Omarska camp

Detainees line up at the Omarska Camp, near Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY)

Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serb forces, in Omarska, a mining town near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up during the Prijedor massacre for Bosniak and Croat men and women.^[1][2] Functioning in the first months of the Bosnian War in 1992, it was one of 677 alleged detention centres and camps set up throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war.^[3] While nominally an "investigation center" or "assembly point" for members of the non-Serb population,^[1] Human Rights Watch classified Omarska as a concentration camp.^[4][5]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, located in The Hague, has found several individuals guilty of crimes against humanity perpetrated at Omarska.^[6] Murder, torture, rape, and abuse of prisoners was common.^[6][7] About 6,000 Bosniaks and Croats were held in appalling conditions at the camp for about five months in the spring and summer of 1992. Hundreds died of starvation, punishment beatings and ill-treatment. UN prosecutors compared the camps to those run by Nazis.^[2]

Overview

The camp existed from about May 25 to about August 21, 1992, where the Serb military and police unlawfully segregated, detained and confined some of more than 7,000 Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats captured in the ethnic cleansing of the municipality of Prijedor. Bosnian Serb authorities termed it an investigation centre and the detainees were accused for alleged paramilitary activities.^[8]

By the end of 1992, the war would result in the death or forced departure of most of the Bosniak and Croat population of Prijedor municipality; about 7,000 people were missing from a population of 25,000, and there are 145 mass graves and hundreds of individual graves in the extended region.^[9] There is, however, conflicting information about how many people were killed at this camp. According to the survivors, usually about 30 and sometimes as many as 150 men were singled-out and killed in the camp every night.^[10] The U.S. State Department and other governments believe that, at a minimum, hundreds of detainees, whose identities are known and unknown, did not survive; many others were killed during the evacuation of the camps in the area.^[8]

Prijedor massacre

Main article: Prijedor massacre

A declaration on the Prijedor takeover prepared by Bosnian-Serb politicians of the Serbian Democratic Party was read out on Radio Prijedor the day after the takeover and was repeated throughout the day. When planning the anticipated takeover, it was decided that the 400 Serb policemen who would be involved in the takeover would be sufficient for the task. The objective of the takeover was to take over the functions of the president of the municipality, the vice-president of the municipality, the director of the post office, the chief of the police etc. In the night of the April 29/30, 1992, the takeover of power took place. Serb employees of the public security station and reserve police gathered in Cirkin Polje, part of the town of Prijedor. The people there were given the task of taking over power in the municipality and were broadly divided into five groups. Each group of about twenty had a leader and each was ordered to gain control of certain buildings. One group was responsible for the Assembly building, one for the main police building, one for the courts, one for the bank and the last for the post-office.^[8]

ICTY concluded that the takeover by the Serb politicians was as 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. These plans were never hidden and they were implemented in a coordinated action by the Serb police, army and politicians. One of the leading figures was Milomir Stakić, who came to play the dominant role in the political life of the Municipality.^[8]

The camp

In May 1992, intensive shelling and infantry attacks on Bosniak areas in the municipality caused the Bosniak survivors to flee their homes. The majority of them surrendered or were captured by Serb forces. As the Serb forces rounded up the Bosniak and Croat residents, they forced them to march in columns bound for one or another of the prison camps that the Serb authorities had established in the municipality. On about May 25, 1992, about three weeks after Serbs took control of government in the municipality, and two days after the start of large scale military attacks on Bosniak population centers, the Serb forces began taking prisoners to the Omarska camp. During the next several weeks, the Serb forces continued to round up Bosniaks and Croats from Kozarac area near Prijedor, and other places in the municipality and send them in the camps. Many of Bosniak and Croat intellectuals and politicians were sent to Omarska. While virtually all of the prisoners were male, there were also 37 women detained in the camp, who served food and cleaned the walls of the torture rooms, and were being repeatedly raped in the canteen; bodies of five of them had been exhumed.^[8]

The Omarska mines complex was located about 20 km from the town of Prijedor. The first detainees were taken to the camp sometime in late May 1992 (between 26 and 30 May). The camp buildings were almost completely full and some of the detainees had to be held on the area between the two main buildings. That area was lit up by specially installed spot-lights after the detainees arrived. Female detainees were held separately in the administrative building. According to the Serb authorities documents from Prijedor, there were a total of 3,334 persons held in the camp from May 27 to August 16, 1992. 3,197 of them were Bosniaks (i.e. Bosnian Muslims), 125 were Croats.^[8]

Within the area of the Omarska mining complex that was used for the camp, the camp authorities generally confined the prisoners in three different buildings: the administration building, where interrogations and killings took place; the crammed hangar building; the "white house," where the inmates were tortured; and on a cement courtyard area between the buildings known as the "pista", an L-shaped strip of concrete land in between, also a scene of torture and mass killings. There was another small building, known as the "red house", where prisoners were sometimes taken in order to be summarily executed.^[6]

