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Zaklopača massacre

killing of 83 Bosniaks in Zaklopača in Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War

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History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ8065131 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Zaklopača massacre occurred three years before the Srebrenica massacre, at the time when Serb forces were committing a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak civilians in the Srebrenica region. According to Helsinki Watch at least 83 Bosniaks were killed, including 11 children and 16 elderly persons. According to the Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada:

On 16 May 1992, Serb forces approached the village and demanded Bosniak residents to hand over their weapons. Except few hunting rifles, Bosniak residents did not have any combat weapons to defend themselves. When the Serbs learned that the residents were effectively unarmed, they blocked all exists of the village and massacred at least 63 Bosniak men, women and children.

Court Proceedings

According to the trial judgement of Momčilo Krajišnik:

On 16 May 1992, Serb forces killed approximately 80 people in Zaklopača. A large number of Muslims were transferred to and detained at Sušica camp, where about 2,000 to 2,500 Muslims of both genders and all ages passed through during the period of June to September 1992. Detainees at Sušica performed forced labour, sometimes at the front lines. Some detainees were killed by camp guards or died from mistreatment. A massacre was committed during the night of 30 September 1992, when the remaining 140 to 150 detainees at Sušica camp were driven out of the camp with buses and executed.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Zaklopača massacre” as killing of 83 Bosniaks in Zaklopača in Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Zaklopača, massacre and killing can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as killing of 83 Bosniaks in Zaklopača in Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8065131. Authority coordinates are 44.170, 19.012. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1992.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Zaklopača massacre”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Zaklopača massacre primary sources, Zaklopača massacre archive and Zaklopača research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Zaklopača massacre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.