This secondary mass grave is located in the village of Вljeceva, some 11 kilometres from the town of Srebrenica. Three mass graves were discovered in the same area by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons; all of them are secondary mass graves.

The gravesite was approximately 22 metres long, 4 metres in width and 4 metres in depth at the deepest end. The remains of 313 individuals were recovered from the grave, and approximately 80 of them were contained in black Yugoslav People’s Army body bags. All of the victims were wearing civilian clothing. 

An investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia concluded that Bljeceva 1 is a ‘mixed’ grave, meaning that it contained victims of the Srebrenica genocide and people who were murdered in 1992 in the town of Bratunac. Forty-seven of those who were identified were killed in July 1995, and more than 90 were killed in 1992, the ICTY said.

The remains that were found, DNA samples and other evidence, including soil and pollen samples, as well as shell casings in mass graves and at execution sites, proved the connection between this secondary grave and a primary mass grave at Glogova and secondary graves at Zeleni Jadar.

The gravesite is marked with a memorial plaque and the names of the victims are listed on a house next to the site. 

The International Commission on Missing Persons confirmed that some of the remains found in the Bljeceva mass grave were victims shot at a farm in Kravica, where on July 13, 1995, Bosnian Serb soldiers executed 1,313 Bosniak men from Srebrenica. Automatic weapons, hand grenades, and other weapons were used to kill the men inside the warehouse.

So far, the ICTY and domestic courts in the Balkans have sentenced a total of 47 people to more than 700 years in prison, plus five life sentences, for Srebrenica crimes.

Liplje 3 is a secondary mass grave, located in the village of Liplje, eight kilometres south-west of the city of Zvornik. The site was exhumed between May and June 2005 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons, monitored by the International Commission on Missing Persons. The remains of 57 people were found.

DNA analysis showed connections between this secondary gravesite and a primary gravesite at Petkovci Dam. A forensics report by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY on Srebrenica exhumations said that this means that the remains of one individual were found in at least two different graves. The investigation also showed DNA connections between the site and two more gravesites in the same area. This indicates that remains that were dug up and removed from the primary mass grave at Petkovci Dam were transported to Liplje, 20 kilometres away. 

The gravesite is located on a meadow, next to the village road. It remains unmarked. 

On July 14, 1995, Bosnian Serb Army and police personnel transported approximately 1,000 Bosniak men from Srebrenica from detention sites in and around Bratunac to a school at Petkovci, ten kilometres from Zvornik. On July 14, 1995 and in the early morning hours of July 15, Bosnian Serb troops and police assaulted and shot men who were detained at the school.

Around July 14, 1995 and in the early morning hours of July 15, personnel from the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik Brigade, including drivers and trucks from the Sixth Infantry Battalion, transported the surviving Bosniak men from the school at Petkovci to an area below the Petkovci Dam. They were then summarily executed by Bosnian Serb Army soldiers and police with automatic weapons. In the morning of July 15, personnel from the Zvornik Brigade’s Engineering Company, working with other individuals and units, used excavators and other heavy equipment to bury the victims while the executions continued.

A man who hid beneath dead bodies to avoid execution at the dam told the trial of former Bosnian Serb Army general Ratko Mladic at the ICTY that when he was brought to Petkovci, the field under the dam was “already covered in bodies”. The witness, who testified under the codename RM-253, said he dropped to the ground as soon as soldiers opened fire on his group and hid his head underneath the legs of some prisoners who were already dead, hoping to survive.

While RM-253 and another survivor were hiding, they saw “a truck which was collecting bodies and loading them onto a tractor, which then transported them away from the killing field”. 

So far, the ICTY and domestic courts in the Balkans have sentenced a total of 47 people to more than 700 years in prison, plus five life sentences, for Srebrenica crimes. 

Hodzici Road 6 (also known as Snagovo 1) is one of the seven secondary mass graves of Srebrenica genocide victims located in the village of Hodzici, some 17 kilometres north-west of the city of Zvornik. The remains of a total of 70 individuals have been exhumed there.

The Hodzici Road 6 site was exhumed in 2004 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons, monitored by the International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP. The gravesite remains unmarked, on a meadow behind the village houses and next to a line of pine trees.

DNA analysis carried out by the ICMP showed connections between this secondary gravesite and the Lazete 2 primary gravesite (also known as Orahovac 2). According to the ICTY’s forensic report on Srebrenica exhumations, this means that the remains of one individual were found in at least two different graves. The investigation showed that 12 DNA connection cases were between Lazete 2 and Hodzici Road 6. This indicates that human remains were dug up at the Lazete 2 primary mass grave and transferred to Hodzici Road, some 10 kilometres away. 

