First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, opening the Exhibition “Jasenovac – the Right Not to Forget” at UN Headquarters in New York, urged Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to visit Jasenovac, to pay tribute to the victims and clearly say who they were.
“Unfortunately, Jasenovac was one of the largest concentration and death camps in the Second World War,” Dacic recalled.
“The same as the Serbian people demonstrated enough courage, stamina and moral principles to acknowledge its mistakes, to punish, arrest and adjudicate those who committed crimes against other peoples, all other peoples also have a moral obligation not to rehabilitate their criminals”, Minister Dacic pointed out.
“Just as Plenkovic goes to Jerusalem to bow before the shadows in Yad Vashem, we expect him to do this in Croatia in Jasenovac itself and to clearly recognize who the victims were. Have there been 50,000 or 100,000 or 700,000. Even if a single man was murdered just for being a Jew or a Serb – it is a disgrace for humanity and deserves to be condemned”, Dacic said.
Minister Dacic said that the Holocaust and genocide knew no bounds and no obstacles.
He said that Serbia was not accusing anyone except the criminals and those defending them since it was the only way to avoid such things from happening again in the future.
“We did not come here to quarrel, but our people suffered most in the Second World War. It is our obligation to remember that. That is why we are here, that is why the UN was created – not to allow Fascism to be repeated ever again and we stand firm in that conviction”, Minister Dacic said in conclusion.