Bleiburg repatriations

An Austrian Interior Ministry group of experts presented a report to officials on Wednesday suggesting a complete ban on the annual gathering in Bleiburg in southern Austria which commemorates tens of thousands of Croatian Nazi-allied Ustasa troops and civilians who were killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in 1945.

A controversial annual mass gathering of Croats at Loibacher Feld near the Austrian town of Bleiburg, which has been accused of nurturing nationalist sentiments, is not expected to take place this weekend, Austrian police said on Thursday, after the event was also cancelled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Jewish Congress, an international organisation representing Jewish communities, praised on Monday the Austrian parliament's adoption of a proposed ban on the annual commemoration of the killings of Croatian Nazi-allied troops and civilians at Bleiburg in Austria by the Yugoslav Partisans at the end of World War II.

Some also noted that this controversial issue might have been deliberately politicised and used to fuel party campaigns ahead of elections that will be taking place across the region in the coming months. Croatia and Serbia are to hold general elections at the end of June while Bosnia is scheduled to have local elections in October.

The World Jewish Congress, an international organisation representing Jewish communities, said on Wednesday that the Catholic mass due to be held in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 16 glorifies people involved in crimes committed by Croatia's WWII-era Nazi-allied Ustasa regime.

Ivo Tomasevic, secretary-general of the Bishops' Conference, the permanent assembly of Catholic bishops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BIRN on Friday that a mass to commemorate the killings of Croatian Nazi-allied troops and civilians by the Yugoslav Partisans at the end of World War II will not be cancelled despite condemnation from politicians, anti-fascist activists and many public figures.

On that day in 1945, anti-fascist Partisan forces reclaimed the city from Nazi-allied administration of the Independent State of Croatia, NDH, a puppet state established in 1941 and run by the fascist Ustasa movement with the support of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, which passed harsh racial laws against Serbs, Jews and Roma people.

The annual gathering in Bleiburg in Austria, which commemorates tens of thousands of Croatian Nazi-allied Ustasa troops and civilians who were killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in 1945, will not be held this year as planned on May 16, media reported on Tuesday.

Anti-fascist demonstrators will stage protests on Saturday against the annual gathering in Bleiburg, which commemorates the tens of thousands of Nazi-allied Croatian troops and civilians killed by Yugoslav Partisans in 1945.

Croatia's president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic visited the sites of massacres of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on Wednesday, laying flowers and lighting candles at Macelj, Bleiburg and Huda Jama.