The Alliance of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists (SABA) and the Serb National Council (SNV) held a memorial ceremony in Banski Grabovcac, near Petrinja on Saturday to commemorate the first armed action by Partisan resistance fighters in that area 83 years ago and the victims of the Ustasha reprisal.

Partisans from the Banija region carried out their first armed action on the night of 24 July 1941 by attacking the municipal administration building and the train station in Banski Grabovac. The attack prompted a reprisal by Nazi-allied Ustasha forces, who killed 1,285 Serb peasants in the Glina and Petrinja areas between 24 and 26 July 1941.

SABA president Franjo Habulin said that the Ustashas did not represent the Croatian people and that their country was not Croatian, the SNV said in a press release.

“In June, we marked the formation of the first Partisan detachment in Brezovica Forest. Today is the anniversary of the first armed action by the Partisans from Banija, along with the commemoration of the victims of the Ustasha regime, and next Saturday, 27 July, we will mark the beginning of the uprising of the people of Croatia in Srb,” he said.

He emphasised that all three events were characterised by the unity of Serbs and Croats.

Habulin said that the building in Topusko in which the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia held its third session in May 1944 had been razed to the ground and never rebuilt.

“Why is that building, as well as more than 3,000 monuments honouring the fighters and victims of the NDH (Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia), including this monument in Banski Grabovac, still demolished and neglected? Seeking answers to these questions is our duty and obligation to the fighters and victims,” ​​Habulin said. .

SNV secretary-general Sasa Milosevic said that the monument in Banski Grabovac is formally protected, but remains damaged and neglected, and has actually been deteriorating for years. He added that justice and equality, the values ​​of the people who rose in arms in the Second World War, “have been rejected, almost banished from our society.”

“Jadovno is not recognised, Jasenovac and the genocide of Serbs in the Second World War are denied. In a word, this country does not remember either this uprising or these victims, as would be proper and necessary,” Milosevic said.