According to
the official results of the 1991 census, the Prijedor district had
112,470 residents:
6,300 Croats
(5,6%)
49,454 Moslems (44,0%)
47,745 Serbs (42,5%)
8,971 others (7,9%)
During the Serbian and former YPA aggression against Croatia (1991)
the aggressor turned the Prijedor district into a logistic and transit
centre. The majority of the military capable Serb residents were
armed by the former YPA, and set off to military campaigns throughout
Croatia (Novska, Lipik, Pakrac, Nova Gradiska, Sunja, Petrinja...).
On April 30th 1992, the legally elected district authority in Prijedor
was forcibly overthrown, and the so-called Serbian district of Prijedor
was established.
On May 22nd
1992, the Serb occupying forces and the former YPA initially attacked
this non-Serb populated district. First they attacked the Moslem
populated village of Hambarine, and then followed:
May 23rd 1992
- Croat populated villages of Gornji Volar and Stara Rijeka;
May 24th 1992 - the Serb forces attacked the mining town of Ljubija;
May 25th 1992 - the village of Kozarac came under attack;
May 27th 1992 - Croat populated villages of Raljas, Brisevo and
Stara Rijeka came under attack;
May 31st 1992 - non-Serb residents of the city of Prijedor came
under the attack of the Serb forces.
In the period
between May 23rd and 26th the occupying Serb forces turned the already
existing industrial plants into camps, where they detained many
surviving Croat and Moslem district residents. Larger camps such
as Keraterm, Trnopolje and Omarska became the execution sites where
the brutal physical maltreatment and monstrous mass murders of Croat
and Moslem civilian prisoners were carried out. Based on the surviving
prisoners' accounts the number of the prisoners that were murdered
in those camps has been presumed to exceed 5,000.
Mass murders
of non-Serb civilian prisoners were as follows:
May 23rd 1992
- Moslem villagers of Hambarine;
May 25th 1992 - Moslem and Croat villagers of Kozarac;
May 31st to June 5th 1992 - non-Serb residents of Prijedor;
July 18th to 22nd 1992 - Moslem villagers of Biscani, Rizvanovici,
Rakovcani, Hambarine and Zecovi;
July 24th/25th 1992 - Croat villagers of Stara Rijeka, Brisevo and
Raljas;
September 12th/13th 1992 - Croat villagers of Gornji Volar;
November 7th/8th 1992 - Croat villagers of Gornja Ravska;
April 24th 1993 - Croat villagers of Gornji Volar;
April 1994 - non-Serb residents of Prijedor.
Bodies of murdered
Croat and Moslem civilians were buried in ten or more mass graves
located in the Prijedor district. In the first year of the occupation
(May 1992 to May 1993), Serbs evicted and/or killed some 54,000
residents (3,131 Croats, 43,330 Moslems and 7,340 others). The Serbian
aggressor destroyed the entire villages, towns and sections of the
cities in the Prijedor district area, populated by Croat and Moslem
civilians, as well as the entire non-Serb sacral, cultural and historic
heritage.
The ethnic cleansing
of the non-Serb population in the area has still been carried out
(1994).
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