In the Srebrenica genocide, after the Army of Republika Srpska occupied that small town in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 8,000 men and boys from Srebrenica and its surroundings were killed. A thousand of them are still missing.
For the genocide and crimes in Srebrenica, more than 50 people have been sentenced to over 700 years in prison.
This July 11, in the Potocari settlement, remains of thirty more victims killed in 1995 were found, among them three minors. The youngest was 15 years old when, he was shot.
Srebrenica is a small town that symbolizes the suffering of the entire region of northeastern Bosnia, because the residents of the neighboring municipalities sought salvation in the supposedly protected enclave at the time.
In memory of the victims killed in the genocide, the Peace March has been held for fifteen years, in which participants pass through the same forest roads that were taken by people who, fleeing the hell of Srebrenica, were looking for a way to the free territory in Tuzla.
The line of people starts from the village of Nezuk near Sapna and moves all the way to the Memorial Center in Potocari.
Halfway from Nezuk to Potocari, above the settlements of Konjevic Polje and Nova Kasaba, in the Djugum, the participants of Peace March are welcomed by food and refreshments. For fifteen years in a row, every ninth of July in the afternoon, the well-known voice of Ifeta Mejremic, recently known as Ifeta Grande, has resounded there, inviting and offering fresh hot coffee, tea and sandwiches, with now traditional words “Bujrum bujrum, this is from the heart for you.”
The video of her inviting a bus of Italian tourists for coffee and baklava quickly went viral, and with it, Ifeta got the nickname Grande.
Ifeta is a symbol of a woman from Bosnia, for whom hospitality is an everyday thing. She proved and showed it countless times. Even during the Peace March, the doors of her home were open to dozens of guests from different parts of the world. Different languages are spoken in Mejremic’s courtyard, but guided by the idea of philanthropy, everyone understands each other well enough.
Ifeta returned to Nova Kasaba in the Bratunac Municipality in 2000. She lives in the family house in Nova Kasaba with her sister, her son and his family.
“After the fall of Srebrenica, we had to head towards Tuzla. I remember that at that moment I was thinking about what would happen to the animals I was raising, I left them all the corn I had and let the chickens go free.”
It is a detail that Ifeta remembers when she talks about the day that will forever change her life and the lives of thousands of other women from Podrinje. A woman who, while others sow death, thinks and cares about the fate of animals.
Ifeta is also a symbol of resistance, activism, female solidarity, but also the perseverance of one woman to stay and survive in the area where the worst war crimes were committed.
She is the president of the Association “Jadar”, which gathers eighty-four women from this area and aims to empower them economically and educationally.
The Association was established immediately after the return of these women and its first goal was to support women from villages whose husbands and sons were killed in the genocide in Srebrenica.
Enormous bureaucratic obstacles in realizing the rights of returnees were the reason for establishing of this Association.
They knew that in such circumstances they had to act together in order to more easily overcome all the challenges that were before them as returnees.
Their first goal was to return their property, register and prove their identity in that area. Immediately after the war, they had to start all over again, and they only understood each other.
Today, the Association has impressive results behind it: several hundred actions of solidarity, education, trips and socializing.
The Association got its name from the river Jadar, which flows through Nova Kasaba. It is no coincidence that it is named after water, the symbol of life.
Just like water, the years flowed and workshops, educations, and many other useful activities for these women and the local community followed.
The opening of a hair salon, the distribution of greenhouses, courses, all of these are the concrete results of a strong local community gathered and started by brave women led by Ifeta Mejremic.
Ifeta told us that they also plan to open a space that will serve as a place for members to socialize and learn, but also a place where all activists from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and the whole world will be welcome.
Women from the Association „Jadar“ made a great contribution to building peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because they changed from the role of victims to those who promote peace, future and security.
Reconciliation projects that this Association has implemented and is still implementing, educational meetings and exchange of experiences with Associations whose members are of other nationalities, are an example of good practice and an inspiration to all those working on reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Their cooperation with women from the Association “Maja” from Kravica, but also with Associations from Vlasenica, Milici and other places, became a solid foundation for building understanding and peace, the foundations on which the society there is still built.
In addition to the above, every year, in cooperation with the organization Vive Zene from Tuzla, they participate in the October fair, which aims to promote and support women from the village.
It is an opportunity for valuable members from both the Jadar Association and other Associations to promote their work and sell the products they prepare.
The aim of the fair is to show how important the economic empowerment of women is in that area.
In the days when the 28th anniversary of the genocide is commemorated in different ways, we must also honor the surviving victims. Especially to the women victims who carried the burden of the post-conflict society on their shoulders and still carry it, who collected the bones of murdered family members from several graves and who, even after everything, have a huge heart and in it a heart for all good people.
On July 9, 2023, in Djugum near Konjevic Polje, the world looked exactly as it should look like. Side by side with Ifeta stood activists from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian coffee was distributed to guests from Belgrade by asylum seekers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and female volunteers from the USA joined a loud, hearty „Bujrum“ near Ifeta.
Author: Nihad Suljic
This article was written thanks to the generous support of the American people through the “Local Works” program of the United States Agency for International Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (USAID). The contents of the publication are under the exclusive liability of its author and “Network for Building Peace”. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the USAID or the US Government.
