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Zumra Ahmetovic and her family flee their hometown to survive Serbian forces’ genocidal campaign

By Anadolu Agency 

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AA) - As thousands of people were killed in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina's Srebrenica, Zumra Ahmetovic survived the genocide of 1995 by taking on the "road of death" alongside her family and walking in dreadful conditions till salvation.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Ahmetovic shared the fear of locals amid the genocide, described as the worst human tragedy in Europe following World War II, and how the civilians walked for days to make it to the safe zones while living under constant fear and at the brink of starvation.

Although 27 years have passed, the haunting memories are still alive for Ahmetovic, who was 22 years old when she hit the "road of death" along with her siblings and cousins.

"People were struggling to reach the safe zone ahead of the fall of Srebrenica," she said, and noted that some of the locals moving back and forth between the safe zone and their hometown.

"Some of them made it, some others failed (to get in the safe zone)," she said. "We did not want to abandon our houses and believed that all these would come to an end. We waited until the last moment."

She said the walk to Buljim was quite long. "We reached Kamenica (village) where thousands of people were killed. It was nightfall and we were tipped off about some soldiers ahead and an impending attack."

The hell broke loose after her group gathered with her uncle, who took care of Ahmetovic following the demise of her father, as they were fired at from all four directions when the group was instructed to move.

"There was this silence all of a sudden and I began to hear groans and screams. When we got up, I noticed there was somebody's blood on my hand. The bloodstain on my arm remained even after three days," she lamented.

The survivors stuck to the initial plan to make it to the safe zone and did their utmost best not to surrender to the Serbian forces, according to Ahmetovic, who said the group treaded lightly by hiding during the daytime and moving at night.

Although the hostile units called on them to surrender and that they would not be harmed, the group of nine rejected the offer and waited for the night to fall so as to move safely.

"My uncle went up a hill to see if we could proceed. We did not hear from him again and he never came back," she said.

The ordeal persisted on the way as the group got short of food six days after they had left their village and they had to eat anything they came across to survive, be it snails or foliage.

On the 13th day, she said, the group arrived at a village where they found some flour, which they used to make bread. They also consumed potatoes and cucumbers out in the field.

After the "most difficult 18 days" of her life, they crossed a military post of Serbian forces early in the morning and they successfully crossed the area without getting noticed.

"The sun was rising and it was about 5 a.m., and (Serbian soldiers) were probably sleeping. We came across a landmine but went over it without any problems. We thought we made it to the safe zone," she said.

"We hugged each other and shed tears," she said.

Once the war was over, Ahmetovic enrolled in higher education and now is married with four children. She worked as a teacher.

The total tally of Bosnians who took on the road in the forest to survive during the days of war is estimated to be 15,000, but only 3,500 of them reached the safe zone.

A total of 8,372 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb forces attacked the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops tasked with acting as international peacekeepers.

Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces who were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, Serb troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic – who in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – overran the UN zone.

The Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing around 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone. Some 15,000 Srebrenicans fled to the surrounding mountains but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 of them in the forests.

The bodies of the victims of the genocide were found in 570 parts of the country.