Srebrenica

Srebrenica
Coat of arms
Location of Srebrenica within Bosnia and Herzegovina
Country	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Entity	Republika Srpska
Boroughs	81
Government
• Mayor	Ćamil Duraković (Independent)
Area
• Total	526,83 km2 (20,341 sq mi)
Population (2013 census)
• Total	15,242
• Density	28,9/km2 (750/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Area code(s)	56
Website	www.srebrenica.gov.ba

Srebrenica (Cyrillic: Сребреница, pronounced [srêbrenit͡sa]) is a Bosnian town in the easternmost Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa.

During the Bosnian War, the town was the site of a July 1995 massacre of the town's Bosniak population, determined to have been a crime of genocide.^[1]

On 24 March 2007, Srebrenica's municipal assembly adopted a resolution demanding independence from the Republika Srpska entity (although not from Bosnia's sovereignty); the Serb members of the assembly did not vote on the resolution.^[2]

Local communities

The municipality (општина or opština) is further subdivided into the following local communities (мјесне заједнице or mjesne zajednice):^[3]

Demographics

The borders of the municipality in the 1953 and 1961 census were different. In 1953, Muslims by nationality had been yet to emerge as an ethnicity leading Slavic Muslims to identify as Yugoslavs. As Yugoslav was itself not adopted in 1948, they were all classified as other. In 2003, Bosnian Serbs comprised 95% of the population of Srebrenica.^[4]

The town

Economy

Before 1992, there was a metal factory in the town, and lead, zinc and gold mines nearby. The town's name (Srebrenica) means "silver mine", the same meaning of its old Latin name Argentaria.

Before the war, Srebrenica also had a big spa and the town prospered from tourism. Nowadays, Srebrenica has some tourism but a lot less developed than before the war. Currently, a pension, motel and a hostel are operating in the town.

History

Roman era

During the Roman times, there was a settlement of Domavia, known to have been near a mine. Silver ore from there was moved to the mints in Salona in the southwest and Sirmium in the northeast using the Via Argentaria.

Middle Ages

In the 13th and 14th century the region was part of the Banate of Bosnia, and, subsequently, the Bosnian Kingdom. The earliest reference to the name Srebrenica was in 1376, by which time it was already an important centre for trade in the western Balkans, based especially on the silver mines of the region. By that time, a large number of merchants of the Republic of Ragusa were established there, and they controlled the domestic silver trade and the export by sea, almost entirely via the port of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).^[5] During the 14th century, many German miners moved into the area.^[6] There were often armed conflicts about Srebrenica because of its mines. According to Czech historian Konstantin Josef Jireček, from 1410 to 1460, Srebrenica switched hands several times, being Serbian five times, Bosnian four times, and Ottoman three times. The mines of Bosnian Podrinje and Usora were part of the Serbian Despotate prior to the Ottoman conquest.^[7]

Ottoman period

With the town coming under Ottoman rule, becoming less influenced by the Republic of Ragusa, the economic importance of Srebrenica went into decline, as did the proportion of Christians in the population. The Franciscan monastery was converted into a mosque, but the large number of Catholics, Ragusa and Saxon, caused the transformation of the town to Islam to be slower than in most of the other towns in the area.^[8]

The area of Osat was liberated for a short time during the First Serbian Uprising (1804–13), under the leadership of Kara-Marko Vasić from Crvica. Upon the breakout of the uprising, Metropolitan Hadži Melentije Stevanović contacted Vasić, who met with the rebel leadership. After participated in battles on the Drina (1804), Vasić asked Karađorđe for an army to liberate Osat; Lazar Mutap was dispatched and the region came under rebel rule. In 1808, the Ottomans cleared out Osat, and by 1813, the rebels left the region.