Forensic analysis of soil/pollen samples, evidence and aerial images of creation/disturbance dates, further revealed that bodies from the primary mass graves Lazete 1 and Lazete 2 were dug up and reburied at secondary graves in Hodzici.  

ICTY verdicts found that captured Bosniak men from Srebrenica were transported on July 14, 1995 to a school in the village of Orahovac. In the early afternoon, Bosnian Serb Army Zvornik Brigade personnel under the supervision of Drago Nikolic,a security officer with the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik Brigade, and Milorad Trbic, Assistant Commander for Security with the Zvornik Brigade, then transported the captives to a nearby field, where personnel, including members of the 4th Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade, executed them with automatic weapons.

In related verdicts, the ICTY found Radislav Krstic, the Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps, guilty of genocide against Bosniaks from Srebrenica – its first verdict establishing that the Srebrenica masacres constituted genocide. Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in prison, although the sentence was subsequently shortened to 35 years.

The ICTY also found that Ljubisa Beara, the chief of security of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Main Staff, was told to organise, coordinate and facilitate the detention, transportation, summary execution and burial of the Bosniak victims murdered at Orahovac. Beara was assisted by, among others, Vujadin Popovic, Chief of Security of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps, as well as Nikolic and Trbic. 

Beara, Popovic, Nikolic and Trbic were found to have supervised, facilitated and overseen the Orahovac executions, and the ICTY convicted them of genocide. Vidoje Blagojevic, commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting the murder and persecution of Bosniaks in the Srebrenica area, as well as aiding and abetting the murder of Bosniaks in Bratunac. Dragan Jokic, chief of engineering of the Zvornik Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced to nine years in prison for the murders of Bosniaks in Orahovac, at the Branjevo Military Farm in Pilica and in Kozluk, and for providing engineering resources and personnel to dig mass graves for the executed victims.

According to the Federal Institute for Missing Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the remains of 818 Bosniaks from Srebrenica were discovered at seven secondary gravesites on Hodzici Road.

Hodzici Road 5 is a secondary mass grave, located in the village of Hodzici, some 17 kilometres north-west of the city of Zvornik. There are seven known mass graves in the area, all secondary sites. A total of 55 human remains have been exhumed in the yard of one of the local houses. 

Hodzici Road 5 site was exhumed in 1998 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY along with the Hodzici Road 3 and 4 sites.

DNA analysis carried out by the International Commission on Missing Persons showed connections between this secondary gravesite and the Lazete 1 primary gravesite (also known as Orahovac 1). According to the ICTY’s forensic report on Srebrenica exhumations, this means that remains of one individual were found in at least two different graves. The ICTY’s investigation showed that there were 12 DNA connections between Lazete 1 and Hodzici Road 5. This indicates that human remains were dug up at the Lazete 1 primary mass grave and transferred to Hodzici Road, some 10 kilometres away. 

Forensic analysis of soil/pollen samples, evidence and aerial images of creation/disturbance dates, further revealed that bodies from the Lazete 1 and Lazete 2 primary mass graves were dug up and reburied at secondary graves in Hodzici.  

The Hodzici Road gravesite remains unmarked, in the private yard of one of the village houses. 

ICTY verdicts found that captured Bosniak men from Srebrenica were transported on July 14, 1995 to a school in the village of Orahovac. In the early afternoon, Bosnian Serb Army Zvornik Brigade personnel under the supervision of Drago Nikolic,a security officer with the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik Brigade, and Milorad Trbic, Assistant Commander for Security with the Zvornik Brigade, then transported the captives to a nearby field, where personnel, including members of the 4th Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade, executed them with automatic weapons.

In related verdicts, the ICTY found Radislav Krstic, the Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps, guilty of genocide against Bosniaks from Srebrenica – its first verdict establishing that the Srebrenica masacres constituted genocide. Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in prison, although the sentence was subsequently shortened to 35 years.

The ICTY also found that Ljubisa Beara, the chief of security of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Main Staff, was told to organise, coordinate and facilitate the detention, transportation, summary execution and burial of the Bosniak victims murdered at Orahovac. Beara was assisted by, among others, commander Vujadin Popovic, Chief of Security of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps, as well as Nikolic and Trbic. 

Beara, Popovic, Nikolic and Trbic were found to have supervised, facilitated and overseen the Orahovac executions, and the ICTY convicted them of genocide. Vidoje Blagojevic, commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting the murder and persecution of Bosniaks in the Srebrenica area, as well as aiding and abetting the murder of Bosniaks in Bratunac. Dragan Jokic, chief of engineering of the Zvornik Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced to nine years in prison for the murders of Bosniaks in Orahovac, at the Branjevo Military Farm in Pilica and in Kozluk, and for providing engineering resources and personnel to dig mass graves for the executed victims.

