Naser Orić
Commander, Bosnian Army — Srebrenica
"We were supposed to defend the people with our bare hands while the world watched."
Biography
Naser Orić was the Bosnian Army commander who organized the defense of Srebrenica from 1992 to 1995, holding a surrounded enclave with minimal weapons, ammunition, and supplies against the Army of Republika Srpska. Born in 1967 in the Srebrenica municipality, Orić was a former police officer who had served as a bodyguard to Slobodan Milošević before the war — a biographical detail that surprised many. When Serbian forces surrounded Srebrenica in 1992, he organized armed resistance with whatever weapons the defenders could seize from Serbian villages in the surrounding hills. His forces conducted raids that destroyed Serbian villages and killed Serbian civilians, acts for which the ICTY later indicted him. He was controversially removed from Srebrenica by Bosnian command in early 1995, several months before the massacre — a decision that remains disputed.
Did you know?
Orić was known for giving international journalists home video footage showing the burned Serbian villages his forces had attacked — footage that was later used against him at the ICTY. His willingness to show these tapes to foreign reporters has never been fully explained.
Key Battles
Srebrenica Massacre
Serbian Forces / FRY victoryJuly 11 – 22, 1995 · 8,372 total casualties
Srebrenica is the defining moral catastrophe of the Yugoslav Wars and of post-Cold War European history. The massacre legally established the term 'genocide' for a European atrocity for the first time since the Nuremberg trials, confirmed by both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice. The failure of the UN 'safe areas' policy destroyed the credibility of traditional peacekeeping and was the direct catalyst for Operation Deliberate Force — the NATO bombing campaign that finally brought the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table.
Life Journey
Timeline
March 3, 1967
🌅 Birth
Born in Potočari, near Srebrenica, Bosnia
1989
📍 Posting
Serves as personal bodyguard to Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade
April 1992
⚔️ Battle
Returns to Srebrenica; organizes armed resistance as Serbian forces encircle the enclave
April 18, 1993
⚔️ Battle
UN declares Srebrenica a 'safe area'; Orić commands defense under UN protection
June 1995
🕊️ Postwar
Removed from Srebrenica by Bosnian Army command weeks before the massacre
April 2003
🕊️ Postwar
Indicted by ICTY; surrenders voluntarily to The Hague