The Hague Tribunal issued a statement on the occasion of the anniversary commemorating the suffering of Bosniaks and Croats in the area of Prijedor during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), accompanied by a video of survivor testimonies.
It was stated that, after the Bosnian Serb authorities established control over Prijedor, they ordered the Muslim and Croatian population to wear white armbands while moving through the city for identification and to hang white sheets on their houses as a sign of loyalty to the new authorities.
In the following months, a systematic campaign of crimes against non-Serb civilians ensued, and the camps Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopolje became symbols of suffering during the war in BiH.
Namely, today marks White Armband Day, in memory of 3.176 killed, among whom were 102 children.
For the crimes committed in the Prijedor municipality, 56 verdicts have been issued so far, and more than 400 mass graves have been discovered, including Tomasica, the largest mass grave in the Balkans.
