Kozarac is a town in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, located in the Prijedor Municipality, near the city of Prijedor

Prijedor

Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....

. It is located 10 km east of Prijedor and 45 km west of Banja Luka

Banja Luka

-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...

. The name Kozarac comes from a story saying Canyon

Canyon

A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

 from Kozara will make strong wind called Kozarac. However, the prevailing wind in Kozarac is mild.

Kozarac is also famous because of the Kozara National Park

Kozara National Park

Kozara National Park is a national park in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that was proclaimed a protected national forest in 1967 by Josip Broz Tito. It is situated between the rivers Una, Sava, Sana and Vrbas, in the Republika Srpska entity of BiH...

.

Kozarac now has two public swimming pools, 14 mosques, one church, a shopping mall, plus many restaurants and bars. Every summer in Kozarac, famous musicians from across the whole of former Yugoslavia perform, and around 15000 people who are from Kozarac but are living abroad, come back to Kozarac to spend their summer there.

History

During the time of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, Kozarac had 8,038 citizens; about 2,500 civilians were killed in 72 hours; 2,500 of these people were killed during the war

Yugoslav wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...

. Mass graves are still being dug up to this day.

Kozarac is now known for its development after the war. As a lot of inhabitants of Kozarac were forced to go abroad during the war, they have been working abroad and are now investing a lot in Kozarac.

External links

• Official Kozarac Community Council Website (Bosnian)
• Haven-guessed/advised Dusan Tadic (German)
• Report from the concentration camp in Kozarac (German)
• The history of Kozarac (Bosnian)
• The castle and history of Kozarac (Bosnian)
• The attack on Kozarac as reported in the newspaper Die Zeit (German)
• Optimisti 2004 Stichiting Optimisti 2004
• Kozarac.eu Site about Kozarac, for diaspora of Kozarac and the people who still live in Kozarac
• Kozarac.ba Site for the people of Kozarac
• NaseTrnopolje.org Site for the people of Kozarac (Trnopolje)
• Sedra.nl Stichting Sedra
• RadioUzdah.com First humaniterian internet radio from kozarac still online as of 1994 first time caled Omladinski Radio Kozarac