Zagreb/Mostar, March 29, 2023.
What we want is for all these places of suffering to be marked appropriately so that they will be places that will remind new generations of what happened and so that it would never happen again here or anywhere else in the world. - Emir Hajdarević, a former detainee of the Heliodrom camp and the president of the Association of Detainees Mostar.
At the end of February, the establishment of the Museum of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) started in the Rodoč settlement in Mostar, in the area where the central prison of the Heliodrom camp was located in the 1990s, where members of the HVO imprisoned Bosniaks. We learned from the media that the controversial institution, which is being built on the exact spot where the HVO held a camp for Bosniaks in 1993 and 1994, is financed from the state budget of the Republic of Croatia. The Heliodrom camp in Mostar was one of the most notorious and was open from September 1992 to April 1994.
This year, March 19, marked the 29th anniversary of the beginning of the dissolution of the Heliodrom camp, which is commemorated by the Association of Detainees Mostar. We share with you an interview with Emir Hajdarević, who spent 309 days in the camps, including the Heliodrom, Dretelj, Vojno, and Sovići camps.
How did the Association of Detainees Mostar react to the knowledge that the Museum of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) is being built in the area of the former Heliodrom camp?
The Association of Detainees Mostar, of which I am the president, is one of the most active associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through our activities, we try to point out all the problems concerning camp inmates, including some issues concerning social and political activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We learned about the construction of the HVO Museum at the Heliodrom in Mostar through the media, which published the information that the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina had signed an agreement on the financing of that project. As soon as we found out, we reacted through the media and tried to establish a connection with the Ministry to stop the activities, because it is the place of imprisonment of over 10,000 inhabitants of the city of Mostar and the camp where 54 inmates were killed. In this way, we have warned all relevant institutions that this attitude towards the sites of atrocities against inmates is disastrous for the generations that come after and who need to be aware and familiar with the events in this area, and not to be told and shown a falsified history that denies all the crimes committed by the HVO in the period 1993-1994. Also, our general position is that such activities are in direct conflict with the Law passed by the High Representative, which refers to the denial of genocide and war crimes. It is therefore also a criminal offense because with such activity and repurposing of space for educational or other purposes, there is a direct attempt to hide and change the appearance and narrative of the place where war crimes were committed, and this is our general position because we do not dispute anyone's rights or allow anyone to prevent our rights to mark the places of suffering.
Last year, you were denied access to Heliodrom to mark March 19, the date when the dissolution of the camp began, and this year you marked that date again. In what way would you like society to remember the crimes committed in Heliodrom and what should that space look like?
For several years, we have been trying to access that space in an organized manner, which was prevented by closing the gate in front of our noses and denying us access to that space. This space has been at the disposal of the University of Mostar for a certain number of years, which did not allow us access to the building of the "Central Prison", a building synonymous with the suffering of the citizens of Mostar in the HVO camps and the so-called Croatian Republic Herzeg-Bosnia, which was convicted of a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) together with the then leadership of the Republic of Croatia before the International Court in The Hague. We are aware that these spaces will be used for some purposes, but it is unacceptable that this space is used to glorify an idea through the HVO, which committed terrible crimes in this space. What we want is for all these places of suffering to be marked appropriately so that they will be places that will remind new generations of what happened and that it would never happen again here or anywhere else in the world.
Do you think it is important for young people to become familiar with the events of the war past? Feel free to share the reasoning behind your answer.
It is absolutely important to acquaint young people with the events in these areas so that the truth is presented and that malicious politicians do not use ignorance to twist history and try to hide crimes committed by "their people". Today, on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we witness the daily denial of genocide and crimes committed simply because someone was of a different religion or nation, and this is unacceptable in the modern democratic world. It is also unacceptable - I have to refer to the politicians again - that these same politicians try to put the crimes that have been judged before the courts, including the JCE, on the shoulders of the people and present it as an attack on the state or an attack on the people. No, it is not an attack as they try to present it, it is an attempt by the victims to get to the truth and justice and an attempt to accurately label those who systematically encouraged and carried out the crime, all for the sake of some of their political ideas and ideals. It is our wish that the Croatian authorities recognize the crimes committed and that there finally comes a catharsis and acceptance of historical facts and court rulings that are relevant for ordinary citizens of the Republic of Croatia to get a sense of the events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are a direct consequence of the actions of the HVO and the so-calledCroatian Republic Herzeg-Bosnia.
Photo: Mirsad Behram (RFE/RL)