Monday marks a year without Hatidza Mehmedovic, the head of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association who fought for the truth about the Srebrenica genocide and the missing victims.
“I believed in justice. Had I not believed in justice, I'd never have come back to live in Srebrenica – however, there's no justice,” Hatidza said once, adding that the politics from the ‘90s is still present in Srebrenica, a city where Serb forces committed genocide in 1995, after entering the UN's safe zone of Srebrenica and separating men and boys from the women. Over 8,000 men and boys were killed later, over the matter of days.
She often said that the past cannot be changed, but that Bosnians should have learned how to build a better future.
“Waiting for justice is the hardest thing for everyone, and so far we haven't received it,” Hatidza said after the International Court of Justice in the Hague rejected Bosnia's request for the revision of the verdict against Serbia, in 2007.
“We remember Mother Hatidža Mehmedović who passed away a year ago on this day. She was the beating heart of our organisation & a truly remarkable woman who fought tirelessly for justice & against those who sought to rewrite the facts of history. Her legacy will never be forgotten,” Remembering Srebrenica Foundation tweeted on Monday.
We remember Mother Hatidža Mehmedović who passed away a year ago on this day. She was the beating heart of our organisation & a truly remarkable woman who fought tirelessly for justice & against those who sought to rewrite the facts of history. Her legacy will never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/Jn4rSu7kyd
— Remembering Srebrenica (@SrebrenicaUK) July 22, 2019
“Hatidza was our mother and a grandmother to our children. I will remember her for always asking will something she doesn't like doing be of any good to our children in Srebrenica. A year has gone after our Djidja left us. Al-Fatihah,” former Srebrenica Mayor Camil Durakovic said.
After her death, last year, a famous Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie also remembered her saying:
Related news
“Hatidza was exceptional. For 23 years she was a tireless seeker of truth and justice. She never claimed any special status but spoke on behalf of all the Mothers of Srebrenica. She did not distinguish between the victims but regarded them as all equally worthy of dignity and recognition. Even as her health failed, she worked to organize aid convoys to take food and medicine to refugees in Syria. She died before her time, at just 65 years old, her death no doubt sadly hastened by all she had endured,” Jolie wrote in a text for CNN.
Hatidza Mehmedovic died in Sarajevo, after a long and difficult illness. She was the head of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association and she fought for the truth about the genocide against the Srebrenica Bosniaks and for justice and punishment for those who committed it.
She lost two sons 18 and 21 and a husband 44, two brothers and numerous other family members.
She was born in 1952 in a village called Bektici, eastern Bosnia, and she returned to Srebrenica in 2003.
Bosnia's Islamic Community will hod a prayer for her in Sarajevo's Carsijska Mosque.
