After May 26th and the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Trnopolje camp near Prijedor, the Association of Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), together with its member organizations, joins the marking of May 31st, ”White Ribbon Day” in Prijedor.
”The results of the events in Prijedor and its surroundings in those days in 1992 are visible through 3.176 killed civilians, of which 265 were women and girls, and 102 children. Prijedor places were evicted from the non-Serb population, looted and destroyed, and over 30.000 detainees passed through the camps Trnopolje, Omarska, Keraterm, Manjaca, and more,” the Association of Detainees in BiH announced.
The announcement added that “over 20 Greater Serbia politicians of the then ‘Crisis Staff’, members of police and military structures, have so far been sentenced to several hundred years in prison, are direct evidence of crimes in and around Prijedor.”
”Also, the concrete evidence found in the field confirms the dishonorable result of the Tomasica mass grave, as the largest mass grave after the Second World War, so it is easy to draw a conclusion about the nature of events on your own,” it is stated in the announcement.
It was emphasized that the Association of Detainees in BiH continuously strives to, in cooperation with state bodies and institutions, and organizations dealing with this and related topics, to make an active contribution, both through the testimonies of detainees at various levels of judicial and prosecutorial bodies, through investigations of potential mass graves in the field throughout BiH, and through providing the necessary information and evidence available to the Association through its vast archival documentation. Confirmation of that in the previous period are expressed interests and visits of university researchers from Italy, who were just interested in the issues of events in the municipality of Prijedor, and in which the Association has repeatedly given its contribution and support.
They pointed out the need to draw the attention, primarily of politicians, both domestic and foreign, who make important decisions, to the “urgent need to care for a population of over 100.000 detainees, living witnesses to the torture endured, and the lack of a sense and adequate law for their current life problems and needs.”
E.Dz.
