Association of Camp Detainees in BiH invites Dačić to show him concentration camps in Prijedor

(Patria) - The Association of Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina has sent an invitation and an open letter to Serbian Minister Ivica Dačić, on the occasion of his planned visit to Prijedor on August 4, to be their guest in Prijedor and to show him the concentration camps of Trnopolje, Omarska and Keraterm, the mass graves of camp detainees Tomašica and Kevljani, and to introduce him to "the man from the wire" Fikret Alić.

In the open letter, they remind Dačić that a few years ago, specifically in 2019, in a TV show, he denied the existence of concentration camps in Prijedor in a very inappropriate manner, the existence of camp detainees, and thus the war crimes committed in this city against the non-Serb population by the Army of Republika Srpska and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RS.

- Therefore, and in connection with the media announcements that the Government of the Republic of Serbia is coming to Prijedor, we in the Association of Camp Detainees in BiH have decided to send you this invitation and open letter. First of all, we will familiarize you with the basic statistics of war crimes systematically carried out in Prijedor against the residents of the municipality, Bosniaks and Croats - the open letter states.

It is added that Prijedor is the first local community in BiH in terms of the scale of war crimes committed, the number of mass graves, the number of death camp concentration camps, the number of court cases in international and domestic courts, and finally, the number of confirmed convictions for war crimes committed against Bosniaks and Croats in this city.

The Association of Camp Detainees in BiH states that 3,176 victims of non-Serb nationality have been registered in Prijedor so far, including 102 children and 256 women, and that this number is not final.

- At the end of May 1992, three concentration camps (Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje) were opened in Prijedor, through which more than 30,000 camp detainees of non-Serb nationality were deported. Camp detainees were illegally imprisoned, tortured, killed, and survivors were eventually expelled from Prijedor. Particular cruelty was shown in the Omarska camp towards female detainees through systematic sexual abuse, which was eventually characterized as a special form of war crime through court convictions - the open letter emphasizes.

It is also stated that around 60,000 of its citizens of non-Serb nationality were expelled from Prijedor in the summer of 1992, and all cultural, historical, and religious buildings of Bosniaks were destroyed, as well as the majority of such buildings of the Croat people.

The Association of Camp Detainees in BiH reminds that the remains of murdered Bosniaks and Croats have been exhumed to date from 503 locations, in 73 mass graves, in 10 municipalities and in three countries, and the bodies of the murdered were carried away by five rivers.

- We are still searching for the remains of 471 murdered civilians of non-Serb nationality from Prijedor. More than 60 convictions have been handed down to date for war crimes committed against Bosniaks and Croats in Prijedor, and criminals have been sentenced to over 1,000 years in prison - the open letter states.

It is also noted that the first war crimes conviction by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was for crimes committed in the Omarska camp (Duško Tadić case).

- You can find evidence for our claims in the war crimes convictions. If you consider the courts biased, the witnesses in the proceedings instructed, and the verdicts politically motivated, then request data from the registry office in Prijedor on the number of registered deaths for 1992, or ask the Red Cross Prijedor to provide you with the records of the number of camp detainees in Trnopolje from May to October 1992. None of the Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor would be happier if you were right, Minister Dačić, and if it were all just propaganda - the Association of Camp Detainees in BiH told Dačić.

They say it would be much easier to bear the label of "liars" than to exhume the Tomašica mass grave, "turn over rocks and stones at Korićanske stijene or Jakarina kosa in search of the bones of murdered camp detainees, descend 25 meters into the depths of the Hrastova Glavica pit or the Lisac pit and extract the remains of murdered camp detainees, exhume camp detainees in the green meadows of Kevljani".

- It would also be easier to collect wheat in Prijedor field instead of the bones of murdered camp detainees, or at more than 500 individual or mass graves where the remains of murdered Prijedor Bosniaks and Croats were hidden. For these, as well as a number of other reasons, and due to your denial of these facts, we invite you to be our guest in Prijedor and to show you the concentration camps of Trnopolje, Omarska and Keraterm, to show you the mass graves of camp detainees Tomašica and Kevljani, and to introduce you to "the man from the wire" Fikret Alić. You cannot enter Prijedor without passing by the fence of the former Keraterm camp or past the Kevljani mass grave, you will also pass through Omarska. It is all on your route, and if you truly want to know the truth, then you will accept our invitation - state the Association of Camp Detainees in BiH.

They add that, otherwise, they will continue to side with those who protect and glorify war crimes and criminals, which is not in the spirit of social democracy, "and by doing so, you will continue to cause more harm and pain to your country and your people than to the camp detainees of the mentioned camps and their families, because they have experienced worse".