Hatidža Mehmedović

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hatidža Mehmedović
President of the Mothers of Srebrenica
In office
2002 – 22 July 2018
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded byFazila Efendić
Personal details
Born
Hatidža Bektić

(1952-03-01)1 March 1952
Bosniak
Spouse
Abdulah Mehmedović
​
(died 1995)​
Children2

Hatidža Mehmedović (

human rights activist, survivor of the Srebrenica massacre, and founder of the Mothers of Srebrenica, an association of women whose relatives were killed in the July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica.[2] Following the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys, including her husband and two sons, Mehmedović became a vocal advocate for bringing the perpetrators of the Srebrenica massacre to justice.[3][4]

Biography

Hatidža Mehmedović was born as Hatidža Bektić in the

homemaker with a primary school education.[2] She lived with her husband, Abdulah Mehmedović, and their sons, Azmir and Almir (who was nicknamed Lalo), in Vidikovac, just outside of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.[2][4]

Srebrenica massacre

By 1995,

enclaves outside Bosnian Serb control.[2] However, the town was conquered by forces led by the Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić.[2] Srebrenica's women were evacuated, but much of Srebrenica's male population would be killed by paramilitaries under Mladić's command.[2]

Hatidža Mehmedović last saw her husband, Abdulah (aged 44), and sons, Azmir (aged 21) and Almir (aged 18), in the forested hills surrounding Srebrenica before their separation.[2][3] She described her final parting with her family in a November 2017 interview with a Bosnian television station, "We were standing there and my young one, Lalo — that's what we called him, although his name was Almir — was saying, 'Go on, mother, go, leave, already' as he was pulling me closer and closer, and would not let me go... We thought we'd see each other in two, three days. We did not know they'd kill them all."[2]

Mehmedović was bused to the relative safety to Kladanj, a town near Tuzla.[2] Red Cross officials later informed Mehmedović that her husband and sons were missing.[2] More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the massacre. Among the victims were Mehmedović's husband, sons, and her two brothers, Edhem and Hamed.[2]

Activism

The remains of her husband and sons were later recovered within the more than 100

mass graves uncovered in the region surrounding Srebrenica.[2] Their bodies were positively identified. In 2010, Mehmedović had them reburied at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in the nearby village of Potočari.[2]

Mehmedović lived in a suburb of

collective guilt towards them.[3] Instead, Mehmedović began to advocate for the arrest and convictions of individual perpetrators of the Srebrenica massacre.[3]

In 2002, the same year she moved back to Srebrenica, Mehmedović founded Mothers of Srebrenica, an association of women and survivors whose relatives were killed in the Srebrenica massacre.[3] The Mothers of Srebrenica advocated for justice for the victims and collected donations for survivors and their families.[3] She also served as the leader and president of the organization.[2][3]

Hatidža Mehmedović became a forceful advocate for justice for her family and the other victims of the Bosnian genocide.[2] She addressed both Bosnian and international audiences, including journalists, school students, human rights activists, neighbors, and politicians.[2] In an interview before her death, she reiterated her support for justice for the victims, "We can't let those who had killed to become the same as those who had been killed. I should not be the only one who is afraid of the future in which we don’t know who the perpetrator was and who the victim was."[2]

Most recently, Mehmedović had vocally opposed to growing

ethnic or sectarian division in region.[2]

In November 2017, Mehmedović traveled to the Hague, where she was present in the courtroom for the sentencing of Ratko Mladić to life in prison for his role in the Srebrenica massacre.[3] In an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) following Mladić's guilty verdict and sentencing, Mehmedović's said: "A life sentence for Mladić is just a drop in the ocean."[3] As president of the Mothers of Srebrenica, she pointed out that, even with the verdict, "We, the mothers, live only through the memories of our children."[3] While Mladić was successfully prosecuted, she reminded observers shortly after the verdict that there were still perpetrators of other Bosnian wartime crimes against humanity at-large who needed to be brought to justice as well, telling DW, "We are sad that [Mladić] was sentenced only for Srebrenica and not also for genocide in other Bosnian communities. The butchers are being tried, but the entity created by these crimes still exists. Their rulers want to make it a state or to annex it to Serbia. We will never accept this."[3]

Mehmedović's home near Srebrenica, which she reclaimed in 2002, became a memorial for victims of the massacre.

pine trees in her yard that her son Almir had planted before the Bosnian War.[3][4] She also preserved a cement pathway leading to her house where Almir had written his name in freshly poured concrete by the front door.[3][4]

Death

Hatidža Mehmedović died from complications of

patriarchal society in which women remain mostly in the background."[2]

Hundreds of people attended her funeral in Srebrenica.[5][6] She was buried in Sućeska.[5]

war crimes under the carpet and rewrite history" and reiterated that without Mehmedović many details and perpetrators of the attacks in Srebrenica would have never been uncovered.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Lazarevska, Alma (27 July 2018). "Posljednje proljeće Hatidže Mehmedović". MediaCentar_Online (in Bosnian). Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  2. ^
    New York Times. Archived
    from the original on 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Rose, Jasmina (2018-07-24). "'Mothers of Srebrenica' justice advocate Hatidza Mehmedovic dies". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  4. ^ a b c d e Rodic, Adnan (2018-07-24). "Hatidza Mehmedovic, head of Mothers of Srebrenica, dies at 65". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  5. ^ a b "Hundreds Attend Funeral for Mothers of Srebrenica Leader". Voice of America. Associated Press. 2018-07-25. Archived from the original on 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  6. ^ "Funeral For Mothers of Srebrenica Leader Attended By Hundreds". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 2018-07-25. Archived from the original on 2018-08-21. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hatidža_Mehmedović&oldid=1200856790"