# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Slobodan Milosevic

In the aftermath of World War II, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of longtime Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics threatened to split their union apart.

This process intensified after the mid-1980s with the rise of the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who helped foment discontent between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Croatian, Bosniak and Albanian neighbors. In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence.

During the war in Croatia that followed, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army supported Serbian separatists there in brutal clashes with Croatian forces.

Radovan Karadzic

In Bosnia, Muslims represented the largest single population group by 1971. More Serbs and Croats emigrated over the next two decades, and in a 1991 census Bosnia's population of some 4 million was 44 percent Bosniak, 31 percent Serb, and 17 percent Croatian.

Elections held in late 1990 resulted in a coalition government split between parties representing the three ethnicities (in rough proportion to their populations) and led by the Bosniak Alija Izetbegovic.

As tensions built inside and outside the country, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from government and set up their own "Serbian National Assembly." On March 3, 1992, after a referendum vote (which Karadzic's party blocked in many Serb-populated areas), President Izetbegovic proclaimed Bosnia's independence.

Struggle for Control in Bosnia

Far from seeking independence for Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs wanted to be part of a dominant Serbian state in the Balkans-the "Greater Serbia" that Serbian separatists had long envisioned.

In early May 1992, two days after the United States and the European Community (the precursor to the European Union) recognized Bosnia's independence, Bosnian Serb forces with the backing of Milosevic and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army launched their offensive with a bombardment of Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo.

They attacked Bosniak-dominated towns in eastern Bosnia, including Zvornik, Foca, and Visegrad, forcibly expelling Bosniak civilians from the region in a brutal process that later was identified as "ethnic cleansing." (Ethnic cleansing differs from genocide in that its primary goal is the expulsion of a group of people from a geographical area and not the actual physical destruction of that group, even though the same methods-including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement-may be used.)

Though Bosnian government forces tried to defend the territory, sometimes with the help of the Croatian army, Bosnian Serb forces were in control of nearly three-quarters of the country by the end of 1993, and Karadzic's party had set up their own Republika Srpska in the east. Most of the Bosnian Croats had left the country, while a significant Bosniak population remained only in smaller towns.

Several peace proposals between a Croatian-Bosniak federation and Bosnian Serbs failed when the Serbs refused to give up any territory. The United Nations refused to intervene in the conflict in Bosnia, but a campaign spearheaded by its High Commissioner for Refugees provided humanitarian aid to its many displaced, malnourished and injured victims.

Srebrenica Massacre

By the summer of 1995, three towns in eastern Bosnia-Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde-remained under control of the Bosnian government. The U.N. had declared these enclaves "safe havens" in 1993, to be disarmed and protected by international peacekeeping forces.

On July 11, 1995, however, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on Srebrenica, overwhelming a battalion of Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed there. Serbian forces subsequently separated the Bosniak civilians at Srebrenica, putting the women and girls on buses and sending them to Bosnian-held territory.

Some of the women were raped or sexually assaulted, while the men and boys who remained behind were killed immediately or bussed to mass killing sites. Estimates of Bosniaks killed by Serb forces at Srebrenica range from around 7,000 to more than 8,000.

After Bosnian Serb forces captured Zepa that same month and exploded a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo market, the international community began to respond more forcefully to the ongoing conflict and its ever-growing civilian death toll.

In August 1995, after the Serbs refused to comply with a U.N. ultimatum, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) joined efforts with Bosnian and Croatian forces for three weeks of bombing Bosnian Serb positions and a ground offensive.

With Serbia's economy crippled by U.N. trade sanctions and its military forces under assault in Bosnia after three years of warfare, Milosevic agreed to enter negotiations that October. The U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995 (which included Izetbegovic, Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman) resulted in the creation of a federalized Bosnia divided between a Croat-Bosniak federation and a Serb republic.

International Response

Though the international community did little to prevent the systematic atrocities committed against Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia while they were occurring, it did actively seek justice against those who committed them.

In May 1993, the U.N. Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands. It was the first international tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46, and the first to prosecute genocide, among other war crimes.

Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb military commander, General Ratko Mladic, were among those indicted by the ICTY for genocide and other crimes against humanity.

The ICTY would eventually indict 161 individuals of crimes committed during conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Brought before the tribunal in 2002 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Milosevic served as his own defense lawyer; his poor health led to long delays in the trial until he was found dead in his prison cell in 2006.

Butcher of Bosnia

In 2007, the International Court of Justice issued its ruling in a historic civil lawsuit brought by Bosnia against Serbia. Though the court called the massacre at Srebrenica genocide and said that Serbia "could and should" have prevented it and punished those who committed it, it stopped short of declaring Serbia guilty of the genocide itself.

After a trial lasting more than four years and involving the testimony of nearly 600 witnesses, the ICTY found Mladic, who had been dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia," guilty of genocide and other crimes against humanity in November 2017. The tribunal sentenced the 74-year-old former general to life in prison. Coming on the heels of Karadzic's conviction for war crimes the previous year, Mladic's long-delayed conviction marked the last major prosecution by the ICTY.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the aftermath of World War II, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of longtime Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics threatened to split their union apart.

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#1:  Starting and ending dates of conflict

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#1:  Starting and ending dates of conflict

# data[].attributes.body
The Bosnian genocide started in 1992 and ended in December 1995.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An estimated 100,000 people were killed during the conflict in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, including the July 1995 genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica. Learn more about what happened and what the international community could have done to prevent it below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An estimated 100,000 people were killed during the conflict in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, including the July 1995 genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica. Learn more about what happened and what the international community could have done to prevent it below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The end of the Cold War and the decline of Communism greatly altered the international political scene. The reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the departure of Czechoslovakia from Communist influence were among some of the changes. [1]

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led by Josip Broz Tito was one of the most liberal communist regimes. Tito kept control over diverse ethnic, religious, and nationalist groups under the umbrella of a unified 'greater Yugoslavia.' [2] In the political vacuum after Tito's death, politicians began exploiting nationalist rhetoric, pitting the Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks (Muslims) against each other. The multi-ethnic republic of Bosnia quickly became the site of deadly warfare and 'ethnic cleansing.' The genocidal war claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 people. [3]

Bosnia, and the other five nations that made up the former republic of Yugoslavia, is located in southeastern Europe (also known as the Balkans) between Italy and Romania. The population is approximately 3.5 million people, with 48 percent of them Bosniaks, 37 percent Serbs, and 14 percent Croats. Bosnia is slightly smaller than West Virginia but with more than double the population. [4]

