Acts of murder and genocide

THE roots of what would become known as the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnia-Herzegovina began in 1992 as Bosnian Serb forces carried out a brutal campaign of violence against the civilian population, which was designed to create a “Greater Serbia”. This covered an area ranging from northern Bosnia and including eastern and western Bosnia adjoining the Serb Krajina area in Croatia.

In 1993, Srebrenica had been declared a UN Safe Area and was under the watch of the United Nations Protection Force.

In July 1995, despite its designation as an area “free from any armed attack or any other hostile act”, Serbian paramilitary units overran and captured the town.

On 11 July 1995 General Ratko Mladić and his Bosnian Serb forces marched into Srebrenica. He directed a programme of genocide that led to his troops systematically murdering 8,372 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in a series of summary executions.

As early as April 1993 the CIA had identified 34 “Rape Camps” set up as part of the campaign of ethnic cleansing. There were also concentration camps in which predominantly men were held and tortured before (in many cases) being murdered.

In 1995 Mladić was indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was arrested in 2011 and extradited to The Hague.