Members of the Association of Camp Inmates in Bosnia and Herzegovina will today mark the 33rd anniversary of the crimes in the “Keraterm” camp near Prijedor. In the period from May to August 1992, about three thousand civilians of Bosniak and Croat ethnicity passed through this camp, and 371 camp inmates did not survive the torture and torment. On the night of July 23-24, about 200 camp inmates were killed in room number three of the “Keraterm” camp.
The Hague Tribunal declared the crime in “Keraterm” one of the most horrific committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Regional Association of Camp Inmates Associations of the Banja Luka Region, Camp Inmates Association “Prijedor `92.” and the Association of Camp Inmates Kozarac, recall that the “Keraterm” camp was formed in a pre-war ceramics factory in May 1992 by the authorities appointed by the SDS, who forcibly took over power and control over the entire Prijedor at the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The four rooms-halls of the factory, until then used as warehouses for finished products, became rooms for terror and executions of about 3,000 camp inmates of Bosniak and Croat nationality from those areas.
Their bodies were found in mass graves in Tomašica, Stari Kevljani, Jakarina Kosa.
The horrific scenes of terror in the camp, when 190 inmates were shot in just one night, were testified before the courts by surviving inmates: Fikret Alić, Jusuf Arifagić, Teofik Kulašić…
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague also listed the proven crimes in Keraterm in the indictment against the then President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević. More than 30 responsible persons from the then civil and military authorities of Republika Srpska and Prijedor, as well as paramilitary units, administration and guards of this and other Prijedor camps, were found guilty and sentenced to long prison sentences.
Before the Hague Tribunal, Duško Sikirica was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Zoran Žigić to 25 years, Duško Tadić, convicted among other crimes for Keraterm, to 20 years, Predrag Banović to eight years, Dragan Kolundžija to three years, Damir Došen to five years, Milojica Kos, convicted among other crimes for Keraterm, to eight years.
Before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dušan Fuštar was sentenced to nine years and Duško Knežević to 31 years in prison.
“The existing legal ‘solutions’ ‘protect’ the surviving camp inmates by still issuing them fines in the form of ‘costs of the RS attorney’ in thousands of BAM, and today around 100,000 living witnesses do not have medical rehabilitation, any priority in employment, any real protection and concrete rights even after three decades,” the Association of Camp Inmates in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
The Association of Camp Inmates in Bosnia and Herzegovina will lead the side of proven and documented truth and justice, continue to spread the truth around the world, and continue digitalization for generations to come, the statement said.
