On a small road near the city of Prijedor stands an old,
white building. It looks no
different than many of the other buildings that surround it—dilapidated and empty. Behind it, children have set up nets on
a basketball court in order to play soccer, and a few small shops can be found
close by. It’s hard to imagine
that, twenty years ago, this building was a concentration camp.
The building—Trnopolje Camp— was a transit camp. Bosnian Serb military and police
authorities in Prijedor, a municipality in northwestern Bosnia, established it
during the summer of 1992 as a place to intern Bosniak and Croat civilians. While there, detainees underwent harsh
beatings, torture, and rape (among many other forms of violence) and were often
then transported to other camps in the region.
Trnopolje was not an isolated camp. Instead, it was part of a larger campaign
of genocide that was mainly aimed to eliminate Bosniak residents from the
region. There were multiple other camps where civilians were forcibly
detained. Many died in transport,
and some never even began the journey—they were killed in their homes or right
outside their houses on the street.
The Serb military, police officers, paramilitaries, and other
forces used these camps as part of their plan to create an “ethnically clean”
region for Serbs. Notably, many
other types of violence were prevalent in the region. For example, in June 1992, all non-Serbs were required to
wear white armbands and hang white flags on the windows of their homes. Cultural monuments, such as mosques,
were also destroyed throughout the municipality.
During my time in Prijedor, I was able to visit several of the former camps. Almost all of them are unmarked. In fact, the only sign at Trnopolje is
on a statue dedicated to fallen Serb soldiers. There are many reasons behind such genocide denial, but one key
reason is that this region is actually a separate political entity that was
created largely through ethnic cleansing and reinforced by the peace process
after the violence. It’s called
Republika Srbka—the Serb Republic.
As the genocide is not acknowledged, there are not memorials
at the camps. In fact, Omarska,
one of the most notorious camps, is currently owned by a steel company. Rather than a place of remembrance, it
is a place where iron ore is mined.
Pictures of this camp are not allowed (check it out on google, though), but I was able to visit it with a
survivor who painted a vivid picture in my mind by pointing out where torturing
took place, where bodies were piled for morning pick-ups, and where he was
beaten.
Today, many human rights groups are fighting to stop
genocide denial, and several associations of former detainees are working to
create memorials at the camps. I'll write more on this soon!
Thanks for the updates Hollie. For the most part I have always been very naive to things going on in the rest of the world, so hearing that you are doing and reading your blogs is always very enlightening to me. It just breaks my heart especially that people are in denial that it happened. How much longer are you there?
ReplyDeletehow could they deny it? where else did the people go? and is there a serb republic and a serbia? confusing!
ReplyDelete