In 1980, Tito died. He had held the economy together across the various republics, and in the absence of that strong leadership and control, the economies started to collapse. Leaders like Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Franjo Tuđman of Croatia began to rise to power based on campaigns of propaganda and ethno-nationalism. From 1991-1992, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia. These declarations of independence led to war breaking out in the former Yugoslavia. In 1992, the Siege of Sarajevo began. The war endured from 1992 to 1995. [5].
Siege of Sarajevo
Bosniaks and Croats voted for independence from Yugoslavia in a referendum on March 1, 1992. The European Community recognized an independent Bosnia on April 6, 1992. [6] That day, Serb militants opened fire on thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Sarajevo, killing at least five and wounding 30. One day later, Serb leader Slobodan Milošević blocked all roads leading to Sarajevo and shut down the airport. Around 400,000 civilians were trapped and cut off from food, medicine, water, and electricity for the duration of the 1,425-day siege. [7] This was the longest siege of a capital city in modern history and it produced the worst atrocities in Europe since World II. [8]

Horrific violence and human rights abuses took place during the siege. At a soccer game in 1993 at least 15 people were killed and 80 were wounded by a mortar attack. Red Cross trucks were raided and destroyed and maternity wards were hit, killing mothers and newborns. Many more were killed while in line for water. [9]

Food scarcity was a major issue for those who survived death by sniper fire and mortar attacks. An average Sarajevan lost 30 pounds during the siege. According to UN officials, in 1994 over 7,000 flights brought nearly 82,000 tons of aid into Sarajevo via humanitarian airlift. However, this effort was often suspended due to airport closings caused by shelling and sniper attacks in the area. [10]

On February 29, 1996, the Bosnian government declared that the siege of Sarajevo was finally over. By that time, Sarajevo's population had decreased by an estimated 200,000 people. That number includes those who escaped via an 800-meter tunnel that opened during the summer of 1993, the only direct link that Sarajevo had with the outside world. The tunnel began at the edge of the besieged city and ran under the airport to Bosniak held territory on the other side; it was used to transport food, medicine, weapons, and wounded people. [11]
Foča Rape Camps
Bosnian Serbs took control of the city of Foča in 1992 and began expelling Bosniaks. About 2,700 people went missing or were killed in Foča from 1992 to 1994. Men were sent to concentration camps and women and girls were taken to locations commonly described as 'rape camps.' Hundreds of Bosniak women and girls faced repeated sexual violence by Serb paramilitary forces in an estimated 20,000 rapes between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia. The campaign against non-Serb civilians in the region also included ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and the destruction of Bosnian property and cultural sites, including the demolition of 13 mosques. [12]
Srebrenica Genocide
One of the most notorious massacres occurred near Srebrenica, a Bosniak-dominated town that had been officially declared a" Safe Area" by the UN. In July of 1995, Serb General Ratko Mladic and his troops entered the "Safe Area" where they overwhelmed UN forces; separated the women and children from the men; and murdered over 8,000 Bosniaks. It was the single largest massacre in Europe since World War II. [13]
Lašva Valley Case
The Lašva Valley case refers to war crimes committed by Bosnian Croats against Bosniaks in the Lašva River Valley region of central Bosnia. In 1992, Croats began destroying mosques and Bosniak homes, murdering civilians, and pillaging villages. In 1993, Croats targeted civilians by shelling major shopping centers and using Bosniaks as human shields in battle. [14] Nearly 2,000 community members disappeared or were killed at this time. [15]

The death of long-time communist leader Josip Broz Tito left a power vacuum and politicians Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Franjo Tuđman of Croatia competed for control. Slobodan Milošević rose to power in 1987 and began a propaganda campaign exploiting nationalist rhetoric that incited hatred and violence and pitted Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks against each other. [16]

Hundreds of concentration camps were established, mass killings were carried out, and Muslim mosques and historic sites were destroyed. People were pressed tightly into barracks and deprived of basic necessities. Despite media coverage, the global community failed to take significant action. Nearly 14,000 Muslim men were incarcerated in the camps and more than 10,000 of them perished. [17]

U.S. officials became aware of the concentration camps as early as May 1992. One of the worst was Omarska, where thousands of Muslim and Croat civilian men were held in metal cages and killed in groups of ten to fifteen every few days. Serbs denied access to those who wanted to investigate the camps, including relief officials and journalists. Serbs tried to cover up mass graves by moving bodies to mining sites where they were mangled by mining equipment or drenched in chemicals before being thrown into mine pits.

Violence was committed on all sides. Bosniaks and Croats also operated some camps where Serbs were detained.

Eventually, the United Nations deployed troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine to dispossessed Muslims, but their mandate as Peacekeepers didn't allow any military interference. Throughout 1993, the Serbs were confident that the UN, the US, and the European Community (EC) would not take military action.

On February 6, 1994, a plea was made to President Bill Clinton for military intervention after an attack on a marketplace in Sarajevo killed 68 people and wounded over 200. Clinton issued an ultimatum through NATO, demanding that Serbs withdraw their artillery from Sarajevo. The Serbs complied, and a cease-fire was declared. Unfortunately, the Serbs continued to attack safe havens and UN peacekeepers. NATO responded by launching limited air strikes against Serbs' ground positions, but that didn't prevent the massacre in Srebrenica. [18]
Peace Talks
The genocide lasted from Bosnia' secession in 1992 until the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

In October 1992, Lord David Owen of the European Union and former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance proposed a draft constitution organizing Bosnia into a decentralized federation according to the "Vance-Owen" plan. Bosnian Serbs rejected this plan.

In 1994, the US decided to take on a more active role, seeking to back diplomacy with the threat of NATO air power in protecting" Safe Areas" and UN peacekeepers. That year, the U.S. special envoy helped reach a cease-fire between Bosnian Croats and Muslims. Shortly after, a five-nation Contact Group (United States, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany) drafted the 51/49 territorial compromise that all sides eventually accepted. The Dayton Peace Agreement allotted 51% of the country to the Croat-Muslim Federation and 49% to the Serb Republic. The main participants from the region were Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović, with Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed "Mo" Sacirbey. After its initiation in Dayton, Ohio, the full agreement was signed in Paris, France on December 14, 1995. [19]

Part of the agreement mandated international organizations to monitor, oversee, and implement crucial parts of the plan. One of the major criticisms of the agreement is that the legal structure does not follow some of the basic principles of international law, leaving the Bosnian political situation highly unstable. [20]

