Both during and after the Balkan wars of the 1990s, PHR led efforts to document atrocities across the former Yugoslavia – including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were taken from a UN safe area and slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces.
PHR investigators exhumed and identified remains in several large mass graves and gathered evidence showing the victims were executed, many with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped in shallow graves. Dr. Bill Haglund, former director of PHR’s International Forensic Program, remained at the edge of a grave overnight and he continued his investigative work. Read more about the tireless effort for justice in Srebrenica here.
PHR’s evidence-gathering did not come without success: in 2016, our efforts helped secure justice for the victims of the Srebrenica massacre when the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and, in 2017, commander Radko Mladic of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, and sent them to prison for life.
Read more about our work in Srebrenica and about the impact of PHR’s efforts to document atrocities across the former Yugoslavia.