Bosnian Serbs honour victims of 'Croatia's Auschwitz': report
Agence France Presse (English) - May 4, 2008 Sunday 2:58 PM GMT

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, May 4 2008 - Several thousand people gathered in northwest Bosnia Sunday to commemorate the victims, mainly Serbs, of a notorious Croatian World War II concentration camp, the SRNA news agency reported.

A memorial service for the victims of Jasenovac concentration camp, known as "Croatia's Auschwitz," was held in Donja Gradina, which was once part of the camp.

The crowd included survivors, members of the victims' families and senior Bosnian Serb officials.

"Our holy duty is that Jasenovac victims be never forgotten ... for the sake of our future and for the sake of our children's future," said Bosnian Serb President Rajko Kuzmanovic, SRNA reported.

Several Orthodox priests, a rabbi and a representative of the Roma community offered prayers in memory of the camp's victims.

The gathering marked the 63rd anniversary of an escape attempt by some 600 prisoners: only 90 of them survived.

Jasenovac camp, some 370 kilometres (230 miles) northwest of Sarajevo, was founded in mid-1941 by Croatia's Nazi-allied Ustasha regime. It was dismantled a few days after the attempted breakout in 1945.

Croatia held a commemoration ceremony for Jasenovac victims on its side of the border two weeks ago.

The number of those killed in Jasenovac -- mostly Serbs, followed by Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians -- is still a matter of dispute.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that 100,000 people were murdered in Jasenovac, while the Simon Wiesenthal Centre puts the figure at some 600,000.

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