Tomašica mass grave site should be turned into a memorial centre

Sadik Ahmetović, a member of the Independent Bloc in the State Parliament, condemned attempts by local authorities in Prijedor to minimise crimes in that city, and also to prosecute all those who mark the "White Ribbon Day" in this city, as local authorities had previously announced.

Representatives of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) claim, despite the decision of the Crisis Staff of the Prijedor municipality from May 1992 and the order to mark Bosniak houses with "white sheets" and that Bosniaks must wear "white ribbons" on their sleeves on the street, that this sign had to be worn only by "Serb soldiers"!

- Whoever has seen the bodies of Bosniaks in Šejkovača or at the largest mass grave in Europe after World War II – Tomašica, has seen killed Bosniaks from Prijedor and surrounding villages with the mentioned "white ribbons". In a city where 3,200 Bosniaks were brutally killed, and another half a thousand are still missing, it is not only inappropriate but also insolent to deny the crimes committed in Prijedor, which have already been confirmed by the Hague Tribunal and domestic judiciary - Ahmetović believes.

The Vice-President of the Independent Bloc reminds that for years former camp inmates have had problems visiting the Omarska camp, because the current owner of the Ljubija Mine does not allow them further passage from the infamous "White House".

To prevent this from happening again, because the owner claims that at the time of purchasing the mine he did not know what had happened on that site, we will send a request to both the Government of Republika Srpska and the municipal authorities, to tell potential new owners that they are buying land where, according to estimates of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, there are still about 500 Bosniaks, their bodies, and that state law will still apply above them, according to which any location in mines that turns out to be a possible mass grave is ceded to the state of BiH for further investigation.

We believe that the Tomašica mass grave should be turned into a Memorial Centre, and that this location, Jakarina Kosa, Redak 1 and Redak 2, should be excluded from the sale mass, because the RS Government has announced a new tender for the sale of the Ljubija Mine, and if we do nothing now, perhaps we will again be unable to do anything until the sale contract expires, which could take decades - warned Sadik Ahmetović.