Íæż½ã½ã

About the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica

Both the and the concluded that the acts committed in Srebrenica in 1995 during the wider conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992¨C1995), constituted genocide. The conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the most violent to follow the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Throughout the conflict, the three major ethnic groups in the region ¡ª the Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Bosnian Croats ¡ª struggled to gain territorial control. In eastern Bosnia, where Srebrenica lies, violence targeted primarily Bosnian Muslims in the context of efforts by Bosnian Serb forces to establish ethnically homogeneous territories. This broader campaign of violence set the stage for the genocide in Srebrenica.

In late 1992, the town of Srebrenica became an enclave under the control of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was predominantly composed of Bosnian Muslims. In the following months, tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from the surrounding areas fled to Srebrenica, seeking refuge. The refugees lived in overcrowded, dire conditions, often without access to clean water, food, medicine and other essentials, including adequate shelter.

On 16 April 1993, in response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the United Nations Security Council adopted , declaring Srebrenica and its surroundings a ¡°safe area¡±. On 18 April 1993, a cease-fire agreement was signed, calling for the enclave¡¯s demilitarization under the supervision of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), the first company of which arrived that same day. UNPROFOR established a small command centre in Srebrenica, along with a larger compound in Poto?ari, approximately five kilometres north of the town. The protection proved inadequate, despite these measures.

In March 1995, Radovan Karad?i?, President and Supreme Commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska, issued , instructing Bosnian Serb forces to create ¡°an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica¡± (pg10. of the ¡°Directive 7¡±: Unit Assignments, Drina corps).

In early July 1995, General Ratko Mladi? and the Bosnian Serb forces he led, launched an offensive codenamed ¡°Krivaja 95¡±, ultimately capturing Srebrenica on 11 July. After the town¡¯s fall, up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed or went missing (the figure of up to 8,000 men and boys killed and missing is based on judicial findings of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in various Srebrenica-related trials), and approximately 30,000 women, children, and elderly persons were forcibly transferred from the enclave. Men and boys were separated from their families and were detained and executed at various sites in a systematic and organized way. In an effort to conceal the crimes, many of the victims¡¯ bodies were later moved and reburied in secondary and tertiary mass graves.?

The (ICTY) and the (ICJ) both ruled that these events constituted genocide. The ICTY and its legal successor, the (IRMCT), tried 20 individuals for crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995. The ICTY concluded that the mass killings of Bosnian Muslim men and boys constituted the crime of genocide. A total of 16 persons, including high-level officials such as Radislav Krsti?, Ratko Mladi?, and Radovan Karad?i?, were convicted for crimes committed in Srebrenica.  The work of the Tribunal was instrumental in bringing perpetrators to justice and upholding international law.

The Tribunal clearly reiterated that criminal accountability for the crime of genocide under international law is individualized and cannot be attributed to any ethnic, religious or other group or community as a whole.

The Srebrenica genocide, one of the worst crimes committed on European soil after the Second World War, remains a lasting warning of what can happen when the world fails to act in the face of atrocity. As former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reflected: The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the United Nations (¡­) We cannot undo this tragedy, but it is vitally important that the right lessons be learnt and applied in the future.

In 2024, twenty-nine years after the genocide, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution designating 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, to be observed annually. With the adoption of this Resolution, the General Assembly made the atrocities committed in Srebrenica a subject of international observance at a global scale.

In the same resolution, the General Assembly condemned without reservation any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event, and urged Member States to preserve the established facts, including through their educational systems, and to act in remembrance, towards preventing denial, distortion and occurrence of genocides in the future. Commemorative actions and education remain essential tools in achieving this goal.

The 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica ¡ª alongside the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda ¡ª profoundly shaped the development of international criminal justice and the global resolve to prevent genocide. Nowadays, efforts to deliver accountability, to search for the missing, to identify victims and preserve the testimonies of victims, remain essential to ensure justice is realized, dignity is afforded to all victims and their families and that the promise of ¡°Never Again¡± is not broken.