218. This conclusion, of course, does not amount to a conclusion that the Bosnian Muslims of Žepa were not the victims of genocide. The Appeals Chamber emphasises that the only question addressed here is whether the Trial Chamber erred in finding that the forcible transfer operation in Žepa – which the Trial Chamber distinguished from the transfer operation in Srebrenica and analysed separately vis-à-vis the actus reus of Article 4(2)(b) of the Statute – inflicted on the transferred Muslim population serious mental harm, as that term is used in Article 4(2)(b) of the Statute and the Genocide Convention. This question does not involve the definition of the protected group. In this sense, the Appeals Chamber recalls its earlier conclusion that the Trial Chamber did not err in holding that the Bosnian Muslims of Žepa are, along with the Muslims of Srebrenica and Eastern BiH in general, members of the protected group.[1] By virtue of being “within the targeted part of the protected group”, the Bosnian Muslims of Žepa were among the ultimate victims of the genocidal enterprise against the Muslims of Eastern BiH.[2]

[…]

236. As clarified above, and consistent with the Appeals Chamber’s recent case law, all members of the protected group as defined by the Trial Chamber – i.e., “the Bosnian Muslim population of Eastern Bosnia and in particular, of the enclaves of Srebrenica, Žepa and Goražde”[3] – were the victims of the genocidal acts of Article 4(2)(a) and 4(2)(b) of the Statute (killings and acts causing serious mental harm), by virtue of being “within the targeted part of the protected group”.[4] In this and the previous subsections, the Appeals Chamber only finds that the displaced Bosnian Muslims of Žepa were not the direct victims of the specific genocidal act defined in Article 4(2)(b) and Article 4(2)(c) of the Statute – acts causing serious mental harm and acts deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the protected group’s physical destruction in whole or in part. The Appeals Chamber’s conclusions do not diminish the status of Žepa’s Muslim populations as victims of the genocide committed against the entire protected group by means of (i) the killings of Srebrenica’s male population (which qualifies as a genocidal act under both Article 4(2)(a) and 4(2)(b) of the Statute) and (ii) the forcible transfer operation of Srebrenica’s women, children, and elderly (which qualifies as a genocidal act under Article 4(2)(b) of the Statute).[5]