The Parliament of Croatia will continue sponsoring the commemoration for the Bleiburg victims, one of the difficult chapters of Croatia's complex history, the Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic has said on Thursday, addressing the gathering in the Bleiburg Field.
“Today when we have the state of our own, it is a duty of all of us to keep reminding of all victim and to show respect for every human who honourably confronted every shape of undemocratic behaviour”, said Jandrokovic, adding that accepting the truth means accepting the responsibility too.
A ceremony to commemorate tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was held in Bleiburg, southern Austria on Saturday. At the same time, dozens of activists from Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Austria gathered in Bleiburg to protest against the memorial service assessing it as “an Ustasha event.”
VEZANE VIJESTI
The Parliament Speaker also said that some “horrible sufferings” occurred in the Bleiburg Field and the perpetrators were never brought to justice.
“Today, we are paying respects to the victims here – the civilians and disarmed soldiers, all lost lives, but also to those who survived and their families, whose testimonies must never be forgotten,” concluded Jandrokovic.
