Lokacija: Omarska, Prijedor

The Omarska camp was established in the territory of the Omarska settlement, near the city of Prijedor, and it operated from the end of May until mid-August 1992. According to the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (hereinafter: ICTY), the camp, formerly an iron ore mine, was established by Simo Drljača, the then chief of police in Prijedor, on 30 May 1992.

According to ICTY judgments, more than 3,334 non-Serb detainees passed through the Omarska camp, including about thirty women, of whom about 900 people were killed.

During that period, other infamous camps were established in the territory of Prijedor, such as the Trnopolje and Keraterm camps. In the 1991 census, the population of Prijedor municipality was 112,543, of whom 43.9 percent Bosniaks, 42.3 percent Serbs, and 5.6 percent Croats; however, in the 2013 census, there were 32.5 percent Bosniaks, 2 percent Croats, and 62.5 percent Serbs, indicating a changed ethnic structure of the population after the war.

As established by the ICTY judgments, a systematic and massive attack was carried out against the Bosniak and Croat civilians of the Prijedor municipality by the Yugoslav People’s Army and the Army of the Republika Srpska.

Murders, torture, rape and unlawful imprisonment of Bosniaks and Croats were committed in the Omarska camp in 1992. The detainees were subjected to physical and psychological abuse, sexual violence, deprivation of necessities and arbitrary deprivation of liberty. According to the ICTY, the male and female detainees were, among other things, forced to sit on the hot ground for hours, sing Serbian songs and were beaten with fists, boots, rifle butts and other objects, and several female detainees were raped. All detainees, both male and female, were interrogated, and almost all were beaten. The judgment details the conditions in the camp: “Due to the lack of basic hygiene conditions, there was a terrible stench in all the premises, in all parts of the camp. Many people did not want to leave the runway precisely because of the stench and conditions. We all had lice, were unshaven, starving, skeletons.” 

Nusreta Sivac, a camp detainee, testified that “the nights were the worst for the women” as the guards came to their rooms, took them away and raped them. Nusreta further stated that “this happened regularly.” It was Nusreta Sivac who later greatly contributed to the development of international criminal law. She actively participated in the work of the ICTY and helped define rape as a crime against humanity for the first time in history. The definition of rape as a crime against humanity was first applied in the ICTY case Kunarac at al. (IT-96-23 & 23/1). Miroslav Kvočka, Dragoljub Prcać, Milojica Kos, Mlađo Radić, Zoran Žigić and Milomir Stakić were sentenced by the ICTY to a total of 106 years in prison for the crimes committed in the Omarska camp.

Four more people are on trial before the Court of BiH, after the case was transferred from the Hague Tribunal.

Today, there are two memorial plaques in front of the former camp Omarska, one placed by the camp detainees, and the other by the people of Prijedor who now live in Serbia. The plaques placed by the survivors’ association cannot be considered an official form of memorialisation. It is particularly noteworthy that the crimes committed in Omarska were documented by international courts and the Court of BiH, as well as by journalists who came and reported to the world about the conditions and events in this camp. Photographs of Fikret Alić from this camp appeared in the Time magazine in 1992, alerting the general public to the existence of the camp and the crimes against humanity committed there. After reports about Omarska reached all parts of the world, the camp was dissolved, and its detainees were transferred to other camps.

Furthermore, Omarska is a less populated place next to the city of Prijedor – in which survivors have been waiting for more than 25 years for the approval and construction of a monument to the children of Prijedor murdered in the period 1992-1995.