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On July 6, 1995, the Bosnian Serb Army (Vojska Republike Srpske or VRS), under the command of General Ratko Mladić and the political direction of Radovan Karadžić, began its final assault on the UN-declared "Safe Area" of Srebrenica. The attack culminated on July 11, when VRS forces overran the town. They systematically separated the population, executing more than 8,372 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys. In addition, tens of thousands of women, children, and elderly civilians were forcibly expelled from their homes in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing.
To hide the scale of the massacre, the VRS made deliberate efforts to conceal their crimes by burying victims in primary mass graves and then later exhuming them with heavy machinery to rebury them in a network of secondary and tertiary gravesites. This systematic concealment has necessitated three decades of painstaking forensic work by organizations like the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to locate and identify the victims. Thirty years later, the search for over 1,000 missing victims continues.
The pain and injustice of Srebrenica remain seared into the global consciousness. In 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the atrocities committed at Srebrenica constituted genocide. In the years that followed, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and its successor mechanism secured landmark convictions. Both the military commander, Ratko Mladić, and the political leader, Radovan Karadžić, were convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and are serving life sentences.
In a significant step for international recognition, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2024 establishing July 11 as the "International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica." This year’s commemoration is therefore the first to be held under this official UN designation, elevating the global importance of remembering the victims and combating denial.
Today, on the 30th anniversary, the lessons of Srebrenica are more critical than ever amidst a global climate of rising hate speech, rampant disinformation, and the glorification of convicted war criminals. The passage of three decades has not diminished the urgency of this memory. The Auschwitz Institute solemnly remembers and honors the victims and reaffirms its solidarity with the survivors and their families. Recognizing that prevention is an ongoing responsibility, AIPG remains committed to using the legacy of the Srebrenica Genocide to combat denial, seek justice for all those affected, and strengthen mechanisms to prevent mass atrocities worldwide.
