Prijedor
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Prijedor (Cyrillic: Приједор) is a town and municipality in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the Republika Srpska entity. Prijedor is second largest town in Republika Srpska after Banja Luka.
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[edit] Geography
Prijedor municipality sits in north-western part of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the banks of the Sana river and Gomjenica and on hills of Kozara mountain. The area of the municipality is 833 km². The town lies on 44°N and 16°W from Greenwhich, at altitude of 135 m. 2 km outside the town, to the northeast, the terrain ascends in waves and by degrees becomes a mountain range of Kozara, famous from the peoples' mutinies in the previous centuries and battle against fascism in the World War II. The level country in Prijedor lays is alluvial terrain created by the Sana river and its tributaries on the south western hillsides of the Kozara mountain. The structure of this level country depends upon the geologic composition of the ground through which run brooks and tributaries of the Sana river.
The town was developed on Svinjarica island separated from the Sana river and Berek. There are remains of the Roman and Illyrian civilizations in these regions.
[edit] Location
| Kostajnica (60 km), Zagreb (173 km), Vienna (547 km) |
Koz. Dubica (33 km) | Gradiška (90 km), Budapest (474 km) |
| Novi Grad (32 km) |  |
Kozarac (13 km), Omarska (20 km), Beograd (336 km) |
| Ljubija (8 km), Trieste (412 km) |
Sanski Most (33 km) | Banjaluka (48 km), Sarajevo (250 km) |
[edit] History
Prijedor has been first mentioned in historical documents as a ground fortress, in letters of Count Adam Batschani during the so-called Viennese war from 1683 till 1699. However, many things refer to the town's existence since ancient times and the ancient Roman presence in this region. In Ljubija were found many monuments from the Roman age as evidence of the iron production. In Zecovi there is Illyrian necropolis from the Iron Age. A legend says that the river Sana had been named by the Romans. In the iron mine, used for production of weapons for the Roman legions, from Prijedor iron mine placers was melted in large smeltings—works of Salonica, Siscia and Sirmium.
Soon Prijedor has become a significant trade handcraft centre, thanks to the Roman roads, navigability of the Sana river and the first railway in the former Bosnia and Herzegovina which was built in 1873 during the time of Baron Hirsch. A century after, the town had burnt in a great fire which is why the Austro-Hungarian authorities had made the first urban plan in 1901.
Among important monuments there is a great monument on Mrakovica, the work of academic artist Dušan Džamonja, another evidence of traditional freedom-loving of the people in this region.
During the Bosnian war, the town of Omarska near Prijedor housed the infamous Omarska camp established by Serb authorities for Bosniak and Croat population. Prijedor was also a place of mass execution of Bosniaks and Croats, by Serb army. More than 3.500[citation needed]people had been killed, and more than 50 mass graves have been found for now. Serb high rank politician from Prijedor, Milomir Stakić, was found guilty by ICTY and got 40 years for war crimes conducted by Serb authorities in Prijedor. [2]
[edit] Demographics
[edit] 1910
According to the data from the 1910 Austro-Hungarian population census the Prijedor district had a 59.08% Orthodox Serb majority.
[edit] 1971-1981-1991
According to data from the census, the municipality of Prijedor had:
| Year | Serbs (!) | Muslims | Croats (!) | Yugoslavs | others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~1971~ | 46.487 (47,47%) | 39.190 (40,02%) | 8.845 (9,03%) | 1.458 (1,48%) | 1.941 (2,00%) |
| ~1981~ | 45.279 (41,59%) | 42.129 (38,69%) | 7.297 (6,70%) | 10.556 (9,69%) | 3.607 (3,33%) |
| ~1991~ | 47.581 (42,27%) | 49.351 (43,85%) | 6.316 (5,61%) | 6.459 (5,73%) | 2.836 (2,54%) |
The town of Prijedor itself in 1991 had a population of 26,104,[citation needed] including:
- 12,048 Serbs
- 7,730 Muslims by nationality
- 3,854 Yugoslavs
- 1,369 Croats
- 1,103 others
Note: Muslims by nationality are today mostly called Bosniaks.
[edit] Current population
In 2006, the majority of inhabitants of municipality were ethnic Serbs. [3] According to the latest data, there are over 94,096 inhabitants of which 48% belong to the urban population while 52% to the rural population.
The population of non-Serbs has declined significantly since 1991, while the number of Serbs increased dramatically. This was caused by the ethnic cleansing of non-Serb (Muslim and Croat) population by the Serb authorities, and by a huge influx of Serb refugees from ethnic cleansing areas under Muslim and Croat control.
At the moment around 25,000 Serb refugees and displaced persons live in the municipality.[citation needed]
[edit] Education
The first forms of organized education can be tracked back in the first half of the 19th century. In 1834 Prijedor had the "Serbian elementary school" that later with so-called "Communal school" was transformed into "State school" in 1919.
Nowadays, there are 11 elementary schools with circa 8.000 students and 6 high schools attended by 4.000 schools. Basic and high school music school , special school for mentally retarded persons are also part of the municipal educational system. Over the last several years, important steps were taken aimed at establishing colleges so accordingly there are medical college and business college, Mining Geology branch department of Faculty of technology from Banja Luka.
![[3]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DemoBIH2006.PNG){kind=link}