CRO. PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL BOOED OFF AT BLEIBURG COMMEMORATION

BLEIBURG, May 12 (Hina) - The participants in the 57th commemoration for the victims of the Bleiburg and Way of the Cross tragedies, who gathered in the Bleiburg field in southern Austria on Sunday, booed off the envoy of the Croatian parliament, vice president Zdravko Tomac, not allowing him to deliver a speech he had prepared. #L# Tomac told the gathered he had come with an open heart, to greet the participants in the commemoration and pay his respects to the Bleiburg victims. "I have come to tell you that you are entitled to express your opinion, to boo, to protest, but you don't have the right to transfer hatred to future generations," he said. "It is sad if you can't hear out a Croat only because politically he thinks differently. I have come to apologise. Allow us who were on the other side to apologise. You are entitled to feel bitter but you don't have the right to prevent us from finding a common language in present-day Croatia," said Tomac. In the speech which he failed to make, Tomac, although speaking on parliament's behalf, said he wanted to say a few words as a former member of the former Communist Alliance. He said he felt a moral obligation to accept his share of the moral responsibility and apologise to the descendants of the Bleiburg victims for the crimes and persecutions committed by the communists after WW2. At the end of WW2, Croatian soldiers, fearing retaliation by the then Yugoslav federal army, decided to surrender to English Allies in Austria. They were followed by their families and numerous civilians. However, according to previous arrangements with the partisans, the Allies surrendered them to the partisans in the Bleiburg field on May 14-15, 1945. According to recent estimates, that exodus included about half a million Croats. Many were killed there over those two days. Later that May, the Yugoslav army returned over 20,000 captured Croats from the Austrian border to Yugoslavia. Many were killed or died of exhaustion during the long marches known as the Way of the Cross. Addresses were made by Ante Saric on behalf of the honorary Bleiburg platoon, who said that no one had yet answered for the crimes, and Idriz Besic on behalf of the Croatian Islamic Community. A mass for the victims was celebrated by military vicar Nikola Roscic. Wreaths were laid by delegations of the tragedies' survivors from Croatia and abroad and political parties. Before arriving at Bleiburg, Tomac laid a wreath at the Dobrova cemetery near Maribor, Slovenia, another site of the execution of Croats. At the end of the ceremony, Tomac said he was sorry he had not been able to read his speech. "It is important for those on the left to come to Bleiburg and those on the right to Jasenovac (WW2 Croatian concentration camp), as there is no future for Croatia without overcoming hatred," he said. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion but they don't have the right to divide future generations and cause hatred among them," he added. As for those who booed him off, Tomac said he forgave them. He announced he would publish his speech. (hina) ha