Crime at Hrastova Glavica: 124 killed prisoners thrown into a 20-meter deep pit

(Patria) - Members of the Association of Camp Inmates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Association of Camp Inmates Sanski Most and the Regional Association of Camp Inmates of the Banja Luka region are marking the 30th anniversary of the crime at the site of "Hrastova Glavica" near Sanski Most - at the location of the natural pit Hrastova glavica.

Thirty years ago, on August 5, 1992, the victims of Hrastova glavica were taken from the Prijedor camps Omarska and Keraterm towards Sanski Most, supposedly for an exchange, and when the exchange failed, on the return they were brought before the natural pit Hrastova glavica, where they were shot in groups of three and thrown into the natural pit over 20 meters deep.

The shooting was survived only by Ibrahim Ferhatović, who managed to reach his native Hambarine where he told this horrific story, but was later killed during the ethnic cleansing of the Prijedor region. Nevertheless, the story of the crime at Hrastova glavica survived and this mass grave was exhumed in 1998.

The remains of the killed prisoners, among them the well-known Prijedor doctor and United Nations expert Esad Sadiković, as well as two skeletons of victims from World War II, were found during the exhumation. In the meantime, 120 victims have been identified and buried under their own names and surnames.

The Hague Tribunal established in the verdict against Milomir Stakić that on August 5, 1992, Prijedor police officer Radovan Vokić came with a list to the death camp Omarska and from there a group of 124 prisoners was taken. These were prisoners who had survived the shooting in room three of the Keraterm camp and represented inconvenient witnesses for the Prijedor authorities.

Shortly thereafter, British journalists Ed Vulliamy and Penny Marshall revealed the truth about the existence of concentration camps to the world, but for the prisoners taken to Hrastova glavica, it was already too late.