In July 1995, during the Bosnian War, Bosnian Serb forces under Ratko Mladić captured the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and killed more than 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys. Some 25,000 to 30,000 other Bosniaks, mostly women and children, were forcibly removed. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have both ruled that the killings constituted genocide, the first legally recognised genocide in Europe since the Second World War.
A besieged enclave
When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces, backed by Slobodan Milošević's government in Belgrade and the Yugoslav army, fought to secure territory for a Serb state, Republika Srpska. Non-Serbs in areas they took, especially Bosniaks in eastern Bosnia, were subjected to ethnic cleansing. Bosnian government forces under Naser Orić raided nearby Serb villages from the enclave, causing Serb civilian deaths. In April 1993 the UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area". A demilitarisation agreement followed, but both sides violated it, and by 1995 a Dutch battalion of lightly armed peacekeepers was guarding an enclave short of food, fuel and medicine.
The fall of Srebrenica
In March 1995 the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić issued a directive on the enclaves, and the offensive began on 6 July. Dutch observation posts fell or surrendered, and on 9 July Karadžić authorised the capture of the town. NATO air strikes on 11 July were limited and then halted after Serb forces threatened Dutch hostages and the refugees. Some 20,000 to 25,000 refugees crowded into and around the Dutch base at Potočari.
Separation and deportation
On 12 and 13 July Serb forces separated men and boys from the women, children and elderly at Potočari. The women and children were bussed to Bosnian government lines; the men were held back. On 13 July the Dutch peacekeepers handed over some 5,000 Bosniaks sheltering at their base, in exchange for the release of 14 of their own soldiers held by the Bosnian Serbs. Witnesses described killings, beatings and rapes in and around Potočari.
The column and the executions
On the night of 11 July around 12,000 to 13,000 men, about half of them soldiers of the Bosnian army's 28th Division, set off through the forests towards government territory near Tuzla. Shelled and ambushed, the column broke apart, and thousands were captured or induced to surrender, many on 13 July along the Bratunac–Konjević Polje road. Only about a third crossed that road, and survivors broke through to Bosnian lines at Baljkovica on 16 July. Almost all prisoners were killed. From 13 July they were taken to schools, warehouses and fields at sites such as Kravica, Orahovac, Petkovci, Branjevo and Kozluk, often blindfolded and bound, and shot in organised mass executions. Between August and October 1995 many bodies were dug up and moved to secondary graves, which the ICTY found was an attempt to conceal the crime.
Justice
A list of the missing and dead contains 8,372 names, and by 2020 nearly 7,000 victims had been identified by DNA analysis. The ICTY convicted General Radislav Krstić of aiding and abetting genocide, and its Appeals Chamber confirmed in 2004 that genocide had been committed. In 2007 the ICJ agreed, clearing Serbia of direct responsibility but finding that it had failed to prevent the genocide or hand over those accused. Karadžić and Mladić were later found guilty of genocide and both received life sentences. Some Serb accounts have described the massacre as revenge for earlier attacks by Orić's forces, a justification the ICTY and the UN have rejected.
Responsibility and memory
The Dutch government resigned in 2002, citing its failure to prevent the massacre, and Dutch courts later held the state liable for more than 300 deaths. In 2004 Republika Srpska acknowledged that its forces had carried out a planned mass killing. Serbia's president Tomislav Nikolić apologised in 2013 for "the crime" of Srebrenica but did not call it genocide. Deniers continue to dispute the genocide finding, the death toll and even the killings themselves. In 2024 the UN made 11 July an annual day of commemoration. The Srebrenica Genocide Memorial at Potočari was opened in 2003.
On our maps
Our 1994 map shows Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars, and our 2000 map the country after the war.
In pictures
1 images · scroll →From the atlas
Srebrenica massacre in time and on the map
Srebrenica massacre took place in 1995. The nearest maps from before and after are 1994 and 2000; compare them side by side.
Living through it, among others on this site: Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006), Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), Desmond Tutu (1931–2021), Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Fidel Castro (1926–2016), Hafez al-Assad (1930–2000), Idi Amin (1925–2003), John Rawls (1921–2002), Julius Nyerere (1922–1999) and Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015).
Other events of the same years: Satsuma Rebellion (1877–2005), Nahda (1900–2000), The Troubles (1960–1998), Guatemalan Civil War (1965–1996), Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), Human Genome Project (1990–2003), Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001), Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), Bosnian War (1992–1995) and First Chechen War (1994–1996).
Next to it in time on this site: before, Oslo Accords (1993) and Rwandan genocide (1994); after, First Congo War (1996–1997) and Good Friday Agreement (1998).
Quick answers
- When did Srebrenica massacre happen?
- In 1995.
- Where did Srebrenica massacre take place?
- Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- How did the map change?
- Compare the atlas’s maps of 1994 and 2000 side by side.