The Unquiet Dead (40 page)

Chapter 2.

I keep wondering, where have all the good friends gone?

Letter of Muhamed
Č
ehajić, former mayor of the Prijedor municipality, as read by his wife, Dr. Minka
Č
ehajić, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the trial of Milomir Stakić. In its judgment of 31 July 2003, the Trial Chamber stated that it had no evidence at hand to establish beyond reasonable doubt the reason for Muhamed
Č
ehajić's death. It said, however, that “even if
Č
ehajić was not directly killed, the conditions imposed on a person whose health was fragile, alone would inevitably cause his death. His ultimate fate was clearly foreseeable.” The Trial Chamber argued that due to Milomir Stakić's position as president of the Crisis Staff, the National Defense Council, the War Presidency, and the Municipal Assembly in Prijedor, and due to his close ties to both the police and the military, he could not “have been unaware of what was common knowledge around the town, the municipality, and even further afield.” The Trial Chamber stated that “[i]t was Dr. Stakić himself [who] triggered the deplorable fate of this honorable man.” On 22 March 2006, the Appeals Chamber confirmed the convictions against Milomir Stakić and sentenced him to forty years' imprisonment.
Prosecutor v. Milomir Staki
ć
, IT-97-24-T [31 July 2003]. Minka
Č
ehajić's complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/186
.

Chapter 3.

He was a modest and reasonable man.

Minka
Č
ehajić, a Bosnian pediatrician, speaking about her quest to find out what happened to her husband after she last saw him in May 1992. She testified on 14, 15, and 16 May 2002 in the case against Milomir Stakić.
Č
ehajić's complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/186
.

This is part of a cat-and-mouse game.

Letter dated 19 October 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24685, 19 October 1992.

You can either survive or disappear.

General Ratko Mladić, Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (the VRS). Available online at
Justice Report
:
http://www.justice-report.com/en/articles/interpretation-of-Mladić-s-words
.

Because I tell you that the sky is too high and the ground is too hard.

Bosnian proverb.

Lo, with hardship comes ease.

Sura Ash-Sharh, “The Relief.” Qur'an 94:5.

Chapter 4.

Father, take care of my children, look after my children.

Mehmed Alić, a Bosnian Muslim victim of the Omarska camp, speaking about how he tried to defend his son Enver from Serb soldiers who were about to beat him. He testified on 23 and 24 July 1996 in the case against Du
Å¡
ko Tadić. Mehmed Alić was transferred to the Manja
č
a camp on 6 August and released on 26 August 1992. Alic's complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/195
.

Chapter 5.

I took my mother's head into my hands and I kissed her. I never felt anything so cold before …

Testimony of Indira Ahmetović, Srebrenica survivor. Her full statement is available through the Cinema for Peace Foundation at
http://cinemaforpeace.ba/en/testimony/indira-ahmetovic/46
.

Chapter 6.

Do you still believe that we die only the first death and never receive any requital?

Sura As-Saffat, “Those Ranged in Ranks.” Qur'an 37:58–59.

Muslims, you yellow ants, your days are numbered.

Old Chetnik war song.

Bend down, drink the water by the kerb like dogs.

Emir Beganović, a Bosnian Muslim man, was severely beaten and held under horrific conditions at the Serb-run Omarska detention camp, located just outside Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He testified on 19 July 1996 in the case against Du
Å¡
ko Tadić and on 4 and 5 May 2000 in the case against Kvo
č
ka et al. His complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/10120
.

Give us some water first, then kill us. I was sorry to die thirsty.

Witness O (he testified with name and identity withheld from the public), a seventeen-year-old survivor of the Srebrenica executions, speaking about their perpetrators. He testified on 13 April 2000 in the case against Radislav Krstić. Witness O's complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/184
.

Chapter 7.

Under a big pear tree there was a heap of between ten and twelve bodies. It was difficult to count them because they were covered over with earth, but heads and hands were sticking out of the little mound.

Ivo Atlija, a Bosnian Croat, speaking about killings that occurred in the area around his village in 1992 in the Prijedor municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He testified on 3 and 4 July 2002 in the case against Milomir Stakić. His complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/190
.

There's never any joy.

Saliha Osmanović, Srebrenica survivor, as quoted in “Srebrenica Memorial Day: Our Continuing Horror,”
The Independent
(10 July 2013).

On Tuesday, there will be no bread in Sarajevo.

Letter dated 18 October 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24677, 19 October 1992.

The tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever.

UN General Assembly,
Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 53/35: The Fall of Srebrenica
, 15 November 1999, A/54/549, paragraph 503. Available at
http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6afb34.html
.

It took some persuasion to convince my Serb neighbor with whom I had lived my whole life that I was suddenly his enemy and that I was to be killed.

Dr. Idriz Merd
ž
anić, a Bosnian doctor who treated victims of the Trnopolje Camp, speaking about how he tried to have two injured children evacuated from the northwestern Bosnian town of Kozarac. He testified on 10 and 11 September 2002 in the case against Milomir Stakić. His complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/202
.

