Srebrenica survivor remembers as UN to vote on genocide

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STORY: Kada Hotic last saw her son, husband and brother on July 11, 1995...

:: July 12, 1995

:: File

as Bosnian Serb forces swamped the United Nations "safe zone" of the town of Srebrenica, forcing thousands of panicked Muslims to flee.

Hotic visits a cemetery built near the former UN site...

as she remembers how shells exploded around her and her family as they ran toward a U.N. base for safety.

:: July 12, 1995

:: File

Hotic had no chance to say goodbye as her 29-year-old son Samir was directed by peacekeepers to nearby woods along with thousands of younger men and boys.

There they would become victims of the bloodiest massacre of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, with Serb forces killing about 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The remains of her son, husband, two brothers and a brother-in-law were found years later, in mass graves.

Hotic says the fight for justice has been going on for decades.

"We have been fighting since 1996 for the truth to become public, for criminals to be punished, for finding our missing ones taken into unknown places and once we learned they were dead to unearth them, give them their identities back and bury them with dignity."

:: July 12, 1995

:: File

Her memories resurfaced this week as the United Nations General Assembly was scheduled to vote on a resolution that calls for July 11 to be an international day of remembrance of the genocide in Srebrenica.

"I want the world to know the truth, to appreciate, to judge, to remember, so that this evil never happens again."

The impending U.N. resolution was initiated by Germany, Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was sponsored by the United States.

It condemns the denial of genocide and the glorification of war criminals. A vote is expected on Thursday.

:: July 12, 1995

:: File

A U.N. war crimes tribunal and the International Court of Justice have ruled that the Srebrenica atrocities constituted genocide.

Many former Bosnian Serb military leaders have been held accountable.

But the vote has faced fierce resistance in parts of the Balkans, amid lasting divisions following ethnically charged regional conflicts since Yugoslavia broke apart in 1991.

Serbia and Bosnia's Serb-dominated Serb Republic have repeatedly denied that genocide occurred in Srebrenica.

Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik has threatened that the Serb Republic, where Srebrenica is located, will secede from Bosnia if the resolution is passed.