On the basis of a list of WWII victims which identifies the victims by name, curators of the Jasenovac Memorial Museum compiled a list of victims of the Jasenovac camp. The list currently contains the names of 81,000 persons whose imprisonment in the camp was documented with their biographical data.

Dozens of inmates survived the breakout on 22 April 1945.

Addressing today's commemoration, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said that he and other officials had come to pay tribute to people whose lives were stopped only because "they did not fit the picture of the Nazi-portrayed new European order," adding that all of this led to a huge loss of life in Croatia.

There was no justification or reciprocity for any crime. One must not justify one crime with the other perpetrated by the other side. Not any crime can be justified with another one either morally or legally, President Josipovic said.

"We must understand the past, handle it and accept the truth both when it (the truth) speaks about our victories and successes as well as when it shows mistakes and harm we have done to others. This can be a painful process and this process requires engagement of everybody who wish the best for our country. We can only in this way prevent negative things from the past from burdening us," he said.

Josipovic thanked the surviving inmates, friends and families of the victims as well as anti-Fascist fighters for all they did in World War II, and vowed that he would firmly and uncompromisingly defend their moral values.

Paying her respects to victims, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that reverence should be paid to all who were in Jasenovac killed only because of their ethnicity, religion or courage to resist Fascism.

Describing the Ustasha regime as a regime of the evil, Kosor recalled that Croatia was founded on the pillars of anti-Fascism and that it would continue building its European future on the same foundations.

"Any attempt to relativise anti-Fascism is wrong, harmful and dangerous. I strongly repudiate any attempt to discredit the anti-Fascist movement in Croatia under the pretext that crimes were committed by all sides," she said.

Former Croatian President and honorary president of the Croatian anti-Fascist association Stjepan Mesic condemned attempts of the revisionism of history and in this context he severely criticised the Croatian national broadcaster for its programme and for a lack of documentaries which "praise the struggle against Fascism".

Today's ceremony ended with prayers by dignitaries of different religious communities and by wreath-laying ceremonies.

During the ceremonies, the speeches by President Ivo Josipovic and his predecessor Mesic were hailed by long applause. On the other hand, some of those who attended today's commemoration booed PM Kosor and ministers from her cabinet.

After the commemoration both Josipovic and Kosor declined to answer reporters' questions about their recriminations.

They said that this was not an appropriate occasion for such comments.