All events · After the Wall
Srebrenica Genocide
1995 · Balkans, Anatolia & the Caucasus
Displacement
Mass Killing
Sexual Violence
Killing was the defining act
Displaced
30,000
about 25,000-30,000 women, children and elderly forcibly bussed out of the enclave, in addition to roughly 8,000 Bosniak men and boys killed
Share of the population affected
75%
of the population of the Srebrenica UN 'safe area' in July 1995, 1995
Killed
7,000–8,372
direct killing
Open on the interactive map →
What happened
In July 1995, VRS forces under General Ratko Mladić captured the UN 'safe area' of Srebrenica, overwhelming the lightly armed Dutch peacekeeping contingent stationed there. Over the following days, VRS forces separated an estimated 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from their families and killed them, while forcibly transporting roughly 25,000-30,000 women, children and elderly to Bosniak-held territory near Tuzla. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice both formally found that genocide occurred at Srebrenica.
Parties
Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) under General Ratko Mladić overran the UN-declared 'safe area' of Srebrenica, separating and killing Bosniak men and boys while expelling the remaining population
Disputed
The ICTY (Krstić, Karadžić, Mladić judgments) and the ICJ's 2007 judgment in Bosnia v. Serbia both found genocide occurred, though the ICJ found Serbia itself not directly responsible for committing genocide, only for failing to prevent and punish it; Republika Srpska institutions have at times disputed or minimized the genocide characterization, generating recurring diplomatic controversy.
The denominator
UN and ICTY estimates put the enclave's population at roughly 36,000-42,000 in July 1995, overwhelmingly Bosniak. This was far above the prewar Srebrenica municipality (37,211 at the 1991 census, of whom about 27,000 were Bosniaks), because the enclave had absorbed tens of thousands displaced from eastern Bosnia while many original residents had left.
The 30,000 counts those expelled from the enclave; the roughly 8,000 men and boys killed are a subset, so the percentage measures the emptying of the safe area rather than the killing.
Where the baseline comes from
On the death toll
The ICTY Appeals Chamber in Krstić (2004) found that between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed, and the UN uses 'up to 8,000 killed or went missing'; the higher end reflects the 8,372 names recorded by the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial with identifications by the International Commission on Missing Persons. Republika Srpska bodies have at various times published far lower figures, positions Bosniak organisations and the tribunals reject.
Documented forms of violence
Mass KillingSummary ExecutionEnforced DisappearanceSexual ViolenceDestruction of Property
The ICTY's Krstić and subsequent Srebrenica judgments established the organised executions, the concealment of bodies in secondary mass graves, sexual assaults at the Potočari compound and the destruction of Bosniak property in the enclave.
Formal findings
- ICTY (2004) — Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić, Appeals Chamber: the mass killing of Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica was genocide; forcible transfer of some 30,000 women, children and elderly complemented the genocidal scheme — source
- ICJ (2007) — Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro: the July 1995 Srebrenica killings were genocide; Serbia was not found to have committed or been complicit in it but breached its obligations to prevent the genocide and to cooperate with the ICTY — source
- United Nations (2024) — UN commemoration materials record judicial findings of genocide and 16 individual convictions for crimes at Srebrenica — source
Movements mapped
- Srebrenica enclave → Tuzla (women, children, elderly)25,000
Countries touched, on present-day borders
Bosnia and Herz.
Related entries
Sources