In 1996, NATO's Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina sent 20,000 U.S. troops to prevent new hostilities. More than 60,000 NATO-led troops from over 40 countries were deployed. U.S. troops began pulling out of Bosnia in 2004. Per the Dayton Agreements, in 2004 the U.S. troops in Bosnia were replaced with 600 E.U. troops (EUFOR) in an effort dubbed "Operation Althea." As of March of 2019, these 600 troops remain in Bosnia with the primary responsibility to maintain peace and security by supporting the authorities as needed. [21]
Justice Process
On May 25, 1993, while the conflict was still ongoing, the UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands, to prosecute the perpetrators of the atrocities. It was the first international tribunal since the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg after World War II and the first to prosecute the crime of genocide. In addition, it was the first time a tribunal had begun operations while a conflict was occurring, with a goal of providing some measure of deterrence against violence. 161 people, including Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats, were indicted, and 90 people were convicted and sentenced. Notable cases included those of Radovan Karadžić, Slobodan Milošević, and Ratko Mladić. [22]

Serbian leader Radovan Karadžić was charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions for his role in the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 men and boys. He was arrested in Belgrade after being on the run for 13 years and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March of 2016. [23] The United Nations Mechanism for the International Criminal Tribunal heard Karadžić's appeal in March of 2019 and not only confirmed his 2016 conviction but extended his sentence to life in prison. [24]

Slobodan Milošević was indicted in May 1999 but was found dead of a heart attack in his cell in The Hague on March 11, 2006. His trial for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity therefore ended without a verdict. [25]

Ratko Mladić, commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, was indicted for genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians, most notably for his role in the siege of Sarajevo and commanding the Srebrenica massacre. Mladić was a fugitive of the ICTY until his arrest on May 26, 2011. On November 22, 2017, he was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violating the laws or customs of war. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. [26]

As of August of 2019, 250 war crimes cases are pending in Bosnian courts. Efforts have been made to speed up the prosecution rate of these cases, but little headway has been made. [27]

Currently an uneasy peace holds in Bosnia. However, as specified in the Dayton Accords, Bosnia is one state but is divided from within. Specifically, the state is made up of three largely distinct communities-Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Bosnian Croats, and Bosnian Serbs. Each of the three ethnic groups has its own president and prime minister. Every eight months the presidency is rotated among the three. Relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina (encompassing both Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats) and Republika Srpska (the region largely occupied by Bosnian Serbs) are still extremely fragile and cooperation is minimal at best. [28]

In October of 2019, President Milorad Dodik (representing Republika Srpska) was elected to serve his term as Bosnian President. However, Dodik has made it clear that he wants Republika Srpska to secede from Bosnia. [29] He has even gone so far as to directly deny the genocide, calling it a "fabricated myth." Tensions are rising, and the international community is beginning to recognize the threat that Dodik poses for an increase in enmity. [30] As of February 2020, the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau warning that Dodik is generating the destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that sanctions against him must be implemented. [31]

Looking forward, some interstate cooperation and progress have been made within the region. Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia signed an agreement in 2019 to increase cooperation between the states in looking for the 12,000 remaining missing persons from the Yugoslav wars. [32] Within Bosnia however, an increase in genocide denial is building tension within the state. The consequences of the genocide denial and potential sanctions against the president remain to be seen.
Updated: World Without Genocide, April 2020 References:
[1] https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
[2] [3] [4] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/bosnia-and-herzegovina-population/ [6] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-warcrimes-karadzic-bosnia/timeline-what-happened-during-the-war-in-bosnia-idUSL2164446420080721 https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina/case-study/background/1992-1995 https://www.britannica.com/place/Yugoslavia-former-federated-nation-1929-2003
[5] https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/bosnian-genocide

[7] Laurie R. Blank, Gregory P. Noone, "International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War"
[12] [13] https://www.britannica.com/event/Srebrenica-massacre/Aftermath http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/index.php?id=8898 [16] History-B.G., op. cit.
[8] https://www.npr.org/2012/04/05/150009152/two-decades-after-siege-sarajevo-still-a-city-divided

[9] Blank and Noone, op. cit.

[10] Blank and Noone, op. cit.

[11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/29/newsid_4667000/4667292.stm

[14] https://www.icty.org/en/press/nine-more-persons-indicted-attacks-muslims-lasva-river-valley

[15] "IDC: Victim statistics in Novi Travnik, Vitez, Kiseljak and Busovaca"

[17] https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2017/05/bosnia-1992-omarska-camp-170508061724966.html

[18] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/decision-to-intervene-how-the-war-in-bosnia-ended/
[25] ICTY, op. cit. [26] ICTY, op. cit.
[19] Ibid.

[20] https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_52122.htm

[21] https://shape.nato.int/page39511625.aspx

[22] https://www.icty.org/en/cases/key-figures-cases

[23] Ibid.

[24] https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035051

[27] https://balkaninsight.com/2019/11/28/bosnian-prosecutors-struggle-to-tackle-backlog-of-war-cases/

[28] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/01/serb-president-dodik-bosnia/579199/

[29] Ibid.

[30] https://apnews.com/ba3e3d6495c545bab2592b8e197be030

[31] https://www.sarajevotimes.com/institute-for-research-of-genocide-sends-letter-to-canadian-prime-minister/

[32] https://balkaninsight.com/2019/07/30/bosnia-croatia-serbia-sign-missing-persons-search-agreements/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bosnia " World Without Genocide - Making It Our Legacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The end of the Cold War and the decline of Communism greatly altered the international political scene. The reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the departure of Czechoslovakia from Communist influence were among some of the changes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), Serbian troops massacred thousands of Muslim civilians at Srebrenica; this crime has been recognized as a genocide.
Precursors to the Genocide

Yugoslavia

From 1945 to 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina formed part of the socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, along with five other Balkan states: Serbia (which included the independent region of Kosovo), Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia.

A number of different ethnic groups made up the Yugoslavian population. Following the death of President Josip Tito in 1980, each group began advocating for independence. This was especially the case for Serbs, whose nationalism was growing with the popularity of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia and Radovan Karadžić in Bosnia and Herzegovina (see below).

Milošević was elected president of Serbia in 1989. He incited Serbian nationalism in the other republics with the goal of creating a unified "Greater Serbia".
In 1991, with the fall of communism and the dismantling of the Eastern Bloc, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence.
Catalysts for the Genocide

In 1991, in his address to the Bosnia and Herzegovina parliament, Serb leader Radovan Karadžić hinted at the disappearance of Bosniaks if Bosnia and Herzegovina ever became an independent state. A few months later, Karadžić became the first president of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia declared its independence after a referendum vote on April 5 th 1992. In retaliation for this unwanted referendum result, Bosnian Serb troops launched an assault on the capital of Sarajevo, claiming the lives of an estimated 5,000 civilians until the siege was lifted in 1995.