Second World War

During the Second World War, the Ustaše massacred hundreds of Serbs in villages surrounding Srebrenica.^[9] In early January 1941, the Chetniks entered Srebrenica and killed around a thousand Muslim civilians in the town and in nearby villages.^[10]

Bosnian War

The town of Srebrenica came to international prominence as a result of events during the Bosnian War (1992–1995). The strategic objectives proclaimed by the secessionist Bosnian Serb presidency included the creation of a border separating the Serb people from Bosnia's other ethnic communities and the abolition of the border along the River Drina separating Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs' Republika Srpska.^[11] The Bosnian Muslim/Bosniak majority population of the Drina Valley posed a major obstacle to the achievement of these objectives. In the early days of the campaign of forcible transfer (ethnic cleansing) that followed the outbreak of war in April 1992 the town of Srebrenica was occupied by Serb/Serbian forces. It was subsequently retaken by Bosniak resistance groups. Refugees expelled from towns and villages across the central Drina valley sought shelter in Srebrenica, swelling the town's population.

The town and its surrounding area was surrounded and besieged by Serb forces. On 16 April 1993, the United Nations declared the Bosnian Muslim/Bosniak enclave a UN safe area, to be "free from any armed attack or any other hostile act", and guarded by a small unit operating under the mandate of United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).

Srebrenica and the other UN safe areas of Žepa and Goražde were isolated pockets of Bosnian government-held territory in eastern Bosnia. In July 1995, despite the town's UN-protected status, it was attacked and captured by the Army of Republika Srpska. Following the town's capture, all men of fighting age who fell into Bosnian Serb hands were massacred in a systematically organised series of summary executions. The women of the town and men below 16 years of age and above 55 were transferred by bus to Tuzla.

The Srebrenica massacre is considered the worst massacre in post-Second World War European history to this day.^[12]

In 2001, the Srebrenica massacre was determined by judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to have been a crime of genocide (confirmed on appeal in 2004).^[13] This finding was upheld in 2007 by the International Court of Justice. The decision of the ICTY was followed by an admission to and an apology for the massacre by the Republika Srpska government.^[14]

Under the 1995 Dayton Agreement which ended the Bosnian War, Srebrenica was included in the territory assigned to Bosnian Serb control as the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although guaranteed under the provisions of the Dayton Agreement, the return of survivors was repeatedly obstructed. In 2007, verbal and physical attacks on returning refugees continued to be reported in the region around Srebrenica.^[15]

Fate of Bosnian Muslim villages

In 1992, Bosniak villages around Srebrenica were under constant attacks by Serb forces. The Bosnian Institute in the United Kingdom has published a list of 296 villages destroyed by Serb forces around Srebrenica three years before the genocide and in the first three months of war (April–June 1992):^[16]

More than three years before the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, Bosnian Serb nationalists - with the logistical, moral and financial support of Serbia and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) - destroyed 296 predominantly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) villages in the region around Srebrenica, forcibly uprooting some 70,000 Bosniaks from their homes and systematically massacring at least 3,166 Bosniaks (documented deaths) including many women, children and the elderly.

According to the Naser Orić trial judgement:^[17]

"Between April 1992 and March 1993, Srebrenica town and the villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire, as well as occasional bombing from aircraft. Each onslaught followed a similar pattern. Serb soldiers and paramilitaries surrounded a Bosnian Muslim village or hamlet, called upon the population to surrender their weapons, and then began with indiscriminate shelling and shooting. In most cases, they then entered the village or hamlet, expelled or killed the population, who offered no significant resistance and destroyed their homes. During this period, Srebrenica was subjected to indiscriminate shelling from all directions on a daily basis. Potočari in particular was a daily target for Serb artillery and infantry because it was a sensitive point in the defence line around Srebrenica. Other Bosnian Muslim settlements were routinely attacked as well. All this resulted in a great number of refugees and casualties."

Culture

• Sase Monastery, Serbian Orthodox monastery

Notable people

• Naser Orić, military officer - suspicion of war crimes against Bosnian-Serb civilian populations in the villages around the Srebrenica municipality in July 1992.
• Emir Suljagić, author
• Hamza Alić, shot putter
• Asmir Suljić, footballer
• Mirsad Bektić, UFC fighter

References

Sources

• Bideleux & Jeffries, Robert and Ian (2007). The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. Routledge. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Srebrenica.

• Opština Srebrenica - Srebrenica municipality (Bosnian)
• The Advocacy Project partners with Bosnian Family (BOSFAM)
• Fiction stories about Srebrenica women: Integration Under the Midnight Sun by Adnan Mahmutovic

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Coordinates: 44°06′N 19°18′E / 44.100°N 19.300°E / 44.100; 19.300