PARTISAN MILITARY COURT IN LIBERATED PRIJEDOR MAY-JUNE 1942.

Abstract

The paper deals with activities of the partisan military court in liberated Prijedor from May 16 to June 10, 1942. Prijedor is a town in the northwestern part of the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), a place of great suffering for the Serbian people, enacted by Croat-Muslim Ustashe forces during Second World War. Partisan forces from Mount Kozara, which fought against the army of the fascist Independent State of Croatia and its German allies, managed to liberate Prijedor on May 16, 1942 and keep it under their control for almost a month. During this time, a partisan military court was formed before which captured Ustashe criminals in Prijedor were tried. More than 200 Ustashe criminals were sentenced to death. After Ustashe and Germans occupied Prijedor again, propaganda of the Independent State of Croatia used these executed criminals in its war propaganda by claiming that innocent Roman Catholic and Muslim Croats had been killed.