Serb forces attacked other predominantly Serb territories and carried out a reign of terror to expel Croats and Bosniaks. In addition to these massacres, Serbs attacked Bosniak culture by destroying major institutions and burning books, rare manuscripts, and historical archives. At this time, the United Nations peacekeeping force UNPROFOR was on the ground to provide humanitarian aid and protect six demilitarized "safe haven" enclaves for Bosnian civilians (in Sarajevo, Bihac, Zepa, Gorazde, Tuzla, and Srebrenica). However, the UN refused to intervene in a military manner.
As early as August 1992, the existence of Serbian concentration camps became public and the world began to recognize these crimes as genocide.
Srebrenica was located in the territory of the Bosnian Serb Republic and had been a Bosniak enclave under UN protection since May 1993. A battalion of nearly 400 Dutch peacekeepers were stationed there. Besieged since 1992, the town had 44,000 residents, half of whom were refugees.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb troops, led by Ratko Mladić and supported by Milošević's Serbian government, seized Srebrenica, ordered the departure of peacekeepers, and carried out the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks. Families were separated: men were forced to remain while women and children were boarded on buses and deported. More than 20,000 people were forcibly displaced and sent to Bosnian-held territory.
From July 11 to 16, 1995, 8,372 men and boys in the enclave were killed. They were shot or beheaded and buried in mass graves. These were the worst atrocities committed in Europe since the Second World War.
End of Conflict

The conflict ended in 1995 following an offensive in Croatia and intervention by NATO. The Dayton Accords were signed on December 14, 1995. This peace agreement divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into two autonomous states: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Croat-Bosniak) and the Bosnian Serb Republic. Approximately 100,000 people were killed during the Bosnian war and genocide. As many civilians as soldiers lost their lives and the majority of civilian victims were Bosniak. In addition, more than 2 million people were displaced and became refugees.

Justice

Between 1993 and 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) tried several officials:

Radislav Krstić, former commander of the Serb forces in Srebrenica, sentenced to 11 years in prison for complicity in a genocide;

Slobodan Milošević, former president of Serbia, who died before being formally charged;

Radovan Karadžić, former president of Bosnian Serbs, sentenced to life imprisonment for committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity;

Ratko Mladić, former commander-in-chief for the Bosnian Serb Republic, sentenced to life imprisonment for committing genocide and crimes against humanity.

Recognition of the Genocide

On February 26, 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) formally recognized the Srebrenica massacre as a genocide. In June 2007, a complaint was filed on behalf of survivors and family members of victims of Srebrenica against the Netherlands and the United Nations for their "failure to prevent genocide" and "failure to report war crimes". On June 27, 2017, the Hague Court of Appeal ruled that the Dutch government was partly responsible for the murder of 350 men and boys during the Srebrenica massacre.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Bosnian Genocide - Musée de l'Holocauste Montréal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about the Bosnian Genocide and what happened during the 1990's in Yougoslavia, including in Srebrenica.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When did the Bosnian War occur?

How many people were killed during the Bosnian War?

Who was charged with committing war crimes during the Bosnian War?

How did the Bosnian War end?

Bosnian War, ethnically rooted war (1992-95) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former republic of Yugoslavia with a multiethnic population comprising Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs, and Croats. After years of bitter fighting that involved the three Bosnian groups as well as the Yugoslav army, Western countries with backing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) imposed a final cease-fire negotiated at Dayton, Ohio, U.S., in 1995.

Background

In 1946 the People's Republic (from 1963, Socialist Republic) of Bosnia and Herzegovina became one of the constituent republics of the Federal People's (from 1963, Socialist Federal) Republic of Yugoslavia, and life in Bosnia and Herzegovina underwent all the social, economic, and political changes that were imposed on the whole of Yugoslavia by its new communist government. Bosnia and Herzegovina was particularly affected by the abolition of many traditional Muslim institutions, such as Qurʾānic primary schools, rich charitable foundations, and Dervish religious orders. However, a change of official policy in the 1960s led to the acceptance of "Muslim" as a term denoting a national identity: the phrase "Muslim in the ethnic sense" was used in the 1961 census, and in 1968 the Bosnian Central Committee decreed that "the Muslims are a distinct nation." By 1971 Muslims formed the largest single component of the Bosnian population. During the next 20 years the Serb and Croat populations fell in absolute terms as many Serbs and Croats emigrated. In the 1991 census Muslims made up more than two-fifths of the Bosnian population, while Serbs made up slightly less than one-third and Croats one-sixth. From the mid-1990s the term Bosniak replaced Muslim as the name Bosnian Muslims use for themselves.

In the 1980s the rapid decline of the Yugoslav economy led to widespread public dissatisfaction with the political system. That attitude, together with the manipulation of nationalist feelings by politicians, destabilized Yugoslav politics. Independent political parties appeared by 1989. In early 1990, multiparty elections were held in Slovenia and Croatia. When elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in December, new parties representing the three national communities gained seats in rough proportion to their populations. A tripartite coalition government was formed, with the Bosniak politician Alija Izetbegović leading a joint presidency. Growing tensions both inside and outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, made cooperation with the Serb Democratic Party, led by Radovan Karadžić, increasingly difficult.

In 1991 several self-styled "Serb Autonomous Regions" were declared in areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina with large Serb populations. Evidence emerged that the Yugoslav People's Army was being used to send secret arms deliveries to the Bosnian Serbs from Belgrade (Serbia). In August the Serb Democratic Party began boycotting the Bosnian presidency meetings, and in October it removed its deputies from the Bosnian assembly and set up a "Serb National Assembly" in Banja Luka. By then full-scale war had broken out in Croatia, and the breakup of Yugoslavia was under way. Bosnia and Herzegovina's position became highly vulnerable. The possibility of partitioning Bosnia and Herzegovina had been discussed during talks between the Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, and the Serbian president, Slobodan Milošević, earlier in the year, and two Croat "communities" in northern and southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, similar in some ways to the "Serb Autonomous Regions," were proclaimed in November 1991.

When the European Community (EC; later succeeded by the European Union) recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia in December, it invited Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply for recognition also. A referendum on independence was held during February 29-March 1, 1992, although Karadžić's party obstructed voting in most Serb-populated areas and almost no Bosnian Serbs voted. Of the nearly two-thirds of the electorate that did cast a vote, almost all voted for independence, which President Izetbegović officially proclaimed on March 3, 1992.

