Zvornik massacre

Zvornik massacres
Zvornik municipality on the map of Bosnia
Location	Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date	April–July 1992
Target	Bosniak, Romani and other non-Serb civilians
Attack type	Mass killing and ethnic cleansing
Deaths	700–900
Perpetrators	Serb paramilitary groups

The Zvornik massacre refers to acts of mass murder and violence committed against Bosniaks and other non-Serb civilians in Zvornik by Serb paramilitary groups ("Arkanovci", Territorial Defence units, White Eagles, Yellow Wasps) at the beginning of the Bosnian War in 1992. Estimates show that 40,000 Bosniaks were expelled from the Zvornik district. It was the second city in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was forcefully taken over by Serb forces during the Bosnian War. A total of 3,936 people were killed or went missing in the Zvornik municipality between 1992 and 1995, according to the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo.

According to the 1991 census data, the district of Zvornik had a population of 81,111: 48,208 (59.4%) of which were Bosniaks and 30,839 (38%) were ethnic Serbs. A total of 14,600 people lived in the city of Zvornik, 8,942 (61.0%) of them were Bosniaks, 4,281 (29.2%) of the Serbian nationality, 74 (0.5%) of Croatian nationality, and 1,363 (9.3 per cent) were defined as "others".

As a border town situated at the Bosnian-Serb Drina river, Zvornik was of great strategic importance. It is significant because Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are linked at that point not only through a road bridge between the Zvornik urban area and the Karakaj industrial zone, and another one in Zvornik itself, but also via a railroad bridge between Karakaj and the town of Čelopek. It represents an important link along the Belgrade-Sarajevo line, as well as within the Belgrade-Tuzla line.

Officially, there was no garrison of the former JNA in the Zvornik district. The Zvornik region itself was controlled by the 17th Corps Tuzla. Up to the fall of 1991, the 17th Corps consisted of 3 brigades and one partisan brigade, and was part of the First Military District of Belgrade. After the re-organization of the JNA in the spring of 1992, it formally fell under the command of the Second Military District of Sarajevo, but most likely continued to be led by the First Military District of Belgrade.