Croatian Association of Prisoners in Serbian Concentration Camps (Croatian: Hrvatsko društvo logoraša srpskih koncentracijskih logora) is an association of former prisoners in Serbian jails and prison camps during the Croatian War of Independence. The organization was founded in Zagreb in 1995 and began its work that same year. Its offices are located on Ban Jelačić Square.
In 2006 the association was admitted to the World Veterans Federation. Its president as of 2012 is Danijel Rehak.
The organization helps raise monuments, commemorates anniversaries relating to the war and also helps publish related books. In 2004 the association opened a centre in Borovo Naselje whose aim is to research war crimes committed during the war. The centre was opened by deputy prime minister Jadranka Kosor and parliamentary speaker Vladimir Šeks. Jadranka Kosor also served as the minister of Family Affairs, War Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity, a ministry the association works closely with.
According to the Societies data, a total of 8,000 Croatian civilians and POWs (a large number after the fall of Vukovar) went through Serb prison camps such as Sremska Mitrovica camp, Stajićevo camp, Niš camp and many others where many were heavily abused and tortured. A total of 300 people never returned from them.
A total of 4570 camp inmates have started legal action against former Serbia and Montenegro (now Serbia) for torture and abuse in the camps.
Famous quotes containing the words concentration camps, association and/or prisoners:
“Despite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist; since what happened to them was beyond the imagination, it was therefore also beyond art and all those human values on which art is traditionally based.”
—A. Alvarez (b. 1929)
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“We are prisoners of the world’s demented sink.
The soft enchantments of our years of innocence
Are harvested by accredited experience
Our fondest memories soon turn to poison
And only oblivion remains in season.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)