Eighty-year-old Aisa Begic is the last permanent resident of the village of Radovcici, 30 kilometers from Srebrenica. Her husband and two sons were killed during the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995.
Aisa returned from Sarajevo, where she fled during the war, to the destroyed and burned village 20 years ago. Until 1992, 660 people lived there. Two more residents who lived there before the war come to the village from time to time. Relatives bring them groceries.
She lived in a shed and a wooden cabin for four years before she received a donation to build a
house.
As Aisa says, eighty-four-year-old Abida Abdurahmanovic occasionally comes to Radovcici and visits her at her house. She lives in Zivinice near Tuzla, because, as she says, she has health insurance there.
Fata Gurdic also comes to Radovcici from time to time. She also lives in Zivinice.
“It is difficult to be here where there are only three of us women. We are about 200 meters away from each other and when we finish our chores, we get together, drink coffee and talk,” says Abida.
Next to her house, Aisa built a “hajr-fountain” – in memory of the war victims from the village. According to Islamic custom, these public memorial fountains, intended for the rest and refreshment of travelers, are inscribed with the name of the person who built them, and the names of those in whose memory it was built.
Furthermore, in memory of their neighbors who died during the war, a memorial was built in the village. It was financed by Aisa and the surviving residents of Radovcici.
In the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995, according to the verdicts of international and domestic courts, more than 8.000 Bosniaks were killed.
More than 50 people have been sentenced to more than 700 years in prison for genocide and crimes in Srebrenica. Despite the evidence that was accepted during numerous trials, most officials of the Republika Srpska (RS) and Serbia deny that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
