This primary mass grave is located on farmland owned by the Bimeks meat factory in the northern city of Brcko. It was exhumed in October 1996, when the remains of 78 war victims were found. The mass grave is located on the outskirts of the city, next to a main road, just across from the Serbian Orthodox cemetery. The location is unmarked. 

From April 1992, Bosnian Serb forces fought to gain control over Brcko, which lies near the border with Croatia. With the assistance of local Serb authorities, Bosnian Serb troops expelled Croat and Bosniak residents from their homes and held them at detention centres where many were killed, tortured, beaten or otherwise mistreated.

Captives were illegally detained and abused at the Brcko police building, the local hospital, the Luka prison camp, the former Partizan sports building, and the Yugoslav People’s Army barracks. The crimes were committed by members of military, police and paramilitary forces. Some of the executions were filmed by foreign journalists and caused worldwide condemnation. After that, the cover-up operation to hide victims’ bodies started.

Court witnesses testified that the bodies of those who were killed were transported from the detention centres to mass graves using trucks from the local Bimeks meat factory. Near the factory, according to several witnesses, there was a primary mass grave used to dump the bodies during the early years of the war. Later, as the bodies started to pile up, they were dug up and reburied in the Gorice secondary mass grave. Witnesses also said that a number of bodies were thrown into the River Sava. Cvjetko Ignic, who was police forensic expert and testified at the wartime Bosnian Serb police chiefs’ Stojan Zupljanin and Mico Stanisic’s trial, said that from May to July 1992, he identified more than 200 corpses, which were then buried in a mass grave near the Bimeks Farm on the outskirts of Brcko. Ignic said that the identities of 103 out of a total of 216 victims were established, including nine women. According to Ignic, “a huge percentage” were civilians and only a few corpses were in camouflage uniforms.

Two Bosnian Serb fighters, Goran Jelisic and Ranko Cesic, pleaded guilty to crimes in Brcko at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY. 

Jelisic, who described himself as the ‘Serbian Adolf’, was a senior guard at the Luka detention camp. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and the Hague court’s verdict described his behaviour as “repugnant, bestial and sadistic”. Cesic, who was a police officer, was sentenced to 18 years for murder and rape. 

Djordje Ristanic, head of the Serb wartime leadership in Brcko, was cleared of participation in a joint criminal enterprise to persecute Bosniaks and Croats by the Bosnian state court in 2022. 

The appeals court of the Brcko District sentenced Pero Rikanovic to five-and-a-half years in prison for war crimes against prisoners of war and civilians. Rikanovic participated in killings of civilians at the Luka prison camp who were subsequently buried at the Bimeks gravesite.

Zaklopaca is a small village in the Milici municipality in north-eastern Bosnia, close to the city of Vlasenica. The Bosnian Missing Persons Institute discovered two gravesites in the village in close proximity to each other. The first exhumation was conducted in 1998, when the remains of eight people were found. It was also concluded that the site had been tampered with and bodies had been transferred to another location.

A second exhumation in 2004 resulted in the discovery of a second grave 500 metres away from the first one. It contained 54 war victims’ remains, including 11 children aged from four to 12 years. The youngest victim was four-year old Naida Hodzic and the oldest was 62-year old Fatima Berbic.

The gravesites remain unmarked, located between a lime pit called Zlatanova Krecana and the Studeni Jadar river. 

On May 16, 1992, Bosnian Serb Army troops and police officers killed 56 Bosniak civilians, including women, children and elderly people. Twelve people who survived the massacre and fled to the city of Vlasenica were tracked down and killed in the days that followed. After the massacre, an earth mover from the Boksit mining company was used to dig the pits in the village of Zaklopaca where the bodies were dumped. 

Amor Masovic, chairperson of the Bosnian Federal Commission for Missing Persons, said that among the victims in the grave were 29 people from the Hodzic family.

In March 2022, the Bosnian state court handed down a first-instance verdict acquitting two former policemen and three Bosnian Serb Army ex-soldiers of involvement in the murders of Bosniak civilians in Zaklopaca. The court concluded that it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Radomir Pantic, Nenad Vukotic, Branko Jolovic, Milomir Milosevic and Nikola Losic committed the murders in 1992.

According to the Bosnian Missing Persons Institute, 955 Bosniaks went missing in the Vlasenica and Milici municipalities between 1992 and 1995.

The largest mass grave found in the Vlasenica area was the Ogradice mass grave, from which the remains of 232 victims were exhumed in 2003. The Zaklopaca mass grave was the largest found in the Milici municipality. Thirty-seven victims were also exhumed from the Susica mass grave.

The village of Kurtalici is located on the banks of the River Drina, eight kilometres from the city of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. A primary mass grave was found in Kurtalici in 2000 after the water level in the River Drina, close to the Bosnian-Serbian border, had fallen by several metres and receded by 20 metres along both banks. The remains of 62 Bosniak civilians were discovered. 

According to forensic experts, the identification process was difficult because the bodies were piled up on each other, remains were intertwined and it was impossible to recognise which part of the skeleton belonged to which victim. Around the gravesite, a large number of empty ammunition shells were found, indicating that the victims were killed at the site.

The site, which lies on the right bank of the River Drina and Lake Perucac, remains unmarked. 

