Balkan Wars | 30th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre

Sarajevo. The Srebrenica massacre, which marks its 30th anniversary this Friday, is considered the worst war crime in Europe since World War II. Bosnian Serb militias are estimated to have murdered approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the city. Here are the key historical facts:

Siege and capture

At the beginning of the Bosnian War in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces besieged the small, predominantly Muslim town of Srebrenica. It lies in a valley in the northeast of the country, just 15 kilometers from the border with Serbia. To prevent the town's fall, the United Nations declared it a safe zone in April 1993 and deployed UN soldiers to protect the population.

In early July 1995, the troops of Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic captured several positions of the UN peacekeeping force Unprofor, having previously taken Dutch peacekeepers hostage. At this point, Serbian tanks were less than two kilometers from the city. On July 11, Mladic's fighters captured Srebrenica.

massacre

At this point, approximately 42,000 people live in the city. Some of the population seeks refuge with the Dutch peacekeeping troops, who have withdrawn to their base in Potocari near Srebrenica. But in the face of massive crowds, UN soldiers close the gates of the base, while thousands of frightened people try in vain to gain entry.

Mladic's troops separated women and children from men and young men. They were taken away in trucks and executed. Numerous young men and women fled into the surrounding forests, but many were captured, shot on the spot, or taken to execution sites. Within a few days, approximately 8,000 Muslim men and young people were killed.

The bodies were buried in mass graves with excavators. Later, the Bosnian Serbs had the graves dug up again with bulldozers to remove the bodies and thus cover up the extent of the crime. The Dutch UN soldiers left the area on July 21, ten days after the fall of the city. They were later accused of having tolerated the capture of Srebrenica.

Judgments

As early as July 17, the first testimonies from refugees began to emerge, reporting murders, torture, and rape by Mladic's troops. Over time, more and more gruesome details emerged.

At the end of July 1995, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the UN Security Council, filed initial indictments against Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief, Mladic, for crimes committed before the Srebrenica massacre. The charges related to the massacre were added to the indictment later.

The war officially ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Paris on December 14. Karadzic and Mladic were on the run for years. They were arrested in Serbia in 2008 and 2011, respectively, and both were eventually sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTY for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Both remain in prison to this day.

In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court found the Dutch state partially responsible for the killing of 350 Bosnian Muslims. They had sought refuge at the UN peacekeeping base in Potocari before being abducted and killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

In May 2024, the UN will declare July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide. AFP/nd