Personal testimony · Trnopolje · April 29, 1992 – September 30, 1992
"Die there": Doctor Idriz Merdžanić in Kozarac and the Trnopolje Camp
In 1992, the Bosniak doctor Idriz Merdžanić from Prijedor treated wounded civilians during the attack by Serb forces on Kozarac, and then detainees of the Trnopolje camp, where he and the staff of the clinic secretly documented the injuries of detainees. He left the camp among the last, on 30 September 1992. Ten years later he testified before the ICTY in the case against Milomir Stakić, who was finally sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Where and when
Prijedor
- Date
- April 29, 1992 – September 30, 1992
- Place
- Prijedor, Omarska
- Coordinates
- 44.98° N · 16.71° E
The Takeover of Power in Prijedor
In 1992, Idriz Merdžanić was a thirty-three-year-old Bosniak doctor from Prijedor. On the night of 29 to 30 April 1992, Serb forces took over power in Prijedor: they seized key buildings in the town and set up checkpoints.
The Attack on Kozarac
Around noon on 24 May 1992, Serb forces attacked Kozarac. The attack lasted two days. At that time Merdžanić was working in the local clinic, treating civilians wounded in the shelling.
Among the wounded were two children. Merdžanić asked for them to be transported for treatment, but his request was refused. According to his testimony, a member of the Serb forces replied to him: "Die there." According to another record of the same testimony, the reply was that all balijas should die there.
Capture after the Capitulation
After the capitulation of Kozarac on 26 May 1992, Serb soldiers captured Merdžanić and his colleagues. The medical supplies from the clinic were loaded onto a truck bearing JNA markings.
The Trnopolje Camp
Merdžanić was taken to the Trnopolje camp. The men were mostly held in the school building, and the women and children in the community hall (dom mjesne zajednice). The camp was fenced and guarded. The camp administration initially provided no food, water ran out, and hygienic conditions collapsed.
During June and July 1992, Merdžanić treated beaten detainees in the camp clinic. One room of the clinic was used for interrogations and beatings. He also treated women who had been raped in the camp, and referred some of them to the gynecological department of the hospital in Prijedor.
The Evidence That Was Preserved
The clinic staff secretly photographed the detainees' injuries so that the crimes could one day be proven. In August 1992, when a British television crew visited the camp, Merdžanić handed the journalists a film with these photographs. Two photographs were later admitted as exhibits S321-7 and S321-14 in the case against Milomir Stakić; photograph S321-7 shows the injuries of Nedžad Jakupović.
The International Committee of the Red Cross visited the camp on 15 August 1992 and subsequently ensured the delivery of food.
According to Merdžanić's estimate, about 200 men were killed in Trnopolje, and others died due to the lack of medicines. According to his testimony, his colleague, the doctor Jusuf Pašić, was taken to Omarska and killed.
Leaving the Camp
Merdžanić left Trnopolje among the last, on 30 September 1992, and arrived at a refugee camp in Karlovac in Croatia.
Testimony in The Hague
Ten years later, on 10 and 11 September 2002, Merdžanić testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the case against Milomir Stakić, president of the Crisis Staff of the Prijedor municipality. The Tribunal sentenced Stakić to 40 years in prison, among other things for crimes in Kozarac and Trnopolje. In November 2011, Merdžanić also testified in the case against Radovan Karadžić.