"There were probably individual and organised crimes (committed by anti-Fascists in WWII), just as in the Homeland Defence War, in which we offered resistance to (Serbian leader Slobodan) Milosevic's fascism and that resistance was pure, immaculate," Mesic told reporters after a round-table discussion on Croatia's economic development, organised by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) in Zagreb on Thursday.
"There were individuals who breached the rules of war, but this was not a feature of our defence war," Mesic said, insisting on the individualisation of guilt both in the Homeland Defence War and in the anti-Fascist struggle.
Regarding what happened in Bleiburg, "there were no killings for the sake of killing, as the quisling army surrendered. And had anybody wanted to kill, they could not, due to the presence of the English. The killings ensued after Bleiburg and subsequent marches, and what I am trying to explain is that not all quisling forces surrendered in Bleiburg," Mesic said.
According to Mesic, the skirmishes from the end of the Second World War to 1951 were conducted with insurgents.
"Those were military formations waiting for the eruption of a conflict between the Western allies and the strengthened Soviet Union," Mesic said, adding that those insurgents kept the weapons and attacked the newly-established institutions in the former Yugoslavia.
In the skirmishes with the new authorities, they were killed and buried where they died, Mesic said, adding that those were not innocent victims.
In May 1945, after the victory of Tito's Partisans, thousands of soldiers of the Nazi-styled Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and civilians withdrew to the Bleiburg field, hoping to surrender to allied forces in Austria. However, they were returned and handed over to Yugoslav Communist authorities and many were killed during so-called death marches back to Yugoslavia, while a smaller number were killed by the Partisans without trial at Bleiburg.
Recently, Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko announced probes into mass graves with victims killed in the wake of the Second World War.