More than 23,000 civilians passed through the Trnopolje camp

PRIJEDOR, (Patria) - Survivors of the Prijedor camps, families of victims, and delegations today, organized by the Regional Association of Camp Survivors of the Banja Luka region, marked the 27th anniversary of the formation of the Trnopolje death camp near Prijedor. The site has not yet been marked, although a request was submitted to the city authorities several years ago.

Mirsad Duratović, president of the Regional Association of Camp Survivors of the Banja Luka region, said today that according to the records of the Hague Tribunal, as well as some verdicts for war crimes committed, more than 23,000 civilians of non-Serb nationality passed through the Trnopolje camp.

"The majority of them were mostly women and children. There is not a single trial in which the Trnopolje camp is not mentioned as a place of detention, mistreatment, and killing of people of non-Serb nationality. Murders took place in the camp itself on this site, rapes of women and girls, a certain number of camp inmates were taken out and killed in the immediate vicinity of the camp, and the largest group of camp inmates at Korićanske stijene," said Duratović, adding that the search is still ongoing for about 500 killed residents of Prijedor, among whom is a significant number of Trnopolje camp inmates.

Emsuda Mujagić, president of the NGO "Srcem do mira" (With Heart to Peace), was in the Trnopolje camp for about a month with two small children. Today, she brought participants of the peace conference being held in Kozarac, from England, New Zealand, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the place that still evokes the same discomfort and feeling of unease in her.

Jasmin Mešković, president of the Association of Camp Survivors of Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasized today that a different approach must be taken towards the killed, missing, and victims because they are not numbers but people.

"Justice has not yet been served and it will not be until there is trust among the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As long as those who formed the Trnopolje concentration camp, those who formed 657 camps, in whose name they did it, and with what goal, are not aware of their mistakes and actions," Mešković pointed out. He also expressed the desire for a unified approach to memorialization and marking of crime sites.

The world public became aware of the existence of the camp on August 5, 1992, when images of horror from it were broadcast to the world by crews from the BBC and TIME.

The Trnopolje camp was closed at the end of November 1992.