ZAGREB, May 11, 2018 – President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Thursday’s paid her respects to Croatian victims of the communist regime after WWII at the memorial site and the tomb next to the Memorial Church of the Passion of Jesus in Macelj, Slovenia, her office said in a press release.
“Every victim of a crime has the right to a tomb and a public memorial. Croatian victims murdered after the end of the Second World War did not have this right for four and a half decades. No political goal or order can justify the crimes committed in its name,” the president said.
She was accompanied by State Assets Minister Goran Marić, who will be her envoy at a commemoration in Bleiburg, Austria on Saturday. “Following the establishment of the Croatian State, we freely visit Bleiburg, Tezno, Huda Jama, Kočevski Rog and other memorial sites. We are grateful to the Austrian and Slovenian authorities for facilitating the arrival of large numbers of pilgrims. This year I have come to Macelj to pay tribute to the victims of this execution site because this area is one of the rare graveyards that has been investigated and has a decent memorial,” the president said.
“We are obliged to do the same at other mass graves as well in order to commemorate with honour all the victims of our post-war death marches and perpetuate our thoughts, prayers and memories. Not to return to the past, but to ascertain the complete truth that will heal our wounds and enable all of us to turn to the future. In doing so, I pay tribute to all other Croats buried throughout Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina after the end of the Second World War,” the president said.
