Kravica, 13 July 1995 - Massacre in the warehouse

Kravica, 13 July 1995 - Massacre in the warehouse

Kravica - a small Serb village 5 km southwest of Srebrenica. On 13 July 1995, around 17:00, one of the most massive massacres took place here - 1,000+ Bosniaks killed in an agricultural cooperative's warehouse within a few hours.

This is, according to the ICTY's judgment, key evidence of genocidal intent - the systematic destruction of a group of people.

📍 Location

The Kravica agricultural cooperative warehouse:

• Large building (50m x 20m)
• Capacity: Equipment, machinery, crops (normally)
• 13 July 1995 - turned into a place of execution

🗓️ Chronology of the massacre

13 July 1995 - Afternoon (15:00-17:00)

• The VRS captures 1,000-1,500 Bosniaks from the "column of death" (the attempted breakthrough through the forest)
• The captured: Men and boys, 15-65 years old
• Hands bound with wire, eyes covered with strips of cloth
• Buses → Kravica warehouse

17:00 - The massacre begins

• VRS soldiers pack the prisoners into the warehouse (2 halls)
• People stand pressed against one another - no room to sit
• The VRS closes the doors
• Opening fire through the windows - automatic weapons (AK-47, M84)
• Hand grenades thrown inside

17:00-23:00 - 6 hours of massacre

• Waves of gunfire (15-20 minute pauses between waves)
• Screaming, pleas for mercy
• Some try to flee - killed in front of the warehouse
• Around 23:00 - the gunfire ceases

14 July - Clearing up

• The VRS brings bulldozers and trucks
• Bodies loaded onto trucks
• Transport to the mass grave (Glogova, 15 km)
• Later (October 1995) the bodies were moved to secondary graves (to conceal evidence)

👥 Testimonies of survivors

Of 1,000-1,500 people, 10-15 survived. Most pretended to be dead and waited for night to escape.

Hurem Suljić - survivor (testified at the ICTY)

"We were so crammed together that I couldn't raise my arms. I heard the command: 'Fire!' Automatic gunfire through the windows. I fell beneath the corpses. Blood was running down my face - I didn't know whether it was mine or someone else's. I heard screaming. Then silence. Then gunfire again - 'control shots'. I waited until midnight. I walked over the corpses. The blood was up to my knees. I got out through a hole in the wall and fled into the forest."

Ahmo Hasić - survivor

"A boy stood next to me, maybe 16 years old. He said: 'Father, will they kill my mother?' I didn't know what to say. After the first burst of fire, the boy fell on top of me. He was dead. I stayed under him the whole night. That saved me - it looked like I was dead."

Mevludin Orić - survivor

"I saw a VRS soldier throwing hand grenades through the window. An explosion. Screams. My finger was torn off. I fell and played dead. I listened to them killing the wounded - a 'control shot' to the head. When they left, I heard: 'Tomorrow, cleanup with a bulldozer.' I escaped by night."

🔍 Forensic evidence

Exhumation 1996-1998

A UN forensic team exhumed mass graves connected to Kravica:

• Glogova 1 - primary grave - 139 bodies
• Glogova 2 - 277 bodies
• Zeleni Jadar 5 - secondary grave - 145 bodies
• Blječeva 3 - secondary grave - 90 bodies
• Total: 1,000+ victims connected to Kravica (through shell casings and ballistic analysis)

Forensic findings

• Weapon fragments: AK-47, M84 (Yugoslav automatic rifle)
• Fragments of hand grenades (M75)
• Wires used to bind the hands (found on the skeletons)
• Blindfolds
• Most victims: Wounds from automatic weapons, head and torso
• DNA identification: 700+ identified (ICMP, 2024)

The warehouse - Physical evidence

A forensic team examined the warehouse in 1996:

• Walls: Thousands of bullet holes
• Floor: Massive bloodstains (soaked deep into the concrete)
• Shell casings: 5,000+ casings found
• Bone fragments in the cracks of the floor

⚖️ Court judgments - ICTY

Kravica as "key evidence of genocide"

The ICTY in the judgment against Radovan Karadžić (2016):

"The massacre in Kravica demonstrates systematic organization and a clear intent to destroy the Bosniak group as such. This is not spontaneous violence. This is organized genocide."

Convicted for Kravica

• Radovan Karadžić - life imprisonment (Kravica one of the counts in the indictment)
• Ratko Mladić - life imprisonment (Kravica evidence of genocidal intent)
• Ljubiša Beara (VRS head of security) - life imprisonment
• Vujadin Popović (VRS lieutenant colonel) - life imprisonment
• Momir Nikolić (intelligence officer) - pleaded guilty, 20 years

📸 Video evidence

VRS video:

• The VRS filmed propaganda video recordings
• One video (which reached the UN by chance) shows: Buses full of prisoners arriving in Kravica, 13 July, afternoon
• Used as evidence at the ICTY

NATO satellite imagery:

• 14 July 1995 - satellite imagery shows bulldozers in front of the warehouse
• Trucks full of bodies

🏛️ Kravica today

The warehouse:

• Still standing (abandoned)
• 2010 - A memorial plaque installed
• The families of the victims come every year on 13 July

The problem:

• Local Serbs deny the massacre
• 2020 - Vandals damaged the memorial plaque (it was removed)
• There is no museum or memorial center (unlike Potočari)

📖 Sources

• ICTY - Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić (IT-95-5/18), judgment 2016
• ICTY - Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popović et al. (IT-05-88) - "Srebrenica Trial"
• ICMP - DNA Identification Reports - Glogova graves
• UN Forensic Team - Exhumation Reports (1996-1998)
• Testimony of Survivors: Hurem Suljić, Ahmo Hasić, Mevludin Orić (ICTY)
• NATO - Satellite Imagery (14 July 1995)
• Human Rights Watch - "The Fall of Srebrenica" (1995)

💬 Quote

"Kravica is a symbol of the genocide in Srebrenica. In 6 hours, 1,000 people were killed like cattle. That shows there was no chaos. There was a plan. There was genocide."

— Geoffrey Nice, ICTY prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milošević