Banja Luka : Bosnia and Herzegovina BY Jadovno1941
Inscription say that on this place several hundred children from Mt Kozara has been burried in 1942. The truth is that at least 862 Serbian children are there.
BANJA LUKA, November 22 /SRNA/ - The fact that execution sites where Serbs were killed in the Second World War are not shown or are hidden from view, particularly the plot 142 at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, shows an inadequate, systemic attitude of the Serb people towards the past, the present, but also the future generations, says Predrag Lozo, secretary of the association Jadovno 1941.
During a lecture titled “The Secret of Plot No 142,” the site where 862 children from Mt Kozara were buried in WWII, Lozo stated that the attitude towards the execution sites of Serbs implies that the system of values dating from the period 1945-1990 still lives on.
He underlined that said plot is very small, which raises the issue of where bones of the other children are, which causes suspicion that the area around the gravesite has been allotted to private persons, usurped, and that the bones have been desecrated.
“We, the representatives of the academic community and the association that deals with this issue, strongly believe there is a way to change this and we must take baby steps to do it, meaning – we must treat execution sites rightly,” Lozo said.
Apart from the Mirogoj Cemetery plot No 142, Lozo pointed out the church in Sadilovac at Kordun, where 480 women and children were burnt in just one day in 1942, and Prebilovci near Čapljina, from where 600 small children were taken away and thrown into a pit.
“Neither is it known that in Mostar there was abuse and torture in most administrative buildings that nowadays accommodate state institutions. What can we say about the Gospić, Jadovno and Pag concentration camps, where in the space of only 130 days, more than 40,000 people died, according to the official data,” Lozo said.
The majority of people, especially non-experts, were unaware of these facts, which is the result of a cultural policy the core of which is the denial of everything Serb, including the denial of victims, he said.
Lozo feels that in order for the system to react, it is necessary to create pressure groups so that these facts can come to light.
The long kept secret of Plot No 142 was revealed by author Duško Tomić in the book “Putevima smrti kozarske djece” /Along the Paths of Death of Kozara Children/, published in 1990.
The lecture “The Secret of Plot No 142” was held at the Saint Sava Cultural Club in Banja Luka in the scope of the event titled “The Month of Remembering Serb Victims of XX Century.”
Jadovno1941 is based in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is a Stringer for Allvoices.