25.05.2021.

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: The Presentation of the Dossier “VRS 43rd Motorised Brigade in Prijedor”

Predstavljanje-Dosijea-slika-eng On Monday, 31 May 2021, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) will present its fourteenth Dossier, entitled “VRS 43rd Motorised Brigade in Prijedor”.

The Dossier provides insights into the structure and operations of the 43rd Motorised Brigade (43rd MtBr), a unit of the 1st Krajina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the summer of 1992, when this unit, in tandem with units of the Republika Srpska Police force, Territorial Defence force, and various volunteer groups, carried out attacks on numerous villages and settlements in Prijedor municipality inhabited predominantly by Bosniaks and Croats. The attacks were followed by systematic killings, mistreatment, arrests, detentions and expulsions of non-Serb civilians, and the destruction and looting of their property.

More than 3,000 civilians died in the territory of Prijedor municipality in 1992, and around 38,000 Bosniaks and Croats left the municipality before the second half of October of 1992.

To date, none of the commanders of the 1st Krajina Corps brigades that took part in operations in Prijedor, including the 43rd MtBr, have been held to account either in Serbia or in BiH for crimes committed in Prijedor, despite the fact that the commander and deputy commander of the 43rd MtBr – Vladimir Arsić and Major Radmilo Zeljaja respectively – were indicated as co-perpetrators in the ICTY trial judgement in the case of Milomir Stakić.

This Dossier aims to make public information about the circumstances of crimes committed in the course of the 1992 military operations in Prijedor, and the available information and evidence concerning the role and responsibility of the units of the 1st Krajina Corps of the VRS, most particularly the 43rd MtBr, for crimes committed in this municipality, as well as the actions of officers and the VRS commands they reported to following these crimes.

The “VRS 43rd Motorised Brigade in Prijedor” Dossier is based on authentic documents of the Republika Srpska Army and other relevant documents admitted into evidence in several cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based also on the testimonies of survivors, family members of victims and members of Serb forces before the ICTY.

Speakers at the event: