The Srebrenica Genocide: A crime executed by politics, the military and the Serbian Orthodox Church

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Serbian forces under General Ratko Mladić

On 11 July we mark 30 years since one of the darkest episodes in modern European history: the Srebrenica Genocide, where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Serbian forces under General Ratko Mladić, with the political blessing of Radovan Karadžić and undoubtedly the moral and spiritual backing of the Serbian Orthodox Church. But the responsibility for this monstrous act doesn’t end there. Behind the scenes stood Slobodan Milošević, internationally known as the “Butcher of the Balkans,” architect of the nationalist, military and paramilitary policies that enabled and fueled the genocide. Even today, three decades later, this tragedy remains an open wound for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Balkans and the European conscience, which failed to prevent it.

This genocide represents not only a premeditated act of ethnic cleansing, but a monumental failure of the international community that facilitated, remained silent or stood indifferent in the face of clear warnings of impending tragedy.

Srebrenica had been declared by the United Nations Security Council a “safe area, under UN protection,” where no fighting or attacks against civilians should take place. But that promise collapsed on 11 July 1995, when the Army of Republika Srpska marched into the town without resistance from the small Dutch UNPROFOR contingent.

At the helm of this tragedy, the largest in Europe since World War II, was Milošević, President of Serbia and de-facto leader of the military campaigns in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later Kosova. He mobilized the Serbian state apparatus, security forces, intelligence services and the Orthodox Church to implement the project of a “Greater Serbia,” involving ethnic cleansing of non-Serb populations.

Although not a formal commander of Serbian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milošević held political and logistical control over local leaders. He financed and supplied the Army of Republika Srpska, controlled propaganda media, allowed paramilitary groups like the “Scorpions” to operate, and built a coordinated system of violence. He was on trial for genocide at Hague, but died in custody in 2006 before being declared guilty, even though the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia presented direct evidence linking him to massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosova.

Footage from that day shows war criminal Mladić entering the town with a chauvinistic, vengeful slogan: “It’s time to get revenge on the Turks.” That language, referring to Bosnian Muslims as “Turks,” i.e. perennial enemies, wasn’t a spontaneous remark, it reflected a deep-rooted nationalist and religious ideology that preceded and legitimized the massacre.

What followed in the days after wasn’t mere brutality but a meticulously planned military, political and logistical operation. Women, children and the elderly were forcibly separated and deported to Bosnian-held territory. Men and boys aged 12 to 77 were arrested, held in schools, warehouses and stadiums, and then executed with cold-blooded efficiency. Many were bound with wire and forced to dig their own graves before being shot. Their bodies were dumped in mass graves, later relocated with bulldozers to conceal the evidence. Thanks to the work of the International Commission on Missing Persons and DNA analysis, over 6,700 bodies have been identified to date, and the search for over 1,000 missing persons continues.

A dimension often overshadowed in the international narrative is the role of the Orthodox Church in the ideological preparation for this crime. The Serbian Orthodox Church became a pillar of the “Greater Serbia” project, feeding hatred toward Muslims and legitimizing violence as a “defense of the faith.” Documented photographs show Patriarch Pavle and other Orthodox bishops blessing Serbian soldiers, including Mladić, before the offensive in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. In public sermons, Bosniaks were described as “Turks” or “infidels” who must be expelled from “sacred Christian lands.” One of the most extreme figures, Bishop Atanasije Jevtić, used inflammatory rhetoric equating Islam with invasion and Muslims with historic enemies of the Serbian people.

This chauvinistic and religious language built a moral climate where crimes against Muslims were not only justified but considered sacred. The Serbian Orthodox Church didn’t stop there. After the war, it has been one of the loudest voices denying the genocide, calling it a “Western fabrication” or “Islamic propaganda,” while glorifying war criminals as “defenders of the nation.”

The International Criminal Tribunal set important legal precedents on the Srebrenica genocide. Karadžić and Mladić were sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity, but no representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church has ever been prosecuted or convicted for their role in inciting or supporting the ideology that led to mass crime. Some of the clerics who stoked hatred remain active in the Church hierarchy and hold high positions.

Serbia and Republika Srpska have never officially recognized that genocide occurred in Srebrenica. The current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who during the 1990s was a member of the far-right Serbian Radical Party and a Propaganda Minister under Milošević, continues to deny the genocide. During the 20th anniversary commemoration, Vučić went to Potočari and was pelted with stones by the victims’ families. Many Serbs still regard the Bosniak dead as casualties of war, not victims of systematic extermination.

Meanwhile, across public spaces in Serbia and Republika Srpska, the glorification of Mladić continues through murals, monuments, books, church icons and patriotic songs portraying him as a national hero.

In June 2024 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 11 July as the International Day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide. The European Parliament and many national parliaments, including Kosova’s, had done the same earlier. It was a moral victory for survivors and justice, but also exposed deep divisions in the international community: Serbia, Russia and several other countries voted against or abstained, demonstrating that the genocide remains politicized. Vučić called the resolution an “insult to the Serbian people,” reinforcing a narrative of national victimhood.

Europe bears a historical responsibility not only for failing to act in time, but for its sustained support of leaders like Milošević and the structures that orchestrated this crime. A genuine reckoning with the past demands more than symbolic remembrance, it requires robust transitional justice, historical education and measures against denial.

Thirty years on, Srebrenica remains a test of Western conscience and its capacity to confront the past. The genocide did not occur in a void, it resulted from a doctrine intertwining state nationalism, religious hatred and dark political ambition. Milošević as the architect, Karadžić as the ideologist, Mladić as the executioner, Vučić as the political heir and the Serbian Orthodox Church as the spiritual instigator, these actors form the elements of a tragedy that demands not only legal justice but moral-historical accountability.

Srebrenica is not past. It is a call to action today. Never forget what happens when hate becomes institutionalized and justice remains silent. /The Balkan Report/