I am aware that I cannot bring back the dead.

Momir Nikolić, “Statement of Guilt” (29 October 2003). Momir Nikolić was an assistant commander for Security and Intelligence in the Bosnian Serb Army. Nikolić was at the center of the crimes that took place following the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. He did not raise any objections when informed of the plan to deport Muslim women and children and to separate, detain, and ultimately kill Muslim men. Nikolić did nothing to stop the beatings, humiliation, and killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men. He also personally coordinated the exhumation and reburial of victims' bodies. He testified in other proceedings before the Tribunal, including the trial of his two co-accused, Blagojević and Jokić. Nikolić was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. His complete statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/218
.

Chapter 8.

All my life I will have thoughts of that and feel the pain that I felt then and still feel. That will never go away.

Witness 87 (she testified with name and identity withheld from the public), a Bosnian Muslim girl talking in court about the effects of the rape and the abuse she suffered during the nine months she was held captive by Serb soldiers. During this period she was also raped by Dragoljub Kunarac and Radomir Kova
č
. She testified on 4, 5 April and 23 October 2000 in the case against Dragoljub Kunarac, Zoran Vuković, and Radomir Kova
č
. Witness 87's complete “Voice of the Victims” statement is available through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at
http://www.icty.org/sid/10117
.

Chapter 9.

I addressed one of the wingborn singers,

who was sad at heart and aquiver.

“For what do you lament so plaintively” I asked,

And it answered, “For an age that is gone, forever.”

Ruggles, D. F., “Arabic Poetry and Architectural Memory in al-Andalus,”
Ars Orientalis, Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces
(1993, Vol. 23), 171–78.

Chapter 10.

Easily predictable events have been proceeding inexorably in the cruelest, most atrocious fashion.

Ambassador Ahmed Snoussi, Representative of Morocco to the Security Council.
Provisional Verbatim Record of the Three Thousand and Eighty-Second Meeting, held at Headquarters, New York Saturday, 30 May 1992: Security Council.
S/PV.3082, 30 May 1992, p. 25.

Today a funeral procession was shelled. The whole city is without water.

Letter dated 28 September 1992 from the acting president of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24601, 29 September 1992, p. 2.

Charred bodies lie along the street.

Letter dated 9 September 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24537, 9 September 1992, p. 2.

Chapter 11.

All my joys and my happiness up to then have been replaced by pain and sorrow for my son and my husband.

Srebrenica survivor Sabaheta, as quoted in Selma Leydesdorff, “Stories from No Land: The Women of Srebrenica Speak Out,”
Human Rights Review
(April 2007, Vol. 8:3), 191.

Chapter 12.

Whoever was on the list to be killed would be killed.

Quoting Schefik, a thirty-eight-year-old construction worker taken to Manja
č
a. Charles Lane, “Dateline: Croatia,”
The Black Book of Bosnia
, ed. Nader Mousavizadeh (New Republic, 1996), 84.

I have just been informed that the besieged city of Jajce has fallen to the aggressor.

Letter dated 29 October 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24740, 29 October 1992.

Massive air attacks continue in Bosnia today. We cannot defend ourselves yet no one is coming to our aid.

Letter dated 28 September 1992 from the acting president of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24601, 29 September 1992, p. 2.

For having uttered a wrong word, people are taken away or killed.

Letter dated 9 September 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24537, 9 September 1992, p. 2.

The camps remain open.

Letter dated 4 November 1992 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24761, 5 November 1992.

The enemy ring around the city is being strengthened with fresh troops.

Letter dated 22 June 1992 from His Excellency Mr. Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/24214, 22 June 1992.

For the past three days, Serb forces have been conducting a fierce offensive against the town of Bihac.

Letter dated 9 February 1994 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/1994/142, 9 February 1994, p. 2.

Today Serb forces shelled the city of Tuzla. While writing this letter, the city centre is under heavy mortar attack.

Letter dated 14 January 1994 from the mayor of the City of Tuzla to the United Nations, addressed to the president of the Security Council. S/1994/45, 14 January 1994, p. 2.

The famous National Library has been set on fire and is still burning.

Joint letter dated 26 August 1992 from the acting president of the Presidency and the Prime Minister of Bosnia to the United Nations, addressed to the Security Council. S/26500, 26 August 1992, p. 2.

Defend us or let us defend ourselves. You have no right to deprive us of both.

Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, before the Security Council. As quoted in Paul Lewis, “At UN, Bosnian Presses His Plea for More Land,”
New York Times
(8 September 1993).

If Allah helps you, none can ever overcome you; but if He should forsake you, who is there after Him that can help you? In Allah, then, let the believers put their trust.

Sura Al Imran. Qur'an 3:160.

Chapter 13.

No one knows what will come tomorrow

and no one knows in what land he will die.