Trnopolje camp
Trnopolje camp was a detention camp (also referred to as ghetto, prison and concentration camp) in the village of Trnopolje near the city of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War from 1992-1995. The camp was established and ran by the authorities of Republika Srpska to confine and detain Bosniak and Bosnian Croat civilian population.
The camp actually included the entire village of Trnopolje and was enclosed by barbwire. The camp was about three hundred square meters in size and some 6,000 people have passed through it during the Bosnian War. It was similar to, but less brutal than, the Keraterm, Omarska and Manjača camps that were also opened in the vicinity and served for similar purpose. However, according to the ICTY prosecution several hundred non-Serbs were killed at Trnopolje.
Women, children and elderly persons comprised the majority of forcibly interned persons. However a large contingent of men who had been forcibly displaced from their villages were also detained in this camp before they were transferred to Omarska, Keraterm or Manjaca camps. Most of those detained in the Trnopolje camp lived in tents, the school or other buildings within the camp's perimeter.
Although abuses in the Trnopolje camp were more random and not as severe as in Omarska, Keraterm and Manjaca, gross abuses did occur. Men were taken from the camp by guards and were subsequently "disappeared." In a few cases, detainees were shot at random by guards. Trnopolje inmates were forced to bury the bodies under orders of the Serbian authorities that administered the camp.
The camp was discovered by the international media in July 1992 at which point the barbwire was removed and the camp was further referred to as Trnopolje ghetto.
According to subsequent testimony from witnesses, compared to other detention camps in the region, Trnopolje was a relatively minimal-security staging area for the forcible deportation of non-Serbs from the Prijedor area, and detainees were fed only sporadically, but were allowed to forage for food outside the detention area's perimeter [1], which explains the widely varying nourishment condition of the inmates. There were about 300 reported killings in the camp, and far more reported incidents of systematic rape of female detainees.
See also
External links
- Prijedor Genocide Trial
- Srebrenica Genocide Blog - Independent Blog regarding Srebrenica Massacre (7/11/1995).
- Radovan Karadzic $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Radovan Karadzic
- Ratko Mladic $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ratko Mladic