REFUGEE WOMEN VISIT TOWN WHERE THEIR HUSBANDS WERE KILLED DURING THE WAR
By Almir Arnaut

May 11, 2002 - (AP article in The Canadian Press) Dozens of Muslim refugee women whose husbands were murdered during the Bosnian war arrived in their prewar home of Bratunac on Saturday to mourn at the sites where their men were rounded up and killed, and where their bodies were later dumped.

The 79 women arrived in buses from Sarajevo and Tuzla, where they live in refugee camps, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the expulsion of Muslims from the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac. In May 1992, Serb forces overran the town, forcing out the residents and murdering some 400 Muslim men.

Some of the men's bodies were later found floating down the Drina River.

Crying, Sabrija Hodzic, 55, stood before the town's soccer stadium, and remembered the last time she saw her husband.

"We were separated in front of the stadium and I was sent away," Hodzic said. "Here at the stadium gate is the last time I saw him, 10 years ago. I heard from survivors that he was tortured, but that he was brave."

Protected by 350 Bosnian Serb police officers, the women visited the stadium and a primary school - the sites where the men were rounded up and killed. They then threw flowers into the river.

Laying flowers in front of the school, Sevala Halilovic, 56, expressed her sorrow, speaking into the empty school yard.

"Our dear sons, fathers, husbands, we don't even know where you are," Halilovic said. "You left us despite nature's force and despite God's will. It's been 10 years and it seems like yesterday."

It was the first time that Muslim women were allowed to mourn their loved ones here without facing any outward signs of Serb aggression. Two years ago, a similar group passed through Bratunac on their way to nearby Srebrenica, the site of the war's worst massacre. At that time, Bosnian Serbs sang nationalist songs and threw stones at the buses carrying the women.

Local Serbs have long denied that the massacres ever took place. But as the war grows more distant, some have begun to admit that atrocities were committed here.

Still, many Serbs here remain indifferent, and Saturday the mourners and police shared the streets with only the rare passer-by.

One resident, 72-year-old Milan Mojkic, expressed his shame at what happened 10 years ago.

"Those who did this should be ashamed. Because of them, I, living my last years, have to bow my head while walking the streets," he said.

The 1992-95 war left more than 200,000 dead. Some 20,000 people are still missing, and forensic experts have been exhuming bodies from mass graves for years in hopes of identifying those remains.

Some of the 79 women said being allowed to mourn in Bratunac helped them to nurse their sorrow, but said the visit alone was not enough.

"We dreamed about this day for 10 years and it became true - we are here," Hodzic said. "But I still need to find his body."