Srebrenica, town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, 35 km (22 mi) southwest of Zvornik. Prior to the start of the Bosnian civil war in 1992, it had a metal factory and lead, zinc, and gold mines. The town's name means, literally, “a silver mine.” There is also a spa with natural mineral waters containing iron and arsenic, with a constant water temperature of 12° C (54° F). Local monuments date Srebrenica back to at least the late 14th century. In the Middle Ages, Srebrenica was ruled by many different powers, until it became a part of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 16th century; it remained under Turkish control for almost 400 years.
During the war, Srebrenica was declared one of six “safe areas,” to be protected by United Nations (UN) peacekeeping troops, but was overrun by Bosnian Serb troops in July 1995. Evidence is mounting that Bosnian Serbs massacred up to 7000 Muslim men from the town and region and buried the bodies in mass graves near Srebrenica. Since the signing of the peace agreement at Dayton, Ohio, in December 1995, the International War Crimes Tribunal, under the auspices of the UN, has gathered bone fragments, clothing scraps, and other evidence from more than a dozen sites near Srebrenica. Two low-level Serb soldiers have also been handed over to the tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, in connection with the suspected killings. Population (1991) 37,211.
