Hava Tatarević: Six Sons and Husband Taken Away and Killed in a Single Day

A Family from the Prijedor Area

Hava Tatarević lived with her family in the Prijedor area, in Bosanska krajina. She had seven sons. According to the portal genocid.ba, the family had twelve members, and the same source names the villages of Čarakovo and Zecovi as the area where the family lived. The exact location of the family home and the birth years of those killed have not been reliably established.

The Day They Were Taken

In July 1992, armed members of Serb forces, whose names have not been established to this day, came to the family home. They took Hava's husband and six of her sons. According to Radio Free Europe, this happened on 23 July 1992. The portal genocid.ba states that the men were taken directly from the family lunch. According to the same source, the husband was named Muharem, and the sons were Senad, Sejad, Nihad, Zilhad, Zijad and Nishad.

None of them returned. Six sons and the husband were killed in a single day. Only the seventh son, Suad, survived – according to Radio Free Europe, because he was not at home that day.

Crimes in the Zecovi Area

In the same period, between 20 and 28 July 1992, at least 150 Bosniak civilians were killed in the Zecovi area near Prijedor. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina established the responsibility of members of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS), the police and the Crisis Staff for those killings. On 22 December 2023, the Court at first instance sentenced five defendants to a total of 59 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed in Zecovi in 1992, while acquitting six defendants. The Appellate Panel of the Court of BiH upheld the verdict on 26 September 2024.

The portal genocid.ba links the fate of the Tatarević family to the crimes in Zecovi, but the verdict in that case does not mention the family, so a connection between this proceeding and the killing of the men of the Tatarević family has not been established.

Twenty Years of Uncertainty

For almost twenty years, Hava Tatarević did not know where her loved ones lay. She learned the truth only when the remains of her husband and six sons were found in the Tomašica mass grave near Prijedor. Recalling that moment, she said: "When I saw that they were dead, I knew there was no more life…"

According to the portal genocid.ba, Hava testified before the Court of BiH and wanted to find out who had taken her sons away.

The Mother from Prijedor

Hava Tatarević became known as the "Prijedor mother" and a symbol of a loss that cannot be expressed in numbers. In November 2014, in Bihać, the song "Hava, prijedorska majka" by Admir Muhić, dedicated to her fate, was presented. According to genocid.ba, she asks those who deny the genocide how it could not have happened when they killed everyone she had.