The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia, with the assistance and support of the activist group Unmarked Sites of Atrocities, which has marked 58 unmarked sites of atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to date, has started marking unmarked sites of atrocities in Croatia.
In early November, activists of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights marked Pavilion 22 at the Zagreb Fair as an atrocity site.
“By marking Pavilion 22, we want to raise awareness that crimes against our fellow citizens were committed at this site and encourage people from the local community to mark this place appropriately. By paying our respects to the victims and expressing sorrow over lost lives and human suffering, we want to make a step towards a fair relationship towards the past. In that sense, by marking Pavilion 22, we wanted to highlight the importance of memorialising also places that are part of the past of our country, but that take up its dark and shameful part. We call on the Assembly and the Mayor of Zagreb to increase efforts to mark Pavilion 22 in memory of the victims, giving it a place in the collective memory of the citizens of Zagreb and thus contributing to making sure these crimes never happen again,” said the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
From October to December 1991, members of Croatian reserve police forces unlawfully captured civilians in Zagreb and detained them at Pavilion 22 of the Zagreb Fair where they were abused and tortured. After physical and psychological torture, many civilians were taken to Pakračka Poljana where they were killed.
On 12 May 2016, the District Court in Zagreb delivered a judgement against Tomislav Merčep for a war crime against civilians and sentenced him to five and a half years in prison. On 2 February 2017, the Supreme Court partially accepted the appeal of the state’s attorney and changed the sentencing in the first-instance judgement from five and a half to seven years in prison.
As the judgement states, Tomislav Merčep was the de facto (actual) commander of the Croatian Ministry of Interior reserve forces stationed at the Zagreb Fair and in Pakračka Poljana, and an advisor at the Croatian Ministry of Interior. He was found guilty for unlawful arrests, abuse and killing of 31 civilians from Zagreb, Kutina, Ribnjak, Janja Lipa, Bujavica, Međurići, Zbjegovača and Pakračka Poljana, of which 23 were put to death.
In November, activists of Unmarked Sites of Atrocities will mark another seven locations in central and western Bosnia and Herzegovina.