SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Hatidza Mehmedovic, a vocal activist seeking justice for victims of the Srebrenica massacre, died in capital Sarajevo on Sunday. She was 66.
The head of Mothers of Srebrenica Association was receiving treatment for cancer. She died at a clinic at 7.30 p.m. local time (1730GMT), said hospital sources, on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
She will be buried in her hometown of Srebrenica on Wednesday.
After losing her husband and two sons in the massacre, Mehmedovic dedicated her life to raise awareness on the massacre and became a symbol of resistance.
“I will no more be a mother,” she had said in the wake of the disaster.
“I will not be able to have grandchildren. I will not be able to have a son and I will no more know what all of this happiness means.”
Her association represents the mothers of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys massacred by Serbian forces in 1995.
More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb forces attacked the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops tasked with acting as international peacekeepers.
Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces who were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.
Hundreds of Bosniak families are still searching for missing people as a large number of victims were thrown into mass graves around the country during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
Reporting by Aldijana Hadzic and Lejla Biogradlija:Writing by Nilay Kar
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