JASENOVAC, 15 June (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Saturday laid a wreath at the memorial site in Jasenovac. 'I have laid the wreath as Croatia's President in memory of all victims of Jasenovac: for the victims of
fascism and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), but also for those who were executed by the communist regime', President Tudjman said after he laid the wreath.
JASENOVAC, 15 June (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on
Saturday laid a wreath at the memorial site in Jasenovac.
'I have laid the wreath as Croatia's President in memory of
all victims of Jasenovac: for the victims of fascism and the
Independent State of Croatia (NDH), but also for those who were
executed by the communist regime', President Tudjman said after he
laid the wreath. #L#
Jasenovac memorial site should be the memorial site which
would remind the Croatian people of the position they once used to
be in, he said.
'We will solve the problem of Jasenovac the way we have solved
all other problems, not because we want to conceal the truth about
the victims of the Ustashi terror, but to remind that the Croatian
people suffered under different banners, and that the general
reconciliation has brought about the freedom and independence for
Croatia', Tudjman said.
Tito never visited Jasenovac, because he knew he could not
escape responsibility for the existence of a communist camp between
1945 and 1948 set up on the same place, in which people were killed
as well.
After the World War II, the exhumation of bodies of Jasenovac
victims started. Parts of uniforms of Domobrani (regular, recruited
army at the time of the Ustashi-led Independent State of Croatia,
1941-1945) were also found among the remains. After it was
discovered that it was not only the Ustashi regime that committed
the killings, the exhumation was cancelled, President Tudjman said
during his visit to 'Memorial Museum Jasenovac'. It was necessary
to establish which crimes had been perpetrated by the Ustashi
regime and which by the communist regime, President Tudjman said.
Croatia suffered a great number of victims to break free from
the Balkans and it had no intention of returning to it, Tudjman
said.
'We have to protect Croatia and not let the others force us
into some new Yugoslavia. Those attempts are no fabrication',
President Tudjman said, stressing that he was receiving delegations
lately who were all telling him that Croatia, if it joined Europe,
would have to be part of a regional association of former Yugoslav
states, or of an even broader association.
After the visit to Jasenovac, President Tudjman visited the
reconstructed village of Dragalic. Around noon, he arrived in
Gornji Bogicevci, where the central celebration of today's visit to
that part of western Slavonia is to take place.
(hina) rm jn
151418 MET jun 96