Speaking to the press afterwards, Leko said this Day of Remembrance "is a historical hour of remembrance for the development of values which democracy offers, the preservation of those values and remembrance for victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes."
The struggle for democratic values does not stop and it is not marked by daily political needs or political colours, said Leko. "These are the values of a civilisation which best recognises democracy as a system."
This was the first time Leko led a parliamentary delegation at the Jazovka commemoration. Asked if coming there would become a tradition, Leko said he pushed for finding one place where all victims would be remembered. "It shouldn't be tied to one gravesite or pit, but have a value which will symbolise all victims of totalitarian regimes."
Minister Matic, who presides over the government's commission for the research of and tending to military graves, graves of World War II victims and postwar graves, said members of the commission, who were of different political views, were present at today's commemoration. "After 70 years, we have come to pay our respects to the innocent victims, both at Jazovka and at Jadovno."
Matic said those two locations had deeply divided Croatia over the years and that they wanted to mark that from a historical and humanitarian aspect. He said investigations of who committed the crimes and why were in the remit of the state prosecution and the police.
Asked if he was happy with the commission's work, the minister said he was, very much so.
He said the War Veterans Ministry's goal was to clear up both the 1991-95 Homeland War and WWII, "which has brought Croatia a lot of rifts and damage over the years. We on the commission see that it makes no sense and have embarked on a very serious job."
Representatives of the diplomatic corps and a number of associations also attended the Jazovka commemoration.
According to the Croatian Lexicon, after killing some 250 Ustasha, the Partisans threw the bodies into Jazovka, a pit near the village of Sosice on the Zumberak Hills, in early 1943. In 1945, after the end of WWII, the communist authorities killed and threw into Jazovka captured Ustasha, Independent State of Croatia soldiers, as well as the wounded and civilians.
The media discovered the pit in June 1990, prompting the establishment of a parliamentary commission for the research of war and postwar victims as well as of a society for the research of those victims and the rehabilitation of convicted persons, the Lexicon says.