BHRT FILM Footage of the first witnesses of the Srebrenica genocide released: They took the men, they killed them, they slit their throats...

(Patria) - The Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide committed against Bosniaks, has released footage of the first witnesses who arrived in July 1995 on the free territory of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the fall of the United Nations (UN) "safe zone".

When in July 1995, women, children and the elderly from the "UN safe zone Srebrenica" began arriving on free territory, they brought with them testimonies about the mass crimes committed by Serbian forces, which we would years later call by their true name.

Teams of Radio and Television of BiH recorded the testimonies of those who escaped the hell of Srebrenica, but who were still waiting to learn the fate of their husbands, fathers, sons who tried to find a path to freedom by taking the "road through the forest..."

The documentary film lasts just over half an hour, and it features harrowing testimonies of survivors - women, children and the elderly - who had just managed to escape the hell of Srebrenica.

Just a few days after Serbian forces captured the UN-protected enclave, they began a systematic campaign of killing and slaughtering Bosniaks.

The footage shows mothers crying and fleeing with children in their arms. One of the women also describes an encounter with the criminal Ratko Mladić, who at the time promised them that no one would be harmed.

- There is no more life for us, ever. It is over. Our people have been slaughtered. We have no more brothers. We have no one left. They have slaughtered all of them - the women say through tears.

One woman tearfully described how she watched men hanging themselves or banging their heads against rocks, desperately trying to avoid capture. A young man recounted how he saved himself by running into a bus with women.

- I was an eyewitness when UNPROFOR carried bundles of wheat and helped the Chetniks burn us. In Potočari, there is a factory, there is a pit where there was acid, they placed the people they wanted there, and UNPROFOR carried the bundles and helped them burn us. That was the last day of our stay in Potočari. UNPROFOR members gave everything to the Chetniks, rifles and bulletproof vests, they were left only in shirts and trousers. Mladić arrived and distributed chocolates and bread to the children. That was just to clean his image before the world public, but that can never be washed away - recounted one of the women who managed to escape the hell of Srebrenica.