Coordinates: 44.104167, 19.297222

The 1995 Genocide

Both the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that the acts committed in Srebrenica in 1995 during the wider conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995), 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 — the Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Bosnian Croats — 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 Resolution 819, 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 Potočari, approximately five kilometres north of the town. The protection proved inadequate, despite these measures.

In March 1995, Radovan Karadžić, President and Supreme Commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska, issued Directive 7, 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 Mladić 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.​

Source: United Nations, “About the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica,” United Nations Observances: International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, 11 July, accessed July 1, 2025, https://www.un.org/en/observances/srebrenica-genocide-commemoration-day/about. Archived at: https://perma.cc/XP5X-77CN