Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...
military and police authorities near the town of
Prijedor
Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...
in northern
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
during the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
. The camp was used to collect and confine between 1,000 and 1,500
Bosniak
The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
and
Bosnian Croat
The Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina (), often referred to as Bosnian Croats () or Herzegovinian Croats (), are native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and constitute the third most populous ethnic group, after Bosniaks and Serbs. They are also one of ...
civilians.
The camp
The Keraterm camp was located on the site of a
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
, just outside the city of Prijedor. According to reports, prisoners were kept in four halls, formerly used as storehouses at the ceramics factory. The Keraterm camp's prisoner population was all male. Most of the men at the camp were reported to be between the ages of 15 and 60. However, in mid-July 1992, approximately 12 to 15 Bosniak women were brought to Keraterm,
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
d, and transported to the
Omarska camp
The Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by the Army of Republika Srpska in the mining town of Omarska, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up for Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Bosnian Croat prisoners during the Prijedor ...
. About 85% of all prisoners were Bosniaks while about 15% were Bosnian Croats.
According to the indictment, the detainees were, among other things, subjected to physical
violence
Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
, constant humiliation, degradation, inhumane conditions, and fear of death. Severe beatings were commonplace. All manner of weapons were used during these beatings, including wooden batons, metal rods,
baseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal Club (weapon), club used in the sport of baseball to hit the Baseball (ball), ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than in diameter at the thickest part and no more t ...
s, lengths of thick industrial cable that had metal balls affixed to the end, rifle butts, and knives. Killings, beatings,
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...
s, and other cruel and humiliating actions were committed.
War crime trials
The Republika Srpska officials responsible for running the camp have since been convicted for
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
,
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
and
war crimes
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...
. Dušan Knežević was found guilty of the criminal offence of Crimes against Humanity and sentenced him to a long-term imprisonment of 31 years. Željko Mejakić was found guilty for the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity and sentenced him to the long-term imprisonment of 21 years.Duško Sikirica, commander of the Keraterm camp, pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and was sentenced to a jail term of fifteen years. Dušan Fuštar was found guilty for having participated, by acting and failing to act, in a
joint criminal enterprise
Joint criminal enterprise (JCE) is a legal doctrine that has been used during war crimes tribunals to prosecute individuals in a group for the actions of said group. This doctrine considers each member of an organized group individually respons ...
and sentenced him to 9 years imprisonment for "''having failed to exercise his authority and prevent the crimes''."
Predrag Banović
Predrag Banović (born 28 October 1969Profile icty.org; accessed 13 April 2015. in who pleaded guilty to 25 charges and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Damir Došen was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Dragan Kolundžija was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.
Dretelj camp
The Dretelj concentration camp or Dretelj prison was a prison camp run by the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) and later by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) during the Bosnian War.
The camp
The camp was located near Čapljina and Medjugorje in s ...
*
Čelebići prison camp Čelebići may refer to:
* Čelebići, Foča, a village in the municipality of Foča, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Čelebići, Konjic, a village in the municipality of Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
** Čelebići camp, a former prison camp in that vill ...
*
Gabela camp
The Gabela camp or Gabela prison was a prison camp run by the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and Croatian Defence Council in Gabela. The camp was located several kilometres south of Čapljina. Its prisoners were Bosniaks and Serbs.
The camp ...
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Heliodrom camp
The Heliodrom camp ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Logor Heliodrom, Логор Хелиодром) or Heliodrom prison was a detention camp that operated between September 1992 and April 1994. It was run by the Military Police of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg- ...
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Liplje camp
The Liplje camp () was a concentration camp operated between 25 May 1992 and 2 June 1992 by Army of Republika Srpska in the village Liplje near Zvornik during the Bosnian War. It was set up for Bosniak men, women and children, in an effort to e ...
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Manjača camp
Manjača was a concentration camp which was located on mount Manjača near the city of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War and the Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995. The camp was founded by the Yugosl ...
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Omarska camp
The Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by the Army of Republika Srpska in the mining town of Omarska, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up for Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Bosnian Croat prisoners during the Prijedor ...
*
Trnopolje camp
The Trnopolje camp was an internment camp established by Republika Srpska military and police authorities in the village of Trnopolje near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the first months of the Bosnian War. Also variously ter ...
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Uzamnica camp
Uzamnica camp was an internment camp established in 1992 by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) forces housing Bosniak civilian prisoners during the Bosnian War.
Many of the Bosniaks who were not killed in the Višegrad massacres were detained at v ...
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Vilina Vlas
Vilina Vlas is a former concentration camp and hotel in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina where UN experts have spoken of systematic detention and rape of the area's Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) or non-Serb girls and women during the Bosnian War. The sp ...
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Vojno camp
Vojno camp was a detention camp set up by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) from June 1993 to March 1994, to detain tens of thousands of Bosniaks in the Mostar municipality. Bosniaks in the camp were subject to killings, mistreatment, rapes, det ...