Palić held the rank of colonel in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and commanded the Bosnian government forces in the enclave of Žepa during the entire 40-month-long siege.

[1] On 5 August 2009, it was announced that his remains had been found back in November 2001, but were not positively identified using DNA profiling until July 2009.

[2] Avdo Palić was born in the village of Krivača in the municipality of Han Pijesak in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, into a Muslim Bosniak family.

Žepa was entirely dependent on outside supplies of food and medicine which were supposed to be delivered by the Ukrainian UNPROFOR peacekeepers, but the deliveries were consistently obstructed by the Serbs.

[citation needed] In early 1995 the Serbs stepped up military operations against the eastern Bosnian enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa.

In March 1995 the President of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, issued a directive concerning the long-term strategy of the VRS forces in the region.

By planned and well-thought out combat operations, create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica".

[7] Knowing that his men were outnumbered, outgunned and low on ammunition, Col. Palić sought to negotiate a withdrawal and spare the 9,000 people in Žepa the fate of the massacre victims in Srebrenica.

[8] The remains of Palić and eight other men were found in a mass grave near the village of Vragolovi in the municipality of Rogatica, near Žepa in November 2001.

A second analysis of Palić's remains was conducted in late July 2009 using more sophisticated methods and yielded a positive match.

[11] On 26 August 2009, Palić was buried on the grounds of the Ali Pasha's Mosque in Sarajevo with several thousand people in attendance.