RACAN PAYS RESPECT, EXTENDS CONDOLENCE TO BLEIBURG WW2 VICTIMS

BLEIBURG, May 14 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan paid his respects, apologised and extended his condolence in southern Austria's Bleiburg field on Tuesday to all the victims of the WW2 Bleiburg and Way of the Cross tragedies. #L# Racan, the first Croatian PM to visit Bleiburg, laid a wreath by a monument to the victims. Present-day Croatia condemns every crime because it has been built on democracy, anti-fascism, the resolute refusal of any form of extremism and totalitarianism for which crimes have been committed, said Racan. The Bleiburg and Way of the Cross tragedies are big and should be remembered as a warning and a testimony of evil which must not reoccur, Racan said. He reiterated it was important to respect human rights and lives, and persevere in advocating understanding, tolerance and peace. Racan said he also wanted to pay respects to all victims throughout history, independently of the ideologies and policies they were killed for. He recalled he recently paid homage to the WW2 victims of the Croatian concentration camp Jasenovac. History cannot be changed or all those who took part in past bloody conflicts reconciled, said Racan. If democratic Croatia is to be preserved, it is very important to prevent past conflicts from inciting new ones or hatred from the past being transferred to new generations, he added. Racan also met officials of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon. He said that this year Croatia would try to buy the land with the Bleiburg victims' monument. He will address the issue with Austria's prime minister during an impending trip to Vienna. There was mention of the possibility of the land being exchanged, given Austria's interest in purchasing land on Croatia's Rab island where Austrian soldiers were buried. Racan welcomed yesterday's comments by senior Croatian Catholic Church officials on an incident which occurred at the Bleiburg commemoration on Sunday, when Croatian parliament vice president Zdravko Tomac was booed off and prevented from delivering a speech. Racan said it was important for the Church, as an important factor of Croatia political and spiritual life, to help prevent historical rifts from marking or burdening current generations. A lot would be achieved if Croatian execution sites were no longer politicised, he said. Before Bleiburg, Racan visited the Dobrava cemetery near Maribor, Slovenia, and laid a wreath by a monument to Croatian soldiers and civilians killed on May 9, 1945. Racan was accompanied by Deputy PM Goran Granic, Education and Sports Minister Vladimir Strugar, and Croatia's ambassadors to Slovenia and Austria. 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. (hina) ha