Trnopolje camp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trnopolje camp was a detention camp (also referred to as ghetto, prison and concentration camp - officially "a transit camp," while Human Rights Watch classified it as a deportation center[1]) in the village of Trnopolje near the city of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first months of the Bosnian War (1992-1995). The camp was established and ran by the authorities of Republika Srpska and local paramilitary Serb police to confine and detain Bosniak and Bosnian Croat civilian population found "innocent" by the Serbs.
The camp actually included the entire village of Trnopolje, three hundred square meters in size, and was enclosed by barbwire and surroundered by a machine gun emplacements. It was similar to, but less brutal than, the Keraterm, Omarska and Manjača camps that were also opened in the vicinity but served to detain those being "interrogated" or found "guilty" (and "awaiting trial"). However, according to the ICTY prosecution several hundred non-Serbs were killed at Trnopolje.
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[edit] The camp
According to subsequent testimony from witnesses, compared to other detention camps in the region, Trnopolje was a relatively low-security staging area for the forcible deportation of non-Serbs from the Prijedor area, and detainees were fed only sporadically, but were allowed to forage for food outside the detention area's perimeter[2], which explains the widely varying nourishment condition of the inmates. There were about 300 reported killings or incidents of forced disappearance in the camp, and far more reported incidents of systematic rape of female detainees.
Women, children and elderly persons comprised the majority of some 6,000 forcibly interned persons who passed through Trnopolje. However, some 1,900 men who had been forcibly displaced from their villages were also detained in this camp before they were transferred to or from Omarska, Keraterm or Manjaca camps. Most of those detained in the Trnopolje camp lived in tents, the school or other buildings within the camp's perimeter. Although abuses in the Trnopolje camp were more random and not as severe as in Omarska, Keraterm and Manjaca, gross abuses did occur. Men were taken from the camp by guards and were subsequently "disappeared". In a few cases a detainees were shot at random by guards.
[edit] Discovery
The camp was discovered by the international media in July 1992 at which point the wire fence was removed. In August 1992, during the closure of the camp, some 200 former male inmates were separated and killed in the Koricani Cliffs massacre.
There was some controversy regarding the Trnopolje footage, due to claims of "faking" the reports. Allegations promoted by the British Living Marxism (LM) paper, prompted the Independent Television News (ITN) network to accuse the LM of libel.ITN won the case, effectively forcing the paper to close down.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- About famous Trnopolje camp picture
- Prijedor Genocide Trial
- Ed Vulliamy in the Guardian on the camp
- David Campbell, "Atrocity, Memory, Photography"
- Radovan Karadzic $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Radovan Karadzic
- Ratko Mladic $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ratko Mladic
