Rehabilitation of 1944-45 victims

Rehabilitation of 1944-45 victims

Kostreš said on the occasion that he supported the initiative to rehabilitate all innocent victims, including those killed in 1944 and 1945, and build a chapel at Novi Sad Catholic cemetery in their honor.

He added the he would officially support the initiative of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) to rehabilitate residents of Čurug, Žabalj and Mošorin villages, who had been killed or sent to concentration camps in October 1944, with the onset of partisan military administration in Vojvodina.

The residents of these villages who managed to survive were not allowed to return home, which meant, according to SVM representatives, "they were considered guilty as a community and deprived of property accordingly."

“The essential prerequisite to reaffirm Vojvodina as a just multiethnic community is to rehabilitate innocent victims and punish their perpetrators,” Kostreš said.

He added that the new Constitution of the Northern Serbian province will include all traditional ethnical communities in Vojvodina and give them a constitutional status.

“Vojvodina, being a European and civic region, will list all ethnical communities residing on its territory in the Constitution’s preamble.”

Katalin Szili called Kostreš to take part in the third Conference of Western Balkans Assembly Speakers scheduled to take place in Budapest. American Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also expected to attend the meeting, Szili said.

Szili added that Hungary wished to contribute to Serbia’s integration with the EU and said that “Vojvodina was Serbia’s bridge to Europe in the process.”