Members of the Mostar camp inmates’ association, representatives of “Circle 99” and CSU professor from the Southern Connecticut State University David Pettigrew in front of the gate of the “Heliodrom” complex in the Rodoč neighborhood of Mostar laid flowers and paid tribute to the camp inmates.
In this way, they held a kind of protest against the construction of the Croatian National Defense (HVO) Museum on that site.
The president of the Mostar camp inmates’ association, Emir Hajdarović, says that they came to this place to pay tribute to all the camp inmates who died and to show, as he states, the true face of those who are building a museum on this site today.
“We are already used to a closed gate, so this did not disappoint us. They just confirmed everything that we have been saying for years about those people who implement such a policy, which is a continuation of everything that happened in ’93. and in ’94. year,” he said.
Member of the Presidency of the Association of Independent Intellectuals “Circle 99” Bojan Šošić adds that they want to show, not a political, but a human attitude that in such a place and under such circumstances it is not right to think about the establishment of the HVO Museum.
Professor of Philosophy and Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Southern Connecticut State University David Pettigrew supported, as he says, the right of survivors to erect a monument at this location, freely assemble at commemorations and establish a museum to remember the victims and educate the public.
He believes that the HVO Museum must be condemned and prevented, while memorials and museums for the victims of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be supported by the international community.
“The HVO Museum represents the denial of crimes and the glorification of convicted criminals, which is a violation of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a violation of similar criminal laws in the EU, and international moral norms. Such a museum for perpetrators represents what Raphael Lemkin called no less than the second stage of genocide when the perpetrator imposes his own historical narrative and suppresses the memory of the victims and betrays the truth,” the professor points out.
