30 November 2006
In Croatia, government officials as well as representatives of the Jewish, Serb and Roma minorities have attended the ceremonial opening of the expanded memorial at the site of the former infamous Jasenovac concentration camp, where almost 70,000 people died during World War II. Massive glass walls are bearing the names of the 70,000 concentration camp prisoners, among them 18,812 children under the age of 14, were killed in the camp located 80 km east of Zagreb. "They killed Jews only because they were Jews, Serbs because they were Serbs, Romas because they were Romas, Croatians only because they were anti-fascists and opposed to the regime," said Vladimir Seks, president of the Croatian parliament. The official ceremony was broadcast live by the Croatian television. "This memorial serves as a lesson about what happens to people and peoples when they forget that no goal can justify the crime," prime minister Ivo Sanader said. "Today's Croatia does not want to stay silent about the dark pages of its past." Croatia's president Stipe Mesic said future generations must learn that the pro-Nazi regime was "a chronicle of mad, but organized, orgy of killings."
