Scenes From Hell

A disturbing video out of Ukraine evokes similar scenes from Srebrenica.

A woman in Belgrade watches a video on television on June 2, 2005, showing Serbian paramilitaries executing six Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica in 1995. KOCA SULEJMANOVIC/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

In July 1995, 12-year-old Senada Ibrahamovic leaned out the window of her house in Srebrenica, a former mining town in eastern Bosnia, and caught a fleeting glance of her father, Smail. A defender of the embattled city, he was running into the forest.

He turned around and waved goodbye to his daughter. He was wearing his favorite blue jean jacket. When I spoke to her in 2005, Senada remembered this detail and also that she was angry with her father for leaving as the town’s warning sirens went off. But he had kissed her and told her he would see her in a few days: that the family would be reunited.

First published at Foreign Policy. The full story is available at foreignpolicy.com