Trnopolje Social Centre

In the village of Trnopolje near Prijedor, in the local Social Centre and primary school and school yard, the military and police authorities of the Prijedor municipality established what was initially a transit camp. At the time when Omarska and Keraterm camps were operating, elderly men, women and children were brought here to prepare for their deportation from the Prijedor territory controlled by the Bosnian Serbs. Between May and November 1992, there were 4000-7000 people in the camp on any given day. It was established before the ICTY that a few hundred people were killed at the Trnopolje camp, while many more were subjected to various forms of torture and violence, including a high number of rapes.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Momčilo Krajišnik, the wartime speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, for crimes committed in the camps in Prijedor, under the doctrine of command responsibility, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Biljana Plavšić, wartime member of the Presidency of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Radovan Karadžić, as the president of Republika Srpska and commander in chief of its armed forces, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Radoslav Brđanin, president of the Crisis Staff of the Krajina Autonomous Region, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Stojan Župljanin, police commander in Banja Luka, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The ICTY sentenced Milomir Stakić, head of the Crisis Staff of the Prijedor Municipality, to life in prison. Zoran Žigić was convicted at the ICTY for crimes committed in Prijedor camps, including Trnopolje, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The ICTY sentenced Darko Mrđa, member of the Prijedor Police Intervention Unit, to 17 years in prison for his participation in the massacre at Korićanske stijene on 21 August 1992. The Court of BiH convicted Goran Đurić for crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 8 years in prison. Đurić was charged as a member of the Prijedor Police Intervention Unit for securing the convoy of buses and lorries transporting prisoners to Korićanske stijene where they would be killed on 21 August 1992.