The Snagovo massacre refers to the mass killing of 36

Bosnian Muslim The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

civilians by

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

on 29 April 1992 in the village Snagovo, located in the municipality of

Zvornik Zvornik ( sr-cyrl, Зворник, ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in Republika Srpska, on the left bank of the Drina river. In 2013, it had a population of 58,856 inhabitants. The town of Mali Zvornik ("Little Zvornik") lies ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. The massacre occurred at the start of the Bosnian War.

Background

Snagovo was among the hardest hit villages at the start of the Bosnian War in 1992. Between April and June 1992,

ethnically cleansed the village of its

residents.

Massacre

On 29 April 1992, Serbs captured a group of 36

civilians who were hiding in the woods in Snagovo and took them to a school building in Rašidov Han within Snagovo. In total, 36 Bosnian Muslim civilians were killed, including children and pregnant women. The corpses were burned in an effort to conceal the crime. On 2 May 1992, fellow residents of Snagovo found the burned remains and buried them nearby. One of the residents said "''We came to this site and dug a grave. However, during the burial, our Serb neighbors shot at us. We later buried them'' (the victims) ''in the dark.''"

Exhumation and reburial

The remains of the victims were exhumed from the original place of burial on 16 March 2006. On 27 July 2011, 21 of the victims were given a proper burial in a joint grave at a local cemetery in Snagovo including the youngest victim, six-month old Meliha Dogić who was killed in the arms of her mother. The girl's mother and father were also killed. Most of the victims were not identifiable because their bodies had burnt so badly.

Trials

Serbian Major Zoran Janković was arrested 9 May 2006. The

Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina :''This article refers to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a domestic court which includes international judges and prosecutors and a section for war crimes; it should not be confused with the separate International Criminal Tribunal for the For ...

confirmed his indictment on 8 November 2006. Janković plead not guilty on 24 November 2006. His trial began on 26 March 2007. Survivors described being taken to Rašidov Han and shot at by Janković and other Serbs. Witnesses said that Janković introduced himself as a White Eagle and showed off a knife with which he claimed to have killed in the Vukovar massacre in Croatia. Janković was on trial for the killing of 36 people and wounding of three others in Snagovo, as well as for the forced removal of captured civilians in the nearby villages of Šeher and Like in May 1992. He was acquitted of crimes against humanity on 19 June 2007 due to lack of evidence and released.

Related events

Seven

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...

, containing the skeletal remains of 156 individuals, victims of the July 1995

Srebrenica Genocide The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...

, were uncovered in Snagovo. The 156 victims were moved to the seven "secondary graves" in Snagovo from the original burial sites around

Srebrenica Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality located in the easternmost part of Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being salt mining and a nearby ...

to hide the traces of the atrocity. Among other massacres, six more people were killed in the village on 22 July 1995.

References