In May 1992, in the area of Prijedor municipality in Omarska mine complex the concentration camp had been set up in which 6000 detainees of Bosnian and Croatian nationality were held until its closing down in August the same year. Around 700 or even 900 people were killed in the camp. In the year 1992, a British journalist Ed Vulliamy showed the camp to the world, in which the Serbian police and military had abused and tortured members of other ethnic groups who had lived in the area of Prijedor municipality.
Together with the Association of Detainees Prijedor 92 and detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the art collective “Four Faces of Omarska” and the “Spomenik (Monument)” working group, “the Women in Black” support the initiative for the construction of Memorial Centre in the Omarska mine complex. The mine is currently owned by a British company Mittal which, besides the discriminatory employment policy of giving a job only to non-Serbian population, is not doing anything remotely serious concerning a clear stand on war history of the mine during the ‘90s. The management of the Mittal company fundamentally supports every agreement that residents of Prijedor municipality would reach and which deals with the construction of the Memorial centre.Neither the agreement of the residents nor the permission of municipal authorities, unfortunately, are still not attainable. The diagnosis of this condition is that this is the continuation of the war just using other means. The segregation of Bosnian population, their clear, physical separation from Serbian population, and the unequivocal policy of negation of the war crimes and the existence of concentration camps in the area of Prijedor municipality are the reality where building up a common life is hardly possible.
In the attempt to start up a dialogue and to take a clear stand on crimes that occurred during the 90’s in the area of Prijedor municipality the art collective “Four Faces of Omarska”, the “Spomenik” working group and “the Women in Black” drew up a “Declaration onContinuation of theFight against Fascism“. The Declaration, besides its full support to the construction of the Memorial, firmly opposes negation, denial and glorification of crimes and concentration camps during the war in 90’s. The attitude that has been put forward in the Declaration is that the revison of history, rehabilitation of Chetnik movement and consideration about Republic of Srpska out of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina context is not acceptable. The Declaration was read on May 9 on Victory Day over Fascism and Day of Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina which seemed to the authorities of Prijedor municipality as an evil seed which the above mentioned organizations, while marking the day, were leaving to inhabitants of Prijedor municipality. Although the main goal of the Declaration was to support the Memorial, as well as to make a clear stand on crimes of Serbian forces during the aggression in the 90’s, the authorities of Prijedor municipality managed to interpret it as an act which disturbs peace and coexistence. At the end, the Declaration was read at the same time in Belgrade and Banjica concentration camp and in the mine complex Omarska, in the area of the former concentration camp, which was opened for the visitors that day for a few hours.
On the day of marking the liberation of the city of Prijedor in the Second World War, May 16, 2011, the Declaration containing the signatures of citizens which had supported it, was sent to all authorized institutions in the area of Prijedor municiplality, as well as to all relevant institutions in Serbia. Sending the Declaration to the above mentioned addresses was an attempt to open a dialog and an effort to establish clear historical facts, like those connected with the period of the Second World War and Serbian aggression during the 90’s, but at the same time it was an attempt to evoke the values that arise from our common antifascist past. Nevertheless, this action was viewed through a same rigid prism of negation and denial.
August 6, 2011 the Association of Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Association Prijedor 92, marked the date of closing of the camp. „Four Faces of Omarska“ and „the Women in Black“ supported this associations by ateending this event. Scorching hot day of August and Ramadan did not stop visitors to enter and pay homage to the killed and show solidarity with those who were detained in the camp. Around 300 people gathered and took part in a modest and dignified marking of the anniversary of the closing. Without the presence of politicians and any political speeches, former detainees evoked events from the camp. Hoardings in front of an administrative building, besides the history of Omarska camp, showed cases of the other camps which had existed on a territory of Prijedor- Keraterm and Trnopolje. Posters were hang on the walls of the mine complex to remind bystanders of and some of them even explain what happened in Omarska during 1992. „The White House“- former medical center, served as a place of bestial maltreatment of inhabitants of Bosnian and Croatian nationality. Besides the military and police, civilians from Prijedor municipality also tortured the detainees. Corpses of murdered ones were piled up in front of the same building, while in the high grass behind the building executions were performed with blunt objects. ’’Hangar’’- was the simplest building within the mine, inside of which the largest number of people were detained. Hangar was a place of sadism of the largest scale. According to testimonies of detainees hangar was a stage of disentery, lice, broken limbs, worm-infested wounds, hunger and thirst. In the “administrative building“- on the floor above this construction detainees were interogated, beaten with chains and metal rods. In those rooms of blood slept detained camp women. In a garage behind the administrative building, according to testimonies, the paint was peeling from the walls because of evaporations of a large number of people that were confined there, without any circulation of air. ’’The Red House“- there are no testimonies of bestialities which happened in this building. From the verdict of Miroslav Kvočka it is familiar that the buidling served as a place for murdering the detainees. Mutilated bodies of murdered detainees were piled up in front of this building.
In the background of horrible scenes which could be read from this posters one could hear from the public address system which transmitted one day from the Omarska camp. The roll-call of the detainees by their names could be heard, orders to come to special rooms to meet their torturers, orders to kneel, crawl or lie on a hot concrete with hands raised upwards. Only one day was evoked, in a period of three hours. The menagament of the mine opened to visitors their complex for three hours on that day. Torture which lasted from the spring until the summer of 1992, 6000 people were detained in the camp, about 700 or even 900 people’s lives disappeared there, but now they got their space for three hours on this scorching day of August. Only three hours to serve as an acknowledged and given symbol to the Memorial victims and the survived, without a tablet, without a dignity in a hurry for earning a new profit. Without a hoarding, posters with inscriptions which describe in brief what was this construction used for in 1992 and without people who would come here to face with this place where they were deprived of their human dignity during the confinement, you would get the impression that it is just an ordinary mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Still, all its ordinariness disappears, its economic purpose and service to human well-being peels in front of the fact which the still unacknowledged criminal history engraved on it in 1992.