DID YOU KNOW?  -- Three years before the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, Serbs torched Bosniak villages and killed at least 3,166 Bosniaks around Srebrenica. In 1993, the UN described the besieged situation in Srebrenica as a "slow-motion process of genocide." In July 1995, Serbs forcibly expelled 25,000 Bosniaks, brutally raped many women and girls, and systematically killed 8,000+ men and boys (DNA confirmed).

19 December, 2012

TESTIMONY: I SAW HEADLESS BODY OF MY SON

Fatima Aljić

A harrowing testimony of Fatima Aljić, Srebrenica survivor. Serbs burned down her village in May 1992 and started persecuting the Bosniak population of eastern Bosnia (more three years before the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide).

What was your worst experience during the war in Srebrenica?

FATIMA: In 1992, I lost my son, end of 1992, that affected me badly. I still haven't found him. Then, during the fall of Srebrenica, I lost my other two sons, my husband and my brother. I was left all alone.

What did you do after the Serb Army entered the town on 11 July 1995? Did you go towards Potocari or did you join the column later referred as the March of Death?

FATIMA: I went to Potocari, my husband and children went through the woods and I never saw them again.

What happened to your sons and your husband?

FATIMA: Well, I say I never saw them again... I did see them when I was in the truck going to Kravica. They were all lined up, like they sometime show on television, lined up beside the road, holding their hands behind their necks. I saw my son Seval and my husband Suljo. I saw my youngest son lying near the ditch as if facing the ditch, but he was headless. Just his body. No head. I recognized his clothes.

Watch the full interview with Fatima Aljić, courtesy of the Genocide Film Library


Fatima Aljić - Cinema for Peace