Prijedor, but also the whole world, remember the 3,176 killed Prijedor citizens, non-Serb civilians, including 102 children, this Monday, marking the 29th anniversary of the White Ribbon Day in this north-western Bosnian town.

The “White Ribbon Day – May 31”, which has long outgrown both Prijedor and Bosnia, will be marked this year by a symbolic peaceful protest walk of Prijedor survivors through the Prijedor promenade and on the City Square, as well as throughout many other cities around the world, adhering to all epidemiological measures.

The head of the Regional Association of Detainees of the Banja Luka region and a former detainee of Omarska, Manjaca and Trnopolje Mirsad Duratovic said in an interview with Fena news agency that the focus this year will be on 102 killed children from Prijedor and the parents’ initiative to erect a worthy memorial to the killed children in downtown Prijedor, despite city officials long refusing to do so.

“White ribbons are one of the proofs of the intention to commit genocide in Prijedor because the group was marked in a visible and clear way due to extermination and persecution from that territory,” Duratovic points out.

Speaking about the verdicts for the crimes committed in Prijedor, Duratovic says that more than 50 final verdicts have been passed so far and that the criminals have been sentenced to more than 800 years in prison. Some criminals have been convicted two or even three times.

White Ribbon Day in Norway

Citizens originally from Bosnia marked the White Ribbon Day in three Norwegian cities this year.

The BiH Embassy in Oslo also took part in the events.

The Federation of Associations of BiH citizens in Norway prepared a video content with the participation of representatives of BiH associations that organized scenic displays of reverence for the victims of the Prijedor region in the famous Vigeland Park in Oslo.

On Saturday evening, the event was held in Stavanger, in the new premises of the Stavanger congregation, while the central event was held in the Norwegian city of Haugesund. The organizer was the Association of Former Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995.

All those present at the gathering symbolically wore a white bandage on their hands, while in front of the hall stood a large poster with the names of 102 murdered children from the Prijedor municipality.

Background

On this day in 1992, Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor ordered all non-Serbs in the area to put on white ribbons and for them to mark their houses with white sheets.

What would follow was mass killings and prison camps.

The massacres are the reason why today many people across the world, but primarily in Bosnia, are wearing a white ribbon every May 31.

The former President of wartime Republika Srpska (RS), now a Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity within Bosnia, was sentenced to life in prison for various crimes against humanity, including the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks and Croats, the siege of Sarajevo, the Srebrenica genocide and for taking UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) hostages during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

He was acquitted of genocide charges in other municipalities in Bosnia.