[wzslider autoplay=”true”]Several hundreds of citizens from entire BiH marked yesterday in Prijedor the Day of White Armbands and paid tribute to the 102 killed children and civilians of Prijedor 24 years ago.
An installation of children’s shoes was placed on the main square in Prijedor and names of the killed children of that city were read. Another request was made for the permission to build a memorial for them.
Fikret Bacic, whose children Nermina and Nermin were killed in front of their house in Zecovi, reminded again that there was no response to the parents’ initiative to build a memorial for the killed children. Thereby, discrimination is again being exerted against them, and the statute of the City of Prijedor is being violated again.
They addressed the city and entity authorities, as parents, asking them to approve this request because if that does not happen, they will press charges.
“We will continue the fair fight against discrimination and segregation of non-Serb population in this City,” said Bacic and added that they will not give up on their requests.
Drazana Lepir, President of the Civil Association “Ostra Nula”, highlighted in her addressing speech that all those who condemn the war crimes and criminals not only resist the nationalistic ideologies, but they also build new bridges for people.
“Our lives must not be in service of war profiteers, criminal authorities and nationalistic ideologies,” Lepir highlighted and added that the prohibitions only strengthened their intention to mark the day of remembrance of the killed ones in Prijedor for the fourth consecutive year.
“Let’s not turn our heads away and be hypocrites, because this is our business,” Lepir added.
Former spokeswoman of The Hague Tribunal Florence Hartmann said that the situation today is such that it is more difficult to speak about crimes than it was ten years ago or immediately after the war.
Highlighting that this is about the prohibition of memorialization, Hartmann stated that those are unacceptable policies.
Prior to the marking of the Day of White Armbands, an incident occurred in the café “Papa Joe” in Prijedor, when a waiter refused to serve drinks to Florence Hartmann because she had a white armband around her arm.
Florence believes that this is a “clear case of discrimination in public and in a hospitality facility” and announced that she will report the incident to the police.
Hartmann added that one of the employees in the café even asked her why she was not in prison yet.
On 31st of May 1992, the Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor issued an order via local radio, ordering the non-Serb population to mark their houses with white flags or sheets and to wear white armbands around their arms when leaving their homes.
That was the beginning of ethnic cleansing in Prijedor, followed by camps, mass executions and other horrifying crimes.
(Source: radiosarajevo.ba/photo faktor/ republika/velkaton/radiosarjevo)
