SOSICE, June 22 (Hina) - Several hundred people on Thursday attended a ceremony near the Jazovka pit, west of Zagreb, commemorating soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and civilians, who were killed and thrown in the
Jazovka pit at the end of World War II by the then partisan authorities. The commemoration, organised by the Croatian Committee for Truth and Justice, was attended by representatives of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights (HCSP) and the Federation of Croatian Defence Forces' Associations. The Committee's president, Zvonimir Trusic, said the main purpose of today's ceremony was to warn about the crimes for which no one had been held accountable. Describing the Jazovka pit as a symbol of all execution sites of Croats from World War II, the post-war period and the Homeland War, Trusic called on state institutions to "finally say who is responsible for the execution of those people." HCSP president Ivan G
SOSICE, June 22 (Hina) - Several hundred people on Thursday
attended a ceremony near the Jazovka pit, west of Zagreb,
commemorating soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH)
and civilians, who were killed and thrown in the Jazovka pit at the
end of World War II by the then partisan authorities.
The commemoration, organised by the Croatian Committee for Truth
and Justice, was attended by representatives of the Croatian Pure
Party of Rights (HCSP) and the Federation of Croatian Defence
Forces' Associations.
The Committee's president, Zvonimir Trusic, said the main purpose
of today's ceremony was to warn about the crimes for which no one had
been held accountable.
Describing the Jazovka pit as a symbol of all execution sites of
Croats from World War II, the post-war period and the Homeland War,
Trusic called on state institutions to "finally say who is
responsible for the execution of those people."
HCSP president Ivan Gabelica said the NDH (1941-1945) was an
expression of the thousand-year-old aspirations of the Croat
people to have their own state.
"NDH fighters were in those times the true fighters for the greatest
democratic ideals," Gabelica said. He believes that "insults
against those honourable men" have culminated with the announced
adoption of a law, which, Gabelica says, "is aimed at banning public
and truthful speeches about those people and their work."
The president of the Croatian Defence Forces, Velimir Kvesic, said
today's Anti-Fascist Struggle Day could be celebrated only by
fascists. "That is actually the Day when the Croatian state was
destroyed and when crimes against Croats were committed. Croatian
soldiers are today here and not in Brezovica, Veljun and
Jasenovac," Kvesic told the gathering of several hundred, mostly
older, citizens.
The Brezovica forest, where in 1941 the first Croatian anti-fascist
unit had been formed, was today the site of a ceremony commemorating
the national holiday Anti-Fascist Struggle Day; Veljun is a village
where a monument to the victims of fascism was recently desecrated
on two occasions; and Jasenovac is the place where the Ustashi
established a concentration camp during the pro-fascist
Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945).
(hina) jn rml