Long-lost refugees emerge from woods
Srebrenica survivors rekindle hopes
April 6, 1996
Web posted at: 9:20 p.m. EST (0220 GMT)TUZLA, Bosnia (CNN) -- A remarkable story of hope emerged from the woods of Bosnia Saturday.
Six Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica walked to Tuzla after nine months of hiding from Bosnian Serbs, raising expectations that more of the thousands of missing Muslim men, thought to be dead, may still be alive.
Some 8,000 Muslim men disappeared after the Bosnian Serbs took control of the eastern enclave last summer. Most are believed dead, but the appearance of the six survivors revived hope.
The six men said they fled hostile Bosnian Serbs, walking along paths littered with corpses and eating food found on the way, mostly grain and potatoes. Tomatoes and peppers were occasional luxuries.
They said it took them 270 days to reach Muslim territory because they found their route to safety blocked every time before by Serb soldiers.
"At first we spent days in the forests, nights in the houses," said one survivor. "Then, the Serbs starting hunting us, day and night, so we kept moving through the forests."
The six arrived in Muslim-held Tuzla late Friday and some have already been reunited with their families, Bosnian state television said.
The news of the six survivors brought a glimmer of hope to the Srebrenica Women's center in Tuzla. Five thousand women work at or rely on the center for help in locating the missing. Most of them have no clue about the fate of the men in their families.
Beta Hamatavic says all the men in her family are missing.
"It's easier to talk, to work," she said. "It's still hard, but you can't just sit and cry."
Rather than wait anxiously, the women have decided to throw themselves into work, making traditional rugs to be sold abroad. It keeps them busy and their minds off what's missing in their lives.
"Can you imagine what it's like to sit and think about your tragedy 24 hours a day?" asked one of the women. "You'd feel horrible."
The group of women have become a powerful voice in the community, demanding answers to some disturbing questions. They want to know what happened to the thousands of men who disappeared last summer.
"Srebrenica Women are fighting to find those people," said a member of the group. "I don't know if we'll succeed. We have hope, though; it still exists."
Srebrenica, a so-called United Nations "safe area," was captured in a Bosnian Serb assault in July 1995. Several hundred Bosnian Muslims are believed to have been systematically executed by Bosnian Serb gangs, then buried on farms and hillsides.
CNN Correspondent Jackie Shymanski and Reuters contributed to this report.
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