There will be no joint commemoration for victims of the World War II concentration camp Jasenovac on Thursday, representatives of the victims will lay wreaths separately from the state leadership while President Zoran Milanovic will do so separately from the prime minister and parliament speaker.

President Milanovic’s spokesman Nikola Jelic confirmed to state agency Hina that Milanovic and his delegation will lay wreaths at the Stone Flower monument at Jasenovac at 11 am on Thursday.

Office of the President did not receive reply from gov’t, parliament

“President Zoran Milanovic and his delegation will pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims on 22 April, at 11 am, as agreed with the organiser, the Public Institution Jasenovac Memorial Area,” Jelic said.

He added that the Office of the President had not received a reply from the government or the parliament to its invitation to pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims together.

“As early as last Friday the President of the Republic proposed to the Prime Minister and the Parliament Speaker that they all pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims together, but we have not received any reply,” Jelic said.

Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, said today that a government delegation would lay a wreath at Jasenovac at 9 am, again dismissing the possibility of paying tribute together with Milanovic, noting that “there is no reason for us to put on an act.”

“As regards any joint laying of wreaths or flowers, I said yesterday…. there will be no putting on an act,” he told reporters during a visit to Rijeka.

Plenkovic: We were not the ones to start with insults

“The President of the Republic or his staff are now launching an initiative for the Parliament Speaker and myself to lay a wreath with him in Jasenovac. We were not the ones to start with the ‘animal farm’, we were not the ones to start with insults or a number of other things that are most inappropriate, so there is no reason to put on an act, let that be clear to everyone,” said Plenkovic.

He added that the organizer of the commemoration was the Jasenovac Memorial Area, not the government or anyone else, and that this year’s commemoration would be held in line with epidemiological restrictions.

The government’s delegation will arrive at 9 am and the parliament’s delegation at 10 am, he said.

“This has nothing to do with representatives of the victim ethnic groups. We met with them last week, we hold meetings regularly, we respect the victims and went to Jasenovac in the past four years as well. We will go this year again, next year, in 2023, 2024. This has to do with the protocol, but putting on an act is out of the question,” he said.

Reporters asked Plenkovic if he should ignore his relationship with Milanovic, regardless of how bad it may be, in situations such as commemorations, to which he said: “No, there’s no need for that. In this case it is not envisaged and is out of the question.”

Representatives of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascists to form separate delegation

The Serb National Council (SNV) said earlier in the day that representatives of ethnic groups that were victims of the Ustasha terror would have a separate, four-member delegation in Jasenovac.

SNV president Milorad Pupovac, the leader of the Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Communities of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, Roma association “Kali Sara” representative Veljko Kajtazi, and the leader of the SABA association of antifascist fighters and antifascists, Franjo Habulin, will lay a joint wreath at the Stone Flower monument at noon on Thursday.

Kraus confirmed to Hina that this decision was made yesterday, after it became evident that there would be no joint delegation comprising top state officials.

“After we realised that there would be separate delegations, we decided on a separate delegation as well. As you can see, a single delegation does not depend on us. We cannot support the use of commemorations for political one-upmanship,” said Kraus.