REMEMBRANCE DAY FOR BLEIBURG & WAY OF THE CROSS VICTIMS MARKED

( Editorial: --> 4500 ) BLEIBURG, May 17 (Hina) - May 15, the remembrance day for Bleiburg and Way of the Cross Victims, was marked on the Austrian field of Bleiburg on Sunday. The event was attended by survivors of the Bleiburg tragedy, numerous Croats from the country and abroad, and high Croatian state officials. On May 15, 1945, British forces returned soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and civilians who fled Yugoslavia to the Yugoslav partisans. It is estimated that the partisans killed between 55,000 and 300,000 people at the Bleiburg field, Austria, and on their way back to Yugoslavia (the Way of the Cross). Today's 53rd anniversary began with Croatia's anthem Lijepa Nasa and a minute of silence for the victims. The gathered were addressed by the Klagenfurt-based Croatian Catholic Mission parish priest Sebastijan Golenic, who said Bleiburg was a sacred place for Croats. An indescribable Croatian tragedy took place on the Bleiburg field 53 years ago, said Kazimir Sviben, envoy of the Croatian National Parliament's speaker and head of the committee in charge of marking the Bleiburg remembrance day. A law on determining the number of war and post-war victims was passed in 1991 and a commission established to that end. By the end of 1997, the commission determined 17,000 victims and data on 700 killing sites and mass graves was gathered, Sviben said. "The aim of learning the truth isn't revenge or hatred, but to avoid that something like this happen again", he emphasised. Later a mass was celebrated. (hina) ha 171323 MET may 98