Two days ago, 33 years were marked since the first dissolution of the infamous camp at Manjaca near Banja Luka. Representatives of former detainees’ associations, together with former prisoners and their families, laid flowers and paid tribute to those killed. From the commemorative gathering, it was stated that the authorities have done almost nothing to ensure that former detainees have an adequate law or a memorial at the site of the former camp.
“I was in this stable. I weighed 49 kilograms, I couldn’t stand, I was falling,” recalls former detainee Savdija Mejdin.
Even after more than 30 years, former detainees remember their stay at Manjaca, the starvation, and the daily torture to which they were subjected. It is estimated that between four and a half thousand and five thousand people were imprisoned in the camp from various locations.
“I am 00201958. My name is Mehmed Hakije Begic, but when I was arrested and brought here, while I had my name and surname, nothing was respected. Back then, they told me that my life here was worth as much as the life of a worm. When the International Red Cross registered me with this number, then I felt I had some protection,” says Mehmed Begic, president of the Assembly of the Association of Former Detainees of Una-Sana Canton (USC).
Representatives of former detainees’ associations stated that politicians have done almost nothing for former detainees over all these years, which is why there is no adequate law at any level in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“This is not a population that once suffered something and then it ended; this is a population that to this day fights for something constructive and for a truly democratic state. However, from politicians, we do not have adequate support. If we did, today we would have a law that would give at least a minimum of rights and acknowledgment for these people, for what happened here and in what way,” says Seid Omerovic, president of the Association of Former Detainees of BiH.
Year after year, a request is also submitted for the installation of a commemorative plaque.
“From this place, with the full right of a former detainee and someone who represents detainees, we once again ask the Mayor of Banja Luka, Drasko Stanivukovic, and the Center for Rural Development, which manages this property, to finally allow families and former detainees to mark this site,” said Mirsad Duratovic, president of the Association of Former Detainees “Prijedor ’92.”
The camp at Manjaca was formed in September 1991 at the site of a livestock farm, which belonged to a Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) barracks. It was closed at the end of 1992; however, it was later reopened, Federalna writes.
