Earlier this month, Nebojsa Malic got back from a two-week trip to his native Bosnia, and reported the following:

There wasn’t a day that Bosnian papers weren’t talking about the Big Bad Israel oppressing the poor innocent “Palestinians,” even when nothing particularly newsworthy was happening.

Meanwhile, in the Serbian half of Bosnia, we have the following from Chinese news agency Xinhua, via Serbianna.com

Srpska marks death camp anniversary, Apr 12, 2010

Republika Srpska marked the 65th anniversary of the uprising in Jasenovac concentration camp, one of the most brutal death camps of World War Two, in Donja Gradina, Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday.

Donja Gradina was the main burial site for the Jasenovac extermination camp located in the vicinity of a town by the same name. Jasenovac was established by the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War Two. The number of people slaughtered at Jasenovac, most of whom were Serbs, Jews, Roma and opponents of the Ustasha regime, totals in the hundreds of thousands.

About 1,000 prisoners rose up against their executioners on April 21-22, 1945, but only 118 escaped from the Jasenovac extermination facility operated by fanatical Croatian Ustasha allies of Adolf Hitler.

Top: Serbian children light up candles in memory of murdered Serbs by the Croatian state forces in Jasenovac death camp. Bottom: candle memorial for murdered Jews at the commemoration.

Speaking amid fields and mounds of mass graves of Serbian, Jewish and Roma victims of the Ustasha Croat genocide, Republika Srpska Premier Milorad Dodik said that the very existence of the Republika Srpska within Bosnia is a guarantee against any repetition of such crimes against the Serbs and all of its other residents, regardless of their ethnicity.

Premier Dodik said the existence of Republika Srpska represents the national will of the Serbian people and must therefore never be questioned. He said that while Serbs cannot forget nor forgive the Croatian-led genocide committed against them, they are ready and willing together with other nations for a world of peace.

Dodik said that for Bosnia to be a true home for its Serbian citizens, there must be a confession that the ultimate crime of genocide was committed against the Serbs in World War Two, during which Croatia occupied and annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as part of Serbia. He said the failure by Bosnia’s Croats and Muslims to accept any responsibility for the slaughter, coupled with the postwar failure to prosecute the perpetrators had blocked reconciliation and contributed to modern-day fighting across the entire region.

Speaking of the civil wars following the string of unilateral secessions from the former Yugoslavia, Dodik criticized what he described as an obvious anti-Serb bias in war crimes prosecutions that were conducted almost exclusively against the Serbs. He said that, “All of Bosnia’s nations suffered victims, but they also harbored perpetrators. So far, crimes have been attributed only to the Serbian people, which is certainly false,” Dodik said.

Dodik stressed that each crime committed in the region must be addressed in a court of law to demonstrate that the crimes are the acts of individuals and not the will of any nation, categorically rejecting the concept of a criminal or genocidal people.

The Serb representative in Bosnia’s three-member collective presidency, Nebojsa Radmanovic, underlined that the Serbs are not seeking revenge but are merely demanding that the full truth be told about both the recent civil war in the region and about World War Two. He called for action in both fields.

Belgrade rabbi Isak Asiel led a prayer for the Jewish victims of the massive Jasenovac camp system. Roma Culture Museum Director Dragoljub Ackovic dedicated his remarks to the Roma victims. Also joining them at the podium was Chairman Erim Balaila Ram Doron of a group representing former prisoners of war.

Among the high profile guests were Serbian President Boris Tadic, Republika Srpska President Rajko Kuzmanovic, and Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj. No Croatian officials attended the memorial ceremony.

A crowd of thousands included aging survivors, relatives of the dead, representatives of ethnic groups and international officials working in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They came from across the Balkan region by car and bus, walking in line to the ceremony along red pathways between graves now covered by green lawns. The death camp facility was demolished after the prisoner uprising in an effort to hide the crime.

April 11, 2010
XINHUA

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