Molomir Stakic, working as a member of the``Crisis Committee,'' was directly involved in setting up the infamous camps around Prijedor, according to the U.N. Commission of Experts. Ed Vulliamy reported in The Guardian in February 1996: ``Dr. [Milan] Kovacevic's boss in 1992 was the `president', or mayor, of Prijedor, Milomir Stakic...And he was introduced to us as the man endowed with the authority to grant, or refuse, access to Omarska.''
In an interview in August 1992, Mayor Stakic provided the following statement:
We have tried to get the other side to live in peace with us. Our problems are with the extremists, not the population. We are trying to get Muslims not to leave the area, but to stay and live with us, but they want to go to Croatia and Germany, or back to Bosnia [sic], while the extremists bring weapons into the area, kill the Serbian people and commit appalling atrocities. There are no camps -- there are only transit centers where people are taken for their own protection. Others are people who want to leave and others are assisting them.
Stakic resigned from his post in 1993, but was reinstalled as mayor on direct orders from Karadzic in February 1996. he is under investigation by the ICTY, and an indictment for the war crimes is expected by the local observers in Prijedor and a source close to the ICTY, but it is by no means certain he will be indicted any time soon.
Stakic, a medical doctor, and currently director of the community health center in Prijedor, is according to IFOR sources close to Drljaca and serves as the de facto head of the local SDS. He is allegedly involved with Drljaca in local mafia activities, and has knowledge of the ``disappearance'' of Father Tomislav Matanovic.
Internal monitors in Bosnia and Herzegovina report that Mayor Satkic has repeatedly failed to comply with provisions of the Dayton agreement. According to IFOR, Mayor Stakic has been involved in organizing mob attacks and in provoking violent incidents through announcements on the radio. For example, on June 25, 1996, Mayor Stakic issued an inflammatory statement on Radio Prijedor, warning of fanatical Muslims entering Prijedor and calling on listeners to defend the town. The group identified as ``radical Muslims'' was in fact an international womenÕs peace group (See section, ``Obstruction of Freedom of Movement by Prijedor Authorities,'' for details of incident). after the ``defense,'' Radio Prijedor announced that Òa group of Muslim extremists tried to penetrate by force...which demonstrates a provocation by the international community and a violation of SrpskaÕs [Republica Srpska's] sovereignty.''
In October 1996, ninety-six Bosniak houses and two mosques were blown up in the village of Hambarine, near Prijedor. The evidence suggests that the authorities were involved in this destruction (see details in section titled``Destruction of Property to Prevent Repatriation''). Stakic told an IFOR officer that he had opposed the bombings and wanted to leave his job -- that he did not plan to run for re-election. According to UNHCR reports, however, prior to the destruction of housing in Hambarine, UNHCR provided Stakic with a list of the displaced persons who wished to visit their houses in the village. The houses destroyed corresponded to those owned by the persons on the list.