The plight of the Roma is a fact we must reiterate so that it does not happen again, Kajtazi said, opening the exhibition at the National and University Library in Zagreb as an envoy of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. He recalled that the Croatian parliament officially recognised August 2 as National Roma Day and initiated International Romani Language Day, which has been recognised by UNESCO, and that Croatia observed International Roma Day at the highest level.
For the first time after seven decades, Roma are active in Croatia in an organised and quality fashion in the KALI SARA Roma Federation and cooperate with the institutions, Kajtazi said, adding that it was important and almost symbolic that, in the latest census, the Roma population had reached the number before WWII.
Kajtazi said he hoped time would show that all these processes "have opened a new Roma chapter in Croatia and that in future there will be even more international projects such as this exhibition, which Roma organised in cooperation with friends."
The sponsor of the exhibition was the Croatian parliament. Speaker envoy Irena Petrijevcanin Vuksanovic recalled that about 100,000 Roma lived on the territory of the former Yugoslavia before WWII and that 90,000 were killed in the war, saying that one among the highest percentages in Europe.
The state secretary at the Science and Education Ministry, Hrvoje Slezak, underlined the importance of teaching the young that respecting others was the basis of a modern society. He called on all Roma representatives to continue the successful cooperation with the ministry, saying dialogue was the only way to achieve progress.
Finnish Ambassador Timo Rajakangas said Roma had been living in Finland for five centuries and that today they enjoyed full legal equality, although they had yet to experience true equality in practice.
Baltzar, one of the most famous Roma authors in the world, said the speeches given were excellent and that he felt the speakers stood behind their words.
He underlined the importance of being aware of one's identity and that he was proud of his Gypsy identity. He said discussions as to whether his people should be called Roma or Gypsies were not in its interest. He said the WWII victims were common people and that today nothing was different, only that politicians were more intelligent and therefore more successful in the "divide and conquer" principle.
The exhibition is open until the end of August. It was organised by Finland's Creative Association for Arts and Culture Drom and the NSK.