NOBODY LEFT TO COME VISIT ME

Reportage: Two Years since the Tragedy in Srebrenica

AIM Sarajevo, 18 July, 1997

This July morning in Sarajevo started as any other ordinary day. Women from Srebrenica woke up in the apartments of city sky-scrapers and rooms of abandoned Serb houses in which they are living now. They took their best dresses out of the half-empty wardrobes, picked out their least worn out scarves... And started on their way to Vogosca. There, in front of a restaurant with a fancy name "Hollywood", a Centrotrans bus was waiting for them, as well as a few journalists and officials of the High Representative's Office. >From Vogosca, it was planned they would go to Tuzla, from there to Djulici, a small place in the Serb entity, where after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, according to testimonies of eye-witnesses, more than three thousand Bosniacs were killed.

Just before buses set out on the journey from the Vogosce bus-stop, they were told that it had been agreed the night before that due to the "current developments in RS" (operation of arrest of the indicted for war crimes) it was not possible to go to Djulici, but that they would go to Nezuci instead. Nezuci is a village in the Federation known for being the place where after the fall of Srebrenica, in a single day, about four thousand, mostly men, crossed to the free territory.

And the bus started on its way. More women from Srebrenica waited in Tuzla, along with a few peace monitors, a journalist or two, and humanitarian workers. They waited to set out together, and while waiting, the wrath, sadness, emptiness and hopelessness accumulated for years which these women carried inside, wanted out. They started to shout, cry, beg and curse. They demanded a meeting with Milosevic, then sought the Dutch to "strangle them with their bare hands", requested to go home, asked for remains of their sons... Delalic Dzemili, sixty-four year old woman, beat herself on the chest, her ckeeks shaking, while she was listing aloud the names of those whom she had lost in Srebrenica: three sons, husband, two brothers, six nephews... "I lost thirty two men from the family. Now there is nobody to come knocking at my door", Dzemila says.

Unfortunately, she is not the only one. There is almost not a single family in the region of Srebrenica which has not at least one either a killed or a disappeared member. In summer 1995, Mladic's forces overran the then protected zone killing all male persons. In just a few days, almost eight thousand men, boys of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen... among them, were disappearing without trace in the forests. Their families and the International Red Cross, after two years of silence are quite aware that it would be very hard to believe that they are alive somewhere. The more and more frequent excavations of mass graves in the parts which used to be controlled by the army of Republica Srpska are killing their last hopes. That is why it should not be a surprise that the mothers are demanding excavation of mass graves, exhumations and new, this time honourable and humane, funerals for their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers.

When the buses with over a hundred women finally set out on their way, it remained unclear whether they were going to Djulici on the territory of RS, or to Nezuci on the territory of the Federation. This seems to have been confusing for the IPTF officials who twice stopped the convoy in order to explain to them that they were not supposed to go to Republica Srpska because the police over there refused to guarantee their safety. Chris Both, commander of the IPTF of the Tuzla region, informed them that due to lack of cooperation, an appeal was lodged against Dragomir Vasic, Mane Djuric and Mico Lokacevic (head, deputy and commander of RS police, security district of Zvornik, respectively), warning them that "it would not be wise to set out in the direction of Djulici".

They continued the journey, after all. After a fifteen-minute drive, they came across a blockade of Russian SFOR tanks. Women came out of the buses, went around the transporters and continued on foot. Soon after they came across a barrier, barbed wire, and three rows of Russian soldiers. The tall, yellow-haired commander explained in Russian that it was impossiboe to go to Djulici, because they had information that "on the other side", there were three hundred armed Serb soldiers waiting. Then there were consultations, negotiations and agreements, and in the end it was made public that the women would go to Nazuci and read a prayer there, put their flowers in reminiscence of the developments that had happened two years ago.

While waiting for the "final decision", the Bosnian women in their national dress and scarves, their raised hands and curses seemed to be amusing to the Russian soldiers... They smiled and turned their heads away not to be "caught" by journalists' cameras. Several women gave them their small bunches of flowers prepared to be put on places where they had intended to say their prayers, and one of the nmothers said: "I am giving this flower to you instead to my son who should have graduated this year had he lived". The Russian soldiers looked through her.

A tall, robust German, president of the international Association for threatened nations, Tilman Cilh, protested because of the checking-point speaking loudly enough for the soldiers from the back row to hear: "Shame on you. This is not Afghanistan". The former wife of the famous rock star Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, together with the women from Srebrenica, carried banners saying. "Shame on you, Europe". This tiny woman from the world jet-set got entangled in her long black silk dress while she was squeezing her way through SFOR soldiers.

When it was finally agreed that the women could pass, they had to be searched. Standing in line, two by two, they had to stretch their arms and legs and show the interior of their bags to SFOR women-soldiers. This act was in fact violation of the provision of the Dayton accords on the freedom of movement. Each and every one had to be searched, first women, then men who were accompanying them. Two years ago, these same women from Srebrenica had experienced the same feeling of humiliation, classification, counting... in the UN Base in Potocari.

However, despite everything, they did not cross over "to the other side". They went only to Nezuci, repeatedly turning their heads towards the demarcation line just a few kilometres away, and mumbled for themselves: "If God wills it, we will get there some day".

And "over there", former executors, founders and commanders of detention camps, advocates of ethnic cleansing, order givers and war commanders are fearing that their names might be on secret lists of the Hague tribunal. The curse of the women from Srebrenica may touch them, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, masked in the uniform of a British or any other NATO member of the special units.

Sandra KASALO