prijava
SARAJEVO, May 31 (FENA) - More than 500 parents of the murdered children of Prijedor, citizens and activists of the informal group "Because it concerns me too", today traditionally marked the White Armband Day, observed on May 31, at the main town square in Prijedor, in memory of the persecution and murder of 3,176 citizens of Prijedor, of whom 102 children.
One of the organizers of the marking today, Nikola Kuridža told FENA that the gathered parents are asking the city authorities to build a dignifying memorial for the murdered children of Prijedor in 1992.
"We proposed three locations to the city authorities, but they told us they cannot change the city regulatory plans because of that," he explained.
He added that they also proposed one of the solutions for the brigde that connects the old part of town and the center of Prijedor to be reconstructed as a memorial bridge for the murdered children.
Kuridža also reminded of the fact that the parents for years now have been asking the city authorities to build a dignifying memorial for their murdered children.
"However, it is very interesting that the built monuments that celebrate the killed soldiers of the RS Army also were nowhere to be found in the regulatory plans of the City of Prijedor,” he stressed.
On 31 May 1992, Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor issued an order through local radio station that the non-Serb population is ordered to mark their homes with white flags or sheets and not to leave their homes without wearing white armbands.
"Serb citizens, join your army and police in pursuit of these extremists. Rest of the citizens, Muslims and Croats, must place white flags on their homes and wear white armbands or will suffer consequences," it was announced on Radio Prijedor on 31 May 1992. It was the beginning of unprecedented slaughter which resulted in killing of 3,173 innocent civilians.
Many citizens of Prijedors who heard the call were found in October 2013 in the largest mass grave that the world has yet seen in the village of Tomašica.
The White Armband Day is being marked in Prijedor and entire BiH and the region in memory of non-Serb victims of Prijedor and its surroundings.
According to official information from victims' associations, 3,173 civilians were killed in Prijedor, whereas 31,000 people were imprisoned in war camps around Prijedor.
The Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo stated that 5,209 citizens of Prijedor were killed or went missing in direct military actions in the period between 1991 and 1995, of whom 4,093 Bosniaks, 898 Serbs and 182 Croats.
(FENA) S. R.
