Sabina Hodzic-Mehmedovic survived the horrors of Srebrenica genocide as a nine-year old girl. On that July 1995, she stayed without 13 very close persons, including her father Sabit. This nine-year old girl who is wishing for her father’s hug, is still “trapped” in this 30-year-old wife and mother.
She could not talk about all the troubles that she went through over the past two decades with her father. She cannot return the love that she unconditionally received during the nine years of her life today, because he is not alive anymore!
She decided to put all hardships that her and her family went through into a book called “To my Srebrenica hero”.
“I survived the genocide in Srebrenica as a nine-year old girl and it left a huge mark on my soul and my heart. I lost 13 of my closest people on that fateful day, starting from my father, uncles, grandparents, aunts and cousins. There is almost no plot in Potocari at which is not buried some part of my family. I gave myself a huge task and this book is actually the biggest task I set for myself. I threw out all the pain by writing, all the sorrow that we were holding for years,” said Sabina.
“I always wished my father to be here and I wanted to repay him in some way. I wanted to do at least some part of what he has done for me. He was a brave soldier, a great soldier who defended BiH and who gave his life for Srebrenica town and I think that was reason enough for me to write a book for him,” she said.
There were times when the words for her literary debut came at night. There were times when she would wake up from the deepest sleep to write, but there were periods when she could not take her notes out of the drawer.
“Now as the author of the book, it is represents such a load to get it in my hands and read it. It hits me again and all those pictures come to me again. I have a feeling that all of these things are happening right now,” said Sabina.
She called the fatal 11th of July 1995 with one word – hell!
The remains of her father were found in 1997 and identified in 2004. The same year, he found his peace in the Potocari Memorial Centre.
With the heavy burden that aggression on BiH imposed, Sabina is walking through life. In the meantime, she got married, and got her daughter Asja almost two years ago, and added that, even 24 years after leaving, she cannot find the strength to go to her birthplace or the apartment where she spent her childhood.
“I just do not have the strength to go to that courtyard where I was waiting for my father to come and ride a bike with me outside the building. I go to Srebrenica every year on the 11th of July. I gave myself that duty. Whenever I get an opportunity, or whenever I want, I go to my father’s grave,” said Sabina, with the message that Srebrenica events should never be forgotten.
Sabina’s book, which represents kind of roar against war and violence against children who must grow up without their fathers killed in the war, was promoted in Srebrenica and Srebrenik so far, and it will be presented this Friday, the 21st of October, in Tuzla at 7 pm.
(Source: A. K./Klix.ba)
