The Bijeljina – Janja war camp detainees association marked on Saturday the 31st anniversary of the opening of the war camp for Bosniaks and Croats in Batković, in the hangars of the agricultural cooperative near Bijeljina.
“The concentration camp was opened on April 1, 1992, and was closed after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. So, this detainee camp was the first to open and the last to close. More than 3,000 people from almost all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed through the camp. Between 70 and 80 of them were murdered,” says Mehmed Đezić, president of the Bijeljina-Janja war camp detainees association.
War camp inmates in Batković were beaten, taken to serve as human shields, to dig trenches, etc. The camp inmate Nedim Trebinčević recalled those days.
President of the Alliance of these associations Seid Omerović pointed out that it is necessary to talk about the suffering and trauma of the inmates despite the fact that their status has not been resolved.
About 600 war camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been identified, but, he points out, it is assumed that there were more places where people were tortured and abused.
The Bijeljina-Janja war camp detainees association awarded a certificate of appreciation to fellow citizen Radojka Vuković, who helped them while they were behind the camp fence.
“I came to Janja in 1971, worked in a convenience store and knew those people. It was my duty to help. I know it was a drop in the ocean, but it meant a lot to them. When I came to the camp with a bag of bread, they asked me where I was going, and I answered that I was going to give the bread to good people. They didn’t say anything, they let me in,” said Vuković, Fena reports.
