Batković_concentration_camp
Batković camp
Prison camp in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Batković camp (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Latin: Logor Batković) was a prison camp operated between 1992 and 1996 by Republika Srpska authorities in Batković, a village in the municipality of Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War.[2] It is believed to have been the first concentration camp of the Bosnian war, set up for Bosniak (Muslim) and Croat men, women and children, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the areas under Bosnian Serb control. Detainees were held in two large barns and tortured, deprived of food and water, forced to dig trenches, carry ammunition to the front lines, work in fields and factories and bury the dead.[3] Prisoners were subject to daily beatings,[4] sexual assault and forced to beat one another.
Although the camp is believed to have been established between 1 April and June 1992, its existence was only confirmed by foreign press in August 1992.[5] The Human Rights Watch Group Helsinki Watch visited the camp twice in August 1992 and were allowed to interview detainees, most of whom were too scared to share any information about goings-on.