The Italian parliament's lower house passed a law in 2004 declaring February 10 Remembrance Day after the date in 1947 when Italy and the then Yugoslavia signed a peace treaty.
In recent years, the media reported that the commemoration was accompanied by irredentist politicisation and cited Italian President Giorgio Napolitano as responding that the foibe, karst pits into which those victims were thrown, were a tragedy that had not been acknowledged for a long time and that commemorating those events "has nothing to do with historical revisionism, revanchism and nationalism."
"That day should be honoured by remembering in a dignified fashion and without politicisation the many people who experienced a big injustice and suffering as consequences of the war," says Furio Radin, the Italian minority member of the Croatian parliament.
He says about 350,000 people in question left Croatia but notes that numbers are not the most important thing.
Rijeka University historian Darko Dukovski, citing recent Italian and Croatian research, says about 220,000-225,000 people left the Istria and Rijeka region by 1971. It is believed that one-third were Slovenes and Croats who opposed the communist rule in Yugoslavia.
Between 1918 and 1943, 53,000 Croats left Istria while 29,000 Italians moved to the peninsula. In 1921, 15,000 Croats declared themselves as Italians and in 1948, 20,000 Italians declared themselves as Croats, Dukovski says.
The Italians who left Croatia between 1943 and 1965 were either esuli, those who illegally fled and had no rights, or optants, those who retained Italian citizenship and all civil rights and went to Italy.
A document attached to the Italian bill to declare February 10 Remembrance Day for the foibe victims and the esuli says 17,000 people were killed in the karst pits. The Istrian Encyclopaedia summarises data from a number of Italian authors who speak of 4,500-6,000 victims.
Responding to a query from Hina, Croatia's War Veterans Ministry has said that it has no official data on the number of the victims, but that this would be discussed by the Croatian-Italian commission on the implementation of an agreement between the two governments on the maintenance of war graves.
Radin says he proposed in 2001 that Croatia mark one of the karst pits as a sign of respect for those victims, similarly to the Basovizza pit in Italy.
Aside from data on the victims, the media have been reiterating statements on the war damages which the successors to the former Yugoslavia owe refugees, with Croatia reportedly having to pay Italy US$ 35 million.
Napolitano has said that Croatia and Slovenia should observe the foibe victims' Remembrance Day too.
Now that Italy, Croatia and Slovenia are part of the European Union, there is a possibility of jointly commemorating the tragedy, of each side admitting its mistakes and not politicising the victims, Radin says and adds that the foibe victims cannot be "ignored."