Roma Memorial Centre opens in Uštica

A Roma Memorial Centre was opened in Uštica, near Jasenovac, on Sunday on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Memorial Centre was opened by Suzana Krčmar, president of the Croatian Roma Federation, Veljko Kajtazi, the representative of the Roma minority in the Croatian parliament, and Milan Bandić, the mayor of Zagreb.

Addressing those present, Kajtazi recalled that on this day in 1944 the last group of Roma were executed in the Auschwitz concentration camp and that on this day all Roma victims of genocide committed during the Second World War were commemorated.

He expressed hope that the Roma Memorial Centre in Ustica would become "a place of gathering rather than a place of controversy." "We will certainly try to make it that way and I hope others will follow us," he added.

Alen Tahiri, director of the Government Office for Human Rights and National Minorities, said the memorial centre, co-financed by the state government and the city of Zagreb, would "help educate young people on our history - a history that must never be repeated."

The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System, Dražen Bošnjaković, explained that he had come to the opening of the Memorial Centre in order to pay his respects to the victims and to "condemn the regime that committed such acts".

Uštica, located about 110 km southeast of Zagreb, is the site of mass executions of Roma who were deported to the Jasenovac concentration camp during the Second World War.

Source: HRT