BOSNIA: MOSLEM FAMILIES OF THE 1995 SREBRENICA MASSACRE VICTIMS RECALL THEIR RELATIVES AS THEY ARE FINALLY LAID TO REST

Record ID: 647303

  • Title: BOSNIA: MOSLEM FAMILIES OF THE 1995 SREBRENICA MASSACRE VICTIMS RECALL THEIR RELATIVES AS THEY ARE FINALLY LAID TO REST
  • Date: 8th July 2004
  • Summary: (W5) POTOCARI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 11, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARRIVING FOR FUNERAL CEREMONY (AUDIO OF IMAN CALLING PEOPLE TO PRAYER) 0.07 2. SLV MAN PRAYING BY GRAVE 0.13 3. CLOSE OF YOUNG WOMAN CRYING BY GRAVE 0.19 4. WIDE OF CEREMONY 0.25 5. SLV CLERICS ARRIVING FOR CEREMONY 0.34 6. WIDE OF MEN PRAYING DURING CEREMONY 0.41 (W5) SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 8, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. SLV FAMILY OF MEIRA PITAREVIC WHOSE SON AND HUSBAND WERE KILLED IN SREBRENICA MASSACRE 0.44 9. SLV MEIRA PITAREVIC ENTERING HER HOUSE 0.50 10. WIDE OF FAMILY SITTING IN THE FRONT ROOM 0.58 11. CLOSE OF MEIRA'S DAUGHTER WHO CAME WITH HER HUSBAND AND TWO DAUGHTERS FROM SWEDEN 1.03 12. WIDE OF TWO BROTHERS OF MERIA'S SECOND HUSBAND SITTING AT THE TABLE 1.10 13. VARIOUS OF (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MEIRA SPEAKING AND TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE CHEST OF DRAWER: "They are placed here so that I can always look at them, but it is sad because this is the only photo of my son that I've got." 1.21 14. CLOSE OF MEIRA HOLDING TWO PHOTOGRAPHS AND POINTNG AT HER SON (HE WAS 7 WHEN PHOTO AS TAKEN) 1.26 15. WIDE OF (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MEIRA, SITTING NEXT TO HER DAUGHTER SELMA PITAREVIC, SAYING: "I am glad that she is here but it is terrible why she had to come." 1.35 16. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) SELMA PITAREVIC SAYING: "It is so hard, I could never have thought that it would be so difficult to return." 1.44 17. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MEIRA SAYING: "All the time there was a hope (that my son and husband were alive). But only when I learned that their bones were found I feltI lost the hope now, and everything is now..." (MEIRA DOESN'T FINISH SENTENCE) 2.10 18. SCU SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) SELMA SAYING: "I love my father but the love for my brother is something special. He was my brother and the best friend I had. I did not need to have any female friends because I could share everything with him." 2.24 19. CLOSE OF SELMA'S DAUGHTER WIPING A TEAR IN HER MOTHER'S EYE, THEN GENTLY TOUCHING HER GRANDMOTHER' FACE AND SITTING BETWEEN THEM 2.47 (W5) POTOCARI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 11, 2004) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) 20. SLV COFFIN OF MEIRA'S HUSBAND PASSED TO GRAVESITE 2.57 21. CLOSE OF MEIRA AND SELMA CRYING 3.02 22. SLV COFFIN OF MEIRA'S SON BEING LAID IN GRAVE 3.15 23. CLOSE OF MEIRA AND SELMA CRYING 3.19 24. TOPSHOT OF FAMILY MEMBERS PLACING COFFIN IN GRAVE 3.24 25. SMV MEIRA AND SELMA CRYING 3.28 26. PULLOUT OF GRAVE AND FAMILY MEMBERS BURYING COFFINS 3.40 27. SMV MEIRA AND SELMA WEEPING 3.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SARAJEVO AND POTOCARI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
  • Country: Bosnia
  • Reuters ID: LVA2TQ9R9VDG3ZOI7EX7OK5RC1SA
  • Story Text: Families of Srebrenica massacre victims recall the
    horror of nine years ago, as the bodies of hundreds of
    victims are buried.



    Some 20,000 Bosnian Muslims gathered near
    Srebrenica on Sunday (July 11) to bury newly identified
    victims of the 1995 massacre and demand justice for the
    victims of Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

    Relatives came from across the world to lay 338 victims to their
    fi
    nal resting place in Potocari, just outside
    Srebrenica, in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the site where Bosnian
    Serb troops had separated them from their families.

    Meira Pitarevic's family has gathered together for the
    first time in nine years. Nearly all of them left Bosnia
    following the massacre.

    Meira's two brothers-in-law came from Canada and
    Switzerland, and her daughter Selma arrived from Sweden.

    Meira met her two granddaughters for the first time.

    "I am glad that she (Selma) is here, but it is terrible
    why she had to come," Meira says while her daughter looks
    on.

    Meira is the only member of the family who has stayed
    in Bosnia, living for the past nine years in the hope that
    her son and husband were still alive. That hope died six
    months ago when their bodies were unearthed from one of the
    mass graves.

    "All the time there was a hope But only when I learned
    that their bones were found I felt I lost the hope now,
    and everything is now" says Meira, unable to describe her
    loss.

    It was July 11, 1995 that Serb forces captured the
    predominantly Muslim eastern town, declared a United
    Nations "safe area", and slaughtered up to 8,000 Muslim men
    and boys.

    So far, 1,332 victims, most of them exhumed from some
    60 mass graves, have been identified and 989 already
    buried. Over 5,000 body bags await identification through
    DNA analysis.

    Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his
    military chief Ratko Mladic remain at large, hiding in
    Bosnia and Serbia nine years after they were indicted for
    genocide over the massacre and the siege of Bosnian capital
    Sarajevo.

    Two photographs of her son and husband are all that
    Meira has left. "They are placed here so that I can always
    look at them, but it is sad because this is the only photo
    of my son that I've got," she says as she lovingly fingers
    them.

    For Selma, leaving the country did not mean leaving
    behind the memories of what happened nine years ago. "It is
    so hard... I could never have thought it would be so
    difficult to return."
    Nor did it mean leaving behind her feelings for her
    family. "I love my father, but the love for my brother is
    something special. He was my brother and the best friend I
    had," while her young daughter tries to comfort her.

    At the cemetery, Meira and Selma wept as the remains of
    their loved ones were finally lowered into the ground,
    their coffins and headstones marked simply "3" and "4".




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