Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic expressed her condolences over the death of Head of “Mother os Srebrenica” Association Hatidza Mehmedovic, a Srebrenica genocide survivor who lost her husband, two sons, and her father in July 1995.

“I received the news of the death of Hatidza Mehmedovic with great regret and sorrow. Her heroic struggle for the truth obliges us even more to continue the pursuit of all the mothers of innocent victims and to fight for the justice that has not found its way into their souls, just yet,” Grabar-Kitarovic said. “I will never forget the deep pain I felt in Hatidza's embrace, when I bowed, for the first time as President of the Republic of Croatia, to the innocent victims whose lives were lost twenty years ago in the terrible mindlessness of crime.”

She pointed out that Hatidza’s death obliges us all to preserve Srebrenica as a warning against the most terrible crime, shows us what happens when all international mechanisms fail and when collective consciousness fails, when there is no will for timely action and when one’s basic human right to life is not preserved.  

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.