WHITE ARMANDAY Remembering the murdered residents of Prijedor, including 102 children

(Patria) - Today marks the International Day of White Armbands, in memory of the more than 3,000 people murdered in the municipality of Prijedor from 1992 to 1995.

Survivors from Prijedor will also mark this May 31st with a central event at the City Square, where they will lay 102 roses with the names of murdered children.

On May 31, 1992, Serb authorities in Prijedor issued an order via local radio, instructing non-Serb residents to mark their houses with white flags or sheets, and to wear white armbands around their sleeves when leaving their homes.

“Citizens of Serb nationality, join your army and police in the pursuit of these extremists. Other citizens, of Muslim and Croatian nationality, must hang white flags on their houses and apartments and wear white armbands on their arms. Otherwise, they will face severe consequences,” the order stated.

According to official information from victim associations, 3,176 civilians were murdered in Prijedor, while 31,000 people were detained in camps around Prijedor. The Research and Documentation Center from Sarajevo states that between 1991 and 1995, 5,209 residents of Prijedor were killed or disappeared in direct military actions, of which 4,093 were Bosniaks, 898 Serbs, and 182 Croats.

More than 50 verdicts have been passed so far for the crimes committed in the municipality of Prijedor, and over 400 mass graves have been discovered, including Tomašica, the largest mass grave in the Balkans, discovered in 2013.