Srebrenica Files - Part 1
SA-S1 · UN blue helmet
The UN declared Srebrenica a safe area in 1993. On July 11 1995 it fell in one day.
UN Security Council Resolution 819, April 16 1993, declared Srebrenica a safe area free from armed attack. 370 Dutch UN peacekeepers were stationed there. On July 11 1995, General Ratko Mladic entered Srebrenica on camera. The enclave fell in one day. What the Dutch soldiers did and did not do is documented in 3,500 pages commissioned by the Dutch government itself. The Dutch Cabinet resigned collectively the day that report was published.
SA-S2 · UN Security Council Resolution 819
UN Security Council · Resolution 819 · April 16 199302 / 07
April 16 1993. The UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a safe area.
Resolution 819 demanded that all parties treat Srebrenica and its surroundings as a UN safe area free from armed attack or any hostile act. It demanded the immediate withdrawal of Bosnian Serb paramilitary units from the area.
Resolution 824 of May 6 1993 extended safe area status to five other Bosnian cities. No resolution authorised the use of force to defend them. The protection was a declaration, not a guarantee backed by military commitment.
Source: UN Security Council Resolution 819, April 16 1993 · UN Security Council Resolution 824, May 6 1993
SA-S3 · Srebrenica town · Bosnia
Srebrenica · Bosnia-Herzegovina · 60,000 people seeking UN protection03 / 07
This town held 60,000 people seeking protection under a UN flag.
Srebrenica's pre-war population was approximately 37,000. By 1995 the enclave held an estimated 60,000 Bosniak Muslim refugees who had fled Bosnian Serb military operations across eastern Bosnia. The town was cut off, blockaded and dependent on UN humanitarian convoys for survival.
The Bosnian Serb Army had controlled the territory surrounding Srebrenica since 1992, limiting UN resupply operations and restricting humanitarian access. The population inside the enclave faced severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel throughout the period.
Source: ICTY, Prosecutor v. Krstic, judgment, August 2 2001 · NIOD Institute report, 2002, Part II
SA-S4 · UN white armoured vehicle
Dutchbat III · 370 soldiers · Rules of engagement requiring UN authorisation to fire04 / 07
370 Dutch UN soldiers. Their mandate: deter attacks by presence. They could not fire without UN permission from New York.
Dutchbat III was lightly armed relative to the Bosnian Serb Army forces surrounding them. Their rules of engagement required authorisation from the UN chain of command before they could use force in response to an attack on the enclave.
When the Bosnian Serb Army began its offensive on July 6 1995, Dutchbat requested close air support. The request went through multiple UN command levels. Air support was authorised on July 11 but weather and procedural delays meant it arrived after Mladic's forces had already entered the town.
Source: NIOD Institute report, 2002, Part III · Dutch Ministry of Defence documentation · ICTY, Prosecutor v. Mladic, judgment, November 22 2017
SA-S5 · Empty military tent · two chairs
July 11 1995 · Fontana Hotel Bratunac · Karremans meets Mladic · Three meetings05 / 07
July 11 1995. Colonel Karremans met General Mladic three times that night.
The NIOD report documented that Dutchbat commander Colonel Thom Karremans met General Ratko Mladic at the Fontana Hotel in Bratunac on the night of July 11 1995. The meetings were filmed by Bosnian Serb Army cameras. The footage is part of the ICTY evidentiary record.
During the filmed meetings, Mladic presented conditions and asked Karremans what the Muslim population wanted. Karremans stated he did not have the authority to negotiate. Representatives of the Bosniak population inside the enclave were brought to a third meeting the following morning. By then the executions had already begun.
Source: NIOD Institute report, 2002, Part III, Chapter 5 · ICTY, Prosecutor v. Mladic, footage exhibits, 2012
SA-S6 · NIOD Institute Srebrenica report
NIOD Institute · 2002 · 3,500 pages · Dutch Cabinet resigned same day06 / 07
The Dutch government commissioned 3,500 pages. The cabinet resigned collectively the day it was published.
The NIOD Institute, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, published its full report "Srebrenica, een 'veilig' gebied" in April 2002, seven years after the fall of the enclave. The report ran to 3,500 pages across multiple volumes and examined Dutch government, military and UN decision-making in detail.
The Dutch Cabinet of Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned collectively on April 16 2002, the day the report was published. The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed in 2019 that the Netherlands bore state liability for the deaths of three Bosniak men whose families had sought protection inside the Dutchbat compound.
Source: NIOD Institute, "Srebrenica, een 'veilig' gebied," April 2002 · Dutch Supreme Court ruling, July 19 2019
SA-S7 · UN blue flag · overcast sky
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
A UN resolution. 370 peacekeepers. A safe area declaration. The enclave fell in one day. What is a safe area worth when the force protecting it cannot fire without permission from New York?
Tomorrow: July 12 to 22 1995. 8,372 Bosniak Muslim men and boys killed in ten days. Named execution sites. Named units. DNA identification still ongoing thirty years later.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Two new stories every weekFollow UNSILENCED.