Bosnia: The Camp - Al-Jazeera World
Between May and August 1992, more than 3,200 Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks, and Croats were killed in and around the town of Prijedor and at the Omarska concentration camp.
"Prijedor was a truly lively town. People had always lived together. They relied on each other. The mosque faced the church. People were together at weddings, at funerals, as godparents. They married irrespective of faith. It was Yugoslavia in the truest sense of the name," says Rezac Hukanovic, a journalist and publisher who is an Omarska camp survivor.
By 1992, the Yugoslav Federation was disintegrating. Slovenia and Croatia had already broken away, sparking a conflict with Serbia. Further violence broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had also declared independence.
The Serbs there wanted to remain within Yugoslavia and build a greater Serbia - and received backing from extremists in Belgrade. Bosniaks were driven from their homes in what soon became known as 'ethnic cleansing'.
"Prijedor was a truly lively town. People had always lived together. They relied on each other. The mosque faced the church. People were together at weddings, at funerals, as godparents. They married irrespective of faith. It was Yugoslavia in the truest sense of the name," says Rezac Hukanovic, a journalist and publisher who is an Omarska camp survivor.
By 1992, the Yugoslav Federation was disintegrating. Slovenia and Croatia had already broken away, sparking a conflict with Serbia. Further violence broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had also declared independence.
The Serbs there wanted to remain within Yugoslavia and build a greater Serbia - and received backing from extremists in Belgrade. Bosniaks were driven from their homes in what soon became known as 'ethnic cleansing'.
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