Trnopolje camp

Trnopolje
Concentration camp
Detainees at the Trnopolje Camp, near Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.[a]
Trnopolje is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Trnopolje
Trnopolje
Location of Trnopolje within Bosnia and Herzegovina
Coordinates44°56′02.2″N 16°48′14.8″E / 44.933944°N 16.804111°E / 44.933944; 16.804111
LocationNear Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Operated byBosnian Serb military and police authorities
Original usePrimary school
OperationalMay – November 1992
InmatesBosniaks and Bosnian Croats
Number of inmatesc. 30,000
Killed90

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 termed a concentration camp, detainment camp, detention camp, prison, and ghetto, Trnopolje held between 4,000 and 7,000 Bosniak and Bosnian Croat inmates at any one time and served as a staging area for mass deportations, mainly of women, children, and elderly men. Between May and November 1992, an estimated 30,000 inmates passed through. Mistreatment was widespread and there were numerous instances of torture, rape, and killing; ninety inmates died.

In August 1992, the existence of the Prijedor camps was discovered by the Western media, leading to their closure. Trnopolje was transferred into the hands of the International Red Cross (IRC) in mid-August, and closed in November 1992. After the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted several Bosnian Serb officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the camp, but ruled that the abuses perpetrated in Prijedor did not constitute genocide. Crimes in Trnopolje were also listed in the ICTY's indictment of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, who died mid-trial in March 2006.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).