This year, 19 victims of genocide will be buried in the Memorial Center in Potočari on July 11, and the youngest victim who will find his eternal resting place in the valley of white tombstones is Azmir Osmanović, who was 16 when he was killed.
Azmir's brother Azir, who is a member of the staff of the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, spoke with FENA about the sad fate of his brother who, after the fall of Srebrenica, headed in a convoy through the forest with his father Aziz.
-The last time we saw each other was in Baratova, that is, at the gas station in Srebrenica. After the ambush at Kameničko brdo, the brother separated from the father and they never saw each other again. His father was looking for him, and after going to the village of Luka, near Žepa, he received information that Azmir was killed in the village of Poljanci between the villages of Šušnjari and Slatina in the municipality of Srebrenica- remembers Azir Osmanović.
After separating from his father, Azmir joined a group of boys, schoolmates, who tried to reach the free territories.
-We were just trying to go the right way, but unfortunately we did not make it, so we went back to the old path. None of the five of us had any weapons, we were bare-handed. We received information from passers-by that Žepa did not fall, so we headed towards Žepa, although we did not know the way. However, we were not on the right path, we went in the opposite direction- Islam Bektić from Srebrenica, who was part of these events, told FENA.
In an attempt to reach Žepa, three boys from the group were killed, including Azmir Osmanović, who will be buried in Potočari on July 11.
In August 2018, mortal remains were found at the Poljanci site near Srebrenica, which were later, based on the results of DNA analysis, determined to belong to Azmir.
His brother underlines that, unfortunately, that identification process took a very long time.
-My father Aziz did not make it to see the identification of his son because he died three months after the skull was found. After I was informed that it was my brother's skull, I felt as if he had been killed that day or that moment- says Azir Osmanović.
Azir Osmanović survived the Srebrenica genocide as a thirteen-year-old boy. He holds an M.A. in History and works as a curator at the Memorial Center in Potočari. Every day he tells visitors about the suffering that the inhabitants of this protected enclave went through.
He says that his obligation is to spread the truth about the genocide against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica so that it would never happen to anyone again.