The military commander of Muslim forces in Srebrenica, Naser Orić, planned and organized the ethnic cleansing of Serbian territories in the municipalities of the Birac region, where from the spring of 1992 to the summer of 1995, 3,267 Serbs were brutally killed. In the area of the municipalities of Srebrenica and Bratunac during that period, around 2,500 men, women, and children were killed on their ancestral Serbian homes, and no one has yet been held accountable for these monstrous crimes

The great suffering of Serbs in this part of Podrinje began on Đurđevdan, May 6, 1992, when Orić and his soldiers attacked the Serbian village of Gnjona in Srebrenica and the village of Blječeva in Bratunac, where five residents were killed. The fate of the residents of the first villages attacked by the Muslims foreshadowed what would later happen in more than 100 settlements in the municipalities of Bratunac and Srebrenica, which were burned and destroyed. Serbs who were found in them were killed in the most monstrous ways – by slaughter, decapitation, and dismemberment, and many were burned alive in their homes. The tragic consequences for the Serbian people in these areas included numerous ambushes by Muslim soldiers, in which hundreds of people of Serbian nationality perished, as well as the Srebrenica camps, which were places of mass and brutal torture and killing of more than 100 Serbs. The most notorious were the basement areas of the Court, the municipality and police buildings, and the 'Pilićarnika' in Potočari.

Serbs left Srebrenica on May 9, 1992, with the immediate cause being the murder of Goran Zekić, a member of the Parliament of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a judge, who was killed in an ambush by Srebrenica Muslims at the entrance to Srebrenica on the evening of May 8. The previous day, also in an ambush, seven Serbs were killed in the Muslim village of Osmače, on the Srebrenica-Skelani road. The perpetrators of these crimes were Muslim formations, mainly composed of residents of the surrounding villages. After the mass exodus of the Serbian population from Srebrenica, about thirty Serbs remained, who were later tortured and killed.

This was followed by organized attacks on the Serbian villages of Karno, Vijogor, Osredak, Čumaviće, and Zalažje, where by mid-July 1992, several hundred Serbs were killed.

In the bloody campaigns of Naser Orić in the second half of June 1992, the Serbian villages of Ratkovići and Brežani were devastated. Fifty-six residents were killed, and all their property was looted and destroyed.

The killings and persecution of the Serbian population continued on July 5, 1992, when 14 people of Serbian nationality were killed in the village of Zagoni in Bratunac and 24 in the village of Krnjići in Srebrenica.

The attack on Zagoni was organized again on Petrovdan, July 12, 1992, when 69 residents were killed and 22 were captured in this village and in the Srebrenica settlements of Sase and Zalažje. Of those captured, 10 were found and identified 20 years later.

The ethnic cleansing in the Bratunac municipality area continued at the end of July with an attack on Magašići, where a pregnant woman and 14 other Serbs were killed. This was followed by the first organized attack on Ježestica on August 8. During this attack, 55 Serbian houses were burned, and among the victims was Savka Mlađenović, who was slaughtered in her home after her sons Dragan and Anđelko were slaughtered before her eyes, with Anđelko's head being cut off and taken to Orić in Srebrenica.

In the chronology of tragic wartime events and the mass suffering of Serbs, September 24, 1992, stands out, when the largest Serbian village in Srebrenica, Podravanje, was completely destroyed, and 35 Serbs, including seven women, were killed. On that day, five civilians were taken to the Srebrenica camp.

Shortly after these events, on October 5, 1992, there was an attack on the Bratunac villages of Fakovići and Boljevići, where 26 Serbian civilians were killed.

The villages and hamlets of Bratunac and Srebrenica were attacked multiple times during 1992. Bjelovac and Sikirić experienced their most severe attack on December 14, 1992, suffering massive human and material losses. Sixty-eight people were killed, and 41 residents of Serbian nationality were killed in earlier attacks.

After several ambushes and attacks in the remaining territory of Bratunac, Orić organized and led an attack on Kravica, the largest Serbian village in central Podrinje. On Christmas Day, 1993, 49 residents were killed and 78 wounded. Kravica had more than 2,300 inhabitants, 750 houses, and 15 community buildings, all of which were completely destroyed. During several attacks in the summer and fall of 1992, more than 100 residents were brutally killed, and 101 children were left without one or both parents.

After the devastation of Kravica, Orić organized an attack on the wider Skelani area on January 16, 1993. Sixty-nine residents were killed in one day, including two children, Milica and Tomislav Dimitrijević, aged 5 and 12. During three years of war in that area, 301 Serbian civilians and soldiers were killed in the most brutal ways. The greatest tragedy was suffered by 14-year-old Cvetko Ristić from Kušići, whose entire family—father, mother, brother, and sister—was killed.

In total, Muslim forces from Srebrenica looted and destroyed 5,400 Serbian homes in Podrinje, and 800 children were left without one or both parents.

