During the Bosnian War, there was an ethnic cleansing campaign committed by the Bosnian Serb political and military leadership – Army of the Republika Srpska, mostly against Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and 1993. The composition of non-Serbs was drastically reduced: out of a population of 50,000 Bosniaks and 6,000 Croats, only some 6,000 Bosniaks and 3,000 Croats remained in the municipality by the end of the war. Apart from the Srebrenica massacre, Prijedor is the area with the highest rate of civilian killings committed during the Bosnian War. According to the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC), 4,868 people were killed or went missing in the Prijedor municipality during the war. Among them were 3,515 Bosniak civilians, 186 Croat civilians and 78 Serb civilians. , 96 mass graves have been located and around 2,100 victims have been identified, largely by DNA analysis.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced 20 people in relation to crimes perpetrated in Prijedor, finding them guilty of persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds; murder; inhumane acts; extermination; deportation or forced displacement (crimes against humanity), and wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity; destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion (violations of the laws or customs of war).

History The crimes committed in Prijedor have been subjected to 13 trials before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. 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. The ICTY has characterized the Prijedor events of 1992 as having met the "actus reus" (guilty act) of genocide through killing members of the group and causing serious bodily and mental harm to members of the group. However, the requirement of the specific intent to physically destroy was not established beyond reasonable doubt. 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. In 2013, investigators were led by two Bosnian Serb civilians who worked in and around the camps to a mining complex Ljubija, unearthing the largest mass grave in Bosnian war, and the discovery of over 1,000 bodies in both the Tomašica and Jakarina Kosa mine mass grave sites.

Background

Following Slovenia's and Croatia's declarations of independence in June 1991, the situation in the Prijedor municipality rapidly deteriorated. During the war in Croatia, the tension increased between the Serbs and the communities of Bosniaks and Croats.

Bosniaks and Croats began to leave the municipality because of a growing sense of insecurity and fear caused by intensifying Serb propaganda. The municipal newspaper Kozarski Vjesnik started publishing allegations against the non-Serbs. The Serb media propagandised the idea that the Serbs had to arm themselves. Terms like Ustasha (Ustaše), Mujahideen (Mudžahedini) and Green Berets (Zelene beretke) were used widely in the press as synonyms for the non-Serb population. Radio Prijedor disseminated propaganda insulting Croats and Bosnian Muslims. 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. It was replaced by broadcasts from Belgrade and Banja Luka with interviews of radical Serb politicians and renditions of Serb nationalist songs, which would previously have been banned.

Political developments before the takeover

On 7 January 1992, the Serb members of the Prijedor Municipal Assembly and the presidents of the local Municipal Boards of the Serbian Democratic Party proclaimed the Assembly of the Serbian People of the Municipality of Prijedor and implemented secret instructions that were issued earlier on 19 December 1991. The "Organisation and Activity of Organs of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Extraordinary Circumstances" provided a plan for the SDS take-over of municipalities in BiH, it also included plans for the creation of Crisis Staffs. Milomir Stakić, later convicted by ICTY of mass crimes against humanity against Bosniak and Croat civilians, was elected President of this Assembly. Ten days later, on 17 January 1992, the Assembly endorsed joining the Serbian territories of the Municipality of Prijedor to the Autonomous Region of Bosnian Krajina in order to implement creation of a separate Serbian state on ethnic Serbian territories.

On 23 April 1992, the Serbian Democratic Party decided inter alia that all Serb units immediately start working on the takeover of the municipality in co-ordination with the Yugoslav People's Army and units of the future Army of the Republika Srpska). By the end of April 1992, a number of clandestine Serb police stations were created in the municipality and more than 1,500 armed Serbs were ready to take part in the takeover.

Takeover

A declaration on the takeover prepared by the Serb politicians from 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.

During the night of 29/30 April 1992, the takeover of power took place. Employees of the public security station and reserve police gathered in Čirkin Polje, part of the town of Prijedor. Only Serbs were present and some of them were wearing military uniforms. 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.

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. 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.

Armed attacks against the civilians

After the takeover, civilian life was transformed in a myriad of ways. Tension and fear increased significantly among the non-Serb population in Prijedor municipality. There was a marked increase in the military presence of Serb formations in the town of Prijedor. Armed soldiers were placed on top of all the high rise buildings in Prijedor town and the Serb police established checkpoints throughout the town of Prijedor.

In the Stakić case, the ICTY concluded that many people were killed during the attacks by the Serb army on predominantly Bosnian Muslim villages and towns throughout the Prijedor municipality and several massacres of Bosnian Muslims took place and that a comprehensive pattern of atrocities against Bosnian Muslims in Prijedor municipality in 1992 had been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Propaganda

After the takeover, Radio Prijedor propagated Serb nationalist ideas characterising prominent non-Serbs as criminals and extremists, who should be punished for their behaviour. One example of such propaganda was the derogatory language used for referring to non-Serbs such as Mujahideen, Ustaše or Green Berets. Both the print and broadcast media also spread what can be only considered as blatant lies according to the ICTY conclusion about non-Serb doctors: Dr. Mirsad Mujadžić of the Bosniak ethnic group was accused of injecting drugs into Serb women making them incapable of giving birth to male children and Dr. Željko Sikora, a Croat, referred to as the Monster Doctor, was accused of making Serb women abort if they were pregnant with male children and of castrating the male babies of Serbian parents. 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. Dr. Dukić's life was saved only because Dr. Radojka Elenkov discontinued the therapy allegedly initiated by Dr. Mahmuljin. The appeals were broadcast aimed at the Serbs to lynch the non-Serbs. Moreover, forged biographies of prominent non-Serbs, including Prof. Muhamed Čehajić, Mr. Crnalić, Dr. Eso Sadiković and Dr. Osman Mahmuljin, were broadcast. According to ICTY conclusion in Stakić verdict Mile Mutić, the director of Kozarski Vjesnik and the journalist Rade Mutić regularly attended meetings of Serb politicians (local authorities) in order to get informed about next steps of spreading propaganda.

Strengthening of Serb forces

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. On 12 May 1992, the self-appointed Assembly of the Serbian People established the Serbian Army under Ratko Mladić’s command by bringing together former JNA (later Army of Serbia and Montenegro and Army of Republika Srpska) units.

Major Radmilo Željaja issued an ultimatum calling for all Bosniak citizens to hand over their weapons to the Serbian Army and to declare their loyalty to the Serbian Republic and to respond to the mobilisation call-ups. The ultimatum issued also contained a threat that any resistance would be punished. 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. House searches performed by soldiers of the homes of the non-Serb population were common and any weapons found were confiscated.

Marking of non-Serb houses and people

Many non-Serbs were dismissed from their jobs in the period after the takeover. 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.