A commemoration for the victims of the World War II concentration camp of Jasenovac, organized by the antifascist group SABA and the main group representing ethnic Serbs, Serb National Council (SNV), was held on Saturday at the Jasenovac memorial site.

SABA president Franjo Habulin said on this occasion it was their duty to continue the fight for a democratic, civilised, tolerant, European and anti-fascist Croatia.

Speaking at the event, he emphasized that the facts about “the crimes in Jasenovac are well-known, they are clear memory of those who survived”.

The annual Jasenovac remembrance ceremony has become a politically charged affair in recent years, with groups representing antifascists and the Jewish and Serb ethnic minorities eschewing the annual state-sponsored event to mark the anniversary of the 1945 escape of some 54 prisoners from the camp run by the Croatian World War II fascist regime.

The SNV earlier stated it would not take part in the official annual remembrance ceremony at the Jasenovac memorial and would join several Croatian Jewish and antifascist organizations in boycott of the official event. Instead, the SNV and the SABA announced holding their own separate remembrance ceremony on April 21.

The official commemoration, organised by state authorities will be held on Sunday.