The Bone Collector: Ramiz Nukić Searched the Forests Near Kamenica for the Murdered, Among Them His Father

From Kamenica to Srebrenica

Ramiz Nukić came from the area around Kamenica in eastern Bosnia, in the Bratunac municipality. Sources give different names for his village: Kamenica, Kamenicko Brdo and Sandići are mentioned. According to Al Jazeera, Serb forces attacked his village in 1993, and his family fled to Srebrenica.

July 1995: The Column Through the Forest

After the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, Ramiz Nukić said goodbye to his wife and children at the UN base in Potočari. With his father and brothers, he set out through the forest toward Tuzla, together with a column of people trying to escape the forces of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS).

In the forest, the column ran into ambushes set by Serb forces. According to AP, when fire was opened from an ambush, Nukić hid in the ferns and stayed there until the shooting stopped. According to N1, he survived one of the deadliest ambushes set by Serb units in the forest, at the Bukve site.

According to Al Jazeera, he walked for six days toward Tuzla, where he was reunited with his wife and children. He never saw his father and two brothers alive again. According to his 2018 interview with N1, his paternal uncle was also killed at the same place.

Return to the Deserted Village

After the war, Nukić was the first to return to his village. Sources differ on the year of his return: years from 1999 to 2002 are given, and according to one source he returned with his family in 2004. His family remained the only inhabitants of a village that, according to Al Jazeera, had 32 households before the war. According to AP, on his very first return he found three whole skeletons almost at his feet.

More Than Twenty Years of Searching

For more than twenty years he walked the forests around Kamenica searching for the remains of victims of genocide, often in mined and hard-to-reach places. When he found remains, he called the Institut za nestale osobe BiH (the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina), whose staff documented the site and took over the remains.

By his own account, he found the remains of hundreds of people; in various years the media reported figures ranging from over 200 to nearly 300. In this way he helped many families bury their dead. Of his work he said: "Ja ovim činom ne vrijeđam nikoga." ("By this act I offend no one.") He explained to AP why he makes no distinction among the remains he finds: "A bone is a bone. You do not know who it belongs to."

Father and Brothers Found in 2015

In 2015, the remains of his father and brothers were found in the Zvornik area. After identification, they were buried at the Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial Centre.

Death of the Bone Collector

Ramiz Nukić died on 8 November 2022, at the age of 63. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) expressed its condolences, and its Director-General Kathryne Bomberger described him as an extraordinary man.