Addressing a pre-election rally in the Italian city of Padua, Gasparri, a member of the right-wing National Alliance, called on the two presidents "not to protest against the revealing of the truth" but to "apologise for the massacres" committed by the then Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito and his followers at the end of WWII.
After his informal meeting with Slovenia's Drnovsek in Bizeljsko, Croatian President Mesic yesterday told a news conference that in the context of a recent controversial film, 'Heart in the Pit', it is not good to mention the victims on only one side".
"Many people who were thrown in pits had committed crimes in Croatia and Slovenia. I am for closing that book (of history), but I am not for keeping secrets of crimes committed by one side and at the same time highlighting crimes committed by the other side," Mesic said yesterday.
Presenting plans for a trilateral meeting to be held by Croatian, Italian and Slovene presidents with the purpose of closing chapters from WWII, Drnovsek told the same press conference that it would be necessary to visit some pits where the partisans had thrown their victims, but also to visit sites of concentration camps which were run by the Italians during the occupation of Croatian and Slovene areas.
The Italian minister in charge of the Italians abroad, Mirko Tremaglia, who is also a member of the National Alliance, was quoted by ANSA as saying that he was saddened by Mesic's statement. Tremaglia said that his words reflected that there existed a "deep hatred towards the Italian minority" in Croatia.