Spokesman Zlatko Mehun told Hina on Thursday the ministry received a request from the State Prosecutor's Office yesterday based on which it began processing the case. He said the request enclosed a report filed by Miroslav Luksic, a Croatian emigrant claiming that as a 14-year-old he witnessed mass killings of civilians on Tuskanac in 1945 and 1946.
Mehun said the police would soon interview Luksic and "numerous other persons" who might know something about the mass grave.
Luksic was quoted in today's print media as saying that in June 1945 the partisans started bringing groups of about 20 civilians aboard trucks to Tuskanac twice a week. He claims the civilians were shot and buried in pits on part of land then owned by his family. He said he watched the executions from a barn 100 metres away, which prevented him from seeing the faces of either the victims or the killers. He claims the killings took place between June and September 1945 and the following spring, and assumes between 500 and 1,000 people were buried in the mass grave.
The Luksic family's property on Tuskanac was nationalised in 1946, when Miroslav's father was beaten to death.