 |
Last Muslim Soldier to Flee Srebrenica Remembers the Day
‘I learned that it is far more important to be psychologically strong than physically fit. Many fit young men lost their will to live trying to escape and they went down. Never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation may seem.’
U.N. investigators this week excavated the remains of some of the thousands of Muslims believed killed and buried in mass graves by the Serbs after the fall of the enclave a year ago. Akagic said Serbs had encircled the ancient silver mining settlement of Srebrenica in the first days of the Bosnian war in 1992, cutting off all water, electricity and telephones. The U.N. designated Srebrenica a "safe area" in 1993, but Serb forces repeatedly blocked humanitarian aid convoys and the enclave survived at times solely on airdropped relief supplies.
By the summer of 1995 only a few hundred of the town's 6,000 original pre-war residents were still there. But another 20,000 Muslims from surrounding areas gorged Srebrenica's narrow streets, many cooking and sleeping in the open.
"There was no plan, people began to move spontaneously and it was chaos. Women were carrying a suitcase in one hand and a child in the other and the sick and crippled were being dragged along the road on litters," Mirsad told Reuterss. "Mixed in with the people were farm animals -- goats and cows and sheep. Dogs running and barking everywhere."
Akagic and his wife had decided that if the worst happened she would take their two children and shelter with the U.N. Because any Muslim man surrendering to the Serbs risked death, Mirsad had decided to try to sneak through their lines.
"On the afternoon of July 10 at about five o'clock a neighbour ran into our house and said the Chetniks (Serbs) had entered the edge of town," he explained. "I went to get my rifle and my wife grabbed her bag and the kids and left. There were no hugs, no kisses, no goodbyes. Nothing. We did what we knew we had to do. Suddenly I was all alone in my house with my rifle in my hands."
As he recalled the night of the July 10-11 Mirsad stopped and started, pondering the scene with wonder and using the word surreal repeatedly to describe the terror and confusion. "People, our people, the refugees, began looting the government warehouse. These were people who in a few hours would be running for their lives or dead and they were trying to get away with big sacks of flour and beans," he recalled. "When the food was gone I saw people carrying away stove pipes and cartons of scotch tape. There was an old man bent double and staggering, dragging a roll of plastic sheeting maybe four metres (13-feet) long. What was he thinking?"
The Serbs entered the centre of Srebrenica late on the afternoon of July 11, where Mirsad found himself separated from his unit and trapped. He hid for six hours in chest-deep water in an underground cistern before escaping the town after dark. "I climbed a hill to the south where there was a cemetery. The moonlight was bright. When I looked down on the town the Serbs had lit huge fires along the new front line," he said.
"There were soldiers and vehicles in the centre of town and shouting. That was the last time I saw Srebrenica." Ahead lay a 16-hour solo trek to the neighbouring Muslim enclave of Zepa, which fell to the Serbs a few weeks later. From there Mirsad led a small group of men on an eight-day walk through Serb territory to safety and a reunion with his wife and children, who had managed to escape with U.N. assistance. "Because of circumstance it turned out I was the last man, the last Bosnian soldier, to escape Srebrenica," he said.
"I learned that it is far more important to be psychologically strong than physically fit. Many fit young men lost their will to live trying to escape and they went down. Never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation may seem." |
SARAJEVO, July 11 (Reuters) - The last Muslim soldier to escape Srebrenica when it fell to Bosnian Serb forces a year ago spoke on Thursday of the town's tumultuous final hours. "Almost until the end we thought we could hold the town. We had 5,000 fighters and the U.N. was there," recalled 45-year-old Mirsda Akagic, a professional land surveyor who served as a soldier defending his native Srebrenica during the war. "Then everything began to fall apart. I realize now we were exhausted. The siege had beaten us."
"They were very hard times. We had infestations of insects -- cockroaches and fleas. There was disease and madness. We lacked medicines and doctors and dentists. Shoes were a big problem. And of course we didn't have the weapons we needed." Panic set in among the population in early July when three U.N. checkpoints fell to the Serbs. By Monday, July 10, refugees were streaming in from outlying villages to the south.
Berserkistan, July 10 · Bodies of Some 40 Moslims Found Piled Together at Cerska
Berserkistan, July 10 · Republika Srpska Forces Finns to Abandon Mass Grave Probe
Berserkistan, July 9 · More Bodies Exhumed at Cerska Grave Site
Berserkistan, July 8 · Cerska Grave Site Yields First Corpse
Berserkistan, July 7 · Excavation Begins at Srebrenica Mass Grave
Berserkistan, July 3 · Mladic Promised Safety to Srebrenica Muslims
Berserkistan, June 8 · Srebrenica Victim Graves Probed at Brnica
Berserkistan, June 5 · Mass Grave at Nova Kasaba May Hold 2700 Srebrenica Victims
Berserkistan, May 29 · Documentary Claims Serbia Provided Srebrenica Arms
Berserkistan, Massacre Hill Jim Bartlett in Bosnia's Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Ghosts in the Woods Team Berserkistan Investigates a Srebrenica Massacre Site
SREBRENICA
Serbs Massacre Muslims in "Safe Area" of Srebrenica
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
Berserkistan is the world news service of
Pacific Interactive Media Corp.
EMail Berserkistan
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved