BLEIBURG FIELD BLEIBURG, May 11 (Hina) - Commemorations in tribute to victims of the suffering in the Bleiburg field, Austria, and of a march from Croatia towards Austria in May 1945, known as the Way of the Cross, were held on Sunday
in the field near that southern Austrian city. Present at the commemorations and a Requiem Mass in tribute to the killed Croatians, were Croatia's senior officials and many pilgrims from various parts of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and abroad.
BLEIBURG, May 11 (Hina) - Commemorations in tribute to victims of
the suffering in the Bleiburg field, Austria, and of a march from
Croatia towards Austria in May 1945, known as the Way of the Cross,
were held on Sunday in the field near that southern Austrian city.
Present at the commemorations and a Requiem Mass in tribute to the
killed Croatians, were Croatia's senior officials and many
pilgrims from various parts of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and
abroad. #L#
The mass as the central part of commemorative events, said by
Dubrovnik Bishop Zelimir Puljic, began at noon.
Vice Presidents of the Croatian parliament, Baltazar Jalsovec and
Ivica Kostovic, and Vice Premier Ante Simonic were the senior
officials who attended services held in memory to those killed in
the Bleiburg field and during the said march in the last days of
World War Two.
Present were also representatives of some political parties and of
many associations of Domobrani (WWII Croatian Home Guards, i.e. the
conscript army of the then Independent State of Croatia) and of
associations of veterans from the Homeland Defence War (waged in
the first half of 1990s).
After the Mass, the parliament and government officials will place
wreaths and light candles at the memorial site in the Bleiburg
field.
In the morning, the parliamentary delegation laid a wreath at the
monument erected to the victims, at a local cemetery in Bleiburg,
placed a few hundred metres of the field where the Mass was held.
Earlier on Sunday morning, the Sabor delegation, led by Jalsovec,
laid wreaths in front of a monument erected in Maribor, Slovenia, in
memory to victims who were killed in the wake of WW II.
The commemorative site in the Bleiburg field was encircled by huge
paintings painted by Branimir Cilic on topics of the crucifixion,
and the western side of the altar state had signboards reading
"Bleiburg 1945- 2003" and "God Save Croatia".
Before the mass, pilgrims said prayers for the dead. In the space of
the field designated for those who attended the mass there could be
seen Croatian flags, flags of associations of WW2 Domobrani and of
associations of veterans of the Homeland Defence War, placards with
names of towns and areas from where pilgrims came and many other
kinds of insignia connected with symbols of Croatian armed forces
from WW2, i.e. the Independent State of Croatia. Some of pilgrims
wore customs typical for areas Lika, Herzegovina and Bosnia where
they came from.
The Bleiburg tragedy occurred in May 1945 during the last days of
the Second World War. Many soldiers of the Ustasha forces and
Domobrani and many civilians began withdrawing from Croatia
towards the Austrian border in early May in order to surrender to
the forces of Western countries. On their march via Celje, Slovenj
Gradec and Dravograd (Slovenia), near the Austrian town of
Bleiburg, they were stopped by the British troops, and then they
were surrounded by the Partisans who gave an alleged deadline for
the surrender and later opened fire at participants in the march.
According to figures released in the 2000 issue of the Croatian
encyclopaedia published by the Miroslav Krleza institute, some
95,000 Croatian soldiers, without civilians, surrendered near
Bleiburg. A part of captured prisoners were killed near the
Slovenian towns of Dravograd and Maribor and other villages. The
encyclopaedia does not give prices data, adding that there are
different estimates of the number of victims. Most of those who
survived the Bleiburg massacre, were led to other death marches
know also as the ways of the cross. Some of those who survived were
taken to camps run by the Partisan forces.
(hina) ms