The Croatian public broadcaster HRT reported on Saturday about the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of the "Bleiburg tragedy" and the "Way of the Cross" at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, and managed not to use the word "Ustasha" in the report.
The commemoration was held "in memory of tens of thousands of soldiers, but also civilians who were killed without trial" immediately after the Second World War, according to HRT.
The words of the Speaker of the Parliament, Goran Jandroković (HDZ), are reported, who said that the crime against prisoners of war was the first example of how the victors of that time would treat the defeated who "had different political views".
"The event we are celebrating shows how difficult and fraught Croatian history was, how big the divisions were in the Croatian people, and today we can truly proudly speak of having a democratic, free Croatia, a member of the world's strongest integrations," said Jandroković.
Defense Minister Tomo Medved put "all totalitarian regimes" on the same level, mentioning "Nazism, fascism and communism".
In the HRT report, only Zagreb auxiliary bishop Mijo Gorski mentioned the "sins of the victims", stating that they are begging for forgiveness for both those sins and the "sins of the murderers".
The center of mythomania
Mass executions of captured Ustasha, Croatian and Slovenian Home Guards, SS and Chetniks began near the Austrian town of Bleiburg in mid-May 1945. It is believed that around sixty thousand people were killed or exhausted by the long marches.
That crime, mainly against the perpetrators of genocide against Serbs, Roma and Jews during the Second World War, was suppressed during the communist Yugoslavia.
For a long time, however, it has been central to the revisionism practiced by the Croatian far-right.
"It was not a crime against Croats," said Ivo Goldstein, a well-known Croatian historian and author of a book on Croatian revisionism.
"It was a crime, in part, against the NDH Voiks, against the HOS, and partly against the Home Guards, primarily against the Ustasha. It was not a crime against the Croatian people. (…) It is often said that women and children suffered at Bleiburg. They didn't, that's not true. It's a desire, a strategy to equalize with Jasenovec," Goldstein recently told N1.
He also referred to the victims of the so-called Stations of the Cross. "Soldiers surrendered en masse, civilians were generally released." However, of those who were caught, a large part of the Ustasha were shot, a good part of the Home Guard officers were shot, and those who passed that filter were sent to these roads of the cross, and those who were innocent died on that road. . And that was a crime, that's the malignancy of Bleiburg."
Although there is a global increase in sales of electric vehicles, their purchase in Serbia is still less than one percent of all new vehicles. What are the reasons for that?
After more than a decade of operation, regional television Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB) is shutting down its program. With headquarters in Sarajevo and newsrooms throughout the former Yugoslavia, AJB was recognizable for its quality documentary and informative content. Although the official reasons have not yet been released, it is assumed that the decision to shut down was made for financial reasons
What will happen on the streets of Serbia on the 11th day since civil disobedience took over the streets? Follow all the events in our live blog
Death and serious injuries in two days - workers continue to fall on Serbian construction sites, which are often not secured. And most often no one is responsible for that
"We are called anarchists, enemies of the state and terrorists. Every day we are attacked by the pro-government press, and by the government itself," Vladan Đokić, Rector of the University of Belgrade, said in an interview with the German magazine Spiegel.
Serbia is not ready for fires, storms and floods, but President Aleksandar Vučić is ready to turn everything into propaganda
A policeman and a policewoman were filmed pulling a student's hair in an attempt to extort her. It is a classic example of torture, a gross violation of the law for which they would have to bear the consequences
With a gesture of pumping at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic drew curses and insults from the regime of Aleksandar Vučić. He was put in the same basket with "blockade-terrorists" and "anti-Serbs"
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
