30 years ago, in the quiet town of Srebrenica, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II unfolded while the world looked on. In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian boys and men were systematically killed or sent to concentration camps while displacing two million people under the command of Bosnian Serb Forces.
Initially declared a ‘safe area’ by the United Nations, Srebrenica has become a symbol not only of ethnic cleansing, but of international failure. Presently, survivors still bury the remains of their loved ones unearthed from mass graves. Children born in the shadow of the atrocity, grow up in a region grappling with denial and revisionism. As Europe follows the global trend of rising far-right nationalism, the lessons of Srebrenica are now more urgent than ever.
What happens when we forget what happened there?
The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) Queensland was joined by Professor Olivera Simic and Councillor Jasmina Joldic PSM to reflect on the legacy of Srebrenica three decades on, and its influence in driving the rise of far-right nationalism and revisionism in Eastern Europe.
What happened in Srebrenica?
In July 1995, during the final months of the Bosnian War after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb forces overran the United Nations-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the days that followed, more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were separated from their families, detained and systematically executed. Unlike its Balkan neighbours the Bosnian population was deeply multiethnic, mainly composed of Bosnian Muslims. Their dismembered bodies were buried in mass graves, many later exhumed and reburied in at least 80 secondary and tertiary graves to conceal the scale of the crimes. Professor Simic said, “forensics have been working tirelessly for the past 30 years, to identify remains from the mass graves.” Despite these efforts, the Bosnian Federal Commission for missing persons believes 80 mass graves are yet to be found.”
Despite the presence of a Dutch UN Peacekeeping battalion, the international community failed to intervene. The massacre was later classified as genocide by both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice – making the first legal use of the term in Europe since the Holocaust.
“When history is taught, there is a common narrative…”
While international courts and most of the community have ruled the massacre a genocide, many Bosnian Serb leaders and officials continue to reject that classification outright. Causing accountability and justice to remain out of reach for victims and survivors. Professor Simic said, “of over 30 individuals indicted and charged by the ICTY for committing genocide, only a total of seven high ranking officials were found guilty.” Other individuals who participated or enabled the massacre will not be prosecuted, Professor Simic believes, due to “the lack of sufficient evidence, the passage of time and the biological clock as these individuals are aging and dying.”
This gap between legal condemnation and political accountability has created fertile ground for denial – not just at the level of state institutions, but also in the public sphere.
In Republika Srpska – a political entity part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina – denial is nationalised. School textbooks omit the events of July 1995. Even public officials like President Milorad Dodik regularly reject the term “genocide” and “question the foundations of international justice, acclaiming the crimes are used as a means to collectively discrediting the Serbian people.” This political stance permeates into everyday life, with murals painted onto residential buildings dedicated to the masterminds of the massacre.
30 years later, the area faces a political crisis despite agreements put in place that ended the tragedy.
Professor Simic believes separatist rhetoric spread by Bosnian leader Željko Komšić is driving the crisis, “since 2021… he has pushed policies that challenge the legitimacy of Bosnian state institutions and has used successionist language.”
Even in Republika Srpska, “authorities have intensified their efforts to erode the authority of state level institutions by passing legislation that directly challenges the jurisdiction of Bosnia’s institutional courts and essential bodies.”
30 years on from the genocide at Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a country at war – not through soldiers bearing weapons, but through the erasure of painful memories, denial and further deepening social divides. Although agreements may have stopped the violence, “the war never ended.” With separate narratives, war has transformed into something equally as horrifying: a quiet hostility in the everyday, defining how communities see each other.
The refusal to name Srebrenica as genocide is not just an affront to victims and survivors, it is a warning Professor Simic says. Because when atrocities are denied, they are left open to repetition.
Without honest reckoning, reconciliation in Bosnia will remain stalled, and peace will remain surface level.
Edited by Deborah Bouchez
Written by Chloe Leung
Currently in her third year of a double degree in Communications/Journalism and International Relations at Griffith University, Chloe Leung is passionate about intersectionality in global development – particularly centring the voices of marginalised communities.
