Former detainees from BiH and Croatia discussed lawsuits against Serbia

Representatives of the Association of Detainees in BiH visited the Croatian Association of Detainees of Serbian Concentration Camps in Vukovar, the Association announced, reports Patria.

Former detainees from BiH and Croatia discussed legal solutions that would improve the lives of this population, and considered activities related to lawsuits by detainees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia for compensation for the damage suffered during their time in camps on the territory of Serbia, as well as joint projects for providing legal and psychological support to former detainees.

The Association states that the visit to Vukovar, as well as the memorial sites that serve as a warning and a reminder of all the innocent victims who suffered in the recent war in Croatia, was another reminder to those fighting for the rights of detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina – how important it is for a country to pay attention to memorialization and the culture of remembrance, and once again, an appeal to those responsible to take certain actions regarding the realization of the rights of torture victims, which include memorialization and marking of crime scenes.

It is the state's obligation to ensure satisfaction – memorialization for human rights violations, as well as to protect historical memory, in order to prevent denial, revision, and negation of the past, and to ensure prevention of future rights violations – the Association states.

Former detainees from BiH also visited the "War Hospital Museum", the "Ovčara Memorial Home", as well as a mass grave where about 200 victims were found, who in 1991, while still patients, were deported from the Vukovar hospital, taken to a camp, and then executed in the wilderness.

The Association of Detainees of BiH notes that, following Croatia's example, dialogue about the past needs to be initiated in Bosnia and Herzegovina through adequate memorialization and commemoration processes, with the aim of building a culture of remembrance, in line with EU standards, reports Patria.