Siege of Goražde

[8] Later renamed the Republika Srpska,[9] it developed its own military as the JNA withdrew from Croatia and handed over its weapons, equipment and 55,000 troops to the newly created Bosnian Serb army.[13][14] Taking place throughout the municipalities of Srebrenica, Vlasenica, Rogatica, Bratunac, Višegrad, Zvornik and Foča,[15] the purpose of these operations was to create in eastern Bosnia a contiguous Serb-controlled land having a common border with Serbia.The VRS secured complete control of the Višegrad municipality, pushing the Bosniaks out of the western countryside of the town, and took the villages of Međeđa, Kaoštice and Ustiprača using the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Podrinje Brigades.The remaining troops, who were stationed at three outposts[24] on the east bank, managed to slip away and helped Bosniak reinforcements to prevent Bosnian Serbs from taking a key hill overlooking the town.[26] After learning of the Serb attack, British commander Lieutenant General Rupert Smith ordered all the UNPROFOR forces still deployed around Goražde to return to their base.[27] The operation would include an air-evacuation from Goražde using several Harrier fighter jets, 14 attack bombers and a fleet of 30 helicopters, all of which were on standby in a nearby Italian air base.[27] John Major didn't want Britain to be dragged into a war with the VRS, and his senior military commander, Field Marshal Peter Inge, fully supported the operation.[27] According to its rubric, it was most likely to be used 'after a period of chaos following a major battle in which one side - most probably the Vojska Republike Srpske (Bosnian Serb Army) - has emerged victorious'.[27] In October 2019, the state court in Sarajevo found Ibro Merkez guilty, as the former chief of the police’s Public Security Station in Goražde, of unlawfully detaining Serb civilians and treating them in an inhumanely manner between the middle of July 1992 and 4 August the same year.In a report to the State Prosecution, British judge Joanna Korner wrote that the potential benefit of indicting unavailable persons is often "outweighed by the costs in time and resources".[33] The VRS's attempt to use the capture of Goražde to coerce the Bosnian government into accepting a permanent cease-fire proved ineffective, as Sarajevo rejected the terms of territorial partition.The Siege highlighted the limitations of military success without a corresponding political strategy, especially as the Bosnian Army's resurgence and the threat of NATO intervention grew.According to the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo (RDC), Goražde recorded 511 civilians (126 Serbs and 385 non-Serbs, mostly Bosniaks) and 1,100 soldiers who lost their lives during the war.