Article: Srebrenica Files - Part 4
Srebrenica Files - Part 4
RE-S1 · ICTY courthouse The Hague
Mladic convicted. Life. Karadzic convicted. Life. ICJ confirmed genocide. The last remains returned in 2024. Thirty years after.
The ICTY convicted Ratko Mladic of genocide on November 22 2017 and sentenced him to life. Karadzic was convicted in 2016 and his sentence increased to life on appeal in 2019. The ICJ confirmed genocide at the state level in 2007. The UN established a memorial day in 2021. Serbia and Russia voted against. In 2024, the last identified remains were returned to families. 272 victims remain unidentified.
RE-S2 · ICTY judgment Mladic IT-09-92
November 22 2017 · ICTY · Prosecutor v. Mladic · IT-09-92 · Life sentence02 / 07
November 22 2017. Ratko Mladic convicted of genocide. Life sentence. The Hague.
The ICTY convicted General Ratko Mladic on 11 counts including genocide for the Srebrenica massacre and persecution across Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judgment ran to 2,570 pages. He had been a fugitive for 16 years before his arrest in Serbia in May 2011.
Mladic's appeal was heard by the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. The appeal was rejected and the conviction and sentence were upheld in June 2021. In court, when the verdict was read, he was removed from the chamber after making gestures toward the gallery. His life sentence stands.
Source: ICTY, Prosecutor v. Mladic, IT-09-92, judgment November 22 2017 · IRMCT appeal judgment, June 8 2021
RE-S3 · Empty courtroom defendant dock
Radovan Karadzic · ICTY · 2016 convicted · 2019 life sentence on appeal03 / 07
Radovan Karadzic. Genocide. Life sentence upheld on appeal in 2019.
The ICTY convicted Radovan Karadzic, the wartime President of Republika Srpska, of genocide for Srebrenica and crimes against humanity across Bosnia on March 24 2016. He was initially sentenced to 40 years. The prosecution appealed the sentence as inadequate.
On March 20 2019, the IRMCT increased Karadzic's sentence to life imprisonment on appeal. The appeal judgment affirmed that Karadzic had intended to destroy the Bosniak Muslim population of Srebrenica as such, meeting the specific intent required for genocide under international law. Both convictions form the definitive legal record of what happened.
Source: ICTY, Prosecutor v. Karadzic, IT-95-5/18, judgment March 24 2016 · IRMCT, appeal judgment March 20 2019
RE-S4 · ICJ ruling Bosnia v Serbia 2007
ICJ · February 26 2007 · Bosnia v. Serbia · Genocide confirmed at state level04 / 07
February 26 2007. The ICJ confirmed genocide at Srebrenica. The first state-level ruling in history.
The International Court of Justice ruled in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro on February 26 2007 that genocide had been committed at Srebrenica in 1995. It was the first time the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, had ruled on genocide in a case between states.
Serbia was found not to have committed genocide itself but to have violated its obligation under the Genocide Convention by failing to prevent the genocide despite having the means to influence those who committed it. Serbia was also found to have breached its obligation to punish and transfer Mladic to the ICTY, which it had failed to do. The ruling was unanimous on the finding of genocide at Srebrenica.
Source: ICJ, Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, judgment February 26 2007
RE-S5 · UN General Assembly chamber
UN General Assembly · May 2021 · Resolution A/RES/75/274 · 84 for, 9 against, 68 abstentions05 / 07
May 2021. The UN established a memorial day for Srebrenica. Serbia and Russia voted against.
The UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/75/274 in May 2021 designating July 11 as the International Day of Reflection on the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide. The resolution passed 84 votes in favour, 9 against, with 68 abstentions. Serbia and Russia were among the 9 voting against. The resolution designated Srebrenica explicitly as genocide in its title.
Serbia's government publicly opposed the resolution, arguing it was politically motivated and would harm reconciliation in the region. Russia's opposition reflected its broader position on the international legal framing of the Srebrenica events. Both Serbia and Russia have used state-level platforms to contest the genocide designation despite the binding ICTY and ICJ rulings.
Source: UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/75/274, May 2021 · UN vote record, official record of the 75th session
RE-S6 · White burial shroud · identified remains 2024
2024 · Last identified remains returned · ICMP · 272 still unidentified · Work continues06 / 07
In 2024, the last identified remains were returned to their families. Thirty years after. 272 names still without a match.
The International Commission on Missing Persons has used DNA matching to identify 8,100 of the 8,372 documented victims as of 2024. The process was complicated by the deliberate movement of remains from primary to secondary and tertiary mass graves to conceal evidence. Each body required reassembly across multiple grave sites before identification could occur.
The families of 272 victims have not yet received identified remains. The ICMP continues its work in 2025. Each set of identified remains returned to a family represents the conclusion of decades of forensic work, legal process, and waiting. The annual burial at Potocari on July 11 continues for each newly identified victim, regardless of year.
Source: International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP, 2024 documentation · Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre records
RE-S7 · Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Cemetery at dawn
The question this series was always asking.07 / 07 · Series final
Convicted. Confirmed. Memorialised. The strongest legal definitions of genocide in modern history. What does it mean that the strongest legal record produced the shortest institutional memory?
The series ends here. The place does not. 272 names still without a match. The identification work continues. The annual burial at Potocari on July 11 continues. The question remains open. What does it mean that we can name everything and change nothing?
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Srebrenica Files complete. Two new series every week.Follow UNSILENCED.