Main Exhibition on 15 Years of Slovenian Independence Opened

Ljubljana, 22 June

The main exhibition with a comprehensive presentation of Slovenia's independence process opened at the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana on Wednesday evening.

"United in Victory - Slovenia's Independence" is part of a large-scale project marking this year's 15th anniversary of independence, which the museum organised together with the parliament as well as the foreign, defence and interior ministries.
"Unity is not necessarily a good... The issue of unity in diversity has triggered the fall of many multi-national countries, including former Yugoslavia," said the former Parliament Speaker France Bucar, the key-note speaker at the opening ceremony.
Bucar, the speaker of the first democratically-elected parliament between 1990 and 1992, added that unity in victory is not difficult to achieve, and reminded that all along Slovenia, in trying to achieve unity, had to overcome obstacles resulting from differences between voters.
Earlier this week, a multimedia presentation premiered at the Cankarjev dom arts centre, with Alojz Peterle, the prime minister of the first government elected in a multi-party election, delivering the key-note address.
The film has prompted protests from the Association of Police Veterans SEVER, who were surprised that the makers of the film have completely ignored the contribution of Slovenian police during the country's independence war.
According to the association, which has been supported in its protest by the Police Trade Union of Slovenia, the film is misleading and discredits more than 12,000 war veterans who had earned this status. They call on the authors to change the film and broadcast the amended version.
Meanwhile, co-author of the film and the museum's director Joze Dezman labelled the protest as a valuable warning, yet insisted that the film is only a part of the project. It also includes a publication, where a whole chapter is dedicated to the role of the police force.
The project dubbed "United in Victory" officially started on 9 May, on Victory Day and Europe Day, with the erection of a full-fledged tank in front of the museum.
Natasa Urbanc, the author of the publication and the exhibition, said that the two have a similar concept: they are based on the words of Slovenian philosopher, anthropologist and theologian Anton Trstenjak (1906-1996), who stressed the need for Slovenians as a small nation to unite.
Independence celebrations culminated on 24 June with a reproduction of a ceremony of 26 June 1991 at which Slovenian independence was officially proclaimed. They keynote speaker at the ceremony in the Trg republike square in Ljubljana was PM Janez Jansa.
The festivities began on 28 April with the opening of an exhibition "The War for Slovenia 1991" in Lendava (NE), and will conclude in the port of Koper on 26 October to mark the day when the last soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army left Slovenia.

Main Exhibition on 15 Years of Slovenian Independence Opened

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