ŽUNIĆ: I BELIEVE AMERICAN INVESTIGATOR-PROSECUTORS WILL HELP ENSURE THAT PERPETRATORS ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

DERVENTA, JULY 15 /SRNA/ - Mayor of Derventa Igor Žunić said that Serb camp inmates from this city endured the most horrific torture and that he believes the arrival of American investigator-prosecutors will help ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable for the atrocities they committed.

Žunić told SRNA that during the occupation by the regular Croatian Army, their collaborators, and the Territorial Defence of BiH, the "Green Berets" and the "Patriotic League", Derventa was a camp for all Serbs who had no opportunity to save themselves by leaving for territory under the control of the Army of Republika Srpska.

"All it took was a name and surname for someone to end up in a camp. The Derventa camp inmates endured the most horrific physical and psychological torture, while some were killed brutally. Even more tragic is the fact that only minimal sentences were handed down to a small number of perpetrators of those crimes," Žunić emphasized.

He said that years are passing, leaving fewer and fewer surviving witnesses, as well as perpetrators who have escaped punishment.

"Every step towards uncovering these crimes means a great deal. I believe that, with the arrival of these prosecutors, the wider international public will learn about the scale of the crimes committed in the Derventa camp for Serbs, and that the victims will find the strength to testify once again about their traumas and will finally feel at least a part of the justice they have been waiting for for nearly 35 years," Žunić said.

Five American investigator-prosecutors are expected to arrive in Derventa on Monday, July 20, to take statements from eight former camp inmates about the horrors they endured in the notorious camp for Serbs at the Rabić military warehouse in 1992.

Croatian and Muslim forces attacked the local Serb population during the Defensive-Patriotic War in BiH, in Derventa, before the Army of Republika Srpska had even been formed.

Camps for Serbs were established, the most notorious of which were located at the Army Hall and the Rabić site.

In the Rabić camp, established in April 1992, 120 Serbs were detained, while several hundred Serb civilians passed through the camps in the Derventa area in total.