Date, location: 14 February 2008 Iraq – Amman (Jordan), and 9 February 2008, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Tuzla, Srebrenica,
Production: Hicham Hassan (Jordan) Sanela Bajrambasic (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
Sound: Arabic, English, Serbo-Croatian.
Copyrights: ICRC – Access All
length: 10 mins.

Preview (RealMedia stream 56Kbs - 128kbs): Women's Day 2008


For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Jan Powell, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

Shotlist:

Start at first frame

LOUMA'S STORY, IRAQ

00:00 Baghdad – Tanks in Baghdad City.. File footage April 2003
00:09 Baghdad City. Various of neighbourhoods. File footage April 2003
00:24 Louma discussing with other woman at ICRC Iraq delegation in Amman.

00:38 INTERVIEW LOUMA
"He was asked to get out of the car. My brother was with him in the car and begged them to take him instead explaining that my husband has an ill child who needs therapy. But they insisted on taking him. He got out. I heard the news and I was shocked. I don't know where he is and I'm still waiting."

01:18 Portrait of Louma's husband.

01:22 INTERVIEW LOUMA
"I am now staying with my brother, mother and niece along with my 3 children. We live off my mother's pension and what my brother earns."

01:48 INTERVIEW LOUMA
"I just wait for his news. I just wait for his news. I know nothing about him".

02:08 Louma and her daughter Rania with her two other sons, Mohamed and Rasool in the background.

02:36 INTERVIEW Jamila Hammami, ICRC Tracing officer for Iraq (Arabic )
"Not knowing what happened to husbands, father, brothers is harsh reality for women in war. On one hand in their society they are not wives, not widows, they are something in between. On the other they became the breadwinner of their families. The ICRC, on behalf on the families, promote the right to know and the states have obligations to take necessary measures to clarify the fate of the missing and inform their families and help them in their daily enquiries"

03:20 Louma with her mother-in-law on couch
03:33 Louma prepares tea


04:02 INTERVIEW Jamila Hammami, ICRC Tracing officer for Iraq (English )
"Not knowing what happened to a husband,a father, a brother is harsh reality for women in war. On one hand in their society they are not wives, not widows, they are something in between. On the other they became the breadwinner of their families. The ICRC, on behalf on the families, promote the right to know and the states have obligations to take necessary measures to clarify the fate of the missing and inform their families".


DZIDZA'S STORY, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

04:36 Archiving human remains - Tuzla ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons) Morgue – ICMP staff member - File footage 2001
05:23 Dzidza searching for children and husband's clothes found on bodies exhumed from mass graves, looking through the Book of Belongings, edited by ICRC, with ICRC officer Sanela Bajrambasic. File footage 2001

05:40 Srebrenica signboard, home town of Dzidza. 9 February 2008
05:58 Dzidza's house. Dzida in her kitchen, preparing coffee
06:05 Portrait of her missing husband Abdullah "Lalo"
06:07 Portraits of her missing children; Azmir born in 1974 and Almir born in 1977.

06:14 INTERVIEW Dzidza
"For some time I didn't want to give my blood because it was impossible for me to give it. I couldn't accept that I don't have kids and that I couldn't have kids anymore."

06:28 INTERVIEW Dzidza
"The body is in a very bad state and my child is not complete but at least there is that percentage of skeleton that can be buried".

Cutaway on hands

06:41 INTERVIEW Dzidza
"It's a crime above crime when someone kills your child and does everything so you cannot identify the body and not even put together the bones. I cannot find words to describe this, but it is bigger than a crime."

07:00 Dzidza getting coffee cups in her cupboard where her sons' portraits are displayed
07:05 Sanela Bajrambasic
07:07 Dzidza offers tea to guests
07:04 Dzidza looks at Koran

07:03 INTERVIEW Dzidza
"I want every criminal to be brought to justice and to prove their innocence through a court. Mechanisms exist to prove whether he committed a crime or not."

07:48 INTERVIEW Dzidza
"It is very difficult to live in uncertainty but hope is the last thing to disappear. When you discover that it's true that you don't have your child anymore, I don't know if there is anything more difficult in the world … especially the way he died and only because of his name."

08:14 General shots of Dzidza's house (on the left) with neighbouring house in ruins
08:21 Dzidza goes out of her home
08:32 Dzidza looks down on her doorstep where husband and child have engraved names.
08:37 close ups on signature of child and husband in concrete
08:43 Srebrenica memorial and cemetery
08:50 Dzidza enters cemetery
08:57 Dzidza prays in front of memorial "Sebrenica July 1995"
09:08 Graveyard. Pan on graves with Dzidza walking down the path
09:22 Dzidza mourns by grave
09:43 Srebrenica Monument with names of missing of people from Srebrenica massacre and close-ups on Dzidza's fingers touching her son's names.
10:00 Ends.


Story

War is harsh on everyone, but when women lose track of a son, a father or a husband, they face particular anguish. They live in painful uncertainty, hoping that their loved one may still be alive, while dreading bad news. They feel isolated, and often have little means of support.

On International Women's Day (8 March 2008), the ICRC calls on states to ease the plight of women left behind, to help them find out what happened to their relatives, and give them the support they need to survive. Louma from Iraq and Dzidza from Bosnia-Herzegovina tell us their stories:


Louma's Story

Louma had fled from conflict in Baghdad to find safety for her family in Amman, Jordan. On 1 July 2006, Louma's husband went missing as he was on his way to Amman to visit his family. Louma has been left to fend for her three children, including Rasool, a 6 year old boy who is seriously ill. She has to live on her mother's pension and her brother-in-law's wage, and can no longer afford the physical therapy her son needs. Living in a state of uncertainty prevents Louma going through the usual mourning process and returning to normal life again.

Louma's situation is typical of thousands of women who have lost their husband, father or son. It is not only an emotional shock and a trauma for the women; the missing person was often the family’s only breadwinner or the sole owner of property. Women are therefore left destitute and are often poorly prepared to fend for themselves and their families. A woman whose husband has been reported missing experiences many of the problems encountered by a widow, but without official recognition of her status. If she does not have a death certificate she receives none of the support generally given to a widow and her right to administer property, to inherit, to have custody of her children and to receive benefits, as well as her prospects of remarriage are jeopardized.

Depending on their resources, the support they receive and their personal strength, some women manage to overcome this trauma and find their own ways to keep going, like Dzidza.


Dzidza's Story

For 12 years Dzidza lived in hope of finding her two sons and husband alive after they went missing at the time of the Srebrenica Massacre in 1995. In 2001 Dzidza leafed through every page of The Book of Belongings, created by the ICRC, which contains photographs of clothing and belongings found on the bodies exhumed from mass graves. Some family members have been able to identify missing relatives through the Book of Belongings, but thousands more, including Dzidza, have not found the answers they were looking for.

When DNA matching became available, Dzidza agreed to give a blood sample. On the13th November 2007, she received a phone call from the ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons). They had news of one of her sons, though they could not say which one.

For Dzidza finding out the truth was shocking but brought some relief: "The body is in a very bad state and my child is not complete but at least there is that percentage of skeleton that can be buried". Dzidza regularly visits the memorial in Potocari to more than eight thousand people who were massacred. She longs for justice, "I want every criminal to be brought justice and to prove their innocence through a court. Mechanisms exists to prove whether he committed a crime or not"

All too often the parties to an armed conflict make little effort to shed light on the fate of missing persons. According to Jamila Hammami , ICRC Tracing Officer, "the ICRC, on behalf of the families, promotes the right to know, and the states have obligations to take necessary measures to clarify the fate of the missing and inform their families".