Srebrenica

Srebrenica (Serbian Cyrillic: Сребреница, pronounced [srêbrenitsa]) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa.

During the Bosnian War in 1995, Srebrenica was the site of genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, which was subsequently designated as an act of genocide by the ICTY and the International Court of Justice. Perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under Ratko Mladić, though the Serb paramilitary unit Scorpions also participated.

As of 2013, the town has a population of 2,607 inhabitants, while the municipality has 13,409 inhabitants. Before the war, the municipality's Bosniak population was 27,542 (75.12%) and the Serb population was 8,315 (22.68%). As of 2013, the equivalent figures were 7,248 Bosniaks (54.05%) and 6,028 Serbs (44.95%).

Etymology

The town's name means "silver mine", the same meaning of its old Latin name Argentaria. In other languages it is known as: Srebrenitza in German, Srebrenicë/a in Albanian, Srebrenitsa in Turkish, Szrebrenica in Hungarian and Srebrenița in Romanian.

History

Roman era

Illyrians inhabited Srebrenica and mined the silver in a nearby mine. Silver was also the main reason behind the Roman invasion of the area.

During the Roman times, there was a settlement of Domavia, known to have been near a mine. Silver ore from there was moved to the mints in Salona in the southwest and Sirmium in the northeast using the Via Argentaria. The current settlement of Srebrenica was also known by the Romans as Argentaria.

A Roman tombstone was excavated near Sase Monastery.