The town of Prijedor, within the municipality of Prijedor, is located in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the banks of the Sana and Gomjenica rivers, and at the south-western hills of the Kozara mountain. The area of the municipality is 833 km (322 sq mi). The town is situated at 44°58'39" N and 16°42'29" E, at an altitude of 133 m (436 feet).
It is traditionally a part of the historical and cultural region of Bosanska Krajina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The terrain ascends to the north-east of Prijedor in waves and gradually becomes the mountain range of the Kozara mountain, which is famous from the peoples' uprisings in the previous centuries and battles against fascism during the Second World War.
The city lies on the alluvial terrain created by the Sana river and its tributaries on the south-western hillsides of the Kozara mountain.
Bosnian war
During the Bosnian war (1992–1995), the area near Prijedor housed the infamous Omarska camp, Keraterm camp, and Trnopolje camp established in 1992 by Radovan Karadzic's Serb authorities for Bosniak and Croat population. According to the testimony of Enes Kapetanovic before the Court of BiH at the trial for crimes committed in Keraterm and Omarska detention camps, "at the end of April 1992, after the Serbs overran Prijedor, we were informed on a daily basis that we should wear white bands around our arms if we were loyal to the new authorities. We all wore those bands - children and grown ups alike."
The Prijedor massacre, also known as the Prijedor ethnic cleansing or the Prijedor genocide, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Serb political and military leadership mostly on Bosniak civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the Srebrenica genocide, it is the second largest massacre committed during the Bosnian war in 1992. According to the Research and Documentation Center (IDC), around 5,200