Since the end of the war, a commemoration for war victims from Visegrad has been held on the last Saturday in May at the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge in the city. Roses are thrown into the Drina River in remembrance of the victims. 

Visegrad was attacked and occupied in April 1992 by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), which installed a Serb-controlled administration. After the JNA left, the Bosnian Serb Army and the Serb-controlled police initiated a systematic and widespread campaign against Bosniaks, involving arrests, detentions in camps, torture, rape and killings, as well as the destruction of homes and religious buildings.

According to documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), around 1,600 people were killed in and around Visegrad, among them 600 women and 119 children, in what the court said was one of the most extensive and ruthless ethnic cleansing campaigns during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Hodzici Road 4 mass grave is one of seven mass graves found alongside the road between the village of Hodzic and the city of Zvornik in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

It was discovered in 1998 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, whose investigators determined that it is a secondary mass grave containing victims of 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

So far, 71 individuals whose remains were found at the site have been identified. 

The grave is unmarked, and lies in a meadow between houses and farms in the village of Hodzic. 

At least 45 people whose remains were found in the grave died of gunshot wounds, and 34 had blindfolds. 

The ICTY’s analysis showed that Hodzici Road 4 is a secondary mass grave and the bodies found there can be linked with the primary mass grave Lazete 2.

Bosniak men who had been captured following the fall of Srebrenica were transported on July 14, 1995 to the Grbavci school in the village of Orahovac then killed and buried in fields known as Lazete. Forensic analysis of soil and pollen samples, evidence and aerial images of creation and disturbance dates further revealed that bodies from the Lazete 1 and Lazete 2 graves were later removed and reburied at secondary graves along the Hodzici Road.

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.

Zeleni Jadar is an area some 20 kilometres south of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia where at least seven clandestine gravesites have been found, all of them secondary mass graves. The site called Zeleni Jadar 4 (also known as Zeleni Jadar 8) was first examined in 1998 by a team from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY. The Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons renamed the gravesite Zeleni Jadar 8 and exhumed it between September and October 2007. The remains of 64 individuals were discovered.

The area remains unmarked. The clandestine grave sites were scattered along both sides of a road, some of them deeper into a forest and some in fields.

Many of the body parts found in the graves in Zeleni Jadar matched remains found at the Glogova 1 and 2 gravesites. At all of the Zeleni Jadar graves – Zeleni Jadar 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 – links with the Glogova 1 primary grave were established through the identification of body parts belonging to the same individuals found in both the Glogova 1 grave and one of the secondary graves.

At the beginning of the excavation, forensic teams from the ICTY noted that most of the bodies found were incomplete, most had clothing but relatively few had personal possessions like watches, jewellery, smoking-related items and documents. 

According to the ICTY forensic report, most of the victims had gunshot wounds, while a few had injuries from explosions and explosive devices.

At Zeleni Jadar, seven gravesites can be linked to executions at a warehouse at a farm in Kravica, close to the town of Bratunac. On July 13 and 14, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed 1,313 Bosniaks at the farm. 

Remains of the victims of a separate mass shooting in a hangar behind the Vuk Karadzic school in Bratunac, where 400 Bosniaks were detained on July 13, 1995, were also found at Zeleni Jadar.

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.

Bljeceva 3 is a secondary mass grave and one of three gravesites discovered in the village of Bljeceva, some 11 kilometres from the town of Srebrenica. The site was exhumed in 2004 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons and the remains of 65 individuals were found. An investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY concluded that the remains belonged to Bosniaks from SRebrenica who were killed in July 1995. 

The gravesite is located between the main village road and a small mountain lane. It is a few metres away from the Bljeceva 1 and 2 mass graves. The gravesite remains unmarked, with the names of the victims listed on a house next to the Bljeceva 1 and 2 mass graves. 

An examination of the soil and the condition of the remains, which were almost entirely a mixture of body parts and skeletal elements, indicated that this was a secondary mass grave. 

The ICTY’s investigation decided that the Bljeceva 3 site was a secondary mass grave connected with primary mass graves in Glogova, and that the remains belonged mostly to the victims of a massacre of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in a farm warehouse in Kravica.

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.

Bljeceva 2 is a secondary mass grave located in the village of Bljeceva, some 11 kilometres from the town of Srebrenica. It is one of three gravesites discovered in this area. The site was exhumed in 2004 by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons. DNA examination by the International Commission on Missing Persons showed that 81 people whose remains were found were Bosniaks reported missing from Srebrenica in July 1995.

The gravesite was discovered on a meadow, next to the small village road. It was approximately 30 metres long and two-and-a-half metres deep. Most of the forensic evidence found was personal belongings and documents.  

Items of particular interest included what could have been a Dutch newspaper article that was found in a bag. The print of the newspaper was well preserved and dated January 10, 1995. A bent road sign with the name of the village of Kravica was also found in the grave.

A large amount of food items were discovered, mainly pre-packed meals, as well as eating utensils.

An examination of the soil and the condition of the remains, which were almost entirely a mixture of body parts and skeletal elements, indicated that this was a secondary mass grave. 

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

An investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia concluded that the Bljeceva 2 gravesite was a secondary mass grave connected with primary mass graves in Glogova and that the remains belonged mostly to the victims of a massacre in a farm warehouse in Kravica.

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.

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.