prijava
PRIJEDOR, May 30 (FENA) - Prijedor, but also the entire world, is remembering 3,176 killed citizens of Prijedor, including 102 children tomorrow.
"White Ribbon Day - May 31" will be marked again this year with a quite protest walk of survivors, people of Prijedor, at the City Square, adhering to all epidemiological measures, as well as in many other cities across the world.
President of the Regional Alliance of Associations of Concentration Camp Inmates of Banja Luka region and former inmate of Omarska, Manjača and Trnopolje camps Mirsad Duratović told FENA that this year focus will be on 102 murdered children of Prijedor and parents' initiative to erect a memorial to murdered children in the center of Prijedor, even though city authorities have been refusing to do that for a long time.
"White ribbons are one of the proofs of intention to commit genocide in Prijedor, because they marked the group in a visible and clear way for extinction and persecution from that territory," emphasized Duratović.
Commenting on verdicts for crimes committed in Prijedor, Duratović said that there have been more than 50 verdicts, convicting criminals to more than 800 years in prison.
He added there are still more than 30 cases being processed in Court of BiH, adding he hopes other war criminals will answer for their actions.
He emphasized there are thousands of examples of discrimination against returnees, victims of concentration camps and crimes, who are not able to exercise their basic rights.
He added there is nothing in Prijedor today to remind of 3 000 murdered people. Not even a small memorial on buildings which used to be concentration camps or mass graves.
"Monument was built for killed soldiers of the RS army in Trnopolje concentration camp, with photos of killed soldiers in rooms where inmates were killed, women and girls raped," he emphasized.
This sends the message that returnees are not welcome in Prijedor.
"Those who 'survived' Prijedor still believe that genocide took place," he underlined.
Duratović lost everything on 20th July 1992, when most of his family was killed at his doorstep, his father, brother, grandparents, uncles and cousins, 47 of them. Mirsad was lucky to survive a human shield and was then taken to Omarska concentration camp, then to Manjača and Trnopolje.
He assessed that the international community is trying to create conditions for the return of those who were expelled, but without reacting to "suppression of freedom of speech".
Authorities of Bosnian Serbs in Prijedor issued an order on 31st May 1992 via local radio instructing non-Serb population to mark their homes with white flags or sheets and to put white ribbons on their arms when leaving their homes. That is how crimes in Prijedor began, people being taken to concentration camps, mass executions and other crimes, during which 3.176 people were killed, including 102 children.
That is why May 31 is marked as a "White Ribbon Day" in Prijedor and other cities.
(FENA) A. B.
