Srebrenica Massacre - Ethnic Cleansing of Bosnian Muslims

Why in news?

Commemoration services were recently held at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery in remembrance of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre.

What is the Srebrenica Massacre?

Srebrenica is a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina in south-eastern Europe.
In July 1995, approximately 8,000 Muslims, mostly men and boys were killed in Srebrenica.
It was carried out by the Bosnian Serb forces led by Commander Ratko Mladić.
These killings were later classified as 'genocide' by international tribunals investigating the massacre.

What led to this?

The disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 threw the south-eastern and central Europe in chaos.
It led to violent inter-ethnic wars in the region over the next few years.
The Bosnian War took place between 1992-1995.
It witnessed a period of displacement and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks or Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
The Bosnian Serb army and paramilitary forces were behind this.
In many ways, the Srebrenica massacre was a result of this regional conflict.
According to some researchers, this massacre was the worst atrocity against civilians in Europe since the Holocaust.

What happened during the Srebrenica massacre?

During the war, the Srebrenica massacre started on July 11, 1995.
It was when Commander Ratko Mladić occupied the town of Srebrenica.
Thousands of Bosnian Muslim families sought refuge with the Dutchbat.
It was a Dutch battalion under the UN forces that had been deployed, following the upheaval during the Bosnia War.
Many Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge believing it to be a safe zone.
But this UN peacekeeping mission led by the Netherlands failed to stop these murders.
Some researchers say the mission did not protect Bosnian Muslims.
But more worse, in some cases, it actively handed over young boys and men to Bosnian Serb forces knowing that they would be killed.
The safe zone later fell under the control of the Bosnian Serb forces after the Dutch forces surrendered.
It is said that the 8,000 Muslims who were killed during the massacre were murdered within 2 weeks of the start of the occupation of Srebrenica.

What was the extent of the violence?

Babies, young boys and men were subjected to atrocities and killings.
Besides, the massacre also saw widespread crimes against women, where girls and women were subjected to violence and rape.
Witnesses, girls and women, later said that they had not been given any protection by UN forces.
This was despite the forces having witnessed the violence that was being perpetrated in front of them.
Survivors recounted how Bosnian Serb forces had forced Bosnian Muslims to dig their own graves and later shot them to death.
25 years after the massacre, bodies of victims continue to be found in mass graves.

What did the later investigations reveal?

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia investigated war crimes of 1990s that occurred during the conflict in the Balkans.
It found that efforts had been made by the Bosnian Serb army to remove bodies from the mass graves to other sites.
This was done in an attempt to conceal the extent of the crimes and killings.
This removal of bodies made it difficult to identify victims.
Also, investigations by the tribunal showed that in many cases, body parts of one victim were found in different graves due to displacement.
The tribunal said that this indicated that the killings of the Bosnian Muslims were premeditated and had been extensively planned.
In 1995, the Tribunal indicted Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić, the President of the Republika Srpska, for war crimes against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
[Republika Srpska is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.]
Then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan submitted his own report on the Srebrenica Massacre in 1999.
He acknowledged the failures of the UN in preventing the massacre.
He said that the tragedy of Srebrenica would forever haunt the history of the UN.

What were the internal investigations by the governments?

For the Netherlands, the failures of the Dutchbat and reports of the troops participation in various forms in the violence led to an inquiry by the government in 1996.
A report was published 7 years later.
It acknowledged the failures of the peacekeeping mission.
Also, the Dutch government admitted some responsibility for their inability to protect victims during the massacre.
In March 2003, Bosnia and Herzegovina began their own investigations on the Srebrenica massacre.
They relied heavily on the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The investigations were concluded the next year.
The government admitted that crimes had been committed against Bosnian Muslims.
An official apology for the massacre was later issued by the government.
Some nationalists in the country have however disagreed with the findings of these investigations.

What were the further developments?

10 years after the massacre, in 2005, the US House of Representatives officially passed a resolution.
It recognised the massacre as the Srebrenica Genocide.
In March 2016, Radovan Karadžić was found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the earlier mentioned Tribunal.
He was sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment.
A year later, in November 2017, Ratko Mladić was found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

What is the recent event?

On 11 July 2020, 25 years on, commemoration services were held at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery.
During this ceremony, bodies of 9 victims that were recently identified were buried in the cemetery.
World leaders also issued statements in remembrance of the massacre.
It is to be noted that according to some researchers, many Serbian politicians and citizens refuse to call it genocide.
Also, public buildings continue to hold names of people convicted of war crimes against Bosnian Muslims and others who were in positions of power during the massacre.

Source: The Indian Express