The genocide in Srebrenica, committed in July 1995, was announced in two documents adopted back in 1992 by the illegally established Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina (RS).

The Assembly of the Serbian Republic of BiH, at its 14th session held on May 16, 1992, adopts six strategic goals of the Serbian people. Strategic Goal Number 3 mandates the elimination of the “Drina River as a border separating Serbian states” – the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska.

General Ratko Mladić, commander of the Main Staff of the Army of the Republic of Srpska (VRS), on November 19, 1992, signs Directive Number 4 which defines the method of achieving the third strategic goal: “To inflict as heavy losses on the enemy as possible and force them to leave, along with the Muslim population, the areas of Birač, Žepa, and Goražde” in Eastern Bosnia.

As a result of military actions in the realization of Directive Number 4, and in an effort to achieve Strategic Goal Number 3, massive attacks are carried out during the winter of 1992/93 on the towns and villages of Podrinje, and tens of thousands of Bosniak population from Podrinje find refuge in Srebrenica, Žepa, and Goražde.

Faced with a rapidly escalating humanitarian disaster in the Srebrenica enclave, where around 40,000 refugees had found shelter, the UN Security Council on April 16, 1993, adopts Resolution 819, declaring Srebrenica the first “UN-protected safe area” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The President of the RS, Radovan Karadžić, on March 8, 1995, signs Directive Number 7, which orders the creation of conditions of total insecurity, unbearable living conditions, and hopelessness for the further existence and life of the inhabitants in Srebrenica and Žepa.

Radovan Karadžić, the president and supreme commander of the armed forces of the RS, Momčilo Krajišnik, the president of the National Assembly of the RS, and Radislav Krstić, the chief of staff of the Drina Corps of the VRS, agree on an attack on Srebrenica. After the meeting, the Corps Command began to draft a combat plan.

At about 3 in the morning, Operation Krivaja '95 begins. The town of Srebrenica and the observation posts of the Dutch UNPROFOR battalion, which were supposed to prevent the genocide, are targeted by shelling. Over the following days, UNPROFOR observation posts around Srebrenica fall into the hands of Bosnian Serb forces.

Radovan Karadžić issues an order to take over Srebrenica.

Bosnian Serb forces intensify shelling and capture villages within the Srebrenica enclave, tightening the siege. Bosniaks move towards the city of Srebrenica seeking refuge. Serbian forces approach Srebrenica and enter the “protected zone”.

The panicked population of the enclave, mostly women, children, and the elderly, seek protection at the Dutch battalion base in Potočari, a settlement in Srebrenica. Around 15,000 men, both soldiers and civilians, gather in the villages of Šušnjari and Jaglići, where they form a column in an attempt to reach the city of Tuzla, a territory under the control of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH).

Bosnian Serb forces triumphantly enter the eerily empty city of Srebrenica and in front of the cameras announce "revenge on the Turks," as they referred to Bosniaks because of their religion. That same evening, at the Fontana Hotel in the neighboring town of Bratunac, the commander of the Main Staff of the RS army, Ratko Mladić, vents his anger on the commander of the Dutch battalion, Colonel Thom Karremans.

Refugee representatives from Potočari - Ćamila Omanović, Ibro Nuhanović, and Nesib Mandžić - faced with Mladić's offer at a new meeting in the Fontana Hotel: to choose whether they will “survive or disappear”. General Mladić led all three meetings, which were also attended by Dutch Colonel Thomas Karremans and the Chief of Staff of the VRS Drina Corps, Radislav Krstić. The Bosnian Serb army imposes conditions under which the Bosniak population in Srebrenica will be removed.

Thousands of Bosniaks flee from the city of Srebrenica seeking protection within the nearby UN base in Potočari. By the morning, up to 30,000 Bosniaks are staying in the area around the UN base. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic. Bosnian Serb forces begin separating Bosniak men. Hundreds of them are detained in a building in Potočari known as the White House.

Before the third meeting at the Fontana Hotel, Lieutenant Colonel of the VRS Drina Corps Vujadin Popović informed Momir Nikolić, the assistant commander for security and intelligence affairs of the VRS Bratunac Brigade, that thousands of Bosniak women and children from Srebrenica would be removed from Potočari, and that military-age men would be separated, temporarily held in Bratunac, and then killed.