Independence and war

Attempts by EC negotiators to promote a new division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into ethnic "cantons" during February and March 1992 failed: different versions of those plans were rejected by each of the three main ethnic parties. When Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence was recognized by the United States and the EC on April 7, Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces immediately began firing on Sarajevo, and the artillery bombardment of the city by Bosnian Serb units of the Yugoslav army began soon thereafter. During April many of the towns in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina with large Bosniak populations, such as Zvornik, Foča, and Višegrad, were attacked by a combination of paramilitary forces and Yugoslav army units. Most of the local Bosniak population was expelled from these areas, the first victims in the country of a process described as ethnic cleansing. Although Bosniaks were the primary victims and Serbs the primary perpetrators, Croats were also among the victims and perpetrators. Within six weeks a coordinated offensive by the Yugoslav army, paramilitary groups, and local Bosnian Serb forces brought roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory under Serb control. In May the army units and equipment in Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed under the command of a Bosnian Serb general, Ratko Mladić.

From the summer of 1992, the military situation remained fairly static. A hastily assembled Bosnian government army, together with some better-prepared Bosnian Croat forces, held the front lines for the rest of that year, though its power was gradually eroded in parts of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian government was weakened militarily by an international arms embargo and by a conflict in 1993-94 with Croat forces. But later in 1994, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks agreed to form a joint federation. The United Nations (UN) refused to intervene in the Bosnian War, but UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) troops did facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. The organization later extended its role to the protection of a number of UN-declared "safe areas." However, the UN failed to protect the safe area of Srebrenica in July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces perpetrated the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosniak men ( see Srebrenica massacre).

Several peace proposals during the war failed, largely because the Bosnian Serbs-who controlled about 70 percent of the land by 1994-refused to concede any territory. In February 1994, in NATO's first-ever use of force, its fighters shot down four Bosnian Serb aircraft that were violating the UN-imposed no-fly zone over the country. Later that year, at the UN's request, NATO launched isolated and ineffective air strikes against Bosnian Serb targets. Following the Srebrenica massacre and another Bosnian Serb attack on a Sarajevo marketplace, NATO undertook more concentrated air strikes late in 1995. Combined with a large-scale Bosniak-Croat land offensive, this action led Bosnian Serb forces to agree to U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton in November. Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milošević represented the Bosnian Serbs. The resulting Dayton Accords called for a federalized Bosnia and Herzegovina in which 51 percent of the land would constitute a Croat-Bosniak federation and 49 percent a Serb republic. To enforce the agreement, formally signed in December 1995, a 60,000-member international force was deployed.

It was originally estimated that at least 200,000 people were killed and more than 2,000,000 displaced during the 1992-95 war. Subsequent studies, however, concluded that the death toll was actually about 100,000.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bosnian War | Facts, Summary, Combatants, & War Crimes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bosnian War, ethnically rooted war in Bosnia and Herzegovina that took place from 1992 to 1995. After years of bitter fighting between Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs, and Croats as well as the Yugoslav army, a NATO-imposed final cease-fire was negotiated at Dayton, Ohio, U.S., in 1995.

# data[].attributes.body
Bosnia was a part of Yugoslavia before it and the following countries declared their independence. In Bosnia's struggle to keep its independence, Serbia sent troops to Bosnia.

# data[].attributes.body
Bosnia and Herzegovina declared their independence from the Republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia leader Radovan Karadžić was unhappy and sent troops to the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo to assault the Bosnians. They went to other areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and found other Croats and Bosniaks and attacked them and their culture. They attacked their culture by destroying historical artifacts, books, and buildings. The United Nations peacekeeping force or "UNPROFOR" said they would provide a safe space for all enclaves in the following Bosnian towns Sarajevo, Bihac, Zepa, Gorazde, Tuzla, and Srebrenica, but they wouldn't insert themselves in any military conflicts. Serbs captured, abused, and attacked Bosniak civilians, and put them in Serbian concentration camps to be killed. This was known as “ethnic cleansing”.

# data[].attributes.body
Ratko Mladić was a Serbian general and a large part of the Bosnian Genocide and overall war. He was later convicted of war crimes against humanity.

Radovan Karadžić the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs ordered men to persecute, exterminate, murder, and deport many civilians. He was also later convicted of war crimes against humanity.

# data[].attributes.body
(This will likely be edited)

A big event that took place was the Srebrenica Massacre, or Bosnian Genocide. Bosnian Serb forces invaded Srebrenica. Women were transported to different places while all the men and boys left were killed or sent to be killed. This is the biggest event that took place during the Bosnian War as the Srebrenica Massacre is seen as the biggest genocide in Europe since the Holocaust.

# data[].attributes.body
By the end of the war there were an estimated 100,000 deaths. The Bosnian genocide(Srebrenica massacre) killed around 8,000 people, almost all of them consisting of men.

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#7: Resolution of conflict (How did it end?)

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#7: Resolution of conflict (How did it end?)

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#8: The soldier’s perspective on the conflict

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#8: The soldier’s perspective on the conflict

# data[].attributes.body
Woman were tourtured and raped.

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#10: The conflict’s impact on the people in the conflict area (How did it affect their lifestyle?)

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#10: The conflict’s impact on the people in the conflict area (How did it affect their lifestyle?)

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#11: Role of religious beliefs, technology, and weaponry in the conflict

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#11: Role of religious beliefs, technology, and weaponry in the conflict

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#12: How the conflict influenced literature, music, sculpting, painting, poetry, dance, theater, celebrities, athletes, scientists, humanitarians, and words/phrases from the native language during that time period

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#12: How the conflict influenced literature, music, sculpting, painting, poetry, dance, theater, celebrities, athletes, scientists, humanitarians, and words/phrases from the native language during that time period

# data[].attributes.headline
Q#13: Tributes that bring honor to the victims of the conflict

# data[].attributes.subject
Q#13: Tributes that bring honor to the victims of the conflict

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Srebrenica massacre, slaying of more than 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boys and men, perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. In addition to the killings, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area-a process known as ethnic cleansing. The massacre, which was the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War II, helped galvanize the West to press for a cease-fire that ended three years of warfare on Bosnia's territory ( see Bosnian conflict). However, it left deep emotional scars on survivors and created enduring obstacles to political reconciliation among Bosnia's ethnic groups.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia-established before the massacre to scrutinize ongoing military conduct-concluded that the killings at Srebrenica, compounded by the mass expulsion of Bosniak civilians, amounted to genocide. It pinned principal responsibility on senior officers in the Bosnian Serb army. But the United Nations (UN) and its Western supporters also accepted a portion of the blame for having failed to protect the Bosniak men, women, and children in Srebrenica, which in 1993 the UN Security Council had formally designated a "safe area." In a critical internal review in 1999, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote, "Through error, misjudgment and an inability to recognize the scope of the evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to help save the people of Srebrenica from the [Bosnian] Serb campaign of mass murder." Although Serbia was not legally implicated in the massacre, in 2010 the Serbian National Assembly narrowly passed a resolution that apologized for having failed to prevent the killings.

