‘March of Death’: Women Recall Harrowing Escape from Srebrenica

They walked for around 100 kilometres across mountainous terrain and through dense forests before reaching the village of Nezuk, where the Bosnian Army was stationed. Along the way, many were shot at, ambushed, captured and executed.

Ahmic spent 13 days on the march of death before making it to safety. Her husband and one of her sons also survived; the other, Mirsad, did not. He is now buried at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, where the annual commemoration takes place. Ahmic lives with her husband in the village of Voljavica, near to the cemetery.

She recalled his during her escape, the column of people in which her family was walking was ambushed at a place called Buljim. Amid the gunfire, she was separated from the others.

The morning afterwards, she searched for her children among the dead bodies and saw a child who she thought was her son Sead. She spent four days with the boy's body, until she noticed that the sneakers he was wearing did not belong to her son.

After that, she got up and continued along the road on her own. She then stumbled upon a wounded boy and decided to take him with her and look after him.

"I thought to myself, he is young, I won't leave him - if my children aren't with me, at least I can get someone's child out. But he was bleeding a lot and told me 'don't wake me up anymore', and started yelling at me," she said.

"I tore open his leather jacket, the lining, to bandage him. And wherever I found a little water, I washed these pieces of cloth and put them in my pocket, so thank God he made it."

During these 13 days, Fatima neither ate nor slept. She said that she wasn't afraid for herself, but was praying for at least one of her sons to survive.

Sead, whose body she thought she had...