SREBRENICA

The Srebrenica massacre, in July 1995, was the single, worst atrocity in Europe since WWII. It happened during the last year of the war in Bosnia and two years after the United Nations had established Srebrenica as the first of six UN “safe areas” intended to protect Bosnian Muslims from Bosnian Serb military operations.

When Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, in complete violation of its protected status, the Dutch peacekeepers assigned to Srebrenica offered no resistance. The Bosnian Serbs forcefully deported 23,000 Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly and massacred over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

These selected images are from an exhibit titled “The Betrayal of Srebrenica: A Commemoration,” which was the result of a trip to Bosnia/Republica Srpska for the10th year anniversary of the massacre with Lisa DiCaprio, historian of modern Europe and human rights.

Over 30,000 survivors and their supporters attended the 10-year commemoration where 610 coffins, containing the bones of bodies recovered from mass graves, were laid to rest in Srebrenica- Potocari Cemetery.

The exhibit, conceptualized and produced by Ms. DiCaprio, has been displayed at Antioch College, Washington and Lee, Hofstra, Wellesley College, The International Association of Genocide Scholars in Sarajevo and Boston College.