("she tells us that" means that the thing told is false) nor his denial of facts simply by labeling them "the party line" (I wonder if Mr. Herman believes the mainstream propaganda notion that Wednesday usually follows Tuesday).

I can only urge readers of this site who want to know the truth to enlarge their research. Don't accept the so-called "party line" or the "Herman line", but read the historical works - those suggested by Herman, by myself and others, and evaluate for yourself their credibility and sense; go to the websites, go to the sources. Go to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and form your own opinion about the scientific reliability of this organisation whose pioneering work on DNA identification has been used recently to identify tsunami victims; judge for yourself whether you think the ICMP so careless (- or biased? - ) that they might keep the names of thousands of survivors on their list of the missing. If you have any questions, a member of the ICMP staff will surely be glad to answer them, by email or phone, as they did for me. And if you can afford the time and a plane ticket, go to Srebrenica, Tuzla, and Sarajevo and talk with survivors of the tragedy. Unless, of course, your mind is made up that these people's experience is bound to impede their objectivity!

One last observation. Has anybody noticed that Stela Rajic and other victims of the attempted "ethnic cleansing" plead for one thing above all: that Bosnians of all ethnic origins be allowed to live together again. It's worth thinking about what that means.

Julie Wornan
August 5, 2005

For more background and documentation on Srebrenica, see the Bosnia page.

Books about Srebrenica:

Blood and Vengeance, by Chuck Sudetic
Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, by David Rohde
Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime, by Jan Willem Honig and Norbert Both

For a concise chronology of the massacre, see the Srebrenica Commission Final Report (PDF).