The Head of the "Mothers of Srebrenica" Association, Hatidza Mehmedovic, has died on Sunday evening.
“Our mother and big fighter for the truth about the Srebrenica genocide, Hatidza Mehmedovic, has moved to the next life this evening at 19:30. We ask of Allah to show her mercy and that he reunites her with her sons in Jannah. Amen,” the Srebrenica branch of Bosnia’s Islamic Community wrote on Facebook on Sunday evening.
As the Head of the association, Mehmedovic was a vocal activist who raised awareness for the Srebrenica genocide, often referred to as the worst crime committed on European soil since WWII, and advocated for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the eastern Bosnian enclave and rounded up the town’s Muslim Bosniaks, separated men from women and little children and systematically executed some 8,000 men and boys.
Two international courts, The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the World Court later ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.
Mehmedovic lost two sons, Almir (18) and Azmir (21), as well as her husband Abdulah (44), in the massacre and returned to Srebrenica in 2003. She had been fighting for the truth about Srebrenica to be told for more than 20 years.
“Despite the fact that she remained alone, without anyone, she returned to Srebrenica to continue her fight for truth and justice. She would often say, ‘I don’t have anyone of mine, but you are all mine, you are all my children’,” wrote the President of the Srebrenica Assembly, Alija Tabakovic, on social media before adding, “May Allah show her mercy and reward her with Jannah.”
“The noble soul of mother Hatidza has moved to a better world, we are witnesses to her fight for the truth, she loved every living creature,” wrote the Minister for Displaced Persons and Refugees in the Federation (FBiH), one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities, Edin Ramic.
“Saddened to hear that our dearest Hatidza Mehmedovic, the head of the Srebrenica Mothers Association passed awaytwo. I have spent almost 10 years working with her and she always had called me ‘son’. Her husband and 2 sons were killed in 1995. You will always be my hero and inspiration,” a survivor and witness to the 1995 massacre, Hasan Hasanovic, posted on Twitter.
“A synonym for the Srebrenica mother, our beloved heroine, Hatidza Mehmedovic ‘Djidja’, went to a better world,” former Srebrenica mayor Camil Durakovic wrote.
