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How did DNA testing help identify victims of the Srebrenica genocide?

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Two women in headscarves embrace and mourn over a green coffin among rows of identical coffins at the Potocari cemetery during the Srebrenica massacre mass funeral. — Srebrenica genocide Women mourning over a coffin before the mass funeral for 136 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, 2015.

Following the Srebrenica genocide, the identification of victims was significantly hindered by efforts to conceal the crimes. Bosnian Serb forces used heavy machinery to exhume remains from mass graves and relocate them to distant, secondary sites, which complicated the recovery process.1

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), established in 1996, played a central role in the identification process. By utilizing DNA analysis, scientists were able to match genetic samples from recovered remains with those provided by surviving family members. This scientific approach allowed for the positive identification of more than 7,000 individual victims by 2023.1

This process was part of a broader, years-long effort that also involved the analysis of soil, pollen, clothing fragments, and shell casings to map the locations of approximately 80 mass grave sites. The use of DNA profiling provided an exacting, empirical method to restore the identities of those lost, ensuring that the scale of the atrocities could be documented and acknowledged.12