Keraterm: Remembering the night when 190 prisoners were killed

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - In Prijedor, today marks 30 years since the crime committed by the then SDS Prijedor authorities against prisoners of Bosniak and Croat ethnicity, following the armed and violent takeover of power in May 1992, reports Anadolu Agency (AA).

Alongside the "Omarska" and "Trnopolje" camps, the "Keraterm" camp was one of the most notorious.

"Through the continuous implementation of terror and the expulsion of the non-Serb population from these areas, nearly 3,000 residents endured indescribable torture in the concentration 'Death Camp - Keraterm', and around 300 prisoners lost their lives in this camp due to torture and aggression against our only state, Bosnia and Herzegovina," the Association of Camp Prisoners in BiH stated. 

The camp was established on the site of a pre-war ceramics factory in Prijedor, in premises previously used as warehouses for finished products, marked with numbers one through four. This numbering remained during the camp's operation, as testified before the court in The Hague by numerous world-renowned former prisoners of the Keraterm camp, such as Fikret Alić, Jusuf Arifagić, and others.

"On this day, according to statements from prisoners, the camp administration and guards first released exhaust gases and smoke into the so-called 'trica' (room three) to force prisoners to violently exit through the entrance doors, and then, in an organized manner, with concentrated machine-gun fire, killed more than 190 prisoners of the Keraterm camp on the spot," the Association of Camp Prisoners in BiH recalls.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague included the proven crimes in Keraterm in the indictment against the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, but due to his death, the proceedings were prematurely concluded. In addition, many of those responsible from the then civil and military authorities of the RS and Prijedor, as well as paramilitary units, camp administration, and guards, have been finally convicted and sentenced to long prison terms.

"Sentences that are a global confirmation and definitive condemnation, but certainly never adequate satisfaction for the torture and inhumane acts they caused to the prisoners and their families. The bodies of the killed prisoners from the Keraterm death camp were later collected from various mass graves at Tomašica, Stari Kevljani, and Jakarina Kosa...", emphasize from the Association of Camp Prisoners in BiH.

They add that all this, as well as the last collective funeral of 16 innocent victims in Kamičani, only reaffirms that the "state has still not paid even minimal recognition to the victims of torture, who permanently laid down their lives, parts of their bodies, and spirits in the foundations of our Bosnia and Herzegovina."

"The state still has not fulfilled its obligation to the camp prisoners and to the truth, by finally adopting an adequate Law on Victims of War Torture, both at the federal and state levels. But years pass, witnesses pass away, and the obligation remains. And when something is sincerely desired, it truly can be done, a way is found...", conclude from the Association of Camp Prisoners in BiH.