KOVIĆ: SCANDALOUS MEETING IN CROATIA’S PARLIAMENT ON JASENOVAC - CONSEQUENCE OF DENYING GENOCIDE AGAINST SERBS

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 31 /SRNA/ – Historian Miloš Ković believes that the scandalous meeting in Croatia’s Parliament is a consequence of the denial of the genocide against Serbs in Croatia, especially the one committed between 1941 – 1945, emphasizing there is absolutely no similarity between Jasenovac and Srebrenica, because the Srebrenica July 1995 events narrative serves precisely to relativize the crime committed in the horrific death camp of Jasenovac.

Ković told SRNA that the persistent denial of the genocide against Serbs in Croatia produces consequences, such as Marko Perković Thompson’s concert, where almost half a million people, mostly young, shout the Ustasha slogan "For the homeland – ready!", and the scandalous meeting about Jasenovac recently held in the Parliament, organised by the caucuses of the parties Home and National Rally /DOMINO/ and the Croatian Sovereigntists. Commenting on the statements made at the meeting pompously titled a "round table on the topic of a scientific approach to researching Jasenovac," such as the claim that "fewer people were killed in Jasenovac than in Srebrenica," Ković explained that the denial of the genocide against Serbs has grown to such an extent that colorful groups of individuals promoting it can now even hold conferences in the Croatian Parliament, meaning they enjoy at least partial support from some Croatian officials. "As far as I know, this involves a parliamentary caucus and the Pparliament speaker, who is not an insignificant figure in Croatia. For us, this is yet another signal that Croatia has not come to terms with its past and does not know how to deal with the horrific facts of the genocide committed by the NDH against the Serbs," Ković stressed. GENOCIDE BEGAN IN 1941 COMPLETED BY OPERATION STORM According to him, much is written in Croatia about the genocide committed against Jews and Roma, but the genocide against Serbs is not acknowledged. "Probably also because that genocide was completed in our own time, when more than 250,000 people were expelled in the ethnic cleansing operation called Operation Storm," Ković stated. When this is added to the huge number of Serbs forced to leave Croatia since the beginning of the war in 1991, Ković says, it becomes clear that the most terrible ethnic cleansing in Europe since the Second World War took place there, and that the genocide which began in 1941 was brought to its conclusion. "According to some historians, that genocide actually began in 1914 in the area around Foča on the Drina River, and according to others, in Jadar, Rađevina, and Mačva. In that genocide, Croatian soldiers played a very significant role within the Austro-Hungarian army," Ković pointed out. All of this, Ković emphasizes, are historical facts, the hard facts, and it is clear that the Croatian public finds it difficult to face them, especially since this reckoning with the past did not occur in 1918, nor in 1945. According to Ković’s assessment, the meeting in the Croatian Parliament about Jasenovac is yet another in a series of important messages to Serb deniers of the genocide committed in the NDH. He added that an unworthy game of numbers regarding the Jasenovac victims has also taken hold in part of the Serb public, stressing that this amounts to direct trading with the suffering and martyrdom of Serb victims of the Second World War. "On the other hand, it’s clear that any attempt to minimize the number of Jasenovac victims will not bring any gesture of goodwill from Zagreb. On the contrary, that has no end," Ković said. ABSURD COMPARISON OF JASENOVAC AND SREBRENICA According to him, the shameful event in the Parliament shows that this game of numbers inevitably leads to absurd comparisons between Jasenovac and Srebrenica. "It is important to emphasize that there can be no similarity or closeness between Jasenovac and Srebrenica. The narrative about Srebrenica serves precisely to relativize Jasenovac and to equate a vast, horrific death camp with a war crime committed against prisoners of war," Ković stated. He noted that no logical equivalence can be drawn between those two events.