Background

Beginning in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces targeted Srebrenica in a campaign to seize control of a block of territory in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their eventual goal was to annex this territory to the adjacent republic of Serbia (which, along with Montenegro, constituted the rump of the Yugoslav federation). To do so, they believed, required the expulsion of the territory's Bosniak inhabitants, who opposed annexation. In March 1995 Radovan Karadžić, president of the self-declared autonomous Republika Srpska ( Bosnian Serb Republic), directed his military forces to "create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica." By May a cordon of Bosnian Serb soldiers had imposed an embargo on food and other supplies that provoked most of the town's Bosniak fighters to flee the area. In late June, after some skirmishes with the few remaining Bosniak fighters, the Bosnian Serb military command formally ordered the operation, code-named Krivaja 95, that culminated in the massacre.

The Srebrenica offensive

The offensive commenced on July 6, 1995, with Bosnian Serb forces advancing from the south and burning Bosniak homes along the way. Amid chaos and terror, thousands of civilians fled Srebrenica for the nearby village of Potočari, where a contingent of about 200 Dutch peacekeepers was stationed. Some of the Dutch surrendered, while others withdrew; none fired on the advancing Bosnian Serb forces. On July 11, Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladić strolled through Srebrenica and, in a statement recorded on film by a Serb journalist, said, "We give this town to the Serb nation...The time has come to take revenge on the Muslims."

On the night of July 11, a column of more than 10,000 Bosniak men set off from Srebrenica through dense forest in an attempt to reach safety. Beginning the following morning, Bosnian Serb officers used UN equipment and made false promises of security to encourage the men to surrender; thousands gave themselves up or were captured, and many were subsequently executed. Other Bosniaks were forced out of Potočari that day through the use of terror, including individual murders and rapes committed by Bosnian Serb forces. The women, children, and elderly were placed aboard buses (some of which had been brought from Serbia) and driven to Bosniak-held territory. The men and boys were taken on July 12 and 13 to various holding sites, mostly in Bratunac.

Some killings occurred on the evening of July 12, but mass evacuations of mostly blindfolded Bosniak males to execution sites began in earnest on the evening of July 13. The destinations were primarily north of Srebrenica, in a 35-mile- (55-km-) long band alongside the Drina River, which marks much of Bosnia's border with Serbia. They included a football field in Bratunac, several meadows and fields near Vlasenica and Nova Kasaba, a warehouse in Kravica, a factory in Karakaj, a school in Orahovac, a dirt road in the Cerska Valley, and a cultural centre in Pilica. The executions continued at least through July 16, when hundreds of people were reportedly shot at a state farm in the village of Branjevo. Although Bosnian Serb forces were primarily responsible for the killings, a police unit from Serbia was recorded on video participating in the execution of six Bosniaks. It was discovered later that many of the victims of the massacre had had their arms and feet bound. Many of the bodies also showed signs of mutilation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Srebrenica massacre | Facts, History, Map, & Photos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Srebrenica massacre, slaying of more than 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. In addition, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area. The massacre was the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War II.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On 6 th April 1993, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 819, declaring that Srebrenica and a 30 square mile area around the town was a United Nations Safe Area. The UN promised the people of Srebrenica safety and security. Their promises fell through as genocide began.

Shelling erupts in the southern part of Srebrenica.

7:00AM
Bosnian Serb soldiers take over the UN Observation Post Foxtrot.

3:15PM
Retreating Dutchbat troops are halted by a roadblock of Bosniaks, who want the troops to stay in position to protect the enclave. A struggle ensues. In a chaotic moment, a civilian throws a hand grenade at a Dutchbat station, resulting in the death of a Dutch soldier.

8:00AM
Constant shelling as refugees flee from Bosnian Serbs advancing in the south.

4:00PM
The road to Srebrenica is now clear. Thirty Dutchbat soldiers are taken hostage by the Bosnian Serbs.

8:55AM
Colonel Karremans files a request for Air Support, urging the selective bombing of Bosnian Serb tanks and artillery.

11:00AM
Bosnian Serbs shell Dutch positions. UN commander General Bertrand Janvier rejects Colonel Karremans' request for Air Support

.
6:30PM
Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić arrives on the hillside above the Srebrenica town centre. Colonel Karremans requests Air Support once again.

9:40PM
General Janvier finally agrees on Air Support. Bosnian Serb attacks cease. General Janvier postpones Air Support until the morning.

MIDNIGHT
Colonel Karremans tells town leaders that 50 NATO planes will bomb Bosnian Serb positions at 6:00AM.

9:00AM
Colonel Karremans is told that his request for Air Support was submitted on the wrong form. He must resubmit on the correct form. Airborne since 6:00AM, NATO planes are now out of fuel and must return to their base in Italy.

10:30AM
Bosnian Serbs begin shelling once again.

11:00AM
General Janvier hesitates over approving Air Support once again. More than 20,000 refugees - women, children, sick and elderly - flee for the main Dutch base at Potočari, three miles away.

12:05PM
General Janvier authorises Air Support, three hours after it was requested.

Two Dutch F16 fighters drop two bombs on Bosnian Serb positions. Bosnian Serbs threaten to kill the Dutch hostages and shell refugees. Further Air Strikes are abandoned.

4:15PM
General Mladić enters Srebrenica to claim the town for the Bosnian Serbs.

4:30PM
The Dutchbat troops claim their base is now full. More than 20,000 people, stuck outside the base, seek refuge in nearby factories and fields. Only 5,000 are allowed to remain within the base.

4:45PM
Bosnian Serb soldiers arrive at Potočari base.

8:30PM
General Mladić summons Colonel Karremans to a meeting.

11:30PM
Colonel Karremans meets General Mladić with local schoolteacher Nesib Mandzic. At the meeting, General Mladić demands that all weapons be surrendered. He tells Nesib, "The future of your people is in your hands, and not just in this area." When Nesib responds that he's just a representative by accident, and that he cannot be held responsible, General Mladić replies, "That's your problem. You must save your people from destruction."

