EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE MORE THAN 8,000 SERBS AND JEWS WERE KILLED AT THE SLANA CAMP

BELGRADE, AUGUST 14 /SRNA/ - More than 8,000 Serbs and Jews were killed in less than two months of the existence of the Ustasha-run Slana camp on the island of Pag, while the recent destruction of a memorial plaque dedicated to the victims for the fourth time is one of numerous pieces of evidence that Croatia remains trapped in its Ustasha and genocidal past, Miodrag Linta, president of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region, said.

Linta said that Croatia refuses to turn the site of the former camp into a memorial site, and that, in early August, a memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the Ustasha camp on Pag was destroyed for the fourth time. The plaque had been installed during a commemoration held on June 24 in Slana Bay. "This is one of numerous pieces of evidence that Croatia remains trapped in its Ustasha and genocidal past. The perpetrators of this pro-Nazi act will not be found and punished, just as they were not in previous cases," Linta said. He reminded that the systematic extermination of Serb and Jewish civilians was carried out during the two months in the summer of 1941 that the camp existed, where people were killed solely because they belonged to another nation and religion, the Alliance of Serbs from the Region said. "The Ustasha regime established a camp for Serb and Jewish men in Slana Bay on June 24, 1941, and a women's camp, mainly for the wives and children of the detained men, in the village of Metajna. These camps were part of the Gospić–Jadovno–Pag camp complex in the Independent State of Croatia from late June to late August 1941," Linta said. He pointed out that, according to Italian records, at least 791 victims were killed on the night of August 14-15, 1941, just days before the camp was closed. "According to the testimonies of the few surviving Jews, the treatment of Serbs was even more brutal. As far as is known, there are no cases of Serb prisoners who survived the Slana camp," Linta said. He said that, therefore, what is known about the events at the Slana camp, which covered about five hectares, comes only from what has been preserved in the testimonies of surviving Jewish camp inmates. The Ustasha-run Slana camp on the island of Pag was part of the Gospić–Jadovno–Pag system of Ustasha camps, where Serbs and Jews were subjected to mass killings during the existence of the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/. The Slana camp was established in June 1941 and operated for about three months before it was closed by the Italian Fascists. It covered about five hectares in a deserted bay near Metajna. Monstrous crimes were committed there against thousands of helpless men, women and children.