Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- http://www.jasenovac.org/JRI_files/newsandevents/28june2001.htm PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT For Immediate Release������������������� Contact:�
Dr. Bernard Klein, Commission Chairman Telephone: 718-368-5417 Fax: 718-368-4654 KINGSBOROUGH
COMMUNITY COLLEGE HOSTS FIRST MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE
JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMPS, JUNE 27 AND 28, 2001 The first
meeting of the International Commission on Jasenovac, a historical commission
established by scholars from seven nations, was held at Kingsborough Community
College of the City University of New York in Brooklyn, New York on June 27 and
28 2001.� This historic event was hosted
by Kingsborough's President Byron McClenney and by its History Department. Dr.
Bernard Klein, Chairman of Kingsborough's Department of History, Philosophy,
and Political Science and a founder of the Commission, has been asked by
members of the Commission to serve as its Chairman.� These initial deliberations are of a preliminary nature to chart
the further course of the Commission and to set an agenda for future multinational
efforts by the Commission to resolve and permanently establish the status of
Jasenovac among Holocaust scholars and institutions as a genocide camp - one of
the last and thorniest unresolved issues of the Holocaust. Michael
Berenbaum, the former Research Director of the US Holocaust Museum in
Washington, DC, former President of the Shoah Foundation, and a world leading
Holocaust scholar was among the Commission's members participating in this
week's proceedings at Kingsborough. Also participating were scholars from The need to
develop an international approach to the many unresolved issues surrounding
Jasenovac was the compelling reason for the creation of the Commission at the
Second International Conference on Jasenovac held in Banja Luka in Bosnia in
May 2000.� Scholars at that conference
decided to establish the Commission following discussions on how to further
international agreement and cooperation for establishing and recognizing the
status of and facts about the crimes committed in World War II fascist The convening
of the International Commission on Jasenovac at Kingsborough this week
represents another major historic milestone in the efforts to resolve the
long-standing grievances of Jasenovac Survivors and to achieve finally a
measure of justice for the victims of these camps. The Jasenovac
Camps were a complex of five major and three smaller "special" camps
spread out over 240 square kilometers (150 square miles) in south-central ��� Following the Nazi invasion and
dismemberment of Along with
hundreds of thousands of Serbs, some 25,000 Jews and at least 30,000 Romas were
murdered in these camps.� Roma
historians argue that the numbers of Romas killed are vastly underestimated.
The categories of victims at Jasenovac also include thousands of Slovenian,
Croatian and Muslim anti-fascists as well as members of many other
nationalities. Also the special religious dimension of the Holocaust in But despite
the scale of the crimes committed there, most of the world has never heard of
Jasenovac. Perhaps more disturbing still, Jasenovac has not achieved full
recognition as a World War II Concentration Camp by some of the leading
Holocaust institutions.� This
withholding of recognition has cruelly impacted the Yugoslav Survivor
community, both Survivors and victims' descendants.� Not only are they deprived of eligibility for compensation from
reparations agreements such as the Claims Conference in The
Commission meetings explored a number of crucial issues and proposals for
dealing with them.� Among these were the
obtaining of international status and recognition of Jasenovac; the initiation
of investigations of the mass grave sites of Jasenovac at Donja Gradina using
remote sensing technology; pursuing reparations for Jasenovac victims from all
nationalities and further litigation seeking compensation; renewing war crimes
indictments against living Jasenovac camp commanders and officials such as
Dinko and Nada Sakic; securing international protection for the entire
Jasenovac memorial site under UNESCO "World Heritage" statutes; and
the status and fate of archives and artifacts from Jasenovac, including the
controversial� transfer of a large
archive from Bosnia last November. The Commission recognized that the fate of
these important archives and artifacts is of great concern. The commission made
arrangements to pursue these matters through governmental channels and agreed
to meet again following the completion of these inquires. The Jasenovac
camps were not only the largest system of genocide camps in fascist ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
