Quantification of built heritage destruction in Žepa and Srebrenica region during the 1992-1995 Bosnian Serb forces campaign

Abstract

This article examines the extent of destruction of rural cultural landscapes and vernacular architecture in the Žepa region of eastern Bosnia during the 1992–1995 attacks by Bosnian Serb Forces, led by Generals Ratko Mladi? and Zdravko Tolimir, both later sentenced for genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). These attacks culminated in the capture and devastation of the UN-designated safe enclave in late July 1995. Building on existing legal and scholarly findings that identified the systematic and deliberate nature of such destruction, this study enhances those conclusions through localized and quantified evidence. Using field surveys conducted between 2022 and 2024, combined with satellite imagery, the study applies a Destruction Index (DI) to measure the extent of physical devastation across 1,840 structures in 23 rural settlements. The findings showed that a destruction index of 0.98 reflects deliberate and systematic destruction consistent with the objectives of cultural genocide and the typical tactical approach of Ratko Mladi?’s forces. These findings confirm the scale and uniformity of targeted erasure across the region. By correlating patterns of destruction with spatial positioning the study reinforces International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) jurisprudence that classified such acts as part of a coordinated campaign of persecution and ethnic cleansing. It further contributes to academic debates on cultural genocide by offering concrete, quantified data that localize the broader strategy of territorial and cultural elimination in eastern Bosnia.