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UNCLAS        ZAGREB 01443

SIPDIS
R 051150Z DEC 06

FM AMEMBASSY ZAGREB
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7004
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ZAGREB 001443 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE: RBALIAN, DRL/SEAS: GRICKMAN, 
EUR/OHI: ENAKIAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SCUL HR
SUBJECT: GOC REOPENS WWII CONCENTRATION CAMP MUSEUM 
AND MEMORIAL 
 
 
¶1. (U) Summary and Comment.  On 27 November, Croatia's 
top leaders commemorated the opening of the Jasenovac 
Memorial Museum, an exhibition and education center on 
the site of a former Ustasha-run death camp at which 
tens of thousands died between 1941 and 1945.  PM Ivo 
Sanader, President Stjepan Mesic, and Speaker of 
Parliament Vladimir Seks all spoke on the importance 
of remembering the past crimes that were committed and 
ensuring that such acts never happen again.  Through a 
USG museum exchange program, the U.S. Holocaust 
Memorial Museum (USHMM) provided technical advice over 
the past several years.  Prior to the opening, some 
members of the ethnic Serb community criticized the 
exhibit for not adequately addressing specific 
conditions at Jasenovac such as the preponderance of 
Serb victims or fully communicating the horrors that 
took place there.  The Ministry of Culture plans to 
amend some exhibits, and all agree that the museum is 
an important testimony of the past and learning tool 
for the future.  Perhaps most notable is the clear 
language used by Croatia's leaders: while the ruling 
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of the 90s often 
cozied up to its Ustasha past, Sanader and Seks 
clearly condemned that time and those events. 
Speaking at the opening, Seks said that the camp is an 
"indelible stain of shame that has characterized the 
Ustasha regime as a reign of evil and inhumanity." 
Broadcast widely in the press, the memorial is a clear 
step forward for Croatia in acknowledging its ugly 
past.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
Condemning Its Past 
 
¶2. (U) For perhaps the first time, Sanader and Seks 
both used the term "Ustasha" to refer to the Croatian 
war-time fascist government, while acknowledging 
unequivocally the crimes that were committed by 
Croatians.  Speaking eloquently and clearly, Sanader 
called that dark chapter a "historically-failed and 
mindless time."  He continued, "The truth cannot be 
hidden, it cannot be forgotten, it cannot be 
traded...the truth cannot have two faces...No 
political goal or any other goal can justify a crime." 
The PM's language against the Ustasha is a stark 
contrast to the revisionist history promulgated by HDZ 
leaders in the early 90s, when President Franjo 
Tudjman flirted with the Ustasha regime and introduced 
school textbooks that rationalized the past.  Mesic 
underlined the distance from both the recent, 
nationalistic past and with the country's WWII fascist 
past:  "Jasenovac leaves no room for doubt about how 
present-day Croatia sees events from WWII.  Here there 
is no room for downplaying or diminishing the 
atrocities, genocide, and Holocaust that were 
committed in the Croatian name."  In addition to the 
PM, President, and Speaker, over 300 people attended 
the opening, including the Ministers of Education and 
Culture, local religious leaders, and ethnic Serb, 
Jewish and Roma community leaders, and representatives 
of the diplomatic community, including the U.S. 
Ambassador.  About two-dozen survivors also attended 
the event, which was heavily covered in the national 
and international press. 
 
Establishing the Truth 
 
¶3. (U) Jasenovac was the largest of almost 40 Ustasha- 
run camps, in which Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croatians 
were killed.  Men, women, and children were subjected 
to horrific deaths.  The camp has long been a source 
of controversy between Croats and Serbs: Some Serbs 
claim that there were 700,000 killed, while in the 90s 
Tudjman reduced that estimate to 40,000.  Now, 
independent experts estimate that between 70,000 and 
97,000 died at the camp.  About 70,000 victims have 
been identified, the majority of whom were ethnic 
Serbs.  Controversy still followed Jasenovac even up 
to the opening: president of the GOC-appointed 
Jasenovac Council Zorica Stipetic criticized the 
exhibits for not sufficiently attributing the crimes 
to a Croatian Ustasha regime against Serb victims, 
rather than being part of a Nazi Holocaust.  Nor did 
the memorial communicate the unusual brutality that 
took place, according to critics.  Concerns were 
largely addressed before the opening, and as Director 
of the Memorial, Natasa Jovicic told us, it is a 
living memorial that will be strengthened, amended, 
and expanded.  Both Mesic and ethnic Serb MP Milorad 
Pupovac indicated that they saw the center as a work 
in progress.  USHMM reps who attended the opening 
expressed satisfaction with the exhibits and 
information provided. 
 
Memorial and Educational Center on Site of Camp 
 
¶4. (U) The memorial and museum are located about 1.5 
hours from Zagreb on the river border with Bosnia, on 
the site of the former concentration camp.  In 2003, 
the State Department funded the demining of more than 
280,000 square meters along the river, which was also 
the confrontation line during the more recent war in 
the 90s.  The names of the almost 70,000 known victims 
hang on glass panels from the ceiling and exhibits 
include photos, artifacts, and video-taped testimonies 
of survivors.  A multimedia information center and 
education center helps teach visitors - many of whom 
will be school children - about fascism, Nazism, the 
Holocaust, and other intolerance against minorities. 
With a grant through State Department's International 
Partnership Among Museums, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Museum (USHMM) cooperated with Jasenovac organizers at 
the Ministry of Culture.  Over the past few years, the 
USHMM assisted in cataloguing, processing and 
conserving documents, and provided other technical 
advice for the educational center.  Ministry of 
Education officials plan to organize a "traveling 
exhibit" to bring Jasenovac into Croatia's classrooms. 
 
BRADTKE