Former detainees of the Batkovic concentration camp for Bosniaks and Croats marked the anniversary of the opening of the camp near Bijeljina, which was the last to be closed after the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. Namely, on April 1, 1992, the Batkovic camp was opened, and it was closed at the beginning of 1996 after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Former inmates from Janja and Bijeljina and the Bosanska Krajina still remember the painful and traumatic memories. The Association of Detainees identified 657 camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is assumed that there were more.

“Today we are at the site of the Batkovic camp, which was opened on April 1, 1992. It is the camp that was the first to be opened and the last to be closed. Over 3,000 Bosniaks and Croats passed through this camp, and between 70 and 80 people were killed,” said Mehmed Djezic, head of the Janja and Bijeljina camp detainees’ association.

The detainees from the Batkovic camp were forced to dig trenches, live as human shields and work on the agricultural estates of Semberija Serbs. Many of them were also taken to the war zone in Sarajevo, where two of them died.

The Janja and Bijeljina camp detainee association also presented a certificate of appreciation to Radojka Vukovic, who together with her husband Velimir brought food to camp detainees. It was one of the rare examples of compassion for people who were imprisoned simply because they had different names.

“When the camp was formed, I knew that there were honest people here, the poor, the miserable… Not a single politician in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not even a rich person, who either ran away or paid not to die. That's why I felt a duty to help these people of mine. I will also never forget the late Izo the policeman his family will remember, from the ‘Pere Kosorica’ Square where his family lived. He hid bread to give to my sister and cousin in Sarajevo. I can't forget that. That's why I also had the will, desire and strength to help our people [the detainees]. I didn't help them much, it was a drop of water in the sea, but they were satisfied with the bag of bread that I bought at the bakery and brought to them. When they asked me at the entrance who I was visiting, I said that I was going to see the honest people. With that, I told them everything,” Radojka Vukovic said, overwhelmed with emotions.