What happened in the Massacre of Srebernica, the worst slaughter on European soil since World War II

Here we tell you its story.

The massacre took place during the war that exploded in the early 1990s, after the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

This federation of six republics had managed to unite Serbs, Croats, Bosnian, Albanian, Slovenian and others under a relatively flexible communist regime, led by President Josip Brz Tito.

After Tito's death in 1980, the demands of greater autonomy within Yugoslavia led to statements of independence.

In Bosnia, one of the countries that emerged after disintegration, three communities were in conflict: the Serbs of Bosnia (backed by Serbia), Bosnians and Croats.

In 1995, approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslims lived in the city of Srebrenica.

Many of them had arrived from other parts of the country, forced to flee an ethnic cleaning campaign carried out by the Serbs of Bosnia during the previous three years.

In 1993, Srebrenica had been declared a safe zone of the UN, and a small contingent of international peace forces was responsible for protecting her from any attack.

On July 11, 1995, Serbobosnias units, led by General Ratko Mladic, assaulted the city.

When the Serbobosnio army advanced, approximately 20,000 Muslims – mostly women, children and invalids – sought protection in the UN complex, controlled by Dutch blue helmets in the nearby Potocari.

The UN peace forces, slightly armed, could not protect civilians who took refuge there.

Bosnian women and children were uploaded to buses and transferred to a safe place, but young men and young men were mass killed or executed when they tried to escape through the wooded hills around Srebrenica.

In less than two weeks, Serbobosnias forces had systematically murdered more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.

The remains of approximately one thousand people are still missing or unidentified.

The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (TPIY), a United Nations Court based in The Hague, condemned almost 50 Serbs of Bosnia for war crimes committed in Srebrenica, including Mladic and the Serbobosnio Radovan Karadzic leader.

Mladic and Karadzic received life imprisonment for genocide, and the trial evidenced the significant planning that was carried out for the massacre.

“The crimes committed are among the most atrocious known to humanity and include genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity,” said Judge President Alphons or the International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia (TPIY), before sentencing Mladic to life imprisonment in 2017.

The Court heard creepy testimonies of surviving witnesses and relatives of the victims. Some men were buried alive, while some adults were forced to witness the death of their children.

Many victims of the Srebrenic massacre are buried in the nearby Potocari cemetery. Thousands of simple white tombstones extend in a field on the hillside of a hill, surrounded by forests.

The former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, declared later: “The tragedy of Srebrenica will pursue the History of the United Nations forever.”

Most of Bosnia Serbs, as well as many people in Serbia, have repeatedly denied that what happened in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted a genocide. In 2024, Serbobosnius legislators adopted a report that denies that the murder of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War constituted genocide.

Its leader, Milorad Dodik, said that the operation of the Serbobosnium Army in Srebrenica was a “big mistake.” “It was a crime, but it wasn't a genocide,” Dodik said.

They also argue that the majority of the 2,000 dead were low war (Bosnian Muslim soldiers dead in combat) and some claim that the murders were “a revenge for all those Serbs killed in the villages around Srebernica.”

The UN resolution designates on July 11 as an International Day for Reflection and Commemoration of Srebrenica's genocide also condemns any denial of the massacre and the glorification of war criminals.

Before the 90's war, Srebrenica was largely a city of Muslim majority Bosnia (Bosniac). Now, most of its population is Serbia.

After the war, the new state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic Srpska, of which it is part of Srebanica.

In the years elapsed since the war, the Bosniac population in Srebrenica has decreased, while the Serbian population has grown.

The Srpska Republic is populated mainly by Serbs, while Bosnian Muslims are a majority in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation.

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