The Srebrenica Massacre took place during the Bosnian Genocide, and was one of the worst mass murder incidents in Europe since the Holocaust during World War II. In the early 1990s, the Republic "of Yugoslavia broke off into the countries we now know as: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. In 1992, the Bosnia and Herzegovina territory declared its independence, which led to the immediate start of the Bosnia War. On April 1992, Serbian forces commenced "ethnic cleansing" on Bosnian territory by extracting all Bosnian Muslims.

On April 16, 1993, Srebrenica was declared a 'safe zone' by the United Nations Security Council. By July 6, 1995, thousands of non-Serbs had taken shelter in the town of Srebrenica, away from North-East Bosnia where Serbians were attacking. These refugees in Srebrenica were under the protection of Dutch forces. With the small numbers of Dutch soldiers and the Security Council refusing to authorize enough peacekeeping troops in Srebrenica, the safe area soon fell into the civil conflict.

The day before the massacre of thousands of Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica, buses entered the town with an objective of removing all women and children from Serbian-controlled areas. Nearly 25,000 women and children were removed from the town within 30 hours. As the deportations were in motion, Serbian forces were singling out all men over the age of 12. These boys and men were to be held in warehouses and interrogated of suspected war crimes.

July 13, 1995, marks the first killing of Bosnian Muslims and the killing continued till July 22. Massive executions took place daily. The victims during this genocidal act were mostly males, but women and children were murdered as well. Rape was a weapon of war during the Bosnian War and this was no exception to the women that found shelter in Srebrenica. More than 7,000 Muslims were murdered during the Srebrenica Massacre.

As it is a crime to deny the Holocaust in many countries, there are many who refuse to acknowledge this mass murder of Muslims in Srebrenica as an act of genocide. Many view this horrific event as an act of war rather than a genocidal attempt.

Text by Jacqueline Alvarez