RELIGIOUS leaders in Croatia have appealed for transparency about the post-Second World War massacre of tens of thousands of internees after being forcibly repatriated by British officials from Allied-occupied Austria.

“Fascism and Nazism were disappearing before the eyes of the world, but for many nations there was no time for peace, freedom, or joy. From the ashes of war, another totalitarian ideology, godless communism, was gaining strength,” the Roman Catholic Military Ordinary of Croatia, Bishop Jure Bogdan, said.

“In fear and uncertainty, thousands of people headed west, towards Austrian Carinthia, hoping for protection from the Western Allies as human beings with a right to fair treatment. Justice, however, was denied to them.”

Bishop Bogdan was preaching to state representatives and leaders of other Churches and religious faiths at a service at Macelj, organised jointly by the Sabor, the Croatian parliament, and the country’s Conference of Bishops.

He said that all discussion of the post-war atrocities had been suppressed by “guardians of death” under communist rule, who had treated the families of victims “like criminals” and blocked information about their fate.

“The truth can be suppressed for decades, but it cannot be buried forever — every victim, whatever their origin, nation, class, life path and political conviction, is equal before God in death,” Bishop Bogdan continued.

“As a priest and a bishop, I ask all who know something to open your hearts and speak out. Open the archives and hidden documents. Tell us where those still awaiting a name, a grave and a prayer lie.”

Thousands of disarmed Croatian soldiers and civilians fled to Bleiburg and Klagenfurt when Tito’s communist forces won control in early 1945; but they were denied protection by British military officials under Field Marshal Harold Alexander and the future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who was minister plenipotentiary at Allied Headquarters.

Although repatriations were later suspended after appeals by the Red Cross and US diplomats, most of those who fled were summarily executed or killed during forced marches, in retaliation for atrocities by Croatia’s Nazi-allied wartime government.

The remains of 500 Croatians were returned in early May from a mass grave in Slovenia, although thousands more remain unaccounted for. Up to 40,000 anti-Communist demobilised soldiers were also returned forcibly from Austria to the Soviet Union by British officials.

Parallel commemorations of the mass killings at Mirogoj Cemetery, the main cemetery in Zagreb, and at Bleiburg and Unter-Loibach were addressed by other religious leaders, who included the senior imam in Croatia, Mersad Kreštić.