LINTA URGES GLOBAL RECOGNITION OF GENOCIDE AGAINST SERBS

BELGRADE, JUNE 24 /SRNA/ – Miodrag Linta, president of the Serb Association from the Region, said that Serbia should launch an initiative for international recognition of the genocide committed against the Serb people in the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/.

He explained that the key prerequisites include the Serbian National Assembly adopting a resolution on the genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in the NDH, the establishment of a memorial center dedicated to the genocide against Serbs in the NDH and declaring April 10 as a Day of Remembrance for the genocide against Serbs in the NDH.

Marking June 24, the Day of Remembrance of the Jadovno death camp, one of the most horrific execution sites in the history of the Serb people in the 20th century, Linta reminded that the establishment of the NDH on April 10, 1941, marked the beginning of the implementation of a long-prepared plan to destroy the Serb people.

Linta noted that June 24 was chosen as the Day of Remembrance of Jadovno because the camps on Mount Velebit reached the peak of their operations on that date, while the Pag death camp received its first prisoners and the first camp for women and children in World War II was opened in Metajna on the island of Pag.

The Jadovno death camp was established immediately after the proclamation of the genocidal NDH in April 1941 on Mount Velebit and became the first large-scale execution site, according to a statement from the Serb Association from the Region.

In the Gospić-Jadovno-Pag death camp complex, from April 11 to August 20, 1941, a period of only 132 days, 38,000 Serbs and 2,000 Jews, along with a number of anti-fascists, were killed in an exceptionally brutal manner.

According to Linta, the victims were bound with wire without any trial and either killed or, in many cases, thrown alive into 32 deep karst pits on Mount Velebit.

In addition to Jadovno, the Gospić–Jadovno–Pag camp complex included the Slana and Metajna camps on the island of Pag, as well as the Ovčara, Stupačinovo and Maksimovića Štale camps and the concentration camp collection center at the Gospić railway station.

"The Gospić–Jadovno–Pag camp complex was the precursor to the Jasenovac concentration and death camp. Only about 2,000 survivors reached Jasenovac via Jastrebarsko on August 21, 1941", Linta stated.