12/07/1995 | Page 12 of 14 | Voices from the Drina

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Featured Authors

UNPROFOR soldiers are giving in to the Chetniks in Potočari. Chetniks are taking their weapons and dressing up in their clothes. Some UN soldiers are crying. We came here to be safe but it’s clear we are not

The money people are handing over is no longer enough. 5 and 10 marks are not being accepted. The soldier claims he knows we have 50,100 or 200 marks.

I fell asleep a few hours ago near Bukva. Woke up not long ago. Just been told by my neighbour Nazif that there’s been a massacre nearby. Serb forces are hunting us down. My brother-in-law has been killed. So has my father-in-law.

The same soldier who got onto the bus in Hranča is demanding that we give him our gold and money. Everyone is silent. He says he knows we have “smuggled goods” from Srebrenica and Žepa.

Another Chetnik soldier has entered our bus. He’s no older than 17. He’s heavily armed. He has a bayonet, an automatic rifle and some other type of long gun, and a bandolier. He says, “I’ve come to avenge my great-great-grandfather who was killed in this area by Turks.”

Serb forces are raping the women in our group of disabled people.

The same soldier is talking through a walkie-talkie. He’s just said, “a bus full of bula (racial slur for Muslim women) is arriving. Take their money and gold and you know what to do with them after that.” People are starting to hand over whatever money they have on them.

We were supposed to walk out in pairs. As we approached the trucks and buses, I started noticing groups of Serbs. There was one Serb who was making all the men stay behind. I knew my brother had no chance of getting past him. (1/2)

I walked with him all the time, and then asked my friend Nihada to stay with him behind me, to walk with him behind me. I would walk in front. I’ll never forgive myself for doing that. Abdulah, volim te. (2/2)

Serb soldiers are taking away men, boys, and girls during the night. All I can hear is terrible screams.