Voices From Srebrenica

In the hills of eastern Bosnia sits the small town of Srebrenica--once known for silver mines and health spas, now infamous for the genocide that occurred there during the Bosnian War. In July 1995, when the town fell to Serbian forces, 12,000 Muslim men and boys fled through the woods, seeking safe territory. Hunted for six days, more than 8000 were captured, killed at execution sites and later buried in mass graves. With harrowing personal narratives by survivors, this book provides eyewitness accounts of the Bosnian genocide, revealing stories of individual trauma, loss and resilience.

In July 1995, the Army of the Serbian Republic killed some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica--the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. Surviving the Bosnian Genocide is based on the testimonies of 60 female survivors of the massacre who were interviewed by Dutch historian Selma Leydesdorff. The women, many of whom still live in refugee camps, talk about their lives before the Bosnian war, the events of the massacre, and the ways they have tried to cope with their fate. Though fragmented by trauma, the women tell of life and survival under extreme conditions, while recalling a time before the war when Muslims, Croats, and Serbs lived together peaceably. By giving them a voice, this book looks beyond the rapes, murders, and atrocities of that dark time to show the agency of these women during and after the war and their fight to uncover the truth of what happened at Srebrenica and why.

This book traces the reverberations of genocide, forced displacement, and a legacy of loss in Bosnia and abroad.

The massacre at Srebrenica of between 3000 and 5000 Muslim prisoners by Bosnian Serbs is one of the most horrifying tales to emerge from the bitter conflict in Bosnia. It changed the course of the war and led to the deployment of US ground troops in the area. It also became the first atrocity in modern times where the well-intentioned but ineffectual Western involvment contributed directly to the mass executions.

Senahid Halilovic is one of the very few survivors of the Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide. From July 11-July 22, 1995, more than 8,372 Bosnians, mostly men and boys - were rounded up and killed. Amongst them were his father and all three of his brothers. He is one of the rare Bosnian men who managed to overcome the 'Road of Death' and survive the Srebrenica genocide by walking for one week, through mountain crags without any food or water. "After the genocide, I tried several times to count how many relatives I lost, but I never could. Their images begin to show up in front of my eyes as soon as I try to think about it; this causes me great distress, and I often find myself giving up. I remember my mother telling me once "Oh, my son, you have lost 70 nearby relatives." I usually saw them in my dreams every night. At night when I dreamt of them, and then woke up, I felt very sad. Once I awoke from this dream, I could not sleep again. As I lay awake, no matter what I did, I saw their images in front of me." "And I realized something else; that they are not dead, that they remain alive, because they were killed in the name of injustice. At that point I wished for them to be with me and talk to me, even within my dreams. After this epiphany, any time one of them (especially my brothers or father) talked to me, or even if I saw one of them in the dream I felt much better. After I saw them in my dream, I felt lucky, like I had done a good deed. But now, years later, this does not happen usually; I rarely see them in dream, and I miss them too much. Life is like that. Sometimes the same thing that tortures you at one time, you later miss and wish you could experience more often." Senahid currently has several wishes: to find out the complete truth and ensure that all the people of the world hear the truth about what really happened to Bosnia and to Srebrenica during the war against Bosnia in 1992-1995 and the genocide against Bosniaks 1995, that there may be peace, justice and harmony on planet Earth, and that Srebrenica is never repeated again to anyone.

This book punctures once and for all common excuses for Western inaction in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the most egregious crimes against humanity to occur in Europe since World War II.

"Jan Willem Honig and Norbert Both, experts on the Bosnian crisis, recount the Srebrenica massacre in all its horrific detail--including eyewitness accounts of the deportations and the mass executions. They also take a complete look at the incoherent Western plans that led up to the slaughter and offer a balanced and penetrating analysis of this international tragedy and its implications for American and European foreign policy."--Page 4 of cover.

Front Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Memory, Body, and Power: Women and the Study of Genocide -- 1. The Gendered Logics of Indigenous Genocide -- 2. Women and the Herero Genocide -- 3. Arshaluys Mardigian/Aurora Mardiganian: Absorption, Stardom, Exploitation, and Empowerment -- 4. "Hyphenated" Identities during the Holodomor: Women and Cannibalism -- 5. Gender: A Crucial Tool in Holocaust Research -- 6. German Women and the Holocaust in the Nazi East -- 7. No Shelter to Cry In: Romani Girls and Responsibility during the Holocaust -- 8. Birangona: Rape Survivors Bearing Witness in War and Peace in Bangladesh -- 9. Very Superstitious: Gendered Punishment in Democratic Kampuchea, 1975-1979 -- 10. Sexual Violence as a Weapon during the Guatemalan Genocide -- 11. Gender and the Military in Post-Genocide Rwanda -- 12. Narratives of Survivors of Srebrenica: How Do They Reconnect to the World? -- 13. The Plight and Fate of Females During and Following the Darfur Genocide -- 14. Grassroots Women's Participation in Addressing Conflict and Genocide: Case Studies from the Middle East North Africa Region and Latin America -- Selected Bibliography: Further Readings -- Index -- Back Cover