Zagreb marked White Ribbon Day: 102 poems for 102 children killed in Prijedor
Zagreb on Monday marked White Ribbon Day in remembrance of 3,176 killed and missing civilians from Prijedor, among them 102 children who died in 1992.
Zagreb paid tribute to Prijedor victims: book of poems as a monument to murdered children
The Council of the Bosniak National Minority of the City of Zagreb, in collaboration with the Stara Rijeka and Surroundings Association, on Monday marked White Ribbon Days at the Journalists' House in remembrance of 3,176 killed and missing civilians from the Prijedor area and surroundings, including 102 murdered children — victims of crimes committed in 1992. According to a report from 24sata, poems created as part of a unique literary project were presented at the gathering.
On the occasion of the commemoration, 102 poets from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro wrote 102 poems in memory of each of the murdered children. The works will be published in a book titled "A Monument in the Heart", and some of them will be presented to the public at Ban Josip Jelačić Square on 31 May.
Poet and writer Enes Kišević addressed those gathered with the words: "Poets gathered from all corners of the world and brought the truth to light. And now, instead of one monument, one hundred and two monuments are travelling around the world. You can hold these monuments in your lap, you can touch them with your forehead, carry them in your bag, pocket or in your heart, if it is difficult for you to read this book."
Armin Hodžić, chairman of the Council of the Bosniak National Minority of the City of Zagreb, recalled the circumstances of the war crimes from the 1990s and emphasised the need to preserve the culture of remembrance. "We still must continue to speak, to warn that such things do not happen again. Half a century after the Second World War, we again had people who had to wear white ribbons around their arms simply because they were of a different nationality or religion," said Hodžić.
The organisers reminded the gathering of the circumstances that preceded the crimes. On 31 May 1992, Bosnian Serb authorities issued an order via local radio requiring non-Serb inhabitants to mark their houses with white flags or sheets and to wear white ribbons around their arms when leaving their homes.
"This was the beginning of an extermination campaign in which mass executions were carried out, rape was committed, concentration camps were opened and other crimes were perpetrated. The final outcome was the removal of 94 per cent of Bosniaks and Croats from the Prijedor municipality," the organisers stressed.
The gathering was marked by a note that the Prijedor order from 1992 was the first such act of marking an ethnic or religious group for extermination since 1939 and the Nazi decree under which Polish Jews were required to wear yellow ribbons with the Star of David. The organisers added that the authorities of the Republika Srpska do not permit Bosniaks and Croats to build monuments at the sites of suffering in Prijedor or at the locations of the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps even today.
Source: 24sata