Hello historians,
This afternoon I read up on the fall of srebrenica, but from what I've read on wikipedia I'm left with some questions:
Fearful Bosnians had gathered in srebrenica, seeking refuge from the Serbian army. This lead to big food shortages, as srebrenica was apparently one of very few 'safe' havens. Eventually several raiding parties were launched by Bosnian civilians, which ended in numerous brutal incidents in the surrounding Serbian villages. Why did tensions rise so high that this could be allowed to happen? Could it have been prevented?
How many UN soldiers were there to defend srebrenica? How could the Serbian army overpower them so completely? I cant find the exact numbers on either side.
Was there any proof of previous incidents that involved ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian war?
In answer to the second part of your question. There were about 370 Dutch soldiers in the enclave. They were there in a policing role and only had their personal weapons with them and a few armored personal carriers. No heavy support weapons like antitank missiles or mortars. The heavy support was supposed to come from air attacks. Due to the then current rules of engagement and command structure the decision to actually deploy air power would be a serious policy change and that decision was kicked up the chain of command until it ended up the level of the UN politicians which took some time. In the meantime the Serbs had about 1500 soldiers and heavy weaponry including tanks. There was some resistance from the UN forces which bought some time but real resistance was impossible. Also weather limited the possibility for air strikes. Without that support it would have been a suicide mission for the soldiers on the ground.
All in all the mandate given to the soldiers was based upon the idea that nobody would challenge the UN and with that NATO. They didn't expect the need for actual military engagement. After the fall that changed with the start of Operation Deliberate Force.