Forensic Profiling Blog

Article written by Leann Long

In July of 1995, over 8,000 Muslim men, ranging from teenagers to the elderly, were brutally murdered in the Srebrenica massacre, one of the most horrific events in recent history. After their executions the victims were buried in mass graves, only to be dug up and relocated to smaller graves 3 months later in an attempt to conceal evidence that would link the murders to Bosnian-Serb troops. From 1997 to 2002 an intensive forensic investigation involving the exhumation of over 20 mass graves took place in an attempt to link the original burial sites to the various secondary burial sites. One of the main forensic techniques used to link the burial sites and bring justice to this tragedy was palynology, the study of pollen and spores.

A Country of Conflict and Controversy

Following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croates, and Slovenes was formed in 1918. In 1929, the country was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but it soon fell apart during World War II. After WWII Yugoslavia reunited as a communist state in Eastern Europe under the rule of Josip Broz Tito and consisted of six constituent republics: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Yugoslavia maintained peace during the 40 years Tito ruled, but when he died in 1980 following the Cold War, nationalist and separatist ideologies began to arise and disrupt tranquility within the country (Center for Balkan Development [CBD], 1996).

Slobodan Milosevic, formerly Serbia’s Communist Party leader, strategically adhered to nationalism and became the ruler of Serbia and the most authoritative dignitary in Yugoslavia by 1989. However, his forceful attempts to take over the federal government of Yugoslavia and unjust decisions he made out of self-interest drove Croatia and Slovenia to seek independence in 1991, and Bosnia-Herzegovina followed in 1992 (CBD, 1996).

Even though the European community and the United States recognized Bosnia as an independent country, the Muslim, Serb, and Croat groups within Bosnia all began to fight for territory. Although many of the Muslims in Bosnia originally thought the Yugoslav National Army (YNA) would protect them, the fourth largest army in Europe was under the command of Milosevic, whose ultimate goal, at the cost of many non-Serbs’ lives, was to create a Greater Serbia. The YNA launched many vicious attacks against non-Serb citizens in Bosnia with the help of the Republicka Srpska’s (the leading Serb party in Bosnia) Drina Corps (VRS) (CBD,

1996). An ugly war ensued, especially between the Serbs and the Bosnians. Although the international community tried to establish peace in the country, its efforts were ineffective and failed. The UN Security Counsel announced six safe areas in Bosnia designated to be areas free from attack and hostile acts, including Srebrenica, but both the Serbs and the Bosnians violated the agreement shortly after it was established (Wikipedia, 2006).

The Serbs Siege “Safe” Srebrenica

By July of 1995 thousands of civilians had taken refuge in the city of Srebrenica to escape from Serb attacks in northeastern Bosnia. The refugees were under the protection of only 600 Dutch peacekeeping troops who were running low on all resources, including food, fuel, and medical supplies. The VRS surrounded the city and prohibited Dutch soldiers from entering or leaving for supplies, making hostages out of any soldiers who left the “safe” area of Srebrenica (Wikipedia, 2006). Before long, due to the increasing number of hostages, the number of Dutch troops dwindled to around 400.

On July 6, 1995, under the orders of Radovan Karadzic, president of Republika Srpska, the VRS began an offensive attack on Srebrenica by firing mortal shells into the city (Haverford, 2006; Wikipedia, 2006). Muslim fighters were denied access to the weapons they had surrendered to the peacekeepers and were unable

to defend themselves. On July 9, Karadzic issued an order that authorized the VRS troops to capture Srebrenica. Dutch officials requested NATO air support on July 10, but NATO was hesitant. When they finally acknowledged air support was critical, they had communication problems that further delayed Srebrenica’s protection. When planes were finally able to perform air strikes, after dropping only two bombs on VRS forces outside of Srebrenica the VRS threatened to kill their Dutch hostages and attack the refugees in an enclave in Srebrenica with mortar shells. NATO responded by immediately ordering a stop to the air strikes (Danner, 1998a; Haverford).

Realizing the UN would not protect them, around 25,000 refugees, mainly consisting of women, children, and elderly men, attempted to escape to the town of Potocari in hopes of seeking protection in a UN compound within the city. A column of 15,000 weak and underfed Muslim men fled toward Tulza, a Bosnian governmentheld territory nearly 40 miles away, leaving behind their wives, daughters, young sons, and elderly fathers.

