Saliha Osmanović: Srebrenica took both her sons and her husband, and she rebuilt her house

A family from Dobrak

Saliha Osmanović comes from Dobrak near Skelani, in the municipality of Srebrenica, on the bank of the Drina. She spent the war in Srebrenica with her husband Ramo and their two sons, Nermin and Edin. Before the war, Ramo worked in Beograd. According to Saliha's testimony before the Hague Tribunal, Ramo occasionally served in the Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine (ARBiH) in Srebrenica, while the sons had nothing to do with the army.

The death of Edin, 6 July 1995

Five days before the fall of the enclave, on 6 July 1995, the younger son Edin, aged 17, was killed by a shell during the artillery shelling of Srebrenica.

The fall of Srebrenica and Potočari

Srebrenica fell on 11 July 1995. Saliha went to Potočari with her father-in-law, while Ramo and their elder son Nermin set out through the forest with the column towards Tuzla. In Potočari, her father-in-law was separated from the others and Saliha never saw him again.

A day later, on 12 July, Saliha saw General Ratko Mladić in Potočari. According to her testimony, he called on the refugees to discard everything, because the Serb army was coming. She was then deported to territory under the control of the ARBiH.

Capture and the video "Nermine, dođi!"

On 13 July 1995, Serb forces captured Ramo and Nermin as they were trying to leave the enclave. The exact place of capture is not known. On 13 and 14 July, the Beograd journalist Zoran Petrović Pirocanac filmed the prisoners. In the footage, Ramo calls out to his son Nermin and to other men hiding in the forest to come out and surrender: "Nermine, hajde dolamo, ja sam dolamo, slobodno…" The footage was broadcast by the Beograd television station Studio B. According to reports, Ramo called out to his son on the orders of Serb soldiers.

For the family, this became the last sight of Ramo, and in Bosnian memory a symbol of a summons to death. In Sarajevo's Veliki park there now stands a monument "Nermine, dođi!", which recalls the father's call.

The killing and the search for the remains

From 13 July 1995, Ramo and Nermin were listed as missing. Both were killed; the exact date and place of the killing are not known. Their remains were found in two different graves: Ramo's in Zeleni Jadar near Srebrenica, and Nermin's in the Snagovo mass grave near Zvornik. They were identified in 2009, and on 11 July 2009 both were buried at the Memorial Centre Potočari.

Saliha's mother was found in Sremska Mitrovica and buried in Bratunac, around 2008. The circumstances of her death are not known.

Testimony in The Hague

In May 2013, Saliha Osmanović testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the proceedings against Ratko Mladić. The footage in which Ramo calls out to his son was also shown in the courtroom.

Return to Dobrak

After the war, Saliha returned to Dobrak. According to a text by Ahmed Hrustanović carried by the portal genocid.ba, she rebuilt the house that she had once built for both her sons. She shows visitors the living room, the kitchen, the pantry and the children's room, a room for children who will not return. She tends the garden and flowers, and has travelled, among other places, to The Hague, the USA, Germany and England. People who know her describe her as a quiet and hardworking woman, one of the mothers of Podrinje who survived the loss of an entire family.