RSK
05-25-2004, 04:20 AM
AP, May 10, 2003
Croatia Plans to Build Monument to Honor its Nazis
ZAGREB, Croatia -- The Croatian government announced Thursday it plans to buy land in southern Austria to build a monument honoring thousands of Croat Nazi troops and civilians who were killed in the aftermath of World War II.
The announcement came just a few days ahead of Sunday's anniversary of the 1945 killings of tens of thousands of Croat soldiers and civilians who fled to Austria in fear of reprisals from Yugoslav partizans.
They gathered in Bleiburg, a small town near the then-Yugoslav border, waiting for days while the British authorities who were in charge of that part of Austria decided on their fate.
The British eventually sent the crowd back to Yugoslavia, where vengeful partizans in Yugoslavia killed tens of thousands.
The event is surrounded by controversy, but Vice Prime Minister Goran Granic said a memorial was needed anyway.
"We owe it to the victims," Granic said, adding the land purchase should be carried out in a "dignified way, without any influence of politics." Negotiations about the land purchase have yet to be launched, and it was not immediately clear whether the owners were willing to sell the land.
Croatia was a Nazi puppet state during World War II. Hundreds, of thousands of Jews, Serbs, Gypsies were killed in Croat-run concentration camps from 1941 to 1945.
In Croatia, the events at Bleiburg have been disputed for decades.
The communist authorities of the former Yugoslavia that Croatia was part of until 1991 sought to diminish the killings. The nationalist government of the late President Franjo Tudjman revived and magnified memories of Bleiburg while diminishing crimes committed by Croatia's Nazis.
The pro-Western government that took power 3 1/2 years ago has tried to take an impartial stand, condemning both Nazi and communist wrongdoings.
It has assisted the reconstruction of Jasenovac, the most notorious Croat and Nazi-run concentration camp, and President Stipe Mesic will attend the anniversary of a foiled inmates' escape this Sunday.
Croatian nationalists exaggerate the number of those killed and claim the atrocities committed after the Bleiburg journey were worse than those carried out by Croatia's wartime pro-Nazi rulers.
Many Croats argue that killings following the Bleiburg, known in Croatia as The Way of Crosses, shows that the postwar communist authorities were just as fierce killers as the fascists.
Croatia Plans to Build Monument to Honor its Nazis
ZAGREB, Croatia -- The Croatian government announced Thursday it plans to buy land in southern Austria to build a monument honoring thousands of Croat Nazi troops and civilians who were killed in the aftermath of World War II.
The announcement came just a few days ahead of Sunday's anniversary of the 1945 killings of tens of thousands of Croat soldiers and civilians who fled to Austria in fear of reprisals from Yugoslav partizans.
They gathered in Bleiburg, a small town near the then-Yugoslav border, waiting for days while the British authorities who were in charge of that part of Austria decided on their fate.
The British eventually sent the crowd back to Yugoslavia, where vengeful partizans in Yugoslavia killed tens of thousands.
The event is surrounded by controversy, but Vice Prime Minister Goran Granic said a memorial was needed anyway.
"We owe it to the victims," Granic said, adding the land purchase should be carried out in a "dignified way, without any influence of politics." Negotiations about the land purchase have yet to be launched, and it was not immediately clear whether the owners were willing to sell the land.
Croatia was a Nazi puppet state during World War II. Hundreds, of thousands of Jews, Serbs, Gypsies were killed in Croat-run concentration camps from 1941 to 1945.
In Croatia, the events at Bleiburg have been disputed for decades.
The communist authorities of the former Yugoslavia that Croatia was part of until 1991 sought to diminish the killings. The nationalist government of the late President Franjo Tudjman revived and magnified memories of Bleiburg while diminishing crimes committed by Croatia's Nazis.
The pro-Western government that took power 3 1/2 years ago has tried to take an impartial stand, condemning both Nazi and communist wrongdoings.
It has assisted the reconstruction of Jasenovac, the most notorious Croat and Nazi-run concentration camp, and President Stipe Mesic will attend the anniversary of a foiled inmates' escape this Sunday.
Croatian nationalists exaggerate the number of those killed and claim the atrocities committed after the Bleiburg journey were worse than those carried out by Croatia's wartime pro-Nazi rulers.
Many Croats argue that killings following the Bleiburg, known in Croatia as The Way of Crosses, shows that the postwar communist authorities were just as fierce killers as the fascists.