Elitocide: Systematic killing of imams in Srebrenica and surroundings 1992-1995.
Authors:   Institute for the Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks, Karčić Hikmet 
Published: June 2022

The attack of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and other Serb forces on Podrinje in the spring of 1992 was followed with mass detention, persecution, and mass killings of Bosniaks in towns and villages in the Drina River Valley. The beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina found the Islamic Community in new circumstances and faced with new issues. Mosques and other facilities of the Islamic Community were the target of destruction by Serb forces. The imams were purposely sought by the perpetrators in order to be killed. In addition to the biological threat itself, the Islamic Community and imams were faced with other issues arising in the midst of the war - burial of victims of mass crimes, moral support for victims and their families, and religious activities including religious instruction and support for defenders. The Srebrenica Islamic Community Committee's May 1995 report states that there are 51 imams in their area, most of whom have been involved in the work of the Islamic Community. This paper deals with elitocide on the example of the murders of imams in Srebrenica and its surroundings from 1992 to 1995. Elitocide is one of the key segments of the genocide against Bosniaks in Podrinje, which has not been the subject of significant research so far. This paper specifically deals with the murder of imams as an important aspect of elitocide in the context of Podrinje and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The work is based on information gathered from war reports, as well as the testimonies of surviving imams and witnesses to their killings or disappearances. The aim of this paper is to present a rather unexplored segment of our recent history based on case studies of Srebrenica - the United Nations enclave. One of the most brutal executions of the imam took place at the very beginning of the genocide, in May 1992 in the Bratunac camp when Mustafa-ef. Mujkanovic was publicly tortured and killed. The aim of this harassment and public murder was to send a message to the Bosniak population in Bratunac - that this awaits them as well. In the Bosnian context, especially in traditional Bosniak communities such as eastern Bosnia, imams have represented and continue to represent not only religious authorities but also socially active actors in their micro-communities. Given the specifics of the communist organization of the Islamic Community of Yugoslavia, and the specifics of their status in the then socio-political paradigm, imams cannot be considered elites in the narrow sense, which mainly means influence, power and wider influence and education. Their status is far from any wider and more important influence, but in Bosnian cultural circles, especially in micro-regions, the role and importance of imams is very important despite their unenviable socio-economic status. During the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995, 26 imams were killed, or half as many as there were in the enclave. This destroyed not only families and settlements, but also complete spiritual communities, which existed for decades on these sites. The planned killing of imams as religious authorities in local communities was aimed at leaving the Bosniak population of the region completely without important local authorities. The genocide of Bosniaks in Podrinje, perpetrated by Serb forces - the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the Republika Srpska Army and Police and other special units and paramilitary formations from the Republic of Serbia - began in 1992 and ended in July 1995 - left local Bosniak communities almost completely destroyed and survivors with little chance of complete recovery.