The Canadian response to those who insult the victims of the crimes in Prijedor, defined by genocide studies as a slow-motion genocide, and to those who deny the existence of white armbands in that city.
Prijedor is the first adjudicated genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Europe.
The ruling in question was delivered by the Juvenile Panel of the High Court in Sarajevo, and it became final and binding on July 2, 1995. It concerns criminal proceedings against Dragan Opačić (born in 1975), who was convicted of the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population under Article 142, paragraph 1, and genocide under Article 141, in connection with Article 48, adopted from the Criminal Code of the SFRY (Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War).
Following the main hearing, which was closed to the public, it was ruled that Dragan Opačić, a member of the First Motorized Guards Brigade of the so-called Army of Republika Srpska, who had been in detention since April 2, 1995, was guilty. From mid-November until the end of 1992, in the town of Kozarac, Prijedor municipality, having voluntarily reported to the paramilitary forces of the so-called Republika Srpska for the purpose of implementing the Greater Serbian policy, and the destruction and expulsion of the non-Serb population from that area, while serving in the unit that secured the ‘Trnopolje’ camp, which at that time held around 1,500 women, children, and the elderly, mostly Bosniak Muslims from Kozarac and surrounding villages, he violated the rules of international law by committing 23 murders by firing squad, two murders by slitting throats, and ten rapes.
In March 2013, the Missouri House of Representatives adopted a historic resolution officially recognizing the crimes committed in Prijedor, alongside the Srebrenica genocide, as genocide. This document is significant because the Missouri House of Representatives, as one of the first legislative bodies at the time, equated and designated the atrocities in both Prijedor and Srebrenica as genocide within a single resolution.
The Hague Tribunal established, in at least two final and binding judgments, that the non-Serb population of Prijedor was forced to display white sheets in front of their houses and wear white armbands on their arms “as a sign of loyalty to the Serb authorities.” The Tribunal established in its judgments that thousands of people were killed during the war in Prijedor, and that thousands of Bosniaks and Croats passed through the detention camps.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) mentions in at least two judgments that the non-Serb population of Prijedor was ordered to put up white sheets and wear white armbands.
According to the judgment against the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, Mićo Stanišić, and the former Chief of the Regional Security Services Centre in Banja Luka, Stojan Župljanin, the freedom of movement for non-Serb residents of Prijedor in 1992 was “restricted, and a curfew was imposed after dark.”
“Muslims and Croats had to display the white flags in their windows and wear white armbands on their arms,” the judgment states.
In 2016, Stanišić and Župljanin were each sentenced to 22 years in prison. The order regarding the white armbands is also cited in the judgment that convicted individuals for crimes committed in the Prijedor camps, sentencing Miroslav Kvočka to seven years, Dragoljub Prcać to five, Mlađo Radić to 20, Zoran Žigić to 25, and Milojica Kos to six years in prison.
“Muslims were ordered via radio to display white sheets in front of their houses as a sing of loyalty to Serb authorities, to tie a white armband around their upper arm, to march toward the city center,” the judgment notes, citing over ten testimonies and pieces of material evidence.
The Hague Tribunal established in its judgments that thousands of people were murdered during the war in Prijedor, while more than 30,000 Bosniaks and Croats passed through the concentration camps.
For prosecutions, murders, and other crimes committed in Prijedor, Bosnian Serb leaders Biljana Plavšić and Momčilo Krajišnik, as well as the former commander of the Crisis Staff, Milomir Stakić, among others, were also convicted in The Hague.
Appeals processes are currently underway in the trials of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, who were found guilty in the first instance for crimes in Prijedor.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has also delivered judgments for crimes in the Omarska and Trnopolje concentration camps, as well as for the murders at Korćanske stijene and in Kozarac, while proceedings for crimes in Zecovi and Ljubija near Prijedor are currently underway.
White armbands, as judicially established facts, have previously been denied by various groups from Prijedor, such as “Samopoštovanje” and “Principi.” At the time, these groups influenced the ban on peaceful march marking the White Armband Day and consistently using their narratives to deny the existence of the white armbands and labeling activists who are fighting for the construction of a monument dedicated to the murdered children of Prijedor. Aleksandar Knjeginjić, who was also previously convicted of crimes in Prijedor, launched a petition last year against the White Armband Day in that city. A criminal report was filed against him, but the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet made a decision.
From Canada, we send a message that we wear white armbands with pride, thereby testifying that the surviving victims are not alone, and that their voice is heard in Canada, within both the Government and Parliament of Canada. The Prijedor white armbands, a symbol of crime committed in Prijedor, have long been recognized in Canada. Today, you no longer have to explain to anyone in Canada what was committed in Prijedor. The political, academic, and broader public is becoming increasingly familiar with it. This is now being successfully done by our children.
