「どこかで生きているかも…」　息子を待つ母親たちの苦悩　スレブレニツァの虐殺から２５年

【スレブレニツァＡＦＰ＝時事】ファティマ・ムジッチさんは毎日、夫と3人の息子に祈りをささげている。4人は、ボスニア・ヘルツェゴビナのスレブレニツァで、25年前の夏に数日間繰り広げられたイスラム教徒の大虐殺で殺されたのだ。（写真はスレブレニツァに近いポトチャリの墓地を歩くメイラ・ジョガスさん）
　だが、今も行方が分からない長男に祈りをささげることは毎回ためらってしまうと、ムジッチさんはＡＦＰに語った。「どこかで生きているとまだ思っている。長男のために祈り始めると手が震えて、どうすればいいのか分からなくなる」
　ボスニア・ヘルツェゴビナでは、１９９２年から始まった内戦が終わりに近づいていた１９９５年７月１１日、イスラム系住民が多数を占めるボスニアの町、スレブレニツァをセルビア人武装勢力が急襲。数日間でイスラム教徒の成人男性や少年約８０００人を連れ去って殺害し、遺体を埋めた。
　ムジッチさんの夫と２人の息子の遺体は内戦終了後に集団埋葬地で発見され、６６００人以上の犠牲者が眠る追悼施設に１０年前に埋葬された。
　しかし、今でも１０００人以上が発見されていない。
　現在、サラエボ近郊の村に住むムジッチさんは、長男が発見されたという知らせを聞くために生きていると話す。
　最後に８４か所の集団埋葬地が発見されてから１０年が過ぎた。行方不明者協会の広報担当者は、「２０１９年７月以降、犠牲者の遺体が発見されたのは１３人だけだ」と述べた。

■「ママ、僕から離れないで」
　ムジッチさんは今も、子どもたちを最後に見た時のことを思い出す。
　当時、「安全な避難場所」とされていたイスラム教徒の居留地を守っていたオランダ軍をセルビア武装勢力が制圧したため、数千人のイスラム教徒の女性、子ども、高齢者がスレブレニツァ郊外の国連（ＵＮ）基地の前に集まっていた。ムジッチさんもその一人だった。
　ムジッチさんの１６歳の末の息子は、ムジッチさんにしがみつきこう言った。「ママ、僕から離れないで」
　「私は息子の癖毛をなで、『離れないから』と言った」「彼らが息子を連れ去ろうとしたので、追いかけた。ひょっとしたら殴られたのかもしれないが、その後のことはまったく覚えていない」
　夫とほかの息子２人は森に逃げようとしたが捕らえられたという。

■「生きる理由がない」
　７１歳のメイラ・ジョガスさんは、残りの人生を自分の人生が「止まった」場所で過ごすと決めている。
　毎朝テラスの花に水をやりに行くと、スレブレニツァにある記念館のすぐそばの家からは、何千もの白い墓が緑の芝生に広がっているのが見える。
　１９歳と２１歳で死んだ２人の息子はそこに眠っている。２０歳だった三男と夫はスレブレニツァの虐殺が起こる前の１９９２年に殺されていた。
　「もう生きる理由がない。気が狂わないように花の世話をしているが、自分自身の花は黒い地中にある」

■「二度と会えない」
　ラミザ・グルディッチさん（６７）は、１７歳と２０歳の息子たちと夫を殺した男たちにも「子どもはいたのだろうか？」と考える。
　夫と一緒に森に逃げ込む前、長男はたばこを１本吸うとグルディッチさんに言った。「もう二度と会えないと思う」。下の息子は何も言わなかった。
　２人の息子の遺体は後に発見されたが、長男は半分だけしか見つからなかった。グルディッチさんは、残りの半分がいつか見つかることを願っている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/07/14-13:07）

Fatima Mujic prays every day for the husband and three sons killed in the genocide against Bosnian Muslims that unfolded over several summer days in the town of Srebrenica 25 years ago.
But she hesitates each time, thinking of her eldest son Refik, who has still not been found a quarter-century after the massacre.
I still think he's alive somewhere. I know about the others, but when I pray for him my hands start shaking, I don't know what to do, the 75-year-old widow told AFP.
Her loved ones were among some 8,000 Muslim men and boys who were killed by Serb forces in the eastern enclave towards the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, an atrocity deemed a genocide by international courts.
Mujic's husband and two of her sons, whose remains were found in mass graves after the conflict, were buried a decade ago in the memorial centre where more than 6,600 victims of the victims lie.
Another 237 have been laid to rest at other sites.
But more than 1,000 people have never been found, an acute source of pain for survivors.
Mujic, who now lives in a village near Sarajevo, says she lives for the call that the remains of Refik have been unearthed.
But a decade has passed since the last of 84 mass graves was discovered.
Since July 2019, the remains of only 13 victims have been found, said Emza Fazlic, spokesperson for the Missing Persons Institute. A lack of new information and witnesses has hampered the search, she said.
- 'Don't leave me' -
Ahead of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the massacre on Saturday, Mujic recalls the last time she saw her children.
She was among thousands of women, children and elderly who had gathered in front of a UN base outside of Srebrenica after Serb troops over-ran the Dutch soldiers who had been protecting the Muslim enclave, deemed a safe haven at the time.
Under the command of Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, men and boys were taken away and summarily killed.
Mujic recalls how her youngest son, 16-year-old Nufik, hung on to me and said, 'Mum, don't leave me.'
I stroked his curly hair and said 'I won't leave you', she remembers.
They took him, I followed them. I don't know if they hit me, but I don't remember anything, she said.
Her two other sons and her husband tried to flee into the forest but were captured.
- 'Black soil' -
Another widow, 71-year-old Mejra Djogaz, has decided to spend the rest of her days in the place where her life stopped.
She lives in a house a stone's throw away from the memorial in Srebrenica, which now lies in a Serb-dominated half of Bosnia, a legacy of ethnic cleansing during the war that left lasting divides between Bosnia's Serb, Muslim and Croat communities.
Every morning, when she goes out to water the flowers on her patio, she sees thousands of white gravestones that fan out in straight rows across the green lawns of the memorial.
Her two sons Omer and Munib lie there. They were 19 and 21 years old.
I no longer have a reason to live. I take care of the flowers so I don't go crazy, but my flowers are in black soil, says the woman whose third son, Zuhdija, who was 20, and her husband Mustafa, were killed earlier in the war during a 1992 siege of Srebrenica.
My sons didn't hurt anyone, they didn't stand in the way of an ant. I only wonder why they killed my children? They were our neighbours, Djogaz laments.
- 'A beautiful child' -
Ramiza Gurdic, 67, also wonders about the men who killed her sons and her husband: Did they have children?
Her two children, Mehrudin and Mustafa, were 17 and 20.
Before fleeing into the forest with their father, the eldest smoked a cigarette and rolled another one.
Mother, I will never see you again, he told her.
The youngest didn't say anything, adds Gurdic. The remains of both boys were later found, but only half of Mehrudin.
The widow is still hopeful that the other half will someday be uncovered.
His mother didn't bring him into the world without a head and arms. He was a beautiful child. But they didn't think that, she says.
A quarter-century later, she doesn't wish harm on the men who stole her sons.
God will give them what they deserve, she told AFP. No hatred, no malice, but no reconciliation either.