Six members of the VRS arrested for crimes in Prijedor camps

(Patria) - Acting on the order of a prosecutor from the Special Department for War Crimes, SIPA police officers arrested 6 suspects in the Prijedor area.

The suspects are accused of, during a widespread and systematic attack directed at the civilian population of Bosniak and Croat nationality in the Prijedor area and its surroundings, as members of the VRS, knowingly and significantly contributing to a joint criminal enterprise, carrying out persecution on discriminatory grounds, based on national, political, and religious affiliation, and within that, committing the criminal acts of murder, torture, forced displacement, and deportation.

The suspects were part of the Trnopolje, Keraterm, and Omarska camp system established in the Prijedor area in 1992 by the Crisis Headquarters and other civilian and military authorities, into which civilians were illegally imprisoned, namely: men, women, children, and the elderly of Bosniak and Croat nationality, over thirty thousand of them, and with the aim of expelling them from the area under the control of civilian authorities and the VRS, they were subjected to triage, torture, rape, and sexual and other abuse, murders, and deportation, which resulted in systematic rapes of dozens of women and girls in the Trnopolje and Omarska camps, hundreds of murders of detained civilians, and the expulsion of over 90% of the non-Serb population from the municipality of Prijedor, and the suspects, with their roles, assisted and contributed to the maintenance of that system or directly committed individual inhumane acts against detained civilians.

Among other things, the suspects are accused of raping at least 15 women, including two minors, who died as a result of rape and sexual abuse. 21 prisoners died as a result of torture, abuse, and beatings, and dozens of prisoners were taken from the camps in an unknown direction, from which all trace of them was lost and whose bodies have not been found to this day.

The suspects who were deprived of their liberty held various positions within the Prijedor camps.

The suspects will be handed over to the acting prosecutor within the legal deadline, who will question them and make a decision on further actions.