Smajlović: Because of chemical weapons, I wanted to kill everyone in the column!

Ahead of tomorrow's funeral for 136 victims of the Srebrenica genocide, every story of the more than 10,000 victims gains weight, writes the Patria News Agency.

Although the wounds are fresh every day of the year, on July 11th, salt is poured on them, making them hurt even more, testify the surviving victims. Fleeing from the Chetnik knife through the forests in high temperatures, and not knowing anything about loved ones, is a special story for everyone who arrived alive in Tuzla...

In the columns and the road of death, many were left helpless, wishing to be killed... The Chetniks, the Army of Republika Srpska, spared no effort to achieve their goal, as many Muslim youths, fathers, brothers... They had only one goal. To kill them and erase them from the face of the earth... It is known that chemical weapons were also thrown at Bosniaks in the columns.

Ramo Smajlović, originally from Bratunac, was in Srebrenica for the entire war. When Srebrenica fell, he moved to Tuzla, and from Tuzla to Sarajevo, where he lives today. He tries, he says, to do something in Bratunac, but it all affects him so much that he cannot imagine returning there.

- My family and I suffered heavy losses. I buried three brothers, a son who was born in 1975. Two brothers died in Srebrenica before it came under Chetnik control, and I lost my son and another brother during the fall of Srebrenica when we were fleeing towards Tuzla – says Smajlović.

He buried his son in the Potočari Memorial Center, and the entire tragedy left an indelible mark on him.

- It was difficult in Srebrenica, I was captured, wounded four times... all that had to be endured. During the breakthrough, I was poisoned by chemical weapons, so all that mattered to me was to kill someone. Simply, people were so poisoned that they wanted to kill each other – says Smajlović.

Today, 20 years after everything, Smajlović feels the consequences... He often mentions his never-forgotten son and wonders what kind of death he had.

- Here I stand before you today, and shivers run through my body. Is it possible for a person to endure all this – Smajlović added.