Tribute will be paid to killed soldiers and civilians within events marking Anti-Fascist Struggle Day, which Croatia celebrates on 22 June, according to the Office of the Croatian President.
During the summer and spring of 1945, in events now collectively referred to as the Bleiburg massacre, many fleeing Croatian soldiers and civilians who were handed over by allied forces in Austria to Tito's Partisans were killed by the Partisans without trial in the Bleiburg field and during so-called death marches back to Yugoslavia.
The remains of a large number of people killed around the end of the war were buried in an anti-tank trench in Tezno. It is assumed that most were Croats who were returning from the Bleiburg field, where they had surrendered to the Allies.
On Sunday, Zadar Catholic Archbishop Zvonimir Puljic, representatives of anti-fascist fighters of Croatia and representatives of the Serb and Roma minorities are expected to join Josipovic in the commemoration.