Today's gathering was co-organised by the SPO party and the Serbian Culture Ministry's committee in charge of cherishing the heritage of liberation wars. Apart from SPO chief Vuk Draskovic, who is Serbia-Montenegro's Foreign Minister and another two Serbian ministers who are SPO members, there were no other state officials.
Addressing the gathering Draskovic who spoke in capacity as the foreign minister said that Serbia would be truly recognised in Europe and the world only when "it admits to itself, without any shame, the truth about General Mihailovic and his Ravna Gora (Chetnik) movement".
"In the tragedy that befell us in the fratricidal war from 1941 and 1945 there could not be any winner or defeated side," Draskovi said reiterating his thesis about two anti-fascist movements in Yugoslavia during the Second World War, one being the Partisans, and the other Chetniks.
He commended the current Serbian Government and parliament for having a few months ago equated the rights of Chetniks with the rights which the Partisans enjoyed, after his SPO moved this proposal. He called on authorities also to fully rehabilitate Chetniks and revoke court rulings against Chetniks which were passed after WW II.
During today's rally, state flags of France, Great Britain, Serbia and the USA were hoisted.
Also the Merit of Medal which the then US President Harri Truman awarded posthumously to Mihailovic in 1948 for his contribution in rescuing about 500 US airmen was staged as part of an exhibition of photos in the SPO memorial home at Ravna Gora.
Mihailovic and his Chetnik movement were notorious for war crimes mostly against non-Serbs particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina during WW II. Mihailovic was found guilty of war crimes and executed in 1946.
Partisan war veteran Miodrag Zecevic, who is the president of the Anti-Fascist Fighters Association (SUBNOR) in Serbia-Montenegro, severely condemned Sunday's rally of SPO members and supporters.
Zecevic was quoted by a local daily as saying that "any country which cares for its reputation and anti-Fascism would ban this kind of rally". "The fact that Chetniks were (Nazi) collaborationists is proved by a statement which Mihailovic gave during his trial claiming that he never gave any order on attacks against the Germans," Zecevic told the Politika daily on Sunday.
The youth organisation of the Social-Democratic Union also criticised today's rally branding it as "a shame and insult on the Serbian people and its anti-fascist tradition", and asked the government to give a public apology.
Two nongovernmental organisations, 'Zene u Crnom' (Women in Black) and the Belgrade-based Centre for Women's Studies, issued a press release saying that those who were today at Ravna Gora hailed as the winners, fled together with Nazis and Ustasha on 15 May 1945. They also insisted on an apology from the government over what they labelled as "anti-civilisation shame".