With the arrival of the first detainees, permanent guard posts were established around the camp, and anti-personnel landmines were set up around the camp. The conditions in the camp were horrible. In the building known as the "White House", the rooms were crowded with 45 people in a room no larger than 20 square meters. The faces of the detainees were distorted and bloodstained and the walls were covered with blood. From the beginning, the detainees were beaten, with fists, rifle butts and wooden and metal sticks. The guards mostly hit the heart and kidneys, when they had decided to beat someone to death. In the "garage", between 150-160 people were "packed like sardines" and the heat was unbearable. For the first few days, the detainees were not allowed out and were given only a jerry can of water and some bread. Men would suffocate during the night and their bodies would be taken out the following morning. The room behind the restaurant was known as "Mujo’s Room". The dimensions of this room were about 12 by 15 metres and the average number of people detained there was 500, most of whom were Bosniaks. The women in the camp slept in the interrogations rooms, which they would have to clean each day as the rooms were covered in blood and pieces of skin and hair. In the camp one could hear the moaning and wailing of people who were being beaten up.^[8]

The detainees at Omarska had one meal a day. The food was usually spoiled and the process of getting the food, eating and returning the plate usually lasted around three minutes. Meals were often accompanied by beatings. The toilets were blocked and there was human waste everywhere. Ed Vulliamy, a British journalist, testified that when he visited the camp, the detainees were in a very poor physical condition. He witnessed them eating a bowl of soup and some bread and said that he had the impression they had not eaten in a long time. They appeared to be terrified. The detainees drank water from a river that was polluted with industrial waste and many suffered from constipation or dysentery. No criminal report was ever filed against persons detained in the Omarska camp, nor were the detainees apprised of any concrete charges against them. Apparently, there was no legitimate reason justifying these people’s detention.^[8]

Murder, torture, rape, and abuse of prisoners was common. Detainees were kept in inhuman conditions and an atmosphere of extreme mental and physical violence pervaded the camp.^[7] The camp guards and frequent visitors who came to the camps used all types of weapons and instruments to beat and otherwise physically abuse the detainees. In particular, Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat political and civic leaders, intellectuals, the wealthy, and non-Serbs who were considered as "extremists" or to have resisted the Bosnian Serbs were especially subjected to beatings and mistreatment which often resulted in death.^[11][12]

Inmates being run to the camp canteen - image from Penny Marshall crew video footage

In addition, Omarska and Keraterm camps also operated in a manner designed to discriminate and subjugate the non-Serbs by inhumane acts and cruel treatment. These acts included the brutal living conditions imposed on the prisoners. There was a deliberate policy of overcrowding and lack of basic necessities of life, including inadequate food, polluted water, insufficient or non-existent medical care and unhygienic and cramped conditions. The prisoners all suffered serious psychological and physical deterioration and were in a state of constant fear.^[13]

Killings were usually by shooting, beating or cutting of throats, although on one night of frenzied killing, prisoners were incinerated on a pyre of burning tires. The dead would be loaded onto trucks by their friends or with bulldozers. Sometimes prisoners were taken to dig the graves; they did not return. On the basis of the evidence presented at the Stakić trial, the Trial Chamber finds that over a hundred people were killed in late July 1992 in the Omarska camp. Around 200 people from Hambarine arrived in the Omarska camp sometime in July 1992. They were initially accommodated in the structure known as the White House. Early in the morning, around 01:00 or 02:00 on July 17, 1992, gunshots were heard that continued until dawn. Dead bodies were seen in front of the White House. The camp guards, one of whom was recognised as Zivko Marmat, were shooting rounds into the bodies. Everyone was given an extra bullet that was shot in their heads. The bodies were then loaded onto a truck and taken away. There were about 180 bodies in total.^[8]

The Omarska camp was closed immediately after a visit by foreign journalists in early August. On 6 or 7 August 1992, the detainees at Omarska were divided into groups and transported in buses to different destinations. About 1,500 people were transported on 20 buses.^[8]

Death toll

As part of the ethnic cleansing operations, these four camps helped the Crisis Committee of the Serbian District of Prijedor to reduce the non-Serb population of Prijedor from more than 50,000 in 1992 to little more than 3,000 in 1995, and even fewer subsequently.^[14] While precise calculations about the number who actually died in these camps are difficult to make, US State Department officials, along with representatives of other Western governments, have estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 people perished at Omarska.^[4]

A member of the United Nations (UN) Commission of Experts testified during the Duško Tadić trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that their number was in the thousands, but she could not be precise, despite the fact that Serbian officials confirmed there were no large scale releases of prisoners sent there. A member of the Crisis Committee, Simo Drljača, who served as chief of police for Prijedor, has stated that there were 6,000 "informative conversations" (meaning interrogations) in Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje, and that 1,503 non-Serbs were transferred from those three camps to Manjača camp, leaving 4,497 unaccounted for according to Human Rights Watch.^[4]

International reaction

In early August 1992, reporters Ed Vulliamy (The Guardian), Penny Marshall, and Ian Williams (ITN and Channel 4 News) gained access to Omarska camp.^[15] Their reporting served as one of the catalysts of a UN effort to investigate war crimes committed in the conflict.^[16] The camp was closed less than a month after its exposure caused international uproar.

