Srebrenica Files - Part 3
IF-S1 · UN headquarters New York
The UN had the evidence. The CIA had the photographs. The Security Council received the reports. 8,372 people were killed.
August 1995: CIA aerial photographs of mass grave sites were presented to the UN Security Council. No binding resolution followed. The Dayton Agreement ended the war but embedded ethnic division into constitutional law. The NIOD report concluded the Dutch government bore responsibility for events it could have prevented. The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed state liability in 2019, 24 years later.
IF-S2 · Declassified US document envelope
August 1995 · CIA aerial photographs · UN Security Council · Madeleine Albright02 / 07
August 1995. One month after the killings. The CIA had photographs of mass grave sites. They were presented to the Security Council.
US Ambassador Madeleine Albright presented CIA aerial reconnaissance photographs showing disturbed earth at mass grave sites to the UN Security Council in August 1995. The photographs identified primary mass grave locations before attempts were made to move the bodies. They were subsequently declassified and entered into the ICTY evidentiary record.
Albright described presenting them as among the most difficult moments of her diplomatic career. The Security Council received the photographs, the reports and the evidence. No binding resolution on Srebrenica state accountability was adopted in response. The council's own 1999 report, authored by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, stated: "the tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever."
Source: Madeleine Albright, "Madam Secretary," Miramax Books, 2003 · US State Department declassified photographs, August 1995 · UN Secretary-General report A/54/549, November 15 1999
IF-S3 · Empty UN Security Council podium
UN Security Council · Reports received · No binding resolution on state accountability03 / 07
The Security Council received the reports. No binding resolution held any state accountable.
The UN Secretary-General's November 1999 report on the fall of Srebrenica, A/54/549, was a comprehensive self-examination of the UN's failures. It concluded that the UN's commitment to the safe area concept was "ambiguous" and that the organisation was "too slow" to recognise what was happening and "too late to act."
The report acknowledged that "through error, misjudgement and an inability to recognise the scope of the evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to help save the people of Srebrenica." Kofi Annan stated this directly. No binding resolution on accountability for the state actors involved was adopted by the Security Council.
Source: UN Secretary-General report A/54/549, "The Fall of Srebrenica," November 15 1999, Kofi Annan
IF-S4 · Dayton Agreement document November 1995
Dayton Agreement · November 21 1995 · Ended the war · Embedded ethnic division in law04 / 07
The Dayton Agreement ended the war. It also embedded ethnic division into the constitutional structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The General Framework Agreement for Peace, initialled at Dayton Ohio on November 21 1995 and formally signed in Paris on December 14 1995, divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The division gave constitutional recognition to the territorial reality produced by the war.
Richard Holbrooke, who led the US negotiating team, described the agreement as ending the killing at the cost of creating a deeply dysfunctional state. The Dayton structure has been criticised by successive international bodies as freezing ethnic division into law. Holbrooke, "To End a War," Random House, 1998.
Source: General Framework Agreement for Peace, Dayton, November 21 1995 · Richard Holbrooke, "To End a War," Random House, 1998
IF-S5 · NIOD report Srebrenica
NIOD report · April 2002 · 3,500 pages · Dutch government bore responsibility05 / 07
3,500 pages concluded the Dutch state bore responsibility for events it could have prevented.
The NIOD Institute published "Srebrenica, een 'veilig' gebied" in April 2002. The report ran to 3,500 pages across multiple volumes and examined seven years of Dutch government, military and UN decision-making in detail. Its conclusion was unambiguous: the Dutch government bore responsibility for events it could have prevented.
The Dutch Cabinet of Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned collectively on April 16 2002, the day of publication. This was not a resignation under political pressure but a direct acknowledgement of institutional failure. It was the first time a Western European government had resigned specifically over its role in a foreign atrocity.
Source: NIOD Institute, "Srebrenica, een 'veilig' gebied," April 2002 · Dutch Ministry of Defence documentation
IF-S6 · Dutch Supreme Court building
Dutch Supreme Court · July 19 2019 · State liability confirmed · 24 years after06 / 07
July 19 2019. The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed state liability. 24 years after Srebrenica.
The Dutch Supreme Court ruled on July 19 2019 that the Netherlands bore state liability for the deaths of three Bosniak men whose families had sought refuge inside the Dutchbat compound. Dutchbat personnel had allowed Bosnian Serb forces to remove the men from the compound. The ruling confirmed liability at the highest judicial level in the Netherlands.
The ruling applied to three individuals, not to the 8,372 killed in the broader genocide. The Mothers of Srebrenica association had pursued the case through the Dutch courts for years. The ruling was the first confirmation by any supreme court of state liability for Srebrenica. It came 24 years after the events it addressed.
Source: Dutch Supreme Court, ruling July 19 2019, Netherlands v. Mothers of Srebrenica · NIOD Institute documentation
IF-S7 · Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Cemetery wider aerial
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
The CIA had the photographs. The Council had the reports. The NIOD concluded responsibility could have been prevented. What is the word for a system that documents everything and prevents nothing?
Tomorrow: the final episode. Mladic convicted, life. Karadzic convicted, life. The ICJ confirmed genocide in 2007. The UN established a memorial day in 2021. Serbia and Russia voted against. The last identified remains were returned to families in 2024. Thirty years on.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
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