VLASENICA – THE CONTINUITY OF THE GREAT SERBIAN CRIME
VLASENICA – THE CONTINUITY OF THE GREAT SERBIAN CRIME

Summary/Abstract: The area of the municipality of Vlasenica, as part of the middle Podrinje, has been a territorial aspiration and obsession of ideologues and protagonists of the Greater Serbia politics since the annexation crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, when one of the ideologues of the Greater Serbia project, Jovan Cvijić conditioned the Austro-Hungarian government to give Podrinje to Serbia, i.e. the corridor along the Drina River with a depth of about 50 km, and in return Serbia would recognize the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austro-Hungary. During the WW 2, members of Serbian armed forces committed numerous mass crimes against Bosniaks in the area of the then municipality of Vlasenica. During the aggression of Serbia and Montenegro on the sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, members of their armed forces, in cooperation with local units, occupied all the towns of the middle Podrinje in one wave in early April 1992, ending on April 21 of the same year. (Zvornik was occupied on 8 April. Bratunac was occupied on 17 April. Srebrenica was occupied on 18 April. Vlasenica was occupied on 21 April 1992). On that occasion, they committed numerous mass crimes against Bosniaks in this geographical area, including the crime of genocide. The entire territory of the then municipality of Vlasenica was occupied on March 13, 1993, when Serbian forces occupied the territory of the Cerska enclave and thus eliminated the last physical obstacle on the line Pale - Zvornik - Belgrade.

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