Anto Tomić, a Bosnian Croat from Ljubija, passed through the Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje camps in the Prijedor area in the summer of 1992. In Trnopolje he heard two contradictory versions of the death of Milan Ćurguz "Krivi", a man who brought food and messages to the detainees from Ljubija, and he later repeated both before the Hague Tribunal.
Ante Tomić, a Bosnian Croat and miner from Ljubija, was detained in 1992 in the Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje camps. According to his testimony, one night in July in Omarska he was beaten by a group of eight guards while trying to fill a bucket with water. He survived and in 2001 testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Edna Dautović, a student from Prijedor, was held in the Omarska camp in the summer of 1992. At the end of July she was taken away with other detainees, allegedly for an exchange, and killed near the Lisac pit. Her brother Edvin, according to Radio Free Europe, was killed a few days earlier in Omarska itself. Their mother Mejra searched for her children until 2000, when their remains were found and buried in Bihać.
Personal testimony · Omarska · June 1992 – August 1992
Ante Tomić from Ljubija, a former worker at the Omarska mine, was arrested in early June 1992 and went through the Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje camps. According to his testimony, on his last night in Omarska he was beaten by the younger brother of the commander Miroslav Kvočka and by other guards, and in the camp he watched his fellow detainees die. After the war he lives in Hamburg, writes about the camp and gives testimony.
Account of an event · Briševo · May 1992 – November 1992
In July 1992, forces of the Vojska Republike Srpske attacked Briševo, a village with a predominantly Croat population in the Prijedor municipality, and killed more than sixty civilians; sources give between 61 and 68 killed. Houses and the Catholic church were destroyed, many men were taken to camps, and the survivors were expelled. Only in 2023 did the Prosecutor's Office of BiH indict five former commanders and representatives of the Serb forces.
In the space of a few weeks in 1992, the pediatrician Minka Čehajić lost her job, her home and her husband Muhamed Čehajić, the elected President of the Prijedor Municipal Assembly. He was detained in the Keraterm and Omarska camps and disappeared at the end of July 1992. In May 2002, Minka Čehajić testified before the ICTY in the case against Milomir Stakić, who was later sentenced by a final judgment to 40 years in prison.
Personal testimony · Omarska · April 30, 1992 – August 6, 1992
Ante Tomić, a Bosnian Croat and miner from Ljubija, was arrested on the night of 13–14 June 1992 and spent almost three weeks in the Keraterm camp, followed by more than a month in Omarska, where he was beaten into a four-day unconsciousness and thrown onto a pile of dead bodies. He survived and in 2001 testified before the Hague Tribunal in the proceedings against the Keraterm commanders.
Muhamed Čehajić, a professor and the freely elected president of the Prijedor Municipal Assembly, was removed from office on 30 April 1992, when Serb forces took power in the town and Milomir Stakić took his place. He was arrested in May 1992, held in the Keraterm and Omarska camps, and did not return after the end of July 1992. From the camp he sent his family a letter asking that his son keep studying.
Personal testimony · Briševo · April 29, 1992 – November 17, 1992
Ivo Atlija, a Bosnian Croat from Briševo near Prijedor, survived the attack on his village on 24 July 1992, in which his father and neighbours were killed. In the following weeks he helped bury the dead in Briševo, Stara Rijeka and Mlinari, and in November 1992 he left Bosnia in a convoy to Zagreb. He later testified before the ICTY in the trials of Milomir Stakić and Ratko Mladić.
In 1992, around 30,000 non-Serb men, women and children passed through the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps near Prijedor, and among the 102 children killed from Prijedor was a two-month-old infant. More than three decades later, families are still waiting to learn where their loved ones lie. This story follows the fates of those who were killed, of survivors, and of those who died without seeing their sons buried.