DID YOU KNOW?  -- Three years before the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, Serbs torched Bosniak villages and killed at least 3,166 Bosniaks around Srebrenica. In 1993, the UN described the besieged situation in Srebrenica as a "slow-motion process of genocide." In July 1995, Serbs forcibly expelled 25,000 Bosniaks, brutally raped many women and girls, and systematically killed 8,000+ men and boys (DNA confirmed).

16 June, 2010

UPDATE: PRE-GENOCIDE MASS GRAVE

Bosnian forensic worker puts markers near human remains after finding human bones in a pile of sand in the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac, just outside of Srebrenica. Experts say they found a wartime mass grave after a truck driver unloaded gravel next to a construction site and discovered human bones in the pile. Prosecutor Emir Ibrahimovic said Wednesday the driver reported his finding end of May and led the authorities to the site near the nearby town of Bratunac where he uploaded the gravel. Meanwhile witnesses have come forward claiming that a significant number of Muslims killed after Serb forces took control of Bratunac at the beginning of the 1992-95 war were secretly buried in gravel pit. (Photo/Amel Emric)

Pre-genocide mass grave of Bosnian Muslim civilians. (Photo/Amel Emric)

Bosnian head of forensic team Murat Hurtic gesture as he shows original location where human bones were found in the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac, just outside of Srebrenica on June 9, 2010. (Photo/Amel Emric)

Keeping things in perspective: How it all started?


In April 1992 (more than three years before the Srebrenica massacre), Serb forces -- with logistical and military help from Serbia -- began a widespread campaign of brutal "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] population of Eastern Bosnia. Thousands of Bosniak refugees flocked to Srebrenica. They were forced to live in the besieged enclave with little or no means of survival and under brutal Serb attacks. Many starved to death

Serb Army stationed around Srebrenica never demilitarized, even though they were required to do so under the 1993 demilitarization agreement. In 1992 alone, approximately 100,000 Bosniaks had been expelled from their homes and at least 11,391 Bosniaks were killed by Serb forces in eastern Bosnia (source: Research & Documentation Centre in Sarajevo), while hundreds of Bosnian Muslim villages were destroyed around Srebrenica.

Serb forces stationed around Srebrenica constantly attacked neighbouring Bosniak villages and Srebrenica itself. They also bombarded Srebrenica from air with Serbian airplanes.

In July 1995 the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of Srebrenica and its surrounding area, where they proceeded to perpetrate genocide. Bosnian Serb soldiers -- with military and logistical help from Serbia -- separated families, committed brutal rapes of many women and girls, and then forcibly expelled at least 20,000, while summarily executing 8,372 Bosniak men and teenage boys. Srebrenica genocide is remembered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
 [WATCH: Srebrenica genocide short clips, courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]


DNA results of the International Commission on Missing Persons support an estimate of 8,100 Srebrenica genocide victims. As of today, the identities of more than 6,500 genocide victims have been revealed by the DNA analysis.