According to the Federal Institute for Missing Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the remains of 818 Bosniaks from Srebrenica were discovered at seven secondary gravesites on Hodzici Road.

The Budak 2 mass grave is located in the village of Potocari, six kilometres north-west of the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and near the Budak 1 gravesite. The grave was exhumed in June and July 2007 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons, monitored by the International Commission on Missing Persons. During the exhumation, the remains of 49 people were found, most of whom were victims of the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995.

Budak 2 is a secondary mass grave, one of many in the Potocari area. Based on DNA samples taken from the remains, soil and pollen samples, as well as shell casings collected in mass graves and at execution sites, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY established the connection between this secondary grave and the primary mass grave Glogova 1, located 10.5 kilometres away.

Glogova 1 initially contained many more remains, but in a subsequent cover-up operation by Bosnian Serb forces in the autumn of 1995, bodies were transported from there to other burial locations, including Budak 1, according to the Bosnian Missing Persons Institute. The operation to conceal the crimes was described by the ICTY as “an organised and comprehensive effort… to hide the executions by exhuming the bodies from primary mass graves and reburying them in secondary graves”.

The ICTY established that the secondary mass graves in the Potocari area are not only linked to the primary mass graves, but are also interlinked at various levels. In the case of the Budak 2 gravesite, the remains of several individuals found there were also found in other graves besides the primary site at Glogova 1: at Zeleni Jadar 4, Zeleni Jadar 5 and Zeleni Jadar 6. Some of the victims whose remains were initially buried at Glogova 1, and then dug up by Bosnian Serb forces and reburied at Budak 1 as part of an attempted cover-up, were reburied yet again at Budak 2.

Most of the remains found in the Budak 2 mass grave were victims who were shot at a farm in Kravica, where on July 13, 1995, Bosnian Serb soldiers executed 1,313 Bosniak men from Srebrenica. Automatic weapons, hand grenades, and other weapons were used to kill the men inside the warehouse.

Today, the Budak 2 mass grave, on a meadow by a road, is unmarked. In 2011, a few dozen metres away from the Budak 1 and Budak 2 gravesites, local Serbs started building an Orthodox church. This created tensions with the local Bosniak population, but the church was built and consecrated three years later.

So far, the ICTY and domestic courts in the Balkans have sentenced a total of 47 people to more than 700 years in prison, plus five life sentences, for Srebrenica crimes.

The Budak 1 mass grave is located in the village of Potocari, six kilometres north-west of the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The grave was exhumed in July 2005 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons, monitored by the International Commission on Missing Persons. 

This secondary mass grave is located within an existing Muslim graveyard in Potocari. The exhumation yielded the remains of 54 people, most of them killed during the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995. 

The remains that were found, DNA samples and other evidence, including soil and pollen samples, as well as shell casings in mass graves and at execution sites, proved the connection between this secondary grave and the primary mass grave Glogova 1.

Glogova 1 initially contained many more remains, but in a subsequent cover-up operation by Bosnian Serb forces in the autumn of 1995, bodies were transported from there to other burial locations, including Budak 1, according to the Bosnian Missing Persons Institute. The operation to conceal the crimes was described by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY as “an organised and comprehensive effort… to hide the executions by exhuming the bodies from primary mass graves and reburying them in secondary graves”.

Based on DNA connections, the ICTY established that the secondary mass graves in the Potocari area are not only linked to the primary mass graves, but are also interlinked at various levels. In the case of the Budak 1 gravesite, the remains of several individuals found there were also found in other graves besides the primary site at Glogova 1: Budak 2, Zeleni Jadar 4, Zeleni Jadar 5 and Zeleni Jadar 6.

ICTY forensic teams also established that some of the remains found in the Budak 1 mass grave were victims who were shot at a farm in Kravica, where on July 13, 1995, Bosnian Serb soldiers executed 1,313 Bosniak men from Srebrenica. Automatic weapons, hand grenades, and other weapons were used to kill the men inside the warehouse.

Today, there is still a Muslim cemetery at the Budak 1 location, as well as a memorial plaque in honour of the victims found in the mass grave. In 2011, a few dozen metres away from the Budak 1 and Budak 2 gravesites, local Serbs started building an Orthodox church. This created tensions with the local Bosniak population, but the church was built and consecrated three years later.

So far, the ICTY and domestic courts in the Balkans have sentenced a total of 47 people to more than 700 years in prison, plus five life sentences, for Srebrenica crimes.