Former prison camp inmates in Mostar issued a statement condemning the construction of a museum dedicated to the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in the area where members of this military formation ran the wartime Heliodrom detention camp.

The Association of Former Prison Camp Inmates in Mostar said that the construction of the HVO Museum “at the place where more than 10,000 inhabitants of the city were detained and tortured” has continued Mostar and that, despite submitting requests to the Ministry and the Minister, it never received the Decision on the establishment of the museum which was made by former Minister Marina Pendes, nor the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation, which was signed by former Minister Sifet Podzic.

“Attempts to try to explain to us and the public, through incoherent explanations, the chronology of events during the construction of the Museum and the determination of the location is just an attempt to throw lies in the eyes of the victims of the criminal policy of the joint criminal enterprise. What disappointed us painfully was the superficial acceptance of the same narrative by the current Minister, who unquestioningly accepted the decisions made by his predecessors without any sense of whether this act would hurt anyone, including his close relatives who died in the so-called HRHB camps”, the association said in a statement, adding that the current minister, Zukan Helez, had the obligation to review the validity of the decisions made and “stop the construction of any museum at the place where war crimes were committed and confirmed by the courts”.

“The continuation of the construction of the war museum of the HVO within its former concentration camp Heliodrom is the most brutal way of insulting the feelings and dignity of the victims, confirming the policy of hiding and denying the crimes committed by the convicted policy of the joint criminal enterprise and imposing a narrative of collective oblivion,” the former prison camp inmates said.

They argued that, for the victims, the only correct decision is the immediate adoption of a decision to stop the funding for the Museum.

“We resolutely reject the possibility of our demands being reduced to some personal or political argument because they are solely motivated by the interest to protect the dignity of every human being, regardless of their name, nationality or religious affiliation,” they stressed.