Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"In the days that followed, more than 8000 Muslims were massacred. . . . By early 1995, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was under pressure to end the war and was determined to eradicate this enclave before he submitted. His forces, commanded by Ratko Mladic, closed in. . . . The peacekeepers themselves were only lightly armed and had no clear instructions what to do if an attack was made. . . . Threats by NATO forces to launch airstrikes were countered with threats against the Dutch soldiers--they had become nothing more than hostages and could only stand by when the killings began. It was a shameful event, but attempts to bring Karadzic and Mladic to justice proved fruitless." [Furtado: 1001 Days] "According to the Naser Oric trial judgment: 'Between April 1992 and March 1993, Srebrenica town and the villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire, as well as occasional bombing from aircraft. . . . In most cases, they then entered the village or hamlet, expelled or killed the population, who offered no significant resistance and destroyed their homes.'" [Wikipedia]