200 Roses for the Victims at Korićani Cliffs

Organized by the Association of Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Regional Association of Camp Detainees Banja Luka, on Friday, August 21, 2015, starting at 11:00 AM, the 23rd anniversary of the horrific crime against camp detainees at the Korićani Cliffs site (Vlašić Mountain, Kneževo Municipality – Skender Vakuf) will be marked, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

On August 21, 1992, around 200 male camp detainees, who had previously been held in Prijedor camps, were executed at Korićani Cliffs. Under the pretext of taking them for an exchange, the camp detainees were brought to this location by an organized convoy and brutally liquidated. "Here we exchange the dead for the dead and the living for the living," were the words with which the liquidation of these innocent people began.

Members of the intervention unit of the Republika Srpska police from Prijedor lined up the camp detainees at the edge of the abyss, ordered them to kneel, and shot them in the back, after which the bodies of the detainees fell into a chasm over 300 meters deep. To ensure no one would survive, they shot and threw bombs at the bodies in the chasm.

Twelve people survived the massacre at Korićani Cliffs, whose testimonies contributed to the prosecution and punishment of some of those responsible, and to the recording of the truth about this crime.

Not all victims of this crime have been found yet. Eighty percent of skeletal remains are still being searched for, as just over 100 camp detainees were identified based on a single bone or tooth, while the remaining detainees have not been found at all. The bodies of the murdered camp detainees were transferred and buried in other locations, as evidenced by recordings from the Public Security Service of Prijedor made on September 4, 1992. However, those responsible for this crime and those who participated in the relocation of the bodies (members of the RS police and Civil Protection from Skender Vakuf) are still silent about the location of this mass grave, not allowing the victims to find final peace even after 23 years.

The anniversary of this crime will be marked with an appropriate and dignified program, and during this event, 200 roses will be thrown from the cliff edge in memory of the brutally murdered camp detainees, all with the aim of keeping alive the culture of remembrance and memorialization.