Testimony of an Omarska camp survivor: It was hell on Earth

Safet Alić from Kozarac, as a 21-year-old in 1992, was imprisoned in the Omarska camp along with hundreds of other men, and during three months of captivity, he went through hell, he recounts in his testimony, writes the BH news agency Patria.

- Serbian forces killed my grandfather who was 93 years old. Those they didn't kill, they forced into concentration camps. They burned our houses, took our belongings.

As Safet recounts, recalling those terrible scenes, they separated children from their parents.

- My brother's wife had given birth only a few weeks before, and we didn't know what happened to her or my parents.

In the camp, prisoners were fed once a day, with bread or some diluted soup.

- I lost half my weight in those three months. When British journalists came to Kozarac to investigate what was happening, a delegation from the Red Cross soon arrived. That was a miracle because their very presence was a clear signal that the Serbs would not get away with murder and gave hope to the prisoners, says Safet.

Safet also states that they lived in constant fear of being killed and wondered which day they would die.

- Those three months felt like 30 years. It was hell on Earth.

Safet and his brother were very ill and malnourished. They were sent to the hospital, from where the Red Cross transferred them to Great Britain.

- Only on the plane did I see that my brother was there too. I thought he had stayed behind. We recovered in the hospital for months.

During that time, his brother's wife was in France with her daughter and mother-in-law. The Red Cross did everything to accommodate the entire family in one place so they could be together.

- The community in Chelmsford accepted us completely, and after the suffering and the horror we experienced, we had a happy ending, says Safet.

Today, he is married to Mersida, with whom he has 13-year-old Amer and 10-year-old Hana.

My mother lives near us, and my brother and his wife have had two more children.

Safet says he still thinks about those who disappeared or were killed. He himself lost an uncle, a good friend, and a neighbor who were in Omarska.

- I heard that my neighbor and friend died in the camp, and I knew nothing about my uncle for 20 years. A few months ago, the Red Cross informed me that my uncle had also been killed.