Nermin Divovic was only seven years old when the bullet of the aggressor hit his mother, passed through her stomach, then hit him in the head. The boy passed away immediately, and Enric Marti, a photographer who found himself nearby, took a photograph that is a very important warning in the current political climate.
A truce was briefly declared in Sarajevo on November 18th,1994, which is why Dzenana Sokolovic decided to take her son Nermin and daughter Dzenita to school. The boy initially resisted his mother’s demands to leave, explaining that he wanted to stay with his grandmother, but in the end, he agreed and obediently left their family apartment.
”It’s been 27 years since then, but it’s still very hard for me to talk about what happened,” begins the United Nations (UN)officer Trevor Gibson begins the story, who tried to save little Nermin after he was shot. He recalls how a large UN team visited several locations since the morning and worked on different tasks, after which he decided to return to the base at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and check how the rest of the team was doing.
“Several of us were standing in front of the museum when a little boy approached us, I later found out that it was Nermin Divovic. He asked me if I had candy, I answered in Bosnian: ‘I don’t have candy’. He shrugged and ran. He only crossed fifty meters and fell to the ground. I quickly moved one of our transporters to block the visibility of snipers. The bullet hit Dzenana in the stomach and the boy in the head. The same bullet. As soon as we transported them to the hospital we were called to another task, ” Gibson recalls.
The harsh everyday life and numerous tragedies in the besieged city did not leave him enough space to clearly process what was happening around him. In fact, he faced the scale of the horror he witnessed only 20 years later when he came to Sarajevo again to take part in the filming of the documentary “Scream For Me Sarajevo”.
“Enric‘s photograph has been following me since the end of 1994 when it was first published in all the world’s major media. It was published by Time, the Economist, the Telegraph, and many others … it was everywhere. A large number of acquaintances passed it on to me. I wish that I didn’t have to look at it, that I’ve never seen it… But unfortunately, I can’t change it, “ he said sadly.
Nermin Divovic would turn 34 on October 14th. The year before the seven-year-old was killed, Spanish photojournalist Gervasio Sanchez accidentally photographed him in the company of EnricMarti. A photojournalist joined a group of children in a snowballfight, and Sanchez saved and preserve forever in black-and-white footage the memory of a playful and cheerful boy enjoying a winter day.
Just like 27 years ago, the shocking photo will be shown to the world again at a time when the political situation is bringing unrest to the homes of BiH citizens. Nermin’s story will remind the world again that the innocent lives of the victims of sick politics were lost in the war, that an innocent seven-year-old was killed while going to school with his mother. It is the warning that such a thing must never be repeated.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
