BOSNIA: SREBENICA: THOUSANDS OR REFUGEES DEPORTED

(12 Jul 1995) Natural Sound
The Bosnian Serb commander, after dealing the United Nations a humiliating defeat, personally oversaw the deportation of thousands of refugees from the conquered Srebenica "safe area" on Wednesday.
General Ratko Mladic drove into the main headquarters of U-N peacekeepers and ordered thousands of refugees - mainly women and children - into buses and trucks heading out of Serb-held territory.
But Mladic also ordered all males over the age of 16 to be taken away for what he called "screening for war crimes".
The following pictures were shot by the Bosnian Serb television station, TV Pale:
Bosnian Serb Television shows Rebel Serb soldiers handing out chocolate and cigarettes.
These women and children are starving, no food aid has got into the Srebenica safe zone for days.
Bosnian Serb forces have consolidated their positions around the "safe zone" Wednesday.
The Serbs moved rapidly to secure the area and to round up refugees.
The Dutch U.N. troops could do little with a Serb tank at their camp gate and mortars and rocket launchers aimed at the 40 thousand civilians milling around in the 31 degree Celsius (88 degree Fahrenheit) heat.
Serb military chief General Ratko Mladic arrived to take personal charge of the operation, to transport refugees out of the "safe zone".
The Dutch shared with the refugees food and water meant for half the U.N. contingent of 400, and managed to get a Dutch peacekeeper on each bus and truck.
General Mladic said all males over 16 would be transported to nearby Serb-held Bratunac, where they would be "screened for war crimes,"
The first three-thousand refugees - mostly women, children and the elderly - have boarded buses and are being taken away from the "safe area" to central Bosnia.
The trip to a government-held area will cover 25 miles - but the refugees will have to walk the final ten miles.
It's not immediately known what will happen to the Dutch peacekeepers who remained in Potocari.
They are expected to run out of food and water by noon Thursday.

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