AT SREBRENICA A STORY OF HOPE
sent Mevlida and Sara to hospital in Tulsa. It was a gruelling five-hour journey and some women, desperate for treatment, did not survive the trip. After recovering in Tulsa, Mevlida and Sara headed for Denmark in 1993 and were accepted as refugees.
She formally adopted Sara and trained to be a social worker.
Mevlida visited London as part of an Oxford University project looking at refugee integration.
Against a rising current of Islamophobia in Denmark, Mevlida eventually moved to England in 1999.
It was here that she met and married second husband Djamel. She said: “I can never forget Denmark and what they gave to me, but life in Denmark as a Muslim meant you had to answer every day why I am who I am. In England I have never been asked to explain who I am.”
Mevlida now runs charity shops for Human Relief Foundation, which supports communities in some of the poorest regions of the world.
She and Sara live in Islington, North London, and say they cannot thank the UK enough for taking them in.
Addressing Sara, Mevlida said: “You were always more than a daughter. You’re a daughter, a friend – actually it was you that helped me come through all of this.
“I remember you were probably four years old when my brothers died and I was sitting crying and you said to me, ‘But you know Mum, you have me and I have you.’ I never forget that – I realised we only needed each other.” Sara, who works at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, added: “I think that’s what makes us really strong together as well, we’re like best friends. I’m Bosnian but England is my home.”
Sara’s birth mother was called Zina and is understood to be alive.
But Sara has no wish to be reunited with her.
She has travelled back to Bosnia and one day will explain to her children – aged five and six – where she came from.
The memories of 1992, meanwhile, remain hauntingly vivid for Mevlida.
She cannot forget the Serb troops constantly bombing Srebrenica for “target practice” from the nearby Tara mountain. Thirty-six members of her close family were murdered during the war – including her brothers Sadik and Ibro, identified by DNA from bones found in unmarked graves. Six family members have yet to be found.
Sister Hafiza and brother Mustsfa still live in Bosnia. Their parents survived too and Mevlida did see them again, though they have since died.
Mevlida has been back to Bosnia many times to identify and rebury loved ones.
But, thanks to her, one name isn’t among the list of casualties – Sara.
The proud mum said: “It was a decision that changed my whole life and I’m so thankful I made it.”
MEVLIDA LAZIBI RELIVING THE HORRORS OF THE BOSNIAN WAR