1997-2000 controversy

There was academic and media controversy regarding the events that took place in Omarska and Trnopolje in 1992, due to claims of false reporting and "lies". These allegations, promoted by the state-controlled Radio Television of Serbia and the British Living Marxism (LM) paper, prompted the Independent Television News (ITN) network to accuse the LM of libel; the ITN won the case in 2000, effectively forcing the paper to close down.^[17]

Trials

We were able to establish that the Omarska camp was one of the most brutal and cruel camps that had been established during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Bob Reid, Deputy Chief of Investigations, ICTY Office of the Prosecutor^[18]

The Republika Srpska officials responsible for running the camp have since been indicted and found guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

• Camp commandants Miroslav Kvočka, Dragoljub Prcač, Milojica Kos, and Mlađo Radić, and a local taxi driver, Zoran Žigić were all found guilty of crimes against humanity. Kvočka, Prcač, Kos and Radić were sentenced to five, six, seven and 20 years respectively; Žigić was given the longest term of 25 years.^[2]

• Željko Mejakić was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts) as a direct perpetrator of one instance of mistreatment and under the theory of command responsibility as the de facto commander of Omarska camp. He was also found guilty under the theory of joint criminal enterprise for furthering the camp’s system of mistreatment and persecution of detainees. Defendant Mejakić was sentenced to 21 years’ long-term imprisonment.^[19]

• Momčilo Gruban was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts) under the theory of command responsibility for crimes committed in the Omarska camp, and under the theory of joint criminal enterprise. Defendant Gruban was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment.^[19]

• Duško Knežević was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts) as a direct perpetrator of crimes committed in the Omarska and Keraterm camps. He was also found guilty under the theory of joint criminal enterprise for furthering the Omarska and Keraterm camps’ systems of mistreatment and persecution of detainees. Defendant Knežević was sentenced to 31 years’ long-term imprisonment.^[19]

The Judgment of the ICJ

The ICJ presented its judgment in Bosnian Genocide Case on 26 February 2007, in which it had examined atrocities committed in detention camps, including Omarska, in relation to Article II (b) of the Genocide Convention. The Court stated in its judgment:

Having carefully examined the evidence presented before it, and taken note of that presented to the ICTY, the Court considers that it has been established by fully conclusive evidence that members of the protected group were systematically victims of massive mistreatment, beatings, rape and torture causing serious bodily and mental harm during the conflict and, in particular, in the detention camps. The requirements of the material element, as defined by Article II (b) of the Convention are thus fulfilled. The Court finds, however, on the basis of evidence before it, that it has not been conclusively established that those atrocities, although they too may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, were committed with the specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy the protected group, in whole or in part, required for a finding that genocide has been perpetrated.^[20]

Exhumations

In 2004, a mass grave a few hundred meters from the Omarska site, unearthed the remains of 456 persons from the camp.^[21] "There is no doubt whatsoever that there are hundreds of bodies as yet unfound within the mine of Omarska and its vicinity" said Amor Mašović, president of the Bosnian government's Commission for Tracing Missing Persons.^[22][23] The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has been active in advocating the exhumation and identification of their bodies from mass graves around the area; with their help, a number of victims have been identified through DNA testing.^[24]

Memorial controversy

The Mittal Steel company purchased the Omarska mining complex and planned to resume extraction of iron ore from the site.^[25] Mittal Steel announced in Banja Luka on December 1, 2005 that the company would build and finance a memorial in the 'White House' but the project was later abandoned. Many Bosnian Serbs believe there should not even be a memorial, while many Bosniaks believe it should not be built until all the victims have been located and only then if the whole mine - which is currently working again - is used for the memorial site.^[26]

See also

• Bosnian Genocide
• Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars
• Dretelj camp
• Gabela camp
• Heliodrom camp
• Keraterm camp
• Manjača camp
• Trnopolje camp
• Uzamnica camp
• Vilina Vlas
• Vojno camp

