In the Memorial Center in Potocari on July 11th, 30 families will bury the remains of the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica. Incomplete bodies were found in several graves that members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) repeatedly dug up and moved the bodies to cover up the traces of the crime. While some families bury at least one bone that has been found, others wait and hope that among the more than a thousand victims of the genocide, there are more hidden remains that have not yet been found.
Fadila Efendic comes to the place where she parted with her husband Hamed and her son Fejzo in July 1995 almost every day. She prays for the repose of her son’s two bones, which she buried 10 years ago.
“One bone from the lower leg and one from the lower jaw from the skull. That’s how much it was crushed that so little was found in a mass grave in Kamenica in Zvornik. I don’t know where the rest is. Every year I called to see if more bones had been found so I could bury them. And when 4 years have passed since 2013, I said bury at least those two bones so that it is known that the child lived and existed, so that it is known where at least those two bones are. Even though I know it’s only two bones, it’s easier for me to bury that than nothing. I cried the most when I was at the mass grave in Kamenica. I had some instinct that my son was there, even though I don’t know where he was killed,” Fadila Efendic stated, president of the “Mothers of Srebrenica” association.
Fejzo was killed 20 days before his 20th birthday. She also buried her husband with an incomplete skeleton. Two years later, the rest of the skeleton was found in another mass grave.
The remains of nearly 1.000 victims of the genocide in Srebrenica have not been found.
“We at the Podrinje Identification Project have the remains of 55 victims. They were identified using the DNA method, but the families did not come forward and sign the official record. On the other hand, we have another 15 victims who have been identified through the DNA method, and the family has also accepted those remains, however, we still have not received consent for their burial. The reason for this is, mainly, the scarcity of the skeleton that was found. It is usually one bone, two bones, or a third of the skeleton at most. Families simply do not have the strength to decide to give that final consent,” Emza Fazlic said, spokeswoman for the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“For each of these “reexhumations”, the family must give their consent. They must attend the very process in which the remains are taken out of the coffins in which they were already buried, placed on the table, added to the newly found ones, and returned to the grave again. That is simply very painful,” Emza Fazlic added.
Fadila doubts that complete bodies will ever be found because no new mass graves have been found for a long time.
“The fact is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get information about the exact locations of graves, especially considering the current political climate in our country, in which war criminals are glorified instead of condemned. People who know where those graves are in that way encouraged to keep silent, and the families continue to suffer and slowly leave the world,” Emza concluded, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
