CROATIAN STATE ARCHIVES OBTAIN "LIST OF WAR VICTIMS 1941-1945"

ZAGREB, Jan 30 (Hina) - The Croatian State Archives (HDA) have recently managed to obtain "The List of War Victims 1941-1945" issued by the Yugoslav Federal Statistical Office in 1992 on the basis of a 1964 census conducted by the then Yugoslav Federal Commission for War Victims. In 1998, the Croatian State Archives head asked a few times the Yugoslav Federal Statistical Office, the Belgrade Genocide Museum and the Yugoslav Archives to forward either the List or the original files about the number of victims from World War Two. But, all Croatian requests were rejected by the Yugoslav side claiming that the list was incomplete and could be misused. The final List, issued in 1992, consists of 16 volumes and almost 11,000 pages. The HDA head Josip Kolanovic did not want to reveal how and where Croatia had managed to get the List eventually. Kolanovic said Croatia should demand the return of original materials of the List concerning Croatia during negotiations on the succession to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). According to the List, there were 194,749 anti-Fascist victims in WW II, of whom, 49,874 were in the Jasenovac concentration camp and 9,587 in Stara Gradiska. A book entitled "Jasenovac - War Victims..." was published last year, being actually an extract from the List. The 4,798-page part of the List referring to the data from Croatia was issued in 24 books classified according to municipalities. According to Kolanovic, the then Yugoslav (SFRY) authorities issued a decree on June 10, 1964 to begin a project of collecting data about World War Two victims. About 30,000 people were engaged in this project. The aim of the project was to obtain official documentation for negotiations with the Federal Republic of Germany which was obliged to compensate war victims under a peace treaty. The census was conducted in October and November 1964 by federal, republics' and local commissions which had to follow detailed instructions during the job in order to collect true data and establish the real state of affairs. The census was expected to cover all citizens who "were victims of Fascist terror or war from April 6, 1941 to May 15, 1945." In Croatia, 7,500 people were census-takers that year. They had to work in strictly defined areas and should collect data not only about victims from the houses they visited but also about their relatives about whose suffering no other could report, Kolanovic explained. Apart from this "Federal" List, in the Croatian State Archives there is a list drawn up by the commission of then Republic of Croatia for establishing data about crimes committed by occupying forces and their collaborators. This commission operated from 1944 to 1947. The HDA possesses also a partial list of the former Socialist Association of the Working People of Croatia (SSRNH) from 1950. The HDA head said these lists should be now compared. After that the final processing of data about Fascist victims can ensue, he said adding that the current number of those victims had been enlarged more than ten times. That's why, Kolanovic explained, some used to claim that there had been more than 700,000 victims in Jasenovac. Kolanovic reiterated that Croatia is obliged to investigate data about all victims from World War Two, particularly about those whose mentioning in public had been forbidden until 1990. (hina) ms