Zagreb, December 8, 2023.
In 2020, during the commemoration on Sljeme, marking the 29th anniversary of the murder of our fellow citizens Aleksandra, Marija, and Mihajlo Zec, we warned the public that the monument to Aleksandra Zec is not necessary solely for the memories of Zagreb citizens and Croatian nationals. It is needed for humanity to disturb and unsettle it, as a reminder that we must never reconcile ourselves with a life where killers are free, and innocent people are killed.
Today, in 2023, a memorial plaque has been installed near the former mountaineering lodge Adolfovac on Sljeme, a joint effort of the City of Zagreb and the Serbian National Council. This act has transformed a previously unmarked place of tragedy into a marked one.
It is particularly significant that the memorial plaque highlights the perpetrators of the crime, namely the units responsible for the atrocity, setting a precedent in marking the sites of suffering for the minority, civilian, Serbian population in Croatia during the wars of the 1990s on Croatian soil.
Recalling that the murder of Aleksandra, Marija, and Mihajlo represents a hate crime, severe nationalist hatred, and the direct perpetrators were never convicted.
This year's commemoration will be remembered as an event where a significant number of young people participated, and our activists Senna and Nikola delivered a commemorative speech, emphasizing:
"We are the generation that grew up under the burden of a war-torn past, and we continue to live with its consequences. Our lives have been unnecessarily influenced by the fact that Nikola is Serbian, and I am Croatian. Our lives have been influenced by the fact that we grew up in an immature society where blame was often shifted and responsibility rarely taken. In a society where perpetrators went unpunished, and victims were consciously forgotten.
From this place, therefore, we want to clearly and loudly state - we remember. We remember all the victims of senseless wars in the '90s, regardless of their nationality. We remember their families who lost their loved ones, all those displaced who lost their homes and homelands, all those impoverished who lost their jobs and livelihoods. We remember all the children who had to grow up in such circumstances, especially those who failed to grow up in such a society. We remember Aleksandra Zec."
We will continue our long-standing advocacy work to preserve the memory of the Zec family. The names of the Zec family are in the Name Fund, from which public areas in the City of Zagreb are named. The next step is the naming of a public space in Zagreb in their honor so that every day, passing through that place, we are reminded of the consequences of nationalist exclusivity.
The text written on the plaque is as follows:
"At this location, on the night of December 7th to 8th, 1991, twelve-year-old Aleksandra Zec and her mother Marija Zec were killed. That same evening, they witnessed the murder of their father and husband, Mihajlo Zec, on the doorstep of their home in Trešnjevka. Aleksandra and Mihajlo Zec were our fellow citizens of Serbian nationality. The murderers of Aleksandra, Mihajlo, and Marija Zec were members of the reserve unit of the Ministry of the Interior. Despite the admission of the crime, its perpetrators were never punished. May it never happen again."
Photo: Dora Tomljanović and Sanja Bistričić Srića
Program Impact4Values is co-funded by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
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