Minister honors Croatian WW2 death camp victims

Minister honors Croatian WW2 death camp victims

JADOVNO -- Aleksandar Vulin represented the Serbian government on Sunday at a commemoration held at the grounds of the WW2-era death camp Jadovno in Croatia.

Vulin, who is in charge of labor, employment, veteran care and social issues, was at the site where some 40,000 prisoners were killed in 1941, most of them Serbs, but also Jews and Roma.

He underscored that "crimes must not be forgotten, which is why they are still mentioned to this day."

"Serbia respects Croatia as its neighbor even when the two countries' views of certain parts of history differ," Vulin said, and added:

"Nevertheless, when it comes to Jadovno, Jasenovac and Gradiška camps, both Serbia and Croatia, as well as any other country in the world, share the same opinion because it is impossible to think otherwise at the spot where people were killed and humanity was executed."

Serbian Orthodox Bishop Jovan Ćulibrk of Lipljan held a memorial service prior to the commemoration at the monument in Šaranova Jama pit, where the bodies of 73 Serb priests and other victims were disposed of in 1941.

President of the Serb National Council in Croatia Milorad Pupovac paid tribute to the victims, as did presidents of the Association of Antifascist Veterans and Antifascists of Croatia, the Coordination of Jewish Communities of Croatia, and envoys of the president of Croatia and its government.

Pupovac addressed the gathering to say that "Jadovno is more terrible than anything, even more terrible than Jasenovac, and words ought to be unneeded here."

But he added that the death camp "should be talked about because of those who wish to destroy the memory of the...