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30 years since the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Politiko 2025-07-11 09:10:52

Today marks 30 years since the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina, described as one of the worst in Europe since World War II.

In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave, which had been designated a "safe place" by the United Nations.

On July 9, 1995, then-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic issued a new order to occupy Srebrenica. Troops surrounded the enclave and attacked Dutch peacekeepers, taking 30 of them hostage.

The next day, Bosnian Serb soldiers began shelling Srebrenica. Dutch forces threatened the Serbs with NATO air strikes if they did not withdraw by morning.

And the next day, NATO planes bombed Serbian tanks outside Srebrenica. Serbian forces threatened to resume the bombing and kill captured Dutch soldiers. The airstrikes stopped, and on the evening of July 11, Bosnian Serb commander General Ratko Mladic entered Srebrenica.

About 30,000 Muslim refugees gathered around the Dutch peacekeeping base in Potocari, north of the town of Srebrenica, after Bosnian Serb forces took control of the safe zone.

Mladic tried to calm them down by telling them they had nothing to fear. Bosnian Serb forces put the frightened refugees on buses, ostensibly to flee. Many of the refugees were evacuated to Kladanj, 50 kilometers away, and from there they began walking to find a safe haven.

The United Nations noticed that most of the refugees arriving from Srebrenica were women, children, and the elderly, and began to worry about the fate of the men.

About 15,000 Bosnian Muslim soldiers and civilians fled Srebrenica at night, trying to reach Muslim-controlled territory. Many died from shelling and sniper fire.

In the week that followed the fall of Srebrenica, around 8,000 men and boys are thought to have been killed by Bosnian Serbs and buried in mass graves.

Even more than two decades after the killings, mass graves continue to be found. Identifying the victims is difficult, as the bodies were dismembered by the excavators that dumped them in the graves. Every year on July 11, the remains of those identified during the past year are buried at the Potočari Memorial Center.