Saliah Osmanovic reflections on the Karadzic verdict.

Saliah Osmanovic lives about an hour outside of Srebrenica. She lost both of her sons as well as her husband during the genocide in Srebrenica. 

On March 20th 2019, United Nations appeals judges have upheld the convictions of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and increased his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.  In this context, we met with  Saliah Osmanovic who visited the Potocari Memorial where the verdict was broadcasted on live TV. The following day, we went to meet with her at her house not too far from the memorial ground in Potocari. 

'Nermin! come here, they will help us, we are safe'. This is roughly what Ramo said when shouting towards his son, in order to make him come forward. Ramos and his son was most likely exhausted and probably hungry and thirsty after having walked for two days. A week earlier (On July 6th), he and his wife, Saliha Osmanovic had buried their youngest son, Edin who was killed by a grenade. They, together with over a thousand others, had been walking for two days- trying to escape from the Bosnian Serb forces who had taken Srebrenica on July 11th 1995. When Ramo screams out for his son, they have all been captured. Most of them were likely killed in what is known as the Kravica massacre. They are standing near Kamenice, not far from Kravica, around 45 minutes drive from Srebrenica.

Saliah Osmanovic does not want revenge. She wants tall he guilty people responsible for the genocide and war crimes to be prosecuted and for justice to happen. One of her pleasures in her life is to talk to the local children. She treats them sometimes with sweets and explains it is not important to her as from which ethnic background they come from. She hopes for a future where neighbours can live in peace.

#karadzic #mothersofsrebrenica #srebrenica #genocide #verdict #storytelling #ReportageSpotlight #portraiture