Description
She lives alone in a brick house on the hillside, a few hundred meters from the alignment of white steles of the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial, where rest a little more than 5,600 Bosnians (1) executed in July 1995 by the Serbian forces of Ratko Mladic . Aisha, 62, lost her two sons and around 40 loved ones in the killings. A refugee in Sarajevo after the war, she returned to live here, on her farm, in 2002. And when she hears some of her Serbian neighbors claiming, even today, that the tombs of the memorial are empty, she is ulcerated. More determined, too. "We must, she said, continue the search and find the remains of all the victims. As long as we are alive, we will search. Then, after us, the new generations will take over."
Considered the worst atrocities in Europe since the Second World War, the Srebrenica massacre, which is estimated to have killed some 8,000 people, was officially classified as "genocide" by the International Court of Justice in 2007. Aisha is among those who fought, at the time, with the association the Mothers of Srebrenica, to obtain this recognition. Today, these women, who have lost the people who were dearest to them, are worried: the town could, after the municipal elections on October 7, be led by a Serbian mayor. And by a party that never recognized the genocide.