page_title: Srebrenica massacre
section_title: Increasing concentration of refugees in Potočari
hierarchical_section_title: Srebrenica massacre / Massacre / Increasing concentration of refugees in Potočari
caption_attribution_description: English: Compound of the former Dutch battalion ("Dutchbat") headquarters near Srebrenica/Potočari in Bosnia and Herzegovina on abandoned industrial premises. Deutsch: Gelände des Hauptquartiers des früheren niederländischen Bataillons ("Dutchbat") nahe Srebrenica/Potočari in Bosnien und Herzegowina auf einem verlassenen Fabrikgelände.
context_page_description: The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.
  The killings were perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under the command of Ratko Mladić. The Scorpions, a paramilitary unit from Serbia, who had been part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, also participated in the massacre. In April 1993 the United Nations had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica—in the Drina Valley of northeastern Bosnia—a "safe area" under UN protection. However, the UN failed to both demilitarize the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Srebrenica and force the withdrawal of the VRS surrounding Srebrenica. UNPROFOR's 370 Dutchbat soldiers in Srebrenica did not prevent the town's capture by the VRS—nor the subsequent massacre.
context_section_description: By the evening of 11 July 1995, approximately 20,000 to 25,000 Bosniak refugees from Srebrenica were gathered in Potočari, seeking protection within the UNPROFOR Dutchbat headquarters. Several thousand had pressed inside the compound itself, while the rest were spread throughout the neighbouring factories and fields. Although the vast majority were women, children, elderly or disabled, 63 witnesses estimated that there were at least 300 men inside the perimeter of the UNPROFOR compound and between 600 and 900 men in the crowd outside. UNPROFOR Dutchbat soldiers [on site] claimed their base was full.
  Conditions in Potočari included "little food or water available" and sweltering heat. One UNPROFOR Dutchbat officer described the scene as follows:
  They were panicked, they were scared, and they were pressing each other against the soldiers, my soldiers, the UN soldiers that tried to calm them. People that fell were trampled on. It was a chaotic situation.
  On 12 July, the United Nations Security Council, in Resolution 1004, expressed concern at the humanitarian situation in Potočari, which also condemned the offensive by Bosnian Serb forces and demanded immediate withdrawal.
  On 13 July, the Dutch forces expelled five Bosniak refugees from the United Nations compound despite knowing that men outside the compound were being killed and abused.
caption: Headquarters in Potočari for soldiers under United Nations command; "Dutchbat" had 370[13] soldiers in Srebrenica during the massacre. The building was a disused battery factory.
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