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Simons, Marlise (3 November 2001). "5 Bosnian Serbs Guilty of War Crimes at Infamous Camp". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/03/world/5-bosnian-serbs-guilty-of-war-crimes-at-infamous-camp.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Osborn, Andrew (3 November 2001). "Five Serbs guilty of Omarska camp atrocities". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/03/warcrimes.balkans. 
3. ^ "Prison camps". Final Report of the Commission of Experts. Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780. United Nations. 27 May 1994. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/V.htm. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "The Unindicted: Reaping the Rewards of "Ethnic Cleansing" in Prijedor". Human Rights Watch. 1 January 1997. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,HRW,,BIH,,3ae6a8368,0.html. 
5. ^ Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. "A mission to assist with field and laboratory work for the International Criminal Tribunal to the former Yugoslavia in its investigation into human rights violations in Bosnia.". http://eaaf.typepad.com/pdf/1999/04Bosnia1999.pdf. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "ICTY: Miroslav Kvočka, Mlado Radić, Zoran Žigić and Dragoljub Prcać judgement". http://www.icty.org/x/cases/kvocka/acjug/en/kvo-aj050228e.pdf. 
7. ^ ^{a b} May, Larry (2007). War Crimes and Just War. Cambridge University Press. p. 237. ISBN 052187114X. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} "ICTY: Milomir Stakić judgement". http://www.icty.org/x/cases/stakic/acjug/en/sta-aj060322e.pdf. 
9. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (1 September 2004). "Fingers stuck up at the Serbs". Salon. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/01/bosnia/index1.html. 
10. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (1 September 2004). "'We can't forget'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/01/warcrimes.balkans. 
11. ^ "Mejakić Željko and others, First Instance Verdict". Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 30 May 2008. http://www.sudbih.gov.ba/files/docs/presude/2008/Zeljko_Mejakic_First_Instance_Verdict.pdf. 
12. ^ "Mejakić Željko and others, Second Instance Verdict". Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 16 February 2009. http://www.sudbih.gov.ba/files/docs/presude/2009/Zeljko_Mejakic_i_dr_-_2nd_instance_verdict.pdf. 
13. ^ "Prosecutor v. Predrag Banović, Sentencing Judgment". International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 28 October 2003. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/banovic/tjug/en/ban-sj031028e.pdf. 
14. ^ "The Prijedor report". Final Report of the Commission of Experts. Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780. United Nations. 28 December 1994. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/V.htm. 
15. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (7 August 1992). "Shame of camp Omarska". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1992/aug/07/warcrimes.edvulliamy. 
16. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (8 June 1996). "'Some were thin, others skeletal'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/itn/article/0,,191233,00.html. 
17. ^ Campbell, David (March 2002). "Atrocity, memory, photography: imaging the concentration camps of Bosnia – the case of ITN versus Living Marxism, Part 1". Journal of Human Rights 1 (1): 1–33. http://www.david-campbell.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/part1.pdf. 
18. ^ "Bridging the Gap in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina". International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://www.icty.org/sid/10169. 
19. ^ ^{a b c} "Eighth Report in the Željko Mejakic et al. Case". Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. June 2008. http://www.oscebih.org/documents/14018-eng.pdf. 
20. ^ "The Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), case 91". International Court of Justice. 26 February 2007. p. 119. http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/13685.pdf. 
21. ^ Keulemans, Chris (26 June 2007). "Omarska - Fifteen Years On". Bosnian Institute. http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2281. 
22. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (2 December 2004). "New battle breaks out over Serb death camp". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/dec/02/balkans. 
23. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (2 December 2004). "In pursuit of reconciliation". Salon. http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/12/02/bosnia_camp/index.html. 
24. ^ Boyle, Katherine (12 January 2007). "Bosnia: A House Divided". Institute for War & Peace Reporting. http://iwpr.net/report-news/bosnia-house-divided. 
25. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (3 December 2004). "Sale of Omarska". Bosnian Institute. http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=1976. 
26. ^ "Mittal abandons Bosnia memorial project". The Times of India. 20 February 2006. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1421530,flstry-1.cms. 

External links

• Cases in trial or on appeal against verdict, Mejakić Željko and others, Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Unlawful Confinement, by Ed Vulliamy for the Crimes of War Project
• AWAY FROM GUARDS, INMATES WHISPER OF ABUSE, The Washington Post, August 11, 1992
• THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA CHARGES 21 SERBS WITH ATROCITIES COMMITTED INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE OMARSKA DEATH CAMP UN, ICTY Press Release 1995]
• Who cares as judgement falls on Serb hell camp?, The Guardian, 1996
• Review of the documentary film "Calling the Ghosts", with excerpts from the testimony of Jadranka Cigelj and Nusreta Sivac
• Omarska Camp, Bosnia - Broken Promises of "Never Again" by Kelly D. Askin, "Human Rights", published by American Bar Association
• New battle breaks out over Serb death camp, The Guardian, 2004
• 'We can't forget', The Guardian, 2004
• Ex-foes make peace at Omarska, BBC, 2005
• Bosnia war memorial plan halted, BBC, 2006

Coordinates: 44°52′09″N 16°52′58″E / 44.86917°N 16.88278°E / 44.86917; 16.88278