The Day of White Ribbons is being marked in Prijedor in memory of the 3,176 murdered residents of the Prijedor region, among whom 102 were children.
A large number of people gathered in the main city square, among them the families of the victims, survivors of the camp and all those who witnessed the crimes in Prijedor.
For most of them, May 31 still evokes painful memories of all that happened.
During the commemoration, 102 white roses were laid, a symbol of purity and innocence, each with the name of a murdered child from Prijedor.
There was also talk of building a monument for the murdered children. Although this story has been going on for 10 years and mayors have changed, apparently no one is against the monument, but it has not been built to this day.
Today’s commemoration of the anniversary sent a message that it is important to nurture the culture of memory in order not to forget what happened in Prijedor, but also to the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the past war.
Let us remind you that on May 31, 1992, the Serbian 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 put white bands around their sleeves when leaving the house.
“Citizens of Serbian nationality, join your army and police in pursuit of these extremists. Other citizens, of Muslim and Croatian nationality, must hang white flags on their houses and apartments and put white ribbons on their hands. Otherwise, he will bear severe consequences,” the order said.
According to official information from the victims’ association, 3,176 civilians were killed in Prijedor, while 31,000 people were imprisoned in camps around Prijedor. The Research and Documentation Center from Sarajevo states that from 1991 to 1995, 5,209 citizens of Prijedor were killed or disappeared in direct military actions, of which 4,093 were Bosniaks, 898 were Serbs, and 182 were Croats.
So far, more than 50 verdicts have been handed down for crimes committed in the Prijedor municipality and over 400 mass graves have been discovered, including Tomašica, the largest mass grave in the Balkans, discovered in 2013.
Photo: archive
