Republika Srpska President Dragan Cavic was the only speaker at the meeting to state that Croats too were among the victims of the Ustasha-run camp, along with Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascists.
"Ante Pavelic's Ustasha criminals persecuted with the same cruelty the Croats who risked their lives to save and help those who were persecuted," Cavic said.
"All of us in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as neighbouring peoples and states... have to show if we are capable of breaking a vicious circle where today's victims are becoming tomorrow's criminals and today's hatred tomorrow's revenge. Instead of seeking balance in committed crimes, it is time for all peoples who were in conflict to start seeking the balance of justice towards the perpetrators of the crimes," Cavic said.
A representative of the Jewish community from Belgrade, Isak Asiel, said a prayer for the dead, in which he mentioned, along with Jasenovac, all other places of the suffering of Jews in Serbia, Croatia and Europe. A prayer was also said by a member of the Council of the World Roma Parliament, Dragoljub Ackovic.
A special representative of the World Jewish Congress for the former Yugoslavia and head of Republika Srpska's office in Israel, Ariel Livne, read a letter by the president of the Yad Vashem memorial centre in Jerusalem, Avner Shalev, who could not attend the ceremony at Donja Gradina due to illness.
Metropolitan Nikolaj of the Bosnian Serb Orthodox Church conducted a service for the Jasenovac victims. In a sermon that followed the service, he said, among other things, that Pope John Paul II had failed to visit Jasenovac although he visited Croatia three times and Bosnia-Herzegovina two times.