MIDNIGHT
15,000 men leave the enclave, and embark on a perilous 63-mile journey to the nearest Muslim territory, Tuzla.

MORNING
Ibrahim Nuhanović is summoned to a meeting with General Mladić. Mladić tells Nuhanović, "Your people need not die. Not your husbands, or your brothers, or your neighbours. Just decide what you want to do. As I said last night, you can survive or you can disappear." He repeats his demands. Finally, Mladić says, "Allah can't help you. But Mladić can."

11:30AM
Mladić walks through the enclave, handing out treats and assures refugees, "No matter if you're old or young, you'll get transport. Don't be afraid - women and children first." The Bosnian Serb army then begin separating all men aged 12 to 77. The men are escorted in single file to a large house for questioning. A Dutchbat soldier sees a civilian being taken to the back of the house, made to kneel against a wall, and shot dead on the spot. 23,000 women and children are deported over the next 30 hours. The UN accepts the Bosnian Serb demand, and pays for the fuel of all buses.

7:45PM
The men held in the house are driven away. All their possessions are burned. Bosnian Serbs begin shelling The Column traveling through the mountains to Tuzla. Hundreds are killed, while thousands wander the hills.

10:00AM
400 men are held in a warehouse. Many are beaten to death. Using stolen UN equipment, Bosnian Serb soldiers pose as peacekeepers, in an attempt to trick the men of The Column into surrendering. They use loudspeakers to assure the men that they will not be hurt upon surrender. Hundreds of men are spotted being gathered at a football field in Nova Kasaba by a Dutchbat soldier. The men are seen sitting in lines on their knees, with their hands behind their heads.

12:00PM
The Dutch begin carrying out Bosnian Serb demands to expel all 5,000 refugees from their base.

4:00PM
Hundreds of exhausted men of The Column are caught attempting to flee through the mountains. Over the next 72 hours, a systematic massacre ensues. Bosnian Serb soldiers brutally slaughter 8,372 men in Srebrenica alone.

After five days of fleeing through the mountains, the first survivors of The Column arrive in Muslim territory. Thousands have been killed during the journey.

9.00AM
Following negotiations between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs, the Dutchbat troops are allowed to leave Srebrenica. General Mladić bids Colonel Karremans farewell. He tells him to have a safe journey, and wishes him all the best. He hands him a gift, which Colonel Karremans accepts with a smile, and asks, "Is this for my wife?" Both men laugh, and then share a drink together. They shake hands once more, and thank one another. As the UN cars leave Srebrenica, General Mladić and the Bosnian Serb soldiers salute. Dutchbat troops are seen celebrating in the streets, dancing and drinking. The first reports of the massacre begin to emerge. The UN Civilian Head of Bosnia, Yasushi Akashi, fails to report evidence of the atrocities. Elsewhere, Colonel Karremans refers to the attack on Srebrenica as being, "an excellently planned military operation".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What happened in Srebrenica | Remembering Srebrenica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On 6th April 1993, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 819, declaring that Srebrenica and a 30 square mile area around the town was a United Nations Safe Area. The UN promised the people of Srebrenica safety and security. Their promises fell through as genocide began.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended in 1995 with a peace agreement negotiated in Dayton, Ohio. It established two state "entities": the Serb Republic, which includes Srebrenica, and the Bosnian Federation joined by a weak central government. Refugees were guaranteed the right to return to their homes, but only a fraction of the prewar Bosniak population has gone back to Srebrenica.

For the survivors in Bosnia, one of the most difficult aspects of the aftermath has been the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to loved ones. This was made even more difficult in Srebrenica, where, after the genocide ended, Bosnian Serb officials dug up the mass graves of their victims and reburied the bodies across a wide swath of territory in an effort to conceal their crimes.

International and national authorities have attempted to discover what happened to the more than 20,000 people listed as missing throughout Bosnia. In the decades following the conflict, more than half the bodies have been identified, including several thousand from Srebrenica.

Justice

On May 25, 1993, while the conflict in Bosnia continued-and a full year before the genocide at Srebrenica-the UN Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute the perpetrators of the atrocities. It was the first such tribunal since Nuremberg and the first mandated to prosecute the crime of genocide, among other offenses.

Situated in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICTY charged 161 people. These include heads of state, army chiefs-of-staff, cabinet ministers, and many other high- and mid-level political, military, and police leaders from various parties to the conflict. Its indictments address crimes committed from 1991 to 2001 against members of various ethnic groups in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. More than 80 people have been convicted, and trials are expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

In 2001, the ICTY ruled that genocide had occurred in Srebrenica. Judges have also ruled that rape was used by members of the Bosnian Serb armed forces as an instrument of terror and that a "hellish orgy of persecution" occurred in concentration camps of northwestern Bosnia. In 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that Serbia violated the Genocide Convention by not doing enough to prevent genocide in Srebrenica.

The most high profile prosecutions include:

Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian military leader, was transferred to the ICTY in 2001. He died during his trial in 2006.

Radovan Karadzic, the former Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, was extradited to The Hague 13 years after his indictment on genocide charges for allegedly organizing the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. He has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination, murder, willful killing, persecutions, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes committed against Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat, and other non-Serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war. He was found guilty of genocide in March 2016 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Karadzic is appealing the conviction.

Ratko Mladic, accused of ordering the Srebrenica genocide, went on trial in 2012. Closing arguments began in December 2016, a verdict is expected in 2017.

Responding to a lawsuit filed by the "Mothers of Srebrenica," the Hague Court of Appeal ruled in June 2017 that the Netherlands was partly responsible for the deaths of approximately 350 Muslims in Srebrenica. Dutch-national UN peacekeepers turned the men under their protection over to Bosnian Serbs, a contributing event in a genocide that eventually claimed over 8,000 lives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Prosecuting the Crime of Genocide - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
International and national authorities have attempted to discover what happened to the more than 20,000 people listed as missing throughout Bosnia. In the decades following the conflict, more than half the bodies have been identified, including several th

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In July 1995, a genocidal massacre took place in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered by the Army of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb Republic) led by General Ratko Mladić.

The victims were mostly men, ranging from teenagers to the elderly, however, there were instances of the murder of young children and women.

The massacre at Srebrenica was one of the most horrific events of the war in the former Balkan States. It remains the single largest mass murder in Europe since World War Two.

