VUKOVAR, Jan 16 (Hina) - An official of a Croatian human rights protection centre on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction with the inscription on the memorial slab at the Ovcara mass grave site in eastern Croatia. The slab was unveiled
on December 30, 1998 in memory of 200 civilians, wounded people, and hospital staff from a Vukovar hospital killed by the Serbian aggressor at Ovcara on November 20, 1991. The slab bears the inscription: "In memory of 200 wounded Croatian soldiers and civilians from the Vukovar hospital, executed in the Serbian aggression on the Republic of Croatia. Ovcara, November 20, 1991, The Croatian people." Shortly after it was placed at the grave site, the slab met with negative reactions from "Apel", a centre for the protection of human rights of detained and missing Croatian citizens and members of their families. "We contest the inscription o
VUKOVAR, Jan 16 (Hina) - An official of a Croatian human rights
protection centre on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction with the
inscription on the memorial slab at the Ovcara mass grave site in
eastern Croatia.
The slab was unveiled on December 30, 1998 in memory of 200
civilians, wounded people, and hospital staff from a Vukovar
hospital killed by the Serbian aggressor at Ovcara on November 20,
1991.
The slab bears the inscription:
"In memory of 200 wounded Croatian soldiers and civilians from the
Vukovar hospital, executed in the Serbian aggression on the
Republic of Croatia.
Ovcara, November 20, 1991,
The Croatian people."
Shortly after it was placed at the grave site, the slab met with
negative reactions from "Apel", a centre for the protection of
human rights of detained and missing Croatian citizens and members
of their families.
"We contest the inscription on the memorial slab and are of the
opinion it should be altered, given the possibility that it might be
interpreted wrongly," "Apel" president Zdenka Farkas told
reporters in Vukovar.
Farkas primarily contests the date below the inscription which, she
says, suggests the slab was placed there on November 20, 1991, and
not that the victims were killed that day.
She also disagrees with the word "executed" because, she told
reporters, the word means "the carrying out of the death penalty
after a trial," which, she said, had not been the case at Ovcara.
Farkas mostly resents the fact that the slab is 20m from the mass
grave site.
"The law stipulating the marking of mass grave sites from the
Homeland War explicitly states that the exact sites of the mass
graves must be marked. We demand that the slab be moved to the exact
spot of the grave site which has now been ploughed and erased," said
Farkas, adding it was probably the effect of somebody's bad
intent.
"Apel" forwarded a letter containing its views and demands to
Croatian Parliament vice president Jadranka Kosor, Culture
Minister Bozo Biskupic, Assistant War Veterans Minister Pero
Kovacevic, as well as to President Franjo Tudjman.
(hina) ha