The commemoration of the victims of the crimes committed in the area of Vlasenica and Podrinje and the commemoration of the 31st year since the suffering of the detainees in the Sušica concentration camp will be held today at the location of that former war camp in the area of Vlasenica.
The Vlasenica Detention Center Association, in cooperation with the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Vlasenica, will participate in the commemoration, announced the Association of Detention Camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a statement.
The event begins with the gathering and transport of participants from the Turalići locality, then continues with the traditional “March of Peace: Turalići-Dobra voda-Sušica” and ends with a central event in Sušica, in the grounds of the former camp, from 3 p.m.
From June to September 1992, about 8,000 detainees from the area of Vlasenica and Podrinje passed through the Sušica camp. They were exposed to torture by the camp’s guards and founders, from psycho-physical abuse, sexual abuse, mutilation, rape, to murder.
According to ICRC data, 1,617 detainees lost their lives. During that period, a large number of inmates were organized and taken to the Han Ploča locality at the southern entrance to Han Pijesak, where, after mass executions, in the so-called more than a thousand camp inmates were thrown into the ‘river’, as evidenced by several smaller graves discovered so far, as well as mass graves in the localities of Ogradice, Debelo brdo, Jelovačka česma and Tugovo.
The Union of Prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after only two days of the previous anniversary of the crimes in Sanski Most and Sasina, will draw attention in Sušica that in order to preserve the truth about the struggle for Bosnia and Herzegovina and at least minimal justice for prison inmates throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is absolutely necessary to establish rights that will at least 28 years later protect the surviving camp inmates and give an additional seal to the truth with the appropriate law on the protection of victims of war torture, the Union of camp inmates in BiH points out in a statement.