The Serbs were prepared for the Muslim men to flee to Tulza, and were given orders by Radislav Krstic, commander of the VRS, to kill every single person in the column. “You must kill everyone. We don’t need anyone alive” (Danner, 1998b). Even knowing their escape was a futile attempt, the Muslim men felt they had no other choice but to flee. These men would repeatedly fall under VRS attacks, with about only half of them surviving. Many who didn’t die while under the VRS’s offensive shell attacks either killed each other in a panic or were captured and executed later (Danner, 1998b).

By the evening of July 11, 1995, Srebrenica was void of a single living Muslim (Haverford, 2006). The VRS quickly moved on to Potocari on July 12 and found 25,000 hungry, overheated, and panicked Muslims. General Ratko Mladic, Karadzic’s chief military commander, demanded the Muslims surrender but promised that no one would be harmed as he handed out candy to starving children. However, late that night, as many of the Serb soldiers celebrated their triumph, they raped Muslim women and killed some of the Muslim

boys and men (Danner, 1998a; Haverford).

The next day, Bosnian-Serb troops began separating women and children from the remaining older boys and elderly men. Around 23,000 women and children were deported over an estimated period of 30 hours to safe Muslim territories. The remaining males (around 1,700) were held in trucks and warehouses to be supposedly interrogated for war crimes (Danner, 1998b; Gendercide Watch [GW], 2002).

The Malicious Massacre of Muslim Men

The executions that followed on July 13– 16, 1995, took place in various locations and had various numbers of victims, including men from both the group that was separated from the women and children and the refugees from the column who had been captured (Wikipedia, 2006). A few men from each site managed to survive and provide details of the horrific events they bore witness to (Haverford, 2006). Their accounts, as well as accounts from some of the soldiers who carried out the horrific acts, provide a glimpse into the events of this tragedy.

In what was a well-planned succession of events, the victims were transported from building to building and held for long periods of time without food or water before they were finally executed. The VRS troops, out of what can only be understood as boredom and brutality, would often barbarically torture individuals with items such as crowbars, knives, and axes before killing them during trips from one holding site to another or during the nights (Danner, 1998b). Those not physically tormented were nonetheless emotionally tortured as they heard the agonizing wails of others and desperately prayed that their own deaths would be quick and painless.

Throughout the entire elaborate plan of “cleansing” the Muslims, the VRS did all they could to keep their prisoners in the dark about what was really happening, repeatedly promising the Muslims that they were working out negotiations with the UN and that they would all soon be free. The Bosnian Serbs wanted to keep the Muslims’ hopes up to keep them from revolting, something that would have put a damper on their plan (Danner, 1998b). However, the cruel behavior of many of the VRS troops and the horrific events the Muslims witnessed while in the hands of the VRS left

many of them with little hope. Some men were killed individually or in small groups, but the majority of the murders took place in mass numbers. The soldiers performed executions by taking the men into fields, lining them up, and shooting them to death. Most of the time the victims were blindfolded and had their hands bound in order to minimize their attempts to resist. Often the soldiers gave the victims a slow and painful death, dragging out their misery for as long as possible before finally taking their lives. In one of the mass murders, between 1,000 and 1,500 men were crammed into a pitch-black warehouse. Soldiers began throwing grenades into the warehouse and shooting their machine guns into the building. Any men who tried to escape from the building were immediately gunned down by the soldiers (Wikipedia, 2006).

Other gruesome killing sprees took place at schools. On one occasion, the Muslim men were packed into a school gym so tightly that they could not even sit down without being on top of each other. After sustaining these miserable conditions for 2 nights without any food or water, soldiers began taking smaller groups of men out to a farm and shooting them in their backs, often beating and torturing them before finally executing them (Wikipedia, 2006).

What many consider to be the worst of the massacre took place at a soccer field near Nova Kasaba. While at some sites there was grave digging machinery, at the soccer field selected men were forced to dig graves and watch others be shot into those graves. Eventually, these men dug and were shot into their own graves. When a bulldozer finally did arrive, around 400 men were thrown into a grave and buried alive (Danner, 1998b; GW, 2002).

After all was said and done, between the days of July 11–16, 1995, over 8,000 Muslim men were killed in Bosnia.