By the decision of the Basic court in Banja Luka, No F-1-213/09 dated 25.12.2009, the Assocaiation is registered in the register of citizen associations.
The Association gathers the descendants and people who pay tribute to the victims of torture camp complex Jadovno, built by Ustashas. It has been almost 70 years since our fathers and grandfathers were slaughtered by Ustashas, but we, their descendants, even today, still feel that loss as a deep wound. The Association was founded in order to make an end to the oblivion of the incomparable crime which took place in so called Independant State of Croatia at the beginning of World War II in the area of this complex. The Association is non-profit making, non-government and non-political organisation that acts on the territory of Republic of Srpska and gathers the descendants and people who pay tribute to the victims from all over the world. The general mission of the Association, as well as its planned statutory activities, shows that the Association acts on behalf of public interest which surpasses the interests of its members due to community.
A membership in the Association is volontary and free. The association performs its actions through particular projects financed in accordance with the Law. The Association is financed by donations of juristic and natural persons.
The activities of the Association are open to the public.
OBJECTS AND ACTIVITIES (MISSION)
The objects of the Association, within the general mission oriented towards the memory of the victims, are the following:
1.to locate and investigate the karst holes on Velebit mountain where the victims of Ustashas' madness were thrown. In his studies, professor Djuro Zatezalo came across the information of 32 karst holes where the victims were killed. There is detailed information about 21 holes. More should be done on locating and obtaining information about the rest of those bottomless holes.
2.to exhumate and organise a decent burial for the death remains of the victims. In order to fulfil this task, a team should be made consisting of experts in forensic medicine, speleologists and forensics, which would prepare and carry out the project of exhumating the death remains of the victims.
3.to build a respectable central monument with mausoleum. The area of the former Ustashas' torture camp complex covers the former prison in Gospic with auxiliary buildings surrounding the town, a part of Velebit mountain, a part of Velebit channel and a part of Pag island with its coast. That is why the mausoleum with its monument should be located in the road of suffering from Gospic, through Baska Ostarija, to Karlobag.
4.to proceed the work on completing the existing list of names of the victims. Many years of work by professor Djuro Zatezalo resulted in the list of names of about 10 502 victims. Professor Djuro Zatezalo kindly borrowed the list to the Association for its own purpose. The list will soon be available on all Internet pages, with option of searching. The descendants of those victims whose names are not in the list should be informed and encouraged, through all media at our disposal, to send us the information about their slaughtered ancestors in order to continue our work on completing the list. (The Museum of Genocide in Belgrade has given us the form for keeping the record of the victims)
5.to mark the sites of slaughter with respect and to open and mark the roads that lead to those sites. A small number of monuments erected from 1957 to 1986 have already been destroyed. In the area of the former torture camp there is not a single gravestone or a single signpost at the moment. The roads leading to the places of execution should be opened and marked as well as the places themselves.
6.to set a date dedicated to 'the memory of the victims of Ustashas' torture complex Jadovno 1941'. A date which would remind and warn us of the tragedy in Jadovno and on which the victim's descendants could gather, pay respect and bring flowers to their ancestor's graves, has not been set yet.
7.to appropriately commemorate the places of mass executions in Slana and Metajna on the island of Pag. Notwithstanding a few testimonies of the surviving prisoners and executioners' statements given to the court, there is a series of valuable documents left by Italian invading forces, that, in the end of October 1941 took control in this area and established their civil power, reconstructing the area of the camp. Until the last war in the area of the former camp Slana there was just a small commemorative plaque. On the rocky ground where Italian soldiers buried the ashes of the victims after cremation there is not a single commemorative feature. On the coast of Slana where the thousands of prisoners were executed and with the stone around their neck pushed into the sea, there are no signs.
8.to eliminate the manipulated silence about the crime and the place where it happened. Through all media in our disposal we need to work permanently on revealing the truth about the torture camp Jadovno.
9.by educational activities to use Jadovno example to teach younger generations of unacceptance of Fascism as an ideology of general evil, hatred among men and mutual extinction
The Association has the followind activities:
1.The support for the investigation and discovering of the crimes commited in the complex of torture camp Jadovno, in order to inform the world about them and to provide justice for the victims.
2.Preserving the memory of the innocent victims of fascistic terror.
3.Collecting and recording of all available printed records, photographs, vidio materials, electronic records related to the complex of torture camp Jadovno.
4.Implementing collaboration with similar associations in the country and abroad, as well as individuals who are interested in this or similar topics, for the exchange of information and arranging collaborative activities
5.Working on collaboration with the institutions in the country and abroad.
6.Organising discussions, exhibitions, presentations and other similar events for the express purpose of spreading the awareness of the complex of Ustashas' torture camp Jadovno.
7.Activities related to publication, in print or electronic.
8.Reactions, by means of public information sector, on statements, articles and publications connected with the victims of fascistic terror.
9.Institutional struggle against any form of Fascism, Nazism, hatred, race and religious intolerance.
10.Promotion of human rights and dignitiy of a man.
11.Promotion of anti fascist principles and antifascism in a wide sense as a cultural and moral prodigy of human race.