Bosnia’s Jablanica marked the 79th anniversary of the Battle of the Wounded on the Neretva River and the 77th anniversary of the victory over fascism, on Saturday.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, 79 carnations were dropped into the Neretva River, and flowers were laid at the Memorial.

Flowers were laid by BiH Presidency Member Zeljko Komsic, Federation entity’s Vice President Milan Dunovic and other representatives of all levels of government, associations, political parties and citizens.

In a statement to the media, Komsic said that everyone knows how he fights against fascism.

“It must be cut at the root. Obviously, both these older generations and we [the younger generations] were mistaken, so we thought that story had ended. Obviously not. That form of fascism is tougher than one might think, that is, it has a different form every time. The one from 1941 to 1945, I mean the period of the Second World War, was one of the forms. This fascism that befell us from 1992 to 1995 is essentially the same, but it had a different form,” Komsic said.

Regarding Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Komisic said that no matter how much Russia “beat its chest” by being an anti-fascist nation, this [Ukrainian invasion] is “pure fascism”.

“Killing innocent people just like that can be nothing but fascism,” said Komsic, adding that fascism has different forms and is sometimes difficult to recognize.

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“One must always be careful, always awake. Fascism is most easily recognized by chauvinism, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism… Everything that separates us as people is essentially Fascism. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of it in BiH today. It used to be wrapped in ‘democratic cellophane’, so it falls under the struggle of opinions, under the right to one's own opinion, but in essence, it is fascism,” said Komsic.

He believes that we must not give up the fight against Fascism and that we must be twice as persistent in the fight against it, no matter the cost.

The exhibition titled “80 Years of the 13th July Uprising 1941-2021, Years of Defiance and Pride” was opened at the “Battle for the Wounded on the Neretva” Museum.