Bleiburg commemoration held

A memorial service was held at Bleiburg field in Austria on Saturday in memory of the disarmed Croatian soldiers and civilians killed there and on the Way of the Cross death marches through Yugoslavia at the end of WWII.

The Archbishop of Djakovo and Osijek, Djuro Hranic, said Bleiburg "represents one of the most tragic fields in the history of our Croatian people and the beginning of a big suffering of hundreds of thousands of Croatian soldiers and civilians after World War II."

He said it was still unknown where many were killed or died and where all the graves and the pits with their bones were.

The remnants of that totalitarian communist system still see to that, and the unclear historical truth and the burden of the past hamper togetherness and cooperation, becoming, in the new historical circumstances, a danger for both Croats and Serbs as well as other peoples in this part of Europe, said Hranic. 

Those killed innocent must never be forgotten, and every site with graves of victims of totalitarian regimes, unjust convictions, persecution, torture, humiliation and killing call on us to forgive, to investigate the whole truth about the victims and the perpetrators, he said.

"Here today we are commemorating and praying for the Croatian victims of the totalitarian communist system on the Way of the Cross, which began 72 years ago, here in Bleiburg field," Hranic said, adding that many Muslims had died here together with Catholics.

He said forgiveness was important for reconciliation and unity within the Croatian people and with all neighbouring and other peoples.

A prayer for the Muslim victims was said by Idriz Besic, who read out a message from the head of the Islamic Community in Croatia, Mufti Aziz Hasanovic, in which he called for learning "from ours and others' mistakes."

"The truth must be known. The truth must be preserved and we can't run away from it nor can it be blotted out. There is no statute of limitations on crime. Crime is crime, one of the rare categories which cannot be justified with anything," Hasanovic said in his message.

We remember crimes so that they are not repeated, so that we can prevent them, he said and called for remembering all execution sites from WWII, as well as Vukovar and Srebrenica from the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, "because trying to justify a crime means causing a calamity with incalculable consequences."

Reporters estimated that 15,000 people from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries gathered for the 72th anniversary of the Bleiburg and Croatian Way of the Cross tragedy, including representatives of the Croatian state, war veterans associations, the Church, and the families and descendants of the victims.

The commemoration was organised by the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon and held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament. State Assets Minister Goran Maric was the president's envoy, while Veterans Minister Tomo Medved was the prime minister's.

Text: Hina

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