Unmarked atrocity site:
Prijedor, Camp Trnopolje

Location: Village of Trnopolje, near Prijedor; buildings of the former community centre and primary school in Trnopolje

Entity: Republika Srpska

Ethnic group: Predominantly Bosniaks

Victims are from the area of: Prijedor

Commemorations: 26 May and 5 August

Other information: The Trnopolje Camp was established by the Crisis Staff of the Prijedor Municipality at the end of May 1992, at the same time as the Omarska and Keraterm camps. It encompassed a complex of buildings at the centre of the Trnopolje village. Some 23 000 people in total were detained at this camp at various times. It was used as a “collection centre” where people would be registered and then taken on to other locations. These were mainly non-Serb civilians, although a few Serbs had also been detained at the camp. There were many women and children; some children were even born at the camp. The Prijedor officials at the time claimed it was not a camp but a reception centre for people fleeing war-affected areas. Although the Trnopolje Camp has been characterised as milder than Omarska, abuse was common. A large number of people slept outside, meals were rare and insufficient, detainees were beaten during interrogations, and the women were taken to nearby houses and raped. Today, there is no permanent signage to mark the site as that of a camp during 1992. However, some ten meters from the building that served as the camp, on the grounds used for the camp, there is a monument to fallen Serb combatants (See: Prijedor, Memorial to Fallen RS Soldiers from Trnopolje).

Data source(s): International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Judgement, Prosecutor v. Stakić, IT-97-24-T, www.icty.org

Photographed: 5 April 2013 and 1 April 2014

Map: