Rehabilitation of WW2-era PM insult to victims - minister

Rehabilitation of WW2-era PM insult to victims - minister

Another incomprehensible point the minister identified is the building of a memorial site at the former Old Fairgrounds concentration camp and at the same time rehabilitating "the one because of whom that camp functioned unimpeded, also people were executed in Banjica and every other place."

Vulin told reporters that "there is no country in Europe that has rehabilitated its quisling prime minister that served Adolf Hitler and ruled during WW2."

"The Norwegians have not done it, the French have not done it either, nobody will do it, so why should Serbia do it. I think it is completely unnecessary, I see no reason to create divisions in our society, because such a division does not exist in this society."

The minister also said that the Serbs were one of a few nations a huge majority of whom stood against fascism during the war.

"Why are we doing this to ourselves and why do we wish to compromise that great victory, I truly don't understand and cannot justify or explain, because all this had to be avoided, and my position is more than clear: Milan Nedic cannot be rehabilitated."

The process of Nedic's legal rehabilitation continued on Monday before the Higher Court in Belgrade, in front of which about 30 police officers were keeping an eye on those who gathered to support or oppose the initiative.

The process started in early December. The initiative was submitted by the Serb Liberal Council, the Association of Political Prisoners and Victims of the Communist Regime, and by Nedic's family.

Opponents claim that Serbia would engage in historical revisionism and side with those who lost the war by rehabilitating a collaborator of the Nazi German occupiers, while supporters believe Nedic was killed by "the (Yugoslav) communist regime" and declared guilty as a quisling and a war criminal without a court ruling.

Nedic was the prime minister of the government set up in Serbia during the German occupation. He left the country in late 1945, but was soon arrested in Austria and sent back to Yugoslavia.

He was never put on trial because he committed suicide by jumping from a prison window in February 1946. His death is another source of controversy - as some believe Nedic did not jump but was "pushed out."