Escaping Death on the Flight From Srebrenica

Hasan Hasanovic managed to survive the Srebrenica massacre by passingthrough the forest and escaping numerous ambushes set by Bosnian Serb forces.

While he eventually reached safety, in territory controlled by the Armyof Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, his father and twin brother did not make it.

Just before the fall of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995, Hasanremembers that they were all listening to the news and expecting theinternational community to save them.

He fled to the apartment of a relative on the outskirts of the Bosniak(Muslim) enclave following the attack of the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, on July10, 1995.

“In the morning, when Srebrenica fell, I went through the forest withthe other men and boys. It was my decision, and also that of my brother andfather,” Hasan recalls.

With his father, Aziz, and twin brother, Husein, he headed towards thecity of Tuzla, believing they would have a better chance to survive that way.

The women, children and elderly men meanwhile went to the UN base atPotocari near Srebrenica.

Columns of men, some ten kilometres long, moved out of the villages nearSrebrenica around midnight on July 11 and 12.

There were between 10,000 and 15,000 of them, mostly aged between 16 and65.

At the forefront was the 28th Division of the ABiH, which consisted ofde-miners and armed soldiers, followed by the Srebrenica hospital staff whilethe Mountain Battalion took care of the rear of the column.

Never saw father, brotheragain:

Not knowing what awaited them, they headed to Konjevic Polje, on a roadthat was a hundred kilometres long.

“We were comforting each other, saying that all of us would reach freeterritory,” Hasanovic recalls.

But the Bosnian Serb army soon decided to stop them on their path, andthey came under attack.

“Then it came to the first shooting. At that point, all the menscattered on different sides,” he recalls.

“That was the moment I was separated from my brother and father, andfrom that moment, I never saw them again.”

Looking for his father and brother, Hasan moved to the front of thecolumn, feeling it was also the best way to stay safe.

Crossing a stream, he ran across the meadow and managed to enter the forestas Serb bullets hit the trees nearby.

“That was a sign that they were close. I was terribly scared, lost allmy strength and threw off the backpack, even the jacket I was wearing,” hesays.

“I could not move. But I came across some guys I knew who gave me sugarand water, and all of a sudden it gave me the strength to go on,” he recalls.

The aim of the column was to break the defensive line of the VRS in the Bratunacarea by crossing the road from Bratunac to Konjevic Polje.

Having walked for hours, they came to near the road in Konjevic Polje.

“I was totally alone, I did not know where they (his father and brother)were,” he recalls.

“I walked and slept during the last hour, because I could not sleep theprevious two nights in Srebrenica. When we come to the road, somebody patted meon the back, telling me to lie down because a military transporter was coming.The transporter passed through and then we crossed the asphalt road,” Hasansays.

During July 12 and 13, the column scattered into several groups. Hasanwas in a group of people who, after crossing the Jadar river, continued towardsMount Udrc.

He felt terrible pain in his feet while walking, and when he took offhis boots and socks, saw his feet had turned into what looked like a “whitemass.

“I remember that again I fell asleep while walking, and a man I knew,whose voice I recognized, was saying: ‘Hold him in the column, don’t let himdrop out.’ This man is one of those who saved my life,” he says.

They waited for hours on the mountain at Udrc for the rest of thecolumn. People discussed how to proceed and whether they still had hope.

However, they could see free territory from that location, which gavethem an extra motivation. Hasan was waiting to see his dear ones along with theothers. But it did not happen.

Around midday on July 13, some 6,000 persons were captured or surrenderedalong the roads from Nova Kasaba to Konjevic-Polje and Bratunac to KonjevicPolje.

The Serbs shot from tanks and anti-aircraft guns at the people in thewoods. They were also throwing hand grenades as a result of which many werekilled or wounded.

To induce the men from Srebrenica to surrender, the Bosnian Serb forces promisedto transfer them to territory held by the ABiH.

They used stolen equipment of the United Nations to trick them that theUN was present and would monitor their treatment after they were captured.

After, they set them an ultimatum to surrender or be killed, after whicha large number of people surrendered.

In the next few days, those men from Srebrenica were brutally executedat different locations.

“Next morning, when we continued to Zvornik Kamenica, I heard one mansaying we had avoided a large ambush set up on Kameničko Brdo,” Hasan recalls.

According to him, a massacre took place there and a huge number ofpeople were killed and wounded.

“There was general chaos. Some people managed to cross the asphalt road,while some did not. Basically, most of the prisoners who remained there werecaptured…We immediately imagined that our loved ones had been killed, woundedor captured,” explains Hasanovic.

Escape from ambushes:

They avoided populated areas along the road. While hiding in a stream,Hasan could smell something that reminded him of gas.

“I’ve seen people that have reacted under the effect of these toxins. Theyhallucinated, talking nonsense,” he says.

Serb forces meanwhile combed the terrain, capturing more and more of themen from Srebrenica. They killed some, while others were detained and exchangedlater.

There was a new ambush in the area of Krizevacka Polja. Due to the noisyshouts of the Serb soldiers, who were also shooting, Hasan thought there mustbe thousands of them.

He imagined how it would be to be detained and tortured. He remembers a shellfalling near him, and seeing the shrapnel sever a man’s foot.

“Somebody ordered us to crawl and so we pulled out from the ambush,”Hasan says.

They reached Baljkovica, which was close to free territory. There, theVRS and ABiH fought a battle, leaving the men in a state of uncertainty forhours.

“We received different information that there were double lines thereand that we could not pass,” he recalls.

“It was disappointing, to get so close to free territory and hear that youcannot pass through.

“The battle lasted for hours but then we got the news that Baljkovicahave fallen. The breakthrough had succeeded,” Hasan adds.

After several days of breaking through the forest, Hasan’s group finallyreached free territory.

Some of other men from Srebrenica men subsequently arrived. Hasan knewthat people had been killed in the woods, and that many were detained, but,like the others, he still expected his own family to show up.

“That hope lasted until the first discovery of the mass graves, which iswhen people began to lose hope,” he says.

“Nevertheless, some people still had hope, but later, after the openingof a large number of graves, hope was gone forever,” he adds.

Hassan now lives in Srebrenica. “It is hard to live in a town full ofemotion. Every street, every building and every house reminds you of what youhave survived,” Hasanovic says.

He buried his father, Aziz, in Potocari in 2003, and his brother twoyears later. He is still seeking the location where his father was killed.

The body was found in the Zvornik village of Kamenica, which is called“the valley of mass graves”.

Hasan says that he deeply sorry that some people still deny the reality ofthe genocide in Srebrenica, but hopes that will change in time.