Srebrenica massacre
1995 mass murder by the Bosnian Serb Army / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Srebrenica massacre,[lower-alpha 1] also known as the Srebrenica genocide,[lower-alpha 2][8] was the July 1995 genocidal massacre[9] of more than 8,000[10] Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica, during the Bosnian War.[11] The killings were perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under Ratko Mladić. The Scorpions, a paramilitary unit from Serbia, who had been part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, participated in the massacre.[6][12] The massacre is considered the first genocide to have taken place in Europe since World War II.[13]
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Srebrenica massacre Srebrenica genocide | |
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Part of the Bosnian War and the Bosnian genocide | |
Native name | Genocid u Srebrenici / Геноцид у Сребреници |
Location | Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Coordinates | 44°06′N 19°18′E |
Date | 11 July 1995 (1995-07-11) – 31 July 1995; 28 years ago (1995-07-31) |
Target | Bosniak men and boys |
Attack type | Military assault,[citation needed] mass murder, androcide,[citation needed] ethnic cleansing, genocide, genocidal rape |
Deaths | 8,372[2] |
Perpetrators | |
Motive | Anti-Bosniak sentiment, Serbian irredentism, Islamophobia, Serbianisation |
Before the massacre, the United Nations (UN) had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica, in east Bosnia, a "safe area" under UN protection. A United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) contingent of 370[14] lightly armed Dutchbat soldiers failed to deter the town's capture and subsequent massacre.[15][16][17][18] A list of people missing or killed during the massacre, compiled by the Bosnian Federal Commission of Missing Persons, contains 8,372 names.[2] As of July 2012[update], 6,838 genocide victims had been identified through DNA analysis of body parts recovered from mass graves;[19] as of July 2021[update], 6,671 bodies had been buried at the Memorial Centre of Potočari, while another 236 had been buried elsewhere.[20]
Some Serbs have claimed the massacre was retaliation for civilian casualties inflicted on Serbs by Bosniak soldiers from Srebrenica under the command of Naser Orić.[21][22] These 'revenge' claims have been rejected and condemned by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN as bad faith attempts to justify the genocide.
In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the case of Prosecutor v. Krstić, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY ruled the massacre of the enclave's male inhabitants constituted genocide, a crime under international law.[23] The ruling was also upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2007.[24] The forcible transfer and abuse of between 25,000 and 30,000 Bosniak Muslim women, children and elderly which accompanied the massacre, was found to constitute genocide, when accompanied with the killings and separation of the men.[25][26] In 2002, following a report on the massacre, the government of the Netherlands resigned, citing its inability to prevent the massacre. In 2013, 2014 and 2019, the Dutch state was found liable by its supreme court and the Hague district court, of failing to prevent more than 300 deaths.[27][28][29][30] In 2013, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić apologised for "the crime" of Srebrenica, but refused to call it genocide.[31]
In 2005, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the massacre as "a terrible crime – the worst on European soil since the Second World War",[32] and in May 2024, the U.N. designated July 11 as the annual International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.[33][34]