UABNOR Srebrenik: Matijević deserves his name on the pillar of shame, he must be dismissed

(Patria) - The Association of Anti-fascists and Veterans of NOR Srebrenik wishes to inform the public of several basic facts and to refute the statements of the President of the Srebrenik City Council, Mato Matijević, regarding the purpose and idea of UABNOR Srebrenik.

Matijević does not know the elementary facts when he presents UABNOR as just another veterans' association, which should not even exist because the war ended long ago. Namely, our association with this name has existed for a very long time, back when there were still NOR veterans, and UABNOR and SABNOR are well-known and exist throughout the former Yugoslavia.

Matijević consciously and manipulatively conceals the main purpose today, which is anti-fascism, which we nurture and preserve, and for which the veterans of that time fought. Anti-fascism clearly bothers HDZ's Matijević, who wants to abolish funding for this association and thus erase every trace of the glorious anti-fascist struggle in Srebrenik, just as HDZ wants in the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We remind Matijević, who was elected in the last local elections with Bosniak votes, that Srebrenik was a poor place in the Kingdom of SHS, but without inter-ethnic conflicts and antagonisms. Partisans, led by teachers, will bring emancipation to Srebrenik, organize resistance, and spread anti-fascist ideas. Srebrenik will be a place of resistance against the Handzar Division.

History will later write only praise for Srebrenik's role in NOR. We are proud of that past and will continue to nurture the overall idea of class liberation, and the attempts at revision by Matijević and his like-minded sympathizers of the losing side will not succeed.

We are fully aware that a new wave of nationalists is trying to grant amnesty to occupying and collaborationist movements, but the idea of anti-fascism belongs to the brightest moments of world history, and Srebrenik has its place in it, as evidenced by the ossuary of the National Liberation War in Srebrenik. Srebrenik will continue to produce new anti-fascists, ready to oppose the encroaching fascism.

Matijević deliberately deceives when he talks about the budget and excursions. Although we believe that as a society we should finance anti-fascist associations throughout BiH more, UABNOR Srebrenik has never waited for the Municipality to finance "excursions" and "flag waving." We finance the commemoration of NOR monuments and important dates ourselves, while from the budget we have a portion for maintaining the association and helping older members with medication.

Matijević deserves his name on the pillar of shame, but a more dangerous fact is that he acts as an extended arm of the long-rehabilitated neo-fascism of his political patron, which is why we demand that other political actors of the Srebrenik City Council comment on this and state which side they belong to!

We remain on the side of anti-fascism, and we demand a public apology from Matijević, and from other anti-fascists in the Srebrenik City Council, we demand that they initiate a motion for his dismissal from the position of President of the City Council.