CROATIA'S WW II SOLDIERS REBURIED IN NEW CHARNEL HOUSE NEAR OMIS

OMIS, 27 Oct (Hina) - The remains of 112 Croatia's World War Two soldiers, who died in the Omis area (near Split, southern Croatia), were reburied at the Vrisovac cemetery, outside Omis, on Sunday. The remains of 104 Croatian Home Guardsmen (regular troops of Croatia's Fascist state 1941-1945 'NDH'), six Ustasha soldiers (elite troops of the 'NDH') and two Partisans (anti-Fascist soldiers) were reburied in a charnel house at Vrisovac in a memorial ceremony. Ninety five Home Guardsmen, most of whom had died of typhus in an Italian detention camp in Omis in 1943, had been found buried in a mass grave called Garma. The bodies of seventeen Croatian soldiers - nine Home Guardsmen, six Ustasha soldiers and two Partisans - had been entombed at the military section of the old Omis cemetery. All of them were exhumed in the last two months. The coffins, wrapped in Croatian national flag, with the remains of the 112 soldiers were carried from a morgue to the Vrisovac cemetery by 112 Croatian Army members. A parliamentarian and vice president of the Parliament's Commission for War and Post-War Victims, Vice Vukojevic, said during the memorial ceremony: "We blame no one, but every innocent victim has the right to a dignified Christian and human burial, regardless of their nationality and religion. All crimes are to be condemned; however, now that the living ones have reconciled with each other, it's time for the reconciliation of the dead, as all our victims call for forgiveness - now when we all are victors." A solemn mass for the dead soldiers was said by Assistant Bishop of Split, Msgr. Marin Barisic. An idea to rebury together those WW II soldiers in the same ossuary was initiated in 1992 when the Omis municipal leadership planned to transfer the remains of Home Guardsmen from the Garma mass grave to a charnel house where only Partisan fighters had been entombed, but a local association of anti-Fascist fighters opposed the plan. Therefore, municipal heads organised the construction of a new charnel house at Vrisovac. (hina) rm mš 272122 MET oct 96