Srebrenica massacre: more than 8,000 killed in 1995

Srebrenica became a symbol of ethnic cleansing after Bosnian Serb forces massacred more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys after taking the eastern Bosnian enclave in July 1995.

Serbian state media reported on Thursday that Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader linked to the massacre, had died. An international court later ruled the killings a genocide.

Srebrenica, a mainly Muslim town in eastern Bosnia, first fell to Bosnian Serb troops shortly after the Bosnian war began in April 1992. Bosnian Muslim forces later retook the enclave, but Bosnian Serb forces cut off road access by the end of that year.

In April 1993, the UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a “safe area” under UN and NATO protection. A ceasefire and demilitarisation agreement signed the next day was not respected. Dutch UN peacekeepers took over from Canadian troops in 1994.

In early July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces attacked positions around the enclave and overran peacekeeper posts. On July 11, NATO carried out airstrikes on two Serbian tanks, but Bosnian Serb forces led by Mladic took Srebrenica the same day.

Tens of thousands of refugees fled to the Dutch force’s compound at Potocari. After the town was taken, Mladic ordered civilians evacuated while men of fighting age were taken prisoner.

In the following days, more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces and their bodies were dumped in mass graves. To date, 6,880 victims have been identified and buried, including 6,643 at Potocari’s memorial centre and 237 in other Srebrenica area cemeteries.

Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and Mladic were indicted in 1995 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Dayton Accords, reached in November 1995, ended the war and divided Bosnia into two entities: the Serb Republika Srpska and the Muslim Croat Federation of Bosnia.