Evidence exists: Genocide was committed against Bosniaks and Croats in the Prijedor camps

Results of the scientific research conducted so far within the International Expert Team of the Institute for Research on Genocide Canada undeniably confirm two fundamental empirical and scientific facts of contemporary events and occurrences in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the 20th century, the Institute announced, as reported by the Patria news agency.

A classic armed aggression was carried out against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the occupied territories of the independent and internationally recognized Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the gravest crime - the crime of genocide - was committed.

In accordance with the Serbian political project “all Serbs in one state,” which is of a conquering and genocidal nature, the Serbian aggressor in Prijedor systematically singled out, arrested, and imprisoned thousands of civilians and civilian population in numerous concentration camps (the most famous being Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopolje) in a planned, organized, mass, and intentional manner.

There, they were subjected to widespread physical and psychological abuse and inhumane conditions, round-the-clock torture, starvation, beatings, harassment, mass and individual killings, severe wounding, rape and sexual abuse, and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law.

Thousands of Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor, including women, children, and the elderly, were detained in the Prijedor camps because of their national, ethnic, and religious affiliation.

The conditions in the camps were very difficult, inhumane, cruel, and barbaric. Military and police personnel of the Serbian aggressor in Prijedor subjected detainees to cruel and inhumane treatment, severe beatings, humiliation, terror, physical and psychological abuse, intimidation, and harassment.

With the intent to destroy Bosniaks and Croats as members of a national, ethnic, and religious group as such, they killed, severely wounded, and deliberately imposed conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

Detainees were victims and witnesses of inhumane acts, including killings, rapes, sexual abuse, torture, beatings, robbery, humiliation, as well as other forms of psychological and physical abuse.

In many cases, detained women and girls were raped in the Prijedor camps or taken from detention centers and then raped or sexually abused elsewhere.

Bosniaks and Croats, victims of the Prijedor camps, were selected based on their national, ethnic, and religious affiliation. The only personal characteristic present in the decision to detain men was their non-Serb nationality.

Available valid, credible, and authentic sources of knowledge and completely irrefutable evidence of the International Expert Team of the Institute for Research on Genocide Canada confirm that all forms of crimes against humanity and international law were intentionally committed against Bosniaks and Croats in the concentration camps and detention centers in Prijedor.

In this way, all conditions concerning the material element of genocide were fulfilled: all acts of genocide (actus reus), defined in Article II (a-e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. All crimes in the Prijedor camps were committed with the intent to destroy Bosniaks and Croats, members of a national, ethnic, and religious group as such, which confirms and proves that this is the crime of genocide, states the announcement signed by Emir Ramić, Director of the Institute for Research on Genocide, Canada.