A funeral ceremony will be held in Bosnia on Wednesday for Hatidza Mehmedovic, an activist who fought for justice for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the funeral in her home village of Bektici after noon prayers.
Mehmedovic, head of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association, had been undergoing treatment for cancer before she passed away at a clinic in Sarajevo on Sunday.
Mehmedovic’s association represents the mothers of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys massacred by Serbian forces in 1995.
She survived the war in Bosnia but lost her husband Abdullah (44) and her two sons Azmir and Almir — 21 and 18 — together with many family members.
After her losses, Mehmedovic dedicated her life to raising awareness of the massacre and became a symbol of resistance.
“I will no longer be able to be a mother,” she said in the wake of the disaster.
“I will not have a grandchild. I will not have a son and I will no longer know what all of this happiness means.”
Enduring symbol in wake of massacre
An image of Hatidza taken at a 2010 ceremony burying the remains of her sons became one of the symbols of the sorrow over the massacre.
Angelina Jolie, an actress and special envoy for the UN Refugee Agency, also remembered Mehmedovic in an article published by CNN.
Saying she met Mehmedovic four years ago when victims of the genocide were being buried, Jolie remembered:
“Hatidza was exceptional. For 23 years, she was a tireless seeker of truth and justice. She never claimed any special status, but spoke on behalf of all the Mothers of Srebrenica.”
“We too may never see justice in our lifetimes, but we cannot go wrong if we follow her example,” Jolie added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said on Twitter: “We will always remember her as someone who sought justice for the victims of Srebrenica.”
“Her cause will continue forever,” he added.
In her message of condolences, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said that she would never forget the pain that she saw in Hatidza’s eyes, urging people not to forget what happened in Srebrenica 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.
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