Yet whoever was involved in Bratunac and Zvornik is at great pains to make sure their names never reach investigators from the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. People interviewed by the Globe later were harrassed and threatened. One Zvornik source received a death threat on the telephone. A second source was threatened with losing his job. Three others were warned against ever talking to reporters again.
War has big roots here.
The effort to cover up the crime extends to the mass graves. The tampering, noted by satellite between Spt. 27 and Oct. 2, coincided with the drive for peace in the Balkans. On Sept. 27, the Bosnian Muslim, Croat and Serb foreign ministers announced agreement on basic constitutional principles for a state, the first major step toward the Dayton peace accords. Removal of bodies from the mass graves has been added to the list of what the war crimes tribunal will investigate. They fear that just as Nazi Germany came to represent all Germans in the world's eyes, the executioners of the Srebrenica Muslims will come to represent all Serbs.