Over 100,000 people visit Goli Otok annually, so our intention is to establish a public institution that would run the memorial site, play an educational role, prevent further devastation and ensure sustainable development of the island based on a culture of remembrance and ecological tourism, the association's president Darko Bavoljak told a press conference.
He noted that the association's aim was not to engage in daily politics but to commemorate the victims.
Bavoljak said that the project was based on a feasibility study that envisaged minimum investment by government and would for the most part be financed by EU grants. "The total amount required for the entire project would be 17 million euros," he said.
The association has prepared a project proposal and is now sending it to the Ministry of Culture for consideration. "Although no funds are envisaged for this purpose in 2015, it would be good if the project was included in the budget for 2016 or 2017," Bavoljak said.
According to historian Martin Previsic, 13,000 prisoners were held in Goli Otok between 1949 and 1956, when it was transformed into an ordinary prison, and over 400 of them died there.
Goli Otok, which translates as Barren Island, was used as a hard-labour detention camp for people accused by by the Communist authorities of supporting Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito severed ties with the Soviet Union in 1948 or who for whatever reason were declared enemies of the state.