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Massacre in Srebrenica

Klaus Dahmann / bkApril 23, 2013

At the height of the Bosnian War, Serbian troops enter the Muslim-dominated town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Serbian General Ratko Mladić orders 8,000 men and boys to be shot.

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Muslim refugess from the town of Srebrenica as they flee.Image: EPA/AFP/Getty Images

Air support requested by Dutch UN peacekeepers fails to arrive and the peacekeepers are unable to stop the massacre. The 400 some UN soldiers can do nothing more than watch as the corpses of male residents from Srebrenica and surrounding towns are dumped into mass graves. The International Criminal Court in The Hague rules that the mass murder constitutes genocide and establishes a special tribunal to prosecute the crimes.

The massacre in Srebrenica is described by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as the worst crime on European soil since the Second World War. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentences several of the perpetrators to years in prison. Mladić himself has been held in custody since 2011 while awaiting trial.

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On the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica, observers in Germany say Serbia's future hinges on a readiness to take responsibility for the crimes of the past. (11.07.2005)
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DW correspondent Mark Lowen meets with residents of Srebrenica on the 15th anniversary. (9.7.2010)

englisch: POD0907 Srebrenica 15th anniversary - Produziert: 09.07.2010 - 20:00:31 von Lowen
July 9, 201004:05 min
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17 years after the massacre, Srebrenica still struggles with its past (16.5.2012

17 years after the massacre, Srebrenica still struggles with its past (16.5.2012

More now on the high-profile war crimes trial in the Hague. Ratko Mladic is accused of carrying out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War. Among the most notable of the attrocities is the 1995 massacre of Bosnian men and boys in Srebenica. Our next report takes us back to the city, nearly 17 years on. While people there have moved on with their lives, the memories of what happened in July of 1995 still loom.
May 16, 201203:47 min