In pictures: Srebrenica’s war mothers still grieve
The biggest massacre in Europe since World War Two, the Srebrenica genocide took place in July 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbian soldiers rounded up unarmed Muslim men and killed them, leaving behind women and girls to mourn their immense loss.
The crocheted flower of Srebrenica is a symbol of remembrance for the victims and a message of hope and solidarity.
It is a cold winter day, with grey skies and a chill that cuts to the bone. Several elderly women who lost husbands and sons during Bosnia Herzegovina’s civil war, specifically the Srebrenica genocide in 1995 are huddled together for comfort and warmth. They speak little other than a few sentences in Bosnian but they don’t need to say much: the pain they have suffered is etched on their faces.
The Srebrenica–Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide is a vast green space dotted with white headstones carved with the names of victims who were killed and buried in mass graves all over the area. The DNA testing of remains continues to this day, and the wounds, even though the war was 24 years ago, are still as fresh as if the massacres happened just yesterday.
Despite the magnitude of the horrors inflicted during the war, there are some who still deny that the massacre occurred, such as recent Nobel literature prize winner Peter Handke. The Austrian writer has downplayed the genocide, defending the Serbs who killed and buried Muslims in mass graves.
The understated entrance to the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the victims of the 1995 genocide.
Mejra Dogaz says she returned to Srebrenica after the war, in 2002, with just one small bag. “An enemy tried to kill me upon my return,” she says. She no longer lives in her home even though it has been repaired. “Despite everything, one feels best in one’s own land,” she says.
Nura Mustafic, 74, says she lost three sons and her husband during the massacre. “I lost everything,” she says, “I don’t have anything”. The village she lives in has only one other resident, another war widow named Rafiya Hadzibulic.
Ferida Jusic, 65, lives in Bajramovic village, 7km outside of Srebrenica, and is the only resident there. She lost two sons and her husband during the massacre, she tells TRT World, close to tears. She says she doesn’t want to move anywhere else, because her heart is here.
Suhra Osmanovic, 67, only has a daughter left who now lives in Sarajevo. She lost her husband and son during the genocide. Asked about recent Nobel laureate Peter Handke defending the Serbs, she grows indignant: “It’s incredible [that there are genocide denialists]. You cannot deny what happened. Just look at the memorial.”
The names of the dead are etched in stone at the memorial, along with their birth dates. More than 8,000 men, young and old, died in July 1995.
The memorial stone puts the number of Bosnian Muslims killed by Serbian forces during the Srebrenica massacre at 8,372, a number that keeps rising as remains are identified by DNA testing.
Prayer beads decorate war victim Mustafa (Osman) Hasanovic’s grave.
Even today, victims whose remains are newly identified are buried at the Srebrenica Memorial. The fresh graves are the ones with green markers.
A view of the Srebrenica memorial from Parcel M 11.
Alema Hodzic (L), Srebrenica coordinator for the International Forum of Solidarity - Emmaus (MFS - Emmaus), a Bosnian charity, introduces a new housing complex in Srebrenica for war widows who are getting on in age. There is also a small medical centre in the complex for basic necessities.
Across the street from the MFS - Emmaus housing complex, the scars of war are still fresh: houses are pockmarked with bullet holes from the war that ended 24 years ago.
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