Around noon, the first buses and trucks arrive in Potočari to transport refugees to the territory controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). However, only women, children, and the elderly are allowed into the vehicles, while military-age men are taken to the so-called White House opposite the UN base. Before entering the house, they are forced to discard personal belongings and documents. Later, behind the White House, Dutch soldiers find the bodies of killed Bosniaks.

In the early afternoon hours, Bosnian Serb forces take control over Potočari. Dozens of buses and trucks arrive in front of the Dutch battalion base, and the separation of Bosniak men and boys begins. The forced relocation of women and children takes place. Women, children, and some of the older men board buses and trucks prepared by the Bosnian Serb forces. On this and the following day, 30,000 women, children, and elderly are forcibly moved from Potočari to Kladanj, in the territory controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Soon after the fall of Srebrenica, about 15,000 people, Bosniak men and boys aged between 16 and 65, formed a column over ten kilometers long. They move towards Tuzla, towards the territory controlled by the ARBiH. Thousands of men and boys from this column of civilians are captured by Bosnian Serb forces and detained at various locations - including the villages of Konjević Polje, Sandići, and Nova Kasaba. On the same day, the deportation of women and children from Potočari continues in convoys without UN escorts.

Bosniak men and boys, captured in and around Srebrenica, are detained before being transported to execution sites in the municipalities of Bratunac, then Zvornik. They spend the night in buses, trucks, or makeshift detention facilities.

Around 4,000 prisoners were transferred to Bratunac and housed in a primary school building, a hangar, a football field, and other facilities. Those for whom there was no space in the makeshift detention centers were kept all night in buses parked in the center of Bratunac. By morning, several dozen prisoners had been killed. Bosniak men and boys, who had been detained in the White House and survived, or were captured by Bosnian Serb forces during escape attempts, were transported to Bratunac, to several facilities, including the “Vuk Karadžić” school. The school was so overcrowded there was no room to sit on the floor. Detainees were frequently taken out by members of the Bosnian Serb forces, after which they did not return. Their cries for help and screams were constantly heard outside the school building.

On the afternoon of July 13, men and boys detained in a meadow in Sandići were loaded onto buses or ordered to walk in a column to the Kravica warehouse located on the Bratunac – Konjević Polje road. By five o'clock in the afternoon, the warehouse was overcrowded. In the evening, members of the Bosnian Serb forces entered the warehouse and fired at the detainees with M-84 machine guns and automatic rifles. They also fired from outside through the doors and windows and threw hand grenades through the windows. As the night progressed, the execution continued with occasional breaks. It lasted all night.

After spending the night in detention facilities in Bratunac and buses parked in the town center, thousands of detained Bosniaks were transferred to several locations in the Zvornik municipality. From about two o'clock in the morning until the early afternoon of July 14, convoys of buses transported Bosniaks detained in Bratunac to the school in Orahovac, a village in the zone of responsibility of the Zvornik Brigade. About 1,000 of them were executed on a nearby meadow next to the railway track. Three prisoners survived the execution.

On the afternoon of July 14, about 1,000 Bosniaks were brought from Bratunac by buses and trucks to a new school in the village of Petkovci, near the headquarters of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS. From the evening until midnight, Bosnian Serb soldiers took them out of the classrooms, loaded them onto trucks, and drove them to a meadow near the Petkovci dam. Approximately 1,000 Bosniaks were shot at the dam of the nearby reservoir on the night of July 14, 1995 Two survived.

At least 500 prisoners temporarily detained in the primary school in Ročević were taken to the execution site at the Kozluk gravel pit, on the bank of the Drina River. No one survived the shooting.

From ten o'clock in the morning until approximately four in the afternoon, between 1,000 and 1,200 prisoners were transferred in groups from the primary school in the village of Pilica to the Branjevo Military Farm and there summarily executed. Three prisoners survived.

At least 500 detained Bosniaks were killed in the Cultural Center in the center of Pilica village. No one survived the execution.

Near the village of Trnovo south of Sarajevo, members of the "Scorpions" unit executed six Bosniak youths and boys in late July 1995, who were brought from the Srebrenica area to a nearly 200 kilometers distant execution site at a location called Godinske bare. The execution was recorded on video.

In an effort to conceal evidence of the mass executions of Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica and other municipalities of Podrinje who sought refuge in this town, Bosnian Serb forces, with the help of local authorities, exhumed bodies from the original mass graves and reburied them in more remote, secondary mass graves. In some cases, secondary graves were also disturbed, and the remains were moved to tertiary mass graves.