Zdravko Marijan for NAP: Prijedor is a killing field for Croats, neglected by authorities

PRIJEDOR, (Patria) - There are no representatives of the Croatian people from the Federation of BiH at commemorations of the suffering of Croats in Prijedor, and we are left to take care of monuments to fallen Croats ourselves.

This was stated to the Patria agency by Zdravko Marijan, president of the "Briševo" Association.

"We were practically absent until the last four or five years, when we organized this association to be able to commemorate the crimes so they would not fall into oblivion. We have raised it to a certain level, but it is not enough. The Office for Croats outside Croatia and some ministries are aware of these sufferings and support us, but there are no representatives of Croats from the Federation. Dragan Čović is not there, and Željko Komšić came only once. It was a passing visit during a trip. He was not at the anniversary; rather, after visiting Srebrenica, they visited places where Serbs were killed, and then they remembered that there is also Briševo. After that, no one except ambassadors and bishops has come," says Marijan. 

According to data from the "Prijedor '92" Association, 3,176 residents of Prijedor have been registered as killed or missing during the war, mostly civilians, predominantly Bosniaks, then Croats, while Roma, Albanians, and some Serbs were also killed. Among the victims were 256 women and 102 children.

More than 200 Croats, mostly civilians, were killed in Prijedor. It is the largest killing field of Croats in the territory of today's Republika Srpska.

On Friday, White Ribbon Day will be marked, as a day of remembrance for the crimes committed against the people of Prijedor in 1992 by the Serbian authorities with the help of the army and police. 

Marijan says that Croats of Bosanska Krajina, as well as Bosniaks of that area, are today left to take care of themselves. 

"We from the 'Briševo' Association take care of the road, the mass grave where 20 victims are buried. We take care of the church and the memorial plaque to the killed. The monument is placed inside the church, not taken outside so as not to offend our Serb neighbors," says the president of the "Briševo" Association, explaining that after the last incident in Briševo, they will most likely work on placing the monument outside the church.

"I placed 21 plaques where people were killed in Briševo, and then someone came and broke three plaques," says Marijan.

He adds that the Association has also published a book titled "Briševački mučenici" (Martyrs of Briševo).

Marijan complains about the conditions he encounters when he goes to maintain the Croatian trace in the Briševo area, "because besides the bad roads, there is no electricity in that Prijedor village."

He says he does not expect anything to change in the future.

"We go to those roundtables, mostly in Banja Luka with the bishop and the Vice President of RS, Josip Jerković. There are always some promises, they ask us what we need, we tell them and minutes are taken, but nothing comes of it. I even think that Croatia has no interest in us returning. Most Croats from Prijedor and Banja Luka are settled in the border areas of Croatia on the border with Bosnia. If these Croats were to return to Bosnia, Croatia would be left with empty territory, and in some possible future wars, that is a problem for them. What is the point of holding land if there are no inhabitants on it. I think that is a secret policy," says Marijan for the Patria agency.

White Ribbon Day, May 31, which is marked on Friday, is a symbolic date proclaimed in memory of over 3,000 killed inhabitants of the Prijedor area. It is commemorated in Bosnia and Herzegovina and numerous European cities. On that day in 1992, the Bosnian Serb authorities ordered the non-Serb population to wear white ribbons around their arms and hang white sheets on their houses and apartments.