"It is not enough to gather at Beliburg field in Austria only once a year, lay wreaths and light candles. Institutions have to be involved so that the complete truth about the suffering at Bleiburg can be discovered," Adlesic said at the commemoration held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament.
She recalled that the truth about Bleiburg had been covered up for 50 years after World War Two. She said Bleiburg, where numerous pilgrims from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere gathered today, was the place where Croatian history and unity were learned.
"This is a place of Croatian unity. Divisions have cost us too much and they must never occur again," said Adlesic.
Speaking on behalf of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon, Tomislav Vujeva said the communist regime committed one of the biggest crimes in the history of humanity by executing people at Bleiburg without having tried them. The victims were Croatian soldiers and civilians whom British soldiers handed over to the partisans, he added.
Vukojeva said Bleiburg had been one of the most hidden secrets until the fall of the communist regime and that not even today had it been fully clarified.
A memorial service was held by Assistant Zagreb Bishop Josip Mrzljak, who recalled the Council of Europe resolution condemning communist crimes.
He said the resolution did not have powerful reverberations in Croatia and wondered why there was no strength and political will in Croatia to leave that period to history "so that we could proceed further unburdened".
Speaking on behalf of the Islamic community in Croatia, Idriz Efendi Besic said Bleiburg was the biggest grave of Muslims in Europe and that this was often not mentioned. "In the Bleiburg case we test our conscience and it must be our everyday and not just an anniversary issue," he said.
The president of the Bosnian parliament's House of Representatives, Martin Raguz, underlined that the Croat people were one of the few with so many grave wounds in their history and that the slaughter of the powerless at Bleiburg was one of them.
"Europe, celebrating victory, forgot about Bleiburg, where innocent people were killed, but a truth sprouted which it is impossible to kill," said Raguz, adding that the bitterness was somehow alleviated by the CoE resolution condemning the communist regime crimes.
Candles were lit and wreaths laid at the monument to the Bleiburg victims by Adlesic, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec, assistant presidential advisor Vladimir Loncarevic, Croatian Ambassador to Austria Zoran Jasic, Mirko Karacic on behalf of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon, a delegation of the Bosnian Croat people, and numerous delegations.
Police estimated that about 7,000 people attended today's commemoration.
Before the commemoration, Polancec and Adlesic paid their respects and laid a wreath at the monument to victims of the postwar period in Maribor, Slovenia.
In May 1945, Croatian soldiers and civilians retreated to Bleiburg in order to surrender to the allies, who turned them over to the partisans. Several dozen thousand soldiers and civilians were killed or went missing at the Austrian field and on Way of the Cross marches back to Slovenia, Croatia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia.