Osman Salkic is one of those who managed to survive the path of death, making his way through the forest areas to Nezuk. Today, he talks about the six-day events and thanks God for being able to escape the aggressors. He tells that he did not allow them to kill him because of his daughter.
Among the approximately three thousand participants of this year’s Peace March, there was Osman Salkic, who was born in the village of Joseva, not far from Srebrenica, where he went toprimary and secondary school. In that small town, he got married and started a family, but his youthful happiness was interrupted by an unfortunate war.
Salkic says that with the war all the good things that happened to him in his life went away. He points out that it is difficult for him to tell everything that he carries inside, however, he tries in every possible way to promote the truth about the events of the war, especially the committed genocide.
“When the war started, I was 25 years old, and in the first days we thought that everything would last two weeks, in the struggle for power, and that nothing terrible would happen. Our thinking was based on our upbringing. But, it happened quite on the contrary,” Salkic points out.
A rare case where the entire family survived
The fall of Srebrenica of our interlocutor happened in this place, and according to all the events, together with his father Azem, on July 11th, he headed through the forest areas towards Nezuk, while his mother, sister and wife with two children left Potocariby bus.
“We are one of the few families who, thank God, crossed over and survived. My father and I managed to get to the free territory together. We were at the very beginning of the column, and today I believe that it was only God’s will that we came alive. Nafaka (luck) was such that we wouldn’t get hit by a bullet. You can’t say for a single moment that you did this or that. There were moments when we were all not in clear consciousness, but certain triggers happened that brought us back into balance,” Salkic recalls.
Reuniting with his family, especially his daughter, was his main motive in fighting for his and his father’s life during the six-day journey.
“I knew that I shouldn’t give up, and the first group of people that passed by, and I was in it, suffered the most from exhaustion and uncertainty. On the one hand, we had fatigue, fear, panic, lack of sleep and hunger, along with not knowing the terrain, while on the other hand, there was the struggle to get out. We knew that their only goal was to destroy us, that is, to kill us. We also knew that we were in their territory all the time and that they controlled us. Wherever they had the opportunity to set up an ambush, they did so, “ added Salkic.
In six days he managed to sleep only one hour, however, the lion’s heart gave him incredible strength. After the terrible period of his life, at the moment of reaching the free territory, Salkic tells us that he did not feel happiness.
“Watching those videos today, it is evident how much exhaustion and suffering prevailed among all of us. Also, we could not be happy because we knew how many people did not cross over to the free territory, including members of our families,” Salkic continued.
Finding four skulls
Today, he walks in the Peace March only to honor all those who did not manage to survive in July 1995.
“In the first years of participation, it was very difficult for me, and in one of them on Drinjaca we found four skulls. We took them in our hands and arranged them on the fence, which cannot be an easy scene. Even today, all those memories come back to me, but I look at my current path according to my intention, so it’s easier for me to a certain extent,” says Salkic.
Salkic will walk a route slightly longer than 100 kilometers in the Peace March, and at the very end of our conversation he says that the truth about Srebrenica must be further passed on to the younger generations, so that the evil of war never happens to anyone again, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
