Serbian ruling party says setting up office at concentration camp “not wrong”

The president of the Progressive Party’s local branch in the Sajmiste district of Belgrade, Aleksandar Ciric, on Friday rejected criticism of the party’s decision to open an office at the site of former Nazi-run concentration camp Staro Sajmiste (Old Trade Fair) in Belgrade.

“Considering that the offices are in a barracks that was built much later than the complex itself… We see nothing wrong in having our offices in that building,” Ciric told Radio Free Europe.

He said that criticism of the party comes from “those who want to dispute our work” in Serbia’s capital.

BIRN revealed on Wednesday that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s party, which also holds power in Belgrade, had opened an office at the site. BIRN asked the Progressive Party for a comment ahead of publication but received no answer.

The Progressives also hung a large banner on the building that used to be the camp hospital. It has since been taken down.

Located in the part of Belgrade that was handed over to the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia during wartime, the Staro Sajmiste was used as a concentration and extermination camp for Belgrade’s Jews, Serbs and Roma.

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