White Ribbon Day: Prijedor authorities still refuse to allow monument for more than 100 murdered children

In the crimes that followed in Prijedor and surrounding areas, 3,176 people were killed, including 102 children. Around 30,000 non-Serb residents of Prijedor passed through the camps of Trnopolje, Omarska, and Keraterm. To this day, the city authorities in Prijedor do not permit the erection of any memorial in honor of the murdered Prijedor residents.

According to the 1991 census, before the war, Prijedor had more than 112,000 inhabitants. Roughly half of the population were non-Serbs. According to the 2013 census, a little over 89,000 people live in Prijedor today. Of that number, non-Serbs make up only about one-third.

For the crimes committed in Prijedor, according to victims’ associations, around 50 final verdicts have been handed down, totaling approximately 800 years of prison sentences.

Among the victimes were six-year-old Nermina Bacic, her 13-year-old brother Nermin, their mother, and nearly 30 other family members.

Even thirty years later, the father continues to search for their remains. He has also been demanding for decades the construction of a monument for more than 100 murdered children, but to no avail.

Fikret Bacic, spoke to N1.

“There’s only a handful of us parents still alive whose children were killed. Most were murdered on the spot with their kids. I’m one of the few who survived, and I initiated the campaign to build a monument to those children in Prijedor,” Bacic said.

“It’s been 11 years since we submitted the request to the city authorities in Prijedor. There have been four mayors in that time (including the current one). The previous three were at least open to dialogue, and we tried to find a solution. Certain conditions were set, which we parents fulfilled. Mr. Pavlovic, the previous mayor, brought us to the brink of agreement—only the appointment of a working group and the start of construction remained. Then he was replaced, and with the arrival of the new mayor, Mr. Javor, all talks were stopped and everything we had built was—figuratively and bureaucratically—cemented over,” said Bacic.

He pointed out that they had repeatedly attempted to speak with the current mayor, but he simply refuses to engage.

“On several occasions, we tried to talk to him, but he won’t even consider it. We tried every possible way to reach him. We had support from international organizations, but the mayor rejected every attempt,” Bacic stated, adding:

“At one point he agreed to a meeting with me and some European Parliament members. But when we reached the building’s doors, he said he would not receive us, and that either we or the Europeans could attend the meeting—not both. We refused this. The next day, (Milorad) Dodik received the European delegation, but Mr. Javor still declined. The process has been stopped by the mayor’s refusal to even discuss the matter.”

Fikret Bacic says that to this day, over 600 bodies are still being searched for in Prijedor.

“Even today, we’re searching for more than 600 bodies in Prijedor, and 7,560 in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are searching for everyone—not just Bosniaks—all who disappeared or were killed,” he said, and concluded:

“We, the citizens, live together by helping each other, by talking, and by trying to build something. But our politicians want none of it. I must emphasize: although we know individuals who have information that could uncover mass graves, state institutions are not doing enough. That’s why so many remains are still unaccounted for.”