Stana Savljević from Kravica was slaughtered in the field, and her daughter-in-law Slavka Stjepanović, who left behind seven orphans, was killed along with her husband Brana, nephew Dragan, nephew Slavko, and ten other close relatives.

Slavka Matić from Bjelovac had her entire family killed. Slavka’s two daughters and husband Radivoje were killed on their doorstep, while Brane Vučetić's father, brother, and mother were killed, and he, as a nine-year-old boy, was captured and taken to the Srebrenica camp.

Lazar Simić's family found him stabbed with bayonets in a stream below the village of Gnjona, and the charred remains of the blind old man Radojko Milošević were found only years later.

According to surviving witnesses, the attacks on Serbian villages were carried out by local Muslim units under the command of Naser Orić and his assistants, the notorious Zulfo Tursunović, Bajro Osmanović, known as Miš, Akif Ustić, Hakija Meholjić, Hajrudin Bešić, and Azem Begić. Orić received the 'Golden Lily' and other accolades from the Muslim civilian and military authorities in Sarajevo for his bloody campaigns against Serbian villages. He was acquitted by the Hague Tribunal and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina of responsibility for the committed crimes due to a lack of evidence for command or individual responsibility.

The crimes against Serbs in the municipality of Milići began on May 21, 1992, when Muslim armed formations, on the orders of Bećir Mekanić, ambushed the village of Žutica on the regional road Milići-Srebrenica. Fire was opened from a Muslim ambush on a TAMI truck, killing eight Serbs. The first organized attack on Serbian villages around Milići occurred on June 2, 1992, when Muslims from Cerska, under the command of Ferid Hodžić and Besir Aljukić, looted and burned the village of Metaljka, and on June 10, the village of Rupovo Brdo. There were no casualties in the attack on Metaljka, as the Serbs had fled the village before the attack, but during the attack on Rupovo Brdo, five civilians were killed. The biggest crime of Muslim forces in the territory of the Milići municipality in the first year of the war was the attack on the village of Podravanje on September 24, 1992, during which 31 Serbian civilians were killed in the most brutal ways. Serbs were killed by burning, stomach slitting, decapitation, blunt force trauma, and slashing, with many victims found without body parts. On the same day, when Muslim forces invaded Podravanje, an attack was also carried out on Bracan, the open-pit mine 'Boksit Milići,' during which seven guards of this economic facility were killed and massacred. In addition to these Muslim crimes, it is also necessary to mention the attack on the village of Vanđići on February 8, 1993, during which the village was looted, burned, and an elderly married couple was killed.

The conflicts between the JNA and units of the 'Green Berets' and the 'Patriotic League' in Zvornik began on April 8, 1992, and by April 11, the Serbs liberated the entire town center. With the capture of Kula Grad on April 26, Muslim units were completely pushed towards Kalesija, after which Divič and Liplje were liberated. As the Muslim forces retreated towards Kalesija, tensions around Gornja and Donja Kamenica grew, escalating on May 29. Barricades were established in the village of Kruška, and until the fall, the villages in the southern part of the municipality were the scenes of heavy fighting. During the summer, Muslim units from that area captured a boy, Slobodan Stojanović, who was then monstrously tortured and killed by Elfeta Veseli.

The VRS units, in a large autumn offensive, once again liberated Lipje, then Snagovo, Novo Selo, and in the Kamenica region, reached Glođansko Hill. Security assessments estimated that the Muslim units had fled deep into the rear, towards Mount Udrič, which caused the soldiers to become too relaxed. However, the local Muslims carefully monitored the situation, continuously scouted, and prepared a counterattack. The defeats of the Muslim units spurred Naser Orić to, after settling accounts with Nurif Rizvanović from Konjević Polje, personally take control of his units and prepare an attack on the VRS positions, promising very rich plunder. During the night between November 5 and 6, 1992, strong and well-armed Muslim formations invaded the villages of Donja and Gornja Kamenica, which were defended by the 3rd Company of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS. The defensive line broke relatively easily, and Kamenica came under Muslim control. All the villagers who remained in the village were tortured and killed in the most monstrous ways: they were tied with barbed wire, crucified between oak trees (which the criminals called 'mocking Christ'), roasted on a spit, beheaded on a stump, impaled with rods and nails in their heads, limbs were cut off... In this manner, 126 civilians and soldiers were killed, with the largest execution sites being Glođansko Hill, Kozjak, Trešnjica, Maskalica Stream, and Široki Put.

The sufferings of Serbs in Central Podrinje and Birač throughout the entire 20th century, besides demonstrating the continuous genocidal intent towards the Serbian people, also testify to the unquenchable desire of these people for peace, survival, and freedom. By commemorating these sufferings, we not only revive the memory of the crime of murder, nor only pay tribute to the sacrifice offered on the altar of the fatherland, but we also celebrate life and resurrection in the fulfillment of Christ’s words: 'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.' The innocent victims and their closest ones, besides crying out for earthly and heavenly justice, also sing the most beautiful ode to brotherly love and freedom.