This Day in History: 22 July 2020
22 July 1995
25 years ago, today, the Srebrenica massacre ended, after more than 7,000 Bosniak boys and men had been killed. In addition to the killings, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, marking the event as an ethnic cleansing. The massacre was the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War Two and helped persuade the West to press for a cease-fire that ended the three-year long Bosnian conflict. However, deep emotional scars were still left on survivors, and enduring obstacles were created in the road for political reconciliation among Bosnia's ethnic groups.
During the days following the massacre, American spy planes overflew the area of Srebrenica and took photographs that showed the ground in vast areas around the town being removed. This was concluded to be a sign of mass burials. The killings in the town were also judged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to amount to genocide, pinning principal responsibility on senior officers in the Bosnian Serb army. However, the United Nations and its Western supporters also accepted some partial blame for having failed to protect the Bosniak people. In 2010, the Serbian National Assembly also narrowly passed a resolution that apologised for not preventing the killings, even though Serbia was not legally involved in the massacre.
Want to find out more about the Srebrenica massacre? Click here for more information, or here for more on the commemoration of the 25th anniversary. Click here to instead watch a video that briefly explains the event.
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