Four members of Bosnia’s PEN Center declared they are leaving the association in protest against the wording of a statement that was published on its website which condemned a Mass held last weekend in Sarajevo for Nazi supporters killed by Yugoslav Partisans in Bleiburg in 1945.

The May 9 statement, signed by a number of the members of Bosnia’s PEN Centre, asked for the Bleiburg Mass to be cancelled.

“We believe that the idea of ​​organizing a commemorative Mass in Sarajevo for the fascists and their sympathizers who perished during the withdrawal of fascist and Nazi forces towards Bleiburg is shameful for this city and for this country,” the statement said.

“The anti-fascist position we represent is the better and more humane side of history, and on behalf of that and out of respect for the many innocent victims of Ustasha crimes, we demand that the planned Mass be cancelled,” it said.

According to the PEN Centre, the members who decided to leave the association although three of them were among its founders in 1992 did so because of the way the protest letter was articulated.

Ivica Djikic argued that he was not informed of the letter.

“I can not agree with the one-dimensional, categorical and parochial manner with which the Pen Centre has approached such a complex and delicate subject known under the name ‘Bleiburg’,” he wrote.

Another writer who also served as the president of the association, Zeljko Ivankovic, submitted his resignation arguing that the “rush, the pressure and the short time left to say anything smart – as well as the fact that some people were excluded – made the statement insufficiently balanced, occasionally rough and robust, unworthy of the PEN Centre.”

“This would have been a problem of the author and the signatories, would the text have not been published at the official site of the PEN Centre which turned it into a statement of the institution, therefore disqualifying a part of the membership,” he argued.

Renowned writer Mijenko Jergovic explained that he was leaving because he does not see any similarity between the world-view the Centre had when it was established and the one it has now.

Ivan Lovrenovic left the association arguing that history can not be classified into better or worse periods except if such a statement is being made for ideological reasons, adding that he does not think that it is the job of writers to “represent either side, as is suggested in the letter.”

“My belief is that it is the writer’s job to examine history and seek to understand its crushing effects on human lives and destinies concretely. On all of ‘sides’,” he wrote.

Professor at the Philosophy Faculty in Sarajevo and PEN member Andrea Lesic told N1 that the letter was not an official statement by the PEN Centre but only by a group of its members.

Lesic explained that she was the one who initiated and signed the letter as an expression of a group of members of the PEN Centre.

“We simply felt and thought about why this political hot potato linked to Bleiburg was being moved from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Why to Sarajevo? We felt that the Catholic Church imposed a fait accompli,” she said.

She claimed that the invitation sent to PEN Centre members was clear that if they sign the letter, it would be their private stance.

“I’m sorry that some were insulted and hurt by the letter, that was not our intention. Our intention was to state that we oppose fascism and that we are anti-fascists,” Lesic said.