Nedziba Salihovic, from the village of Biljaca near Bratunac, lost her husband, son, brother and numerous relatives in Srebrenica in 1995. The photo of Nedziba Salihovic, taken by Ron Haviv, a war photojournalist, how in despair, a few days after the loss of loved ones, in the refugee camp in Tuzla screams at a United Nations (UN) soldier, has gone around the world.
But, her agony does not end there, but continues in Vogosca, where she bought an apartment, as she says, with her own funds, and the politics of the Vogosca SDA caused her only problems. Namely, on the ground floor of the building where she lives, the building was expanded with the aim of opening a music school, in the very year when Nedziba Salihovic buried her husband and brother. Nedziba opposed it, she also had the signatures of the neighbors, but they didn’t care about it. Later, the case ended in court, and Nedziba, in addition to paying a lawyer, also had to pay court costs from her pension of 320 BAM, because the verdict was not in her favor.
”Look at what they did. They built a music school under my window and that very year when I buried my son and husband in one day. My black day was when this was dug and built, when Srebrenica fell in 1995 and when this was made, I don’t know which of those three days was the worst for me, but it seems to me that the day when this was made was the most dark for me . Whenever I knocked to be admitted to ask why they did this to a mother, they never admitted me,” Nedziba Salihovic begins her story.
She states that her neighbors were also on her side, but that didn’t help either, adding that half of Vogosca was sold.
”The Chetniks killed my son, my husband and my brother, my son died too early, but also numerous relatives, and today I have to suffer. I bought all this, I take out one loan, pay back the other, I got nothing except my pension, which they cannot cancel, and if they could, they would have canceled it a long time ago,” thinks Nedziba, who adds:
”My lawyer fought for five or six years with them, but he could not win, because the SDA was on their side. I lost my son and my husband for the SDA party. I received a 320 BAM pension, and after the verdict in their favor, the pension was halved to 161 BAM. I paid court costs for my apartment for a year and a half.
”I was looking for the then minister when I wanted to do operatation of my knee, and his secretary and the guard wouldn’t even let me in, let alone make an appointment. I did not come here because I love Vogosca, but because I was expelled with a rifle. I am not welcome either in Vogosca or in Podrinje, more precisely in my village of Biljaca near Bratunac. In Bratunac they are threatening me because I made a statement at home for my neighbors, who separated my son and husband in Potocari, I said that I saw them and I don’t hide it, now I don’t have my peace here or there. I am neither in heaven nor on earth,” explains Nedziba Salihovic.
She explains that she is not the only one who survived this agony.
”There are many crying mothers in Vogosca. I live in fear, I walk in fear, I dream of Chetniks if I sleep here, if I sleep in Bratunac I dream of my son, brother and husband. As soon as I come to the village, my son comes to me and talks to me “Mother, what are you doing, how are you”. I get up and cry, my son is gone, but my soul is there, let them threaten me, I want to be there, I want to talk.
To recall, at the time of the murder, her son was 23 years old, and her husband was 42 years old, and Nedziba Salihovic spent the war as a refugee in Podrinje.
”Wherever I go and ask for some rights, they tell me that I’m not from Srebrenica and that’s why I’m ‘damaged’ wherever I go. They gave a bribe to a handful of people from Podrinje, and they keep them in their hands, while that situation is rare among mothers, wives and the rest of people,” concluded Nedziba Salihovic, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
