The town that has become synonymous with the worst act of genocide in Europe since World War Two. Over 8,373 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed because of their ethnic and religious identities.
In the modern day, and as a result of war time experiences, around 400,000 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What happened?
After the collapse of General Tito’s dictatorship, Yugoslavia began to break up along ethnic lines in 1991. When the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) declared independence in 1992, the region quickly became the central theatre of fighting.
The Serbs targeted Bosniak and Croatian civilians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The war in Bosnia claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 people and displaced more than two million.
Azir’s Story
Azir Hasonvitch was born and raised in Srebrenica. He survived the genocide.
“You cannot describe it, we suffered many terrible things.”
“Bosnian Serb forces they killed the people; raped the women and girls, and you know you can’t do anything you just wait for your turn when they kill you. In that situation you are powerless to do anything.”
Azir was thirteen when the Bosnian genocide happened.
“My older brother is still missing. 24 years later we haven’t found any bones.”
PTSD
The invisible wounds of the four-year war that ended in 1995 are slow to heal.
Yet at the same time many people are convinced that they were able to bear the wartime stresses and deprivations better than the anxieties brought by the peace that followed.
“A lot of us that survived the genocide have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. My younger brother who survived committed suicide after the war. My father had PTSD for ten years.”
“He cannot go to the hospital because some doctors will have been in the Serbian Army during the war. You recognise faces.”
“It’s difficult; a lot of Serbs in Srebrenica deny the genocide. They are free walking. We don’t have any rights here.”
Azir is a curator at the Srebrenica memorial—officially known as the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide.
Part of his job involves taking tour groups around the memorial sites and sharing his experiences to raise awareness about what happened in 1995.
“I’m tired. I’m tired of my job and what I do. Every day I speak about what I survived.”
“During the night when I’m sleeping… I feel it.”
The feeling is that they failed in peace, or that the peace failed them.
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Short Headline
Standfirst
Published Article
HeadlineCity Investigates: PTSD in a Broken Bosnia
Short HeadlinePost-Genocide PTSD in Bosnia
StandfirstAround 400,000 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Srebrenica.
The town that has become synonymous with the worst act of genocide in Europe since World War Two. Over 8,373 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed because of their ethnic and religious identities.
In the modern day, and as a result of war time experiences, around 400,000 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What happened?
After the collapse of General Tito’s dictatorship, Yugoslavia began to break up along ethnic lines in 1991. When the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) declared independence in 1992, the region quickly became the central theatre of fighting.
The Serbs targeted Bosniak and Croatian civilians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The war in Bosnia claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 people and displaced more than two million.
Azir’s Story
Azir Hasonvitch was born and raised in Srebrenica. He survived the genocide.
“You cannot describe it, we suffered many terrible things.”
“Bosnian Serb forces they killed the people; raped the women and girls, and you know you can’t do anything you just wait for your turn when they kill you. In that situation you are powerless to do anything.”
Azir was thirteen when the Bosnian genocide happened.
“My older brother is still missing. 24 years later we haven’t found any bones.”
PTSD
The invisible wounds of the four-year war that ended in 1995 are slow to heal.
Yet at the same time many people are convinced that they were able to bear the wartime stresses and deprivations better than the anxieties brought by the peace that followed.
“A lot of us that survived the genocide have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. My younger brother who survived committed suicide after the war. My father had PTSD for ten years.”
“He cannot go to the hospital because some doctors will have been in the Serbian Army during the war. You recognise faces.”
“It’s difficult; a lot of Serbs in Srebrenica deny the genocide. They are free walking. We don’t have any rights here.”
Azir is a curator at the Srebrenica memorial—officially known as the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide.
Part of his job involves taking tour groups around the memorial sites and sharing his experiences to raise awareness about what happened in 1995.
“I’m tired. I’m tired of my job and what I do. Every day I speak about what I survived.”
“During the night when I’m sleeping… I feel it.”
The feeling is that they failed in peace, or that the peace failed them.
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