Srebrenica Massacre

Historical Overview

During the Bosnian War, units of the Army of the Republika Srpska under the command of General Ratko Mladić, alongside Serbian paramilitaries, perpetrated the Srebrenica massacre. The primary strategic objective of the Serb leadership, as part of an illegal campaign of "ethnic cleansing," was to eliminate the enclave—which had been declared a UN "safe area"—and permanently remove the Bosniak Muslim population from the strategically vital Drina Valley. In what constitutes the worst war crime in Europe since World War II, officially classified as a genocide by the ICTY, over 8,000 captive Bosniak men and boys were systematically executed.