Prijedor ethnic cleansing
Politicians, soldiers and police officers in the Serb SDS and crisis staff, including Milomir Stakić, Milan Kovačević, Radoslav Brđanin, ranging to the highest leaders including general Ratko Mladić, Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadžić, and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević have been charged with genocide, persecution, deportation, extermination, murder, forced transfers, and unlawful confinement, torture as crimes against humanity (widespread, systematic attacks against a civilian population) and other crimes, have been alleged to have occurred in Prijedor.However, the events of 1992 in Prijedor were part of the larger joint criminal enterprise to forcibly remove Bosnian Muslims and Croats from large territories of Bosnia.Bosniaks and Croats began to leave the municipality because of a growing sense of insecurity and fear caused by intensifying Serb propaganda.Terms like Ustasha (Ustaše), Mujahideen (Mudžahedini) and Green Berets (Zelene beretke) were used widely in the press as synonyms for the non-Serb population.As one result of the takeover of the transmitter station on Mount Kozara in August 1991 by the Serbian paramilitary unit the Wolves of Vučjak, TV Sarajevo was cut off.[11] Milomir Stakić, later convicted by ICTY of mass crimes against humanity against Bosniak and Croat civilians, was elected President of this Assembly.[10] The ICTY concluded that the takeover by the Serb politicians was an illegal coup d'état, which was planned and coordinated a long time in advance with the ultimate aim of creating a pure Serbian municipality.[12] After the takeover, Radio Prijedor propagated Serb nationalist ideas characterising prominent non-Serbs as criminals and extremists, who should be punished for their behaviour.Moreover, in a "Kozarski Vjesnik" article dated 10 June 1992, Dr. Osman Mahmuljin was accused of deliberately having provided incorrect medical care to his Serb colleague Dr. Živko Dukić, who had a heart attack.Moreover, forged biographies of prominent non-Serbs, including Prof. Muhamed Čehajić, Mr. Crnalić, Dr. Eso Sadiković and Dr. Osman Mahmuljin, were broadcast.[10][13] In the weeks following the takeover, the Serb authorities in Prijedor worked to strengthen their position militarily in accordance with decisions adopted on the highest levels.For the most part, the civilian population complied with these requests turning in their hunting rifles and pistols as well as their permits and in the belief that if they handed in their weapons they would be safe.The general tendency is reflected in a decision of the Serb regional authorities i.e. Crisis Staff of the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK) dated 22 June 1992, which provides that all socially-owned enterprises, joint-stock companies, state institutions, public utilities, Ministries of the Interior, and the Army of the Serbian Republic may only be held by personnel of Serbian nationality.There were approximately 400 refugees, mostly women, children and elderly people, who fled Hambarine as a result of the attack that saw the Serb soldiers kill, rape and torch houses.Radmilo Željaja delivered the ultimatum on Radio Prijedor, threatening to raze Kozarac to the ground if residents failed to comply.Stojan Župljanin, later accused of war crimes by ICTY and one of the most wanted fugitive besides Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, who led the Serb delegation, said that, unless his conditions were met, the army would take Kozarac by force.Serb forces included the 343rd Motorised Brigade (an enlarged motorized battalion) supported by two 105 mm howitzer batteries and one M-84 tank squadron.The Prijedor intervention platoon, led by Dado Mrđa, Zoran Babić and others intervened and began to mistreat the women and children.For example, according to Dr. Merdžanić's testimony before the ICTY he had not been given permission to arrange the evacuation of two injured children, one of whom had her legs completely shattered, and he had instead been told that all the "dirty Muslims" (in Serbian language: balija) should die there, as they would be killed in any event.A report sent by colonel Dragan Marčetić to the Serb Army Main Staff dated 27 May 1992 states that the wider area of Kozarac village, i.e. the area of the village of Kozaruša, Trnopolje, Donji Jakupovići, Gornji Jakupovići, Benkovac, Rakovic has been entirely freed of Bosniaks (80–100 Bosniaks were killed, about 1,500 captured and around 100–200 persons were at large on Mt.[10] The Report of the Commission of Experts in Bosnia v. Serbia Genocide Case before the International Court of Justice states that the attack on Kozarac lasted three days and caused many villagers to flee to the forest while the soldiers were shooting at ‘every moving thing’.One witness reported that several thousand people tried to surrender by carrying white flags, but three Serb tanks opened fire on them, killing many.[17] Serb forces murdered some 67 Croat civilians, destroyed 65 family homes including the village Catholic Church, those who were not killed were driven out.[17] During the ICTY trials, Milomir Stakić was found guilty of persecution, deportation and extermination against non-Serbs in the Prijedor region, which included the killings in Briševo.The Serb soldiers used baseball bats, iron bars, rifle butts and their hands and feet or whatever they had at their disposal to beat the detainees.On the day of the massacre, a large number of Serb soldiers arrived in the camp, wearing military uniforms and red berets.[10] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the UN established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars, and to try their perpetrators.[24] Stojan Župljanin, an ex-police commander who had operational control over the police forces responsible for the detention camps, and Mićo Stanišić, the ex-Minister of the Interior of Republika Srpska, both received 22 years in prison each.[30] Darko Mrđa, an ex-special Bosnian Serb police unit member who was involved in the Korićani Cliffs massacre case, pleaded guilty and was handed over a 17-year jail term.[31] In 2010, a memorial was opened in Kozarac in remembrance of the Bosniak civilian victims who died in the concentration camps run by Serbian authorities during the war.