The Stamford Advocate
July 11, 2005

By Vesna Jaksic

STAMFORD – Ten years after the fall of Srebrenica in her native Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sevala Sulejmanovic still shivers when talking about the war.

During the fighting, she didn’t know for three months whether her husband was alive. Some of her relatives and friends were killed.

Sulejmanovic, who was born and lived near Srebrenica, said she gets unnerved when thinking about the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Doctors say her high blood pressure is related to the trauma she experienced, she said.

“The fear is inside of me and it will never leave,” Sulejmanovic, 43, said in her native language.

For nearly a year during the war, Sulejmanovic was separated from her husband. At one point, three months went by without her knowing whether he was alive. The couple and their two children survived and eventually settled in Bridgeport, but many Bosnian families did not make it.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, the Bosnian town that was the site of Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II. About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica, during the genocide. A decade after the murders, many victims have yet to be found and those believed to be responsible for the tragedy have not been caught.

The anniversary hits close to home for many Connecticut families with Bosnian ties. Some are refugees who settled in the area, most in Bridgeport and Hartford. Others are Americans, like the Greenwich-based Connecticut Friends of Bosnia, who dedicated their time, money and persistence to help a troubled nation.

Abid Sehic, 39, a Bosnian who lives in Bridgeport, said he was in Srebrenica for several months in one of a few concentration camps he was sent to during the war. He was separated from his family for months and worried each day if he would find enough food to survive.

“So many friends and neighbors died,” he said in his native language. “Whoever stayed, died . . . It was horrible. I don’t like to think about it because I know how many people died.”

On Jan. 21, 1996, the International Committee of the Red Cross rescued Sehic and about 150 other men, he said. After a series of trips, he was flown to New York and eventually reunited with his wife and two sons.

Like many families in the area, Sehic declined to talk about his experience in detail, saying the memories are too disturbing. One Bosnian woman who lives in Stamford said she still takes antidepressants to help her cope. Several other Bosnians in Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport said they did not have the strength to reopen their wounds.

The Bosnian war began in 1992, one of a series of conflicts in the Balkans that split up Yugoslavia. Many Bosnian Muslims fled to Srebrenica from Bosnian Serbs and the Serbian Army, which aimed to create an ethically pure Serbian state. On this day 10 years ago, Serbs took over Srebrenica, the United Nations-declared “safe haven” since 1993.

Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the two men believed to be responsible for the killings, have not been caught. They were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 1995. With the tribunal expected to cease prosecutions in 2008, time may be running out for the cases to be resolved.

Edin Uzicanin, 32, a native of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said it’s still difficult to believe that 10 years after the Srebrenica massacre, those responsible have not been brought to justice.

“You just feel that not much has changed,” said the Stamford resident, who was in Bosnia for a part of the war and still has family there. “But also, I don’t know if enough has happened to make sure that it doesn’t happen there again.”

Nearly 8,000 people from 90 countries and 430 organizations have signed a petition calling for arrests related to the killings, according to the Center for Balkan Development, based in Maynard, Mass. Today, they plan to deliver it to several officials, including President Bush.

“People are very interested in coming out on this date to both commemorate this massacre and ask the international community to do what’s right and arrest these war criminals,” said Glenn Ruga, executive director of the center.

Connecticut Friends of Bosnia is among the organizations that have been helping rebuild the country. In recent months, they have assisted several refugees from Srebrenica and the surrounding area, said Carol Schaefer, who heads the organization.
Fewer than 3,000 of Srebrenica’s prewar population of 29,000 Bosnian Muslims has returned home, according to the Center for Balkan Development.

Besides emotional scars, many men who survived the torture still suffer from back pain, hearing loss and other difficulties, Schaefer said. The Greenwich woman, who has been to Srebrenica and regularly travels to Bosnia as part of her volunteer work, said she hopes today’s anniversary will educate people about the country’s troubled past.

“I think people should focus on it as a way of remembering the victims and not diminishing the event or minimizing the event and therefore causing more pain and anguish to the survivors and the victims,” she said.

A number of memorial events throughout the country have been scheduled to mark the anniversary. Norwalk resident John Levin, who spent several years raising awareness and money, and lobbying for international involvement in Bosnia, said he planned to take time off work today to attend a memorial ceremony in New York.

Levin, 46, a Jewish American who has never been to Bosnia, said he remembers the day Srebrenica fell under siege. Like many other days during the Bosnian war, he was at a rally in New York, encouraging the U.S. government to intervene. A decade later, he still can’t believe how many families perished in the war, Levin said.

“I feel like this is sort of a commemoration,” he said. “I will see my friends there. But it does nothing. What are we commemorating? A great tragedy.”