The Bosnian Serbs wanted to create a territorially contiguous political entity of Republika Srpska, and Srebrenica was a key link which needed to be 'ethnically cleansed' to create this. In 1992 Serbian military and paramilitary forces began the process of 'ethnically cleansing' the territory of Bosniaks, killing and displacing many thousands of people.

On 16 April 1993, the United Nations Security Council declared that Srebrenica was a 'safe area' and called for the area to be free from armed attacks. Despite this, the violence and killings continued. This culminated in a massacre, beginning on 13 July 1995 and lasting at least 72 hours, in which the Serbian army entered the town and began their campaign of genocide including mass executions, deportation of Bosniaks from their homes, and the use of rape as a weapon of war.

In the weeks leading up to 6 July 1995, tens of thousands of non-Serbs had taken refuge in Srebrenica from Serbian attacks in the north-east of Bosnia. The refugees were under the protection of Dutch Infantry forces, and fresh food and water were in short supply. When shelling close to refugee centres in Srebrenica began, the Dutch Commander called UN headquarters requesting 'close air support'. As shelling intensified, more refugees from camps in the south fled to the town. Approximately 4,000 refugees were in the centre by 10 July and chaos spread. The Dutch commander called for NATO assistance to stop the shelling, however, assistance was delayed by the completion of the incorrect paperwork and NATO planes needing to refuel. By the afternoon of 11 July, Serb Commander Ratko Mladić arrived in the city.

On 12 July 1995 buses arrived in Srebrenica to remove the women and children and take them outside of the Serb-controlled zones. Approximately 23,000 women and children were deported over the course of 30 hours. During the deportations, Serb forces began selecting all men aged over 12 for 'interrogation of suspected war crimes'. These boys and men were then held in lorries and warehouses.

The first killing of unarmed Muslim men began on 13 July in warehouses. At least 8,000 of them were murdered. They were marched to the places of their deaths. Up to 3,000 were shot in the fields. Others were trapped in warehouses, football fields, school playgrounds and farms and shot, in their thousands, with machine guns and grenades. Thousands of bodies were buried in mass graves. Some of the bodies have been recovered and reburied, but identification has proved extremely difficult.

On the evening of 12 July 1995, approximately 15,000 men who were being held in trucks and warehouses in Srebrenica managed to escape, but were shelled as they attempted to flee for safety across the mountains. They formed a column and began to walk the 55km toward Tuzla, the nearest Muslim territory. Serb forces created numerous ambushes and attacks on the column of Bosnian Muslims throughout their journey, murdering as many as they could. Four days later, the column of men arrived in Tuzla, exhausted. Many were injured. No more than 3,000 of the original column survived the journey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | Srebrenica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In July 1995, a genocidal massacre took place in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered by the Army of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb Republic) led by General Ratko Mladić.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bosnian Muslim men pray on July 11, 2023, ahead of the burials of 30 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]

The remains of 30 victims of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been laid to rest as thousands of people commemorated its anniversary against a backdrop of surging tensions.

Twenty-eight years after they were murdered, 27 men and three teenage boys only recently identified through DNA analysis were buried at a vast and ever-expanding cemetery just outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia on Tuesday.

Keep reading

Relatives of the victims can bury only partial remains of their loved ones because they are typically found scattered over several mass graves. Such was the case for Mirsada Merdzic, who buried her father on Tuesday.

"Only very few bones of his were retrieved because he had been found [in a mass grave] near the Drina River," she said while huddling next to a casket shrouded in a green burial cloth. "Maybe the river washed him away."

History of bloodshed

The Srebrenica killings, Europe's only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust, were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist, territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country's two other main ethnic populations - Croats and Bosniaks.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and slaughtered them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the woods and over the mountains around the ill-fated town.

The perpetrators then ploughed their victims' bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they later dug up with bulldozers to scatter the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes.

The wartime political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, were both convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by a special UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

However, many Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes. They continue to downplay or deny the Srebrenica killings.

Rising tensions

The anniversary came as a political tug-of-war in recent weeks has seen some of the highest tensions in Bosnia since the end of the war with the signing of a US-brokered peace deal.

A day ahead of the ceremony, the top international envoy to Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, who is tasked with overseeing the civilian aspects of the peace agreement, pledged to "ensure that legal steps are taken against all those who deny the genocide".

The comment appeared to be a thinly disguised swipe at his chief rival in the country, Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, who has repeatedly refused to call the atrocity a genocide.

Dodik signed legislation last week that targets the authority of the envoy and the constitutional court in Bosnia's Serb entity.

The laws have been widely condemned by Western governments with Washington accusing Dodik of flouting the peace agreement.

Dodik's signing of the laws came just days after Schmidt tried to head off the move by passing an executive order that calls the legislation illegal and prevents its implementation.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi used the occasion of the massacre anniversary to pledge to "defend peace and protect life" in Bosnia.

"Europe remembers its responsibility and failure to protect. ... We vow to do better," they said in a statement issued ahead of the commemoration ceremony.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Thousands mourn Srebrenica victims as tensions mount in Bosnia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dozens more victims of 1995 massacre buried after recently being identified through DNA analysis.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Survivor Stories | Remembering Srebrenica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Following are famous quotes about the 1995 massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys taken by Bosnian Serb troops from the so-called UN safe haven of Srebrenica. The massacre is commemorated on Monday.

Mass graves of those killed are still being discovered

Bosnian Serb wartime army commander and genocide suspect Ratko Mladic to Srebrenica residents on 12 July 1995, a day after his troops captured the town:
"All who wish to go will be transported, large and small, young and old. Don't be afraid, just take it easy. Let the women and children go first ... No one will harm you."

Sadik Selimovic, wounded Bosnian Muslim fighter whose three brothers and father later went missing, recounting what Mladic told him in Srebrenica on 13 July 1995:

"Mladic literally said these words: They would kill all the men and throw them in the Drina river to feed fish, and these men would never again kill Serb children in the Serb Drina valley. But they would let the women go so they can suffer."

International Criminal Tribunal judge Fouad Riad after confirming the Srebrenica indictment of Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic on 16 November 1995:

"Thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers' eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 11 July 2000:

"The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the United Nations."

Bosnian Serb Republic's President Dragan Cavic on 22 June 2004, in the first official recognition of the massacre:

"After all of this, first as a man and a Serb, then as a father, brother and son, and only then as the president of the Serb Republic, I have to say that these nine days of July of the Srebrenica tragedy represent a black page in the history of the Serb people."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Following are famous quotes about the 1995 massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys taken by Bosnian Serb troops from the so-called UN safe haven of Srebrenica. The massacre is commemorated on Monday.