A commemoration was organised on Saturday for the victims from Grubisno Polje and Bjelovar on the occasion of the 83rd anniversary of the first deportation and mass execution of Serbs, just 18 days after the establishment of the 1941-45 Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

The commemoration in Gudovac near Bjelovar was organised by the Serb National Council (SNV) and the Alliance of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists of Croatia (SABA).

SNV president Milorad Pupovac, speaking about those victims, said it was the “first mass murder of people from the Bjelovar area who were allegedly taken away as retaliation for the killing of two Ustasha policemen in clashes between the remnants of the Yugoslav army and the new component of the occupation authorities, the Ustasha.”

To expel and exterminate, to exclude and assimilate, that was the idea and practice, and here it began, Pupovac said.

“We remember with full responsibility that the killing of others, our fellow Croatian citizens, especially in the 1990s war, cannot be justified as it was done in some preparations for wars, by these killings and vice versa, that the killing of our fellow citizens of Croatian nationality cannot be used as justification and vindication for the killing of Serbs in that period, especially innocent civilians,” he said.

It is necessary to do everything so that political extremism and extreme ideologies do not have the kind of power they want to have, Pupovac said.

Too much effort has been made “by responsible political people in Croatia, and by the Serb people in Croatia, and by friends in Europe and the world, for us to ignore that and say that it is normal that in some conception of political democracy in Croatia, political extremism is allowed to be a measure of Croatian democracy.”

SABA president Franjo Habulin said the Ustasha movement came to power “on the bayonets of the occupiers, the Nazis and the Fascists, without any democratic legitimacy, and installed its regime whose nature was deeply anti-Croatian.’

“We are commemorating the victims of the first mass Ustasha crime against Serbs in the Bjelovar area, which occurred in Gudovac and the surrounding villages, when 195 persons of Serb nationality were brutally executed on 28 April 1941. Today we remember that event and pay tribute to the victims, which is our duty and obligation,” he said.

Bjelovar Mayor Dario Hrebak said a strong message should be sent about the innocent victims who were killed here. “Although I do not belong to the Serb people, I know what happened here and how many innocent people were killed.”

He also said that, as the mayor of a city where 21 out of 22 national minorities live, he knew how difficult it was to run a city with so much diversity “in a fragile environment where a small spark can cause a real fire.” He wants every resident to feel welcome, not to feel like a Serb, a Croat, a Muslim etc, he added.

As a moderate and young man, Hrebak said, he is sending a message of peace and tolerance in the belief that crimes like those committed in the Bjelovar area 83 years ago will not be repeated.