ZAGREB, Sept 6 (Hina) - The Committee for Croatian Truth and Justice on Monday pressed charges with the Zagreb County State Attorney's Office against "unidentified and identified" persons who committed war crimes against civilians,
the wounded and the sick (prisoners of war) between 1945 and 1996, the Committee President Zvonimir Trusic told a news conference on Monday. The Committee for Croatian Truth and Justice gathers 27 parties and associations. "The motive for pressing charges is the fact that no one has been held accountable for more than 250 mass graves containing the bodies of Croats killed at the end of World War II and for about 120 mass graves of the Homeland War", said Trusic. The Committee names several gravest and best known crimes committed against Croats, for which, it is claimed, there is firm evidence. One of these crimes is the mass killing of soldier
ZAGREB, Sept 6 (Hina) - The Committee for Croatian Truth and Justice
on Monday pressed charges with the Zagreb County State Attorney's
Office against "unidentified and identified" persons who committed
war crimes against civilians, the wounded and the sick (prisoners
of war) between 1945 and 1996, the Committee President Zvonimir
Trusic told a news conference on Monday.
The Committee for Croatian Truth and Justice gathers 27 parties and
associations.
"The motive for pressing charges is the fact that no one has been
held accountable for more than 250 mass graves containing the
bodies of Croats killed at the end of World War II and for about 120
mass graves of the Homeland War", said Trusic.
The Committee names several gravest and best known crimes committed
against Croats, for which, it is claimed, there is firm evidence.
One of these crimes is the mass killing of soldiers of the
Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and civilians at the Bleiburg
field in Austria and during their march through the then
Yugoslavia, called "the Way of the Cross".
Supporting the claim that in late May 1945 the partisans had killed
several hundred "disarmed Croatian soldiers and civilians" near
the Austrian town of Bleiburg, the Committee submits as evidence
the partisan literature, a book by Branimir Petener, called
"Ustashi - the Memory and the Heritage", as well as witness
statements.
The charges also refer to a mass grave in an old tank trench near
Maribor in Slovenia, which was discovered last year during
construction works on a highway. So far, 1,200 skeletons have been
recovered from the grave.
The Committee also seeks punishment for unknown perpetrators, who
in the period between 1945 and 1951 massacred the wounded and
patients from hospitals in Zagreb and Karlovac and threw them in the
Jazovka pit.
The survivors and an investigation by the County Court
Investigating Centre in Zagreb, carried out in the presence of the
former president of the Sabor Commission for the Victims of War and
Post-War Period, should prove that a crime had happened in the
Macelj forest near Krapina.
The last item in the charges refers to the suffering of Croatian
soldiers and civilians during the Homeland War, that is, the
Serbian aggression of 1991-1995.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the conduct of Croatian
authorities in investigating crimes that were committed against
Croats, Trusic said the Committee was forced to press charges
because the State Attorney's Office had failed to do it.
"These charges constitute an indictment against the communist
ideology", said Kaja Perekovic, president of the Croatian
Association of Former Political Prisoners, which is a member of the
Committee.
(hina) jn rml