As we have done in the past, we are providing you with a short report on the activities of Women in Black in the reporting period.
We would like to thank you in advance, in solidarity.
Street actions: During the period covered by this report we have organized seventeen (17) actions:
- Commemorations of important dates of crimes committed in our name
- Feminist, antifascist, anti-war, antiracist and antimilitarist actions...
Commemorations of important dates of crimes committed in our name, as well as of other crimes against civilians during the wars in ex-Yugoslavia:
May 12th, Bratunac, Bosnia and Herzegovina: in occasion of 22nd anniversary of crime against Bosnian civilians in Bratunac, eight (8) activist of Women in Black attended in Memorial Center Veljaci the eighth collective funeral/jenaza of remains of 6 identified persons/bodies of the killed Bosnian civilians during 1992.
267 bodies/remains – Bosnians were buried and about another 300 bodies are still being searched for. During 1992 in Bratunac area, 602 persons were killed and 18000 were banished. In mid-April 1992, Novi Sad Corps of Yugoslav National Army arrived to Bratunac, and it was followed by arrival of Serbian paramilitary formations, which committed numerous crimes.
May 24th and 25th, Omarska and Trnopolje, Bosnia and Herzegovina: memorialization of opening of concentration camps Omarska and Trnopolje (1992), where population of Prijedor Municipality were held captive; in mentioned concentration camps, Serbian military and police kept imprisoned about 6000 persons of Bosnian and Croatian nationality, and 700-900 persons were killed in the camp. In these camps, women were exposed to most brutal sexual crimes. A group of 40 women, among whom two of Women in Black activists (Lepa Mladjenovic and Dragana Garic), was allowed by the authorities to visit "the White House" in Omarska for one hour - the place of torture of women and men camp prisoners, which was ultimately humiliating and all over again traumatizing for everyone. It should be mentioned that the complex is in Repulika Srpska/RS and that it is owned by the leading multinational iron company "ArcellorMittal".
May 31st, Prijedor, Bosnia and Hezegovina, "International Day of White Armbands": Remembering the beginning of the campaign (1992) of extinction, during which the mass executions were conducted, and concentration camps opened (Trnopolje, Omarska and Keraterm). On the mentioned day, the authorities of Bosnian Serbs in Prijedor ordered non-Serbian population to mark their houses with white flags or sheets, and to wear white armbands around their sleeves when they leave the house.
This year, following activists of Women in Black from Belgrade participated in memorialization: Lepa Mladjenovic and Dragana Garic, both of these participants also contributed to preparations of the march organized by initiative "Because it concerns me"; about 300 participants attended the march.
During the march, petition was organized for building a monument to 102 children killed in war ...
Report on our activities in pdf.
