THOUSANS OF CROATS MEET IN AUSTRIA TO MARK WW2 BLEIBURG TRAGEDY

BLEIBURG, May 13 (Hina) - Thousands of Croats from home and abroad gathered in the Bleiburg field in southern Austria on Sunday to mark May 15, day of remembrance for the Croatian victims of the Bleiburg and Way of the Cross tragedies. The 56th anniversary of those events was held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament. A mass was celebrated by Military Ordinary vicar Nikola Mate Roscic. At the end of World War Two, 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. According, however, to previous arrangements with the partisans, the Allies surrendered them over 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 in that field 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, knowns as the Way of the Cross. Today's anniversary was opened by an address by an envoy of the Croatian parliamentary speaker, Ante Simonic. "We demand that all facts concerning the Bleiburg suffering and the Way of the Cross be examined and published in their entirety, fairly and truthfully... May the Homeland Defence War turn into a homeland peace in which knowledge, effort and the contribution of every individual and the whole people enable us to reach, in peace and security, the future as befits us all," he said among else. An address was also made by Lt. Col. Mirko Condic on behalf of Croatia's national headquarters for the protection of the Homeland Defence War. After the mass, wreaths were laid by the monument to the Bleiburg victims, among others by Simonic on behalf of the Croatian parliament, War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic on behalf of the government, Drazen Vukov Colic on behalf of the Croatian Embassy in Austria, and by the Bleiburg Honorary Platoon. (hina) ha