Bosnia honors 700 wartime concentration camp victims

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AA) - Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday commemorated 700 victims who lost their lives in the Omarsko concentration camp during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995.

Victims' relatives and representatives of a victims' association attended the ceremony held near the Omarska area outside the northwestern city of Prijedor.

The participants commemorated the victims with prayers and tears and by launching balloons into the sky.

Concentration camps Omarska, Trnopolje, Manjaca, and Keraterm near Prijedor had been centers of torture, massacres, and rape in 1992 when the Bosnian War began.

About 6,000 people were held captive in the Omarska camp, established on May 26, 1992, and 700 of these were killed. Among the captives were 37 women and 28 children.

American and British journalists reported on the concentration camps to the world in August 1992.

*Written by Talha Ozturk in Belgrade