VELJUN VELJUN, May 6 (Hina) - A wreath-laying ceremony was held in Veljun, about 100 kilometres south of Zagreb, on Thursday to commemorate the execution of over 500 local residents by Croatian fascists 63 years ago.
VELJUN, May 6 (Hina) - A wreath-laying ceremony was held in Veljun,
about 100 kilometres south of Zagreb, on Thursday to commemorate the
execution of over 500 local residents by Croatian fascists 63 years
ago.#L#
The ceremony was organised by the Karlovac County branch and the local
committee of the Anti-Fascist League. Delegations of the Serb National
Council, the Anti-Fascist League, the Karlovac-based Human Rights
Committee and the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), led by
Vojislav Stanimirovic, laid wreaths at the ossuary and the monument to
the victims of Fascism.
The monument bears the names of 526 residents of Veljun and
surrounding villages who were taken away from their homes on May 6,
1941 and "slaughtered by Ustashas", as an inscription on the ossuary
says.
Ivan Fumic, the head of the Anti-Fascist League, said that "the
Ustasha regime introduced racial laws under which there was no room in
Croatia for Jews, Serbs and Romanies" but "many citizens opposed this,
and at the same time the Anti-Fascist Movement was gaining in
strength".
Milorad Pupovac of the Serb National Council said that the purpose of
the ceremony was to remember that "these people were murdered because
they were different, of different religious and ethnic backgrounds."
He underlined that Croatia was based on the tenets of Anti-Fascism as
was modern Europe.
Some speakers criticised the existence of a monument to Ustasha
military leader Jure Francetic in the nearby town of Slunj.
(Hina) vm sb