ZAGREB, August 26, 2018 – A wreath-laying ceremony was held on Sunday in Split to mark the 77th anniversary of the death of 24 fighters of the 1st Split Partisan Detachment and the 1st Solin Partisan Detachment, executed on 26 August 1941 after they were court-martialled by the Independent State of Croatia.
Wreaths were laid by a memorial plaque to the Partisan fighters at Split’s neighbourhood of Plokite, which was smashed in an incident yesterday. Attending the ceremony were representatives of the local association of antifascists and antifascist fighters and the local Social Democratic Party branch, Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara’s envoy, and representatives of the Association of Antifascist Homeland War Veterans.
“Twenty-one members of the 1st Split Partisan Detachment, two fighters of the 1st Solin Partisan Detachment and a peasant from Sinj were court-martialled by the Ustasha and executed on 26 August 1941. It is our wish that their struggle and ideals of freedom may never be forgotten,” said Josip Milat, the president of the Association of Antifascists and Antifascist Fighters of Split.
Milat expressed hope that very soon a street in Split would be named after the 1st Split Partisan Detachment. “We have been asking for that for the past 20 years and will not give up,” said Milat.
“Antifascism is our shared value and heritage,” said Ivica Grubišić Gire, envoy of the Split Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
One should sit down and discuss the matter as the term anti-fascism does not have the same meaning for everyone, said the mayor’s envoy, adding that there was good will on the part of city authorities and councillors. “The city of Split and its mayor are not renouncing anti-fascism,” he said.
The head of the Association of Antifascist Homeland War Veterans, Ranko Britvić, said that there was no difference between Homeland War veterans and fighters of the 1st Split Partisan Detachment but that few Homeland War veterans said so even though many felt that way but were not speaking up because of the atmosphere in society.
“The image of us, defenders, as people in black shirts has been developed for years and claims have been made that Split, Dalmatia and Croatia were not liberated in 1945 but were rather occupied,” said Britvić.
All participants in today’s ceremony condemned the vandalisation of the memorial plaque.
