Guillon: Banning President Aleksandar Vučić from visiting Jasenovac is terrible and unacceptable

20. Jul 2022.
The ban on President Aleksandar Vučić from visiting Jasenovac is terrible and unacceptable, said Arnaud Guillon, Director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region today.

Guillon emphasized that Jasenovac is the Serbian word for the Holocaust, which includes not only this palce but also all the places where Serbs, Jews and Roma were killed in the then ISC.

“The ban is terrible and unacceptable. Every time is not a good time to visit. I think that any day is good, the date of the Operation Storm also works as a good day for visiting the place where the Serbian people suffered,” he told TV Pink.

Guillon points out that Serbia reacted appropriately, and that it is important that the reaction is clear and unambiguous.

“If they gave up on this as well, they would ask for even more, and always offer some excuse,” he said.

He assessed that it is important for reconciliation that countries respect each other and said that Serbia respects Croatia, and the same cannot be said for Croatia.

“If there is no respect, there is no agreement, and if there is no agreement, there is no path to reconciliation,” he said.

Guillon appealed to the citizens to visit Jasenovac–“the sacred place of suffering”, because no one leaves this place the same.

He said that he is surprised by some TV stations, where Croatian historians who downplay Jasenovac receive praise and assessed that it would be impossible to stop the broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina if someone downplayed the number of victims of Srebrenica.

“It is proof that Serbian society is tolerant, and with great freedom of media, if such a thing is possible,” he said.

Guillon recently visited Serbian children in Mostar and said that the 4,000 Serbs living there could be a factor in reconciliation between the major ethnic communities.

He said that Serbia is working hard on establishing and supporting supplementary schools for Serbian children in several countries and that it is very important that these children visit Serbia as often as possible.

“It is important to take care of the status of Serbian people there, but also to give the children the memories for a lifetime,” he said.

He stated that the humanitarian organization ‘Solidarity for Kosovo’, headed by him, invested a total of 110,000 euros in the renovation of three schools, and that soon 42 children from Serbian enclaves in Kosovo will go on holiday to the seaside, in Tivat.

“It's more than a vacation for them, it's freedom, that's what we want to give them,” Guillon said.