Žepa “sigurna zona” Ujedinjenih nacija
Authors:   Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo, Grabovica Almir 
Published: June 2024

Cyclically for several centuries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there have been carried out crimes against humanity, serious violations of the Geneve Conventions and violations of the laws and customs of war and other crimes aginst the protected persons and social groups. Crimes are usually committed during armed conflicts. The mass crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the previous two centuries were primarily determined by the ideologies of territorial nationalism and the projects for their realisations by the neighbouring Croatia and Serbia. Additionally, in the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period 1992-1995 numerous crimes against humanity, serious violations of the Geneva Conventios, violations of the laws and costums of war and other crimes against protected objects, in its individual and mass nature, were also committed including the most serious crime that humanity has experienced since its inception- the crime of genocide. The Serbian-Montenegrin aggressor committed numerous forms of crimes against humanity and international law in all occupied towns and cities of the internationally regonised state and and a member of the United Nations (UN). The attacks on the area of the municipality of Rogatica whach are the subject of this research are considered to be the pattern which the aggressor (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and its collaborators (Bosnian Serbs) used in order to completely exterminate Bosniaks from the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina which they intended to occupy militarily. The intention and method of committing Serbian crimes in the area of Podrinje, which also included the municipality of Rogatica, during the Greater Serbian aggression in 1992-1995 are the same as the chetnik crimes against the Bosniak population during the World War II. Zepa, the largest of the ten local communities in the municipality of Rogatica, became a small Bosnian enclave during the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina that resisted the attacks and blows of a far superior enemy until the middle of 1995. Resolution No.824 declaring Zepa a „safe zone” of the United Nations was adopted on May 6, 1993 by the UN Security Council. The aggressor continued the coordinated and systematic „cleansing” of the Bosniak population from that area consciously ignoring the fact that Zepa was declared a „safe zone” by the UN. The attacks on the Bosniaks of Zepa were not of different character compared to the attacks on other areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially Podrinje. Attacks on Bosniaks as an ethnic, national, national and religious group as a whole, and therefore those from the area of Zepa, were an integral part of the Greater Serbian ideology, policy and practice of creating the so-called Great Serbia. This research aims to shed light on the importance and status of the UN „safe zone”, the attitude of the international community towards the aggressor and the victims, the aggressor's activities up to the complete occupation of this „safe zone” and the crimes committed against Bosniaks.