Previous Appeals by Our Commission

In past years, this commission has repeatedly emphasized the need to create the prerequisites for reconciliation and forgiveness on the basis of truth and justice, not only here in our country but also in the other parts of the former state. Thus, together with the corresponding commissions of the Bishops Conferences of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia, in a statement on the right to a grave and the duties of piety, it has pointed out the disregard of basic humanity and the recommendations of European institutions, particularly the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe dated June 27, 1996 and January 25, 2006, that urged the member states of the CE to adopt concrete measures to dismantle the heritage of the former communist totalitarian regimes and pointed to the need for the international condemnation of the crimes of the totalitarian communist regimes.

Our commission noted then that the Croatian Parliament, unfortunately after [having waited]17 years since the first multi-party elections (1990), adopted the Declaration on the Condemnation of Crimes Perpetrated during the Totalitarian Communist Regime in Croatia from 1945 to 1990, but that this statement remained merely a pale verbal compliance with some of the resolutions of the CE, since it contained no decision on the investigation of crimes or even on a list of the victims of the communist regime – which was never compiled – and did not address the punishment of the war crimes and crimes against humanity for which there are no statutes of limitations. There was not even, however, awareness that without objective and agreed-upon historical truth, it is neither possible to educate future generations nor objectively evaluate the past and the disastrous plague of the three totalitarian regimes of fascism, Nazism and communism in our land.

Last year after the Parliament of the European Union proclaimed August 23 a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, our commission commented upon this proclamation and its ethical dimension, since this had not been done by the Croatian Parliament, although it had an international obligation and duty toward its citizens to do so. Our commission again spoke about the need for the purification of memory as a basis for reconciliation and forgiveness. In the meantime on several occasions, intolerant debates were opened on war and postwar victims and on the assessments of individual historical figures and ideological movements. It was not taken into account that until now there has been neither the opportunity nor the political will to determine the historical facts in a systematic and objective manner and, therefore, in our country and among our neighbors there is a repetition of the conspiracy of silence on the communist reign of terror, on the one side, and on the other side the libelous criminalization of entire peoples.

Some of the Painful Consequences of Negationism

This absence of political will is systematically used by those who do not care about the historical truth or agreed-upon historical truth that would open prospects for certainty regarding facts and the reconciliation of current and future generations. We have noted this again, unfortunately, regarding the nineteenth anniversary of the Vukovar tragedy, because we still know nothing about the fate of a large number of the victims after the elapse of nearly two decades. In the case of this martyred city, attempts are again being made to shift responsibility from the assailants to the victims and, thus, to negate the terrible crime of its Hiroshimization and the slaughter of the wounded taken from the Vukovar hospital. The crime of negationism is at work here, which is an insult to the victims and the historical truth, and which represents an obstacle to efforts in the direction of justice and peace.

On the other hand, the crimes of fascism and Nazism, as well as their allies in our country, were denounced and brutally punished, even during the time of that war and during the regime of communist totalitarianism, most often without a court or trial. However, the victims of ideological communism and blind nationalistic justice, with the exception of a few that were mentioned, drumhead court martials or rigged trials and actual executions – were never completely investigated or listed. Quite the contrary, it was not even permitted to speak about them. In our country, as well in the countries of related regimes at the time, in addition to the conspiracy of silence there were also great slanders and insinuations. We only recall the figure of “1.4 million war victims” that was fabricated by the former state, the figure given today of “700,000 victims of Jasenovac,” or the figure given for the mass liquidation of Polish officers in Katyn (USSR). All of this points to the necessity for historical scholarship to work on the verification of ideological “historical truths,” to establish the facts in a consensual manner and thus pave the way for non-conflicting memory and agreed-upon history. This is a prerequisite for creating sound foundations for the processes of reconciliation and forgiveness.

The 2011 Population Census: An Opportunity for the Historical Truth and Minimal Satisfaction

The 2011 population census is unfortunately the first but certainly the last chance to list and establish the enormous numbers of silenced, suppressed and scorned victims of communist totalitarianism. It should be recalled that the three lists of the victims of World War II compiled in 1946, 1950 and 1964, according to the official directives of the Federation of Associations of Veterans of the National Liberation War (SUBNOR) and the Federal Bureau of Statistics (SZS) did not include those who lost their lives during the National Liberation War who were on the side of the occupier or domestic traitors in any manner whatsoever (fighters, supporters or sympathizers), because they are not considered to be war victims. Moreover, theses lists only referred to the period from April 6, 1941 to May 10, 1945, so that the victims of postwar, communist and chauvinist repression could not be listed in any way.

The existence of these war and postwar victims, most often summarily executed, has been denied by the regime, since it erased them from the face of the earth. They were people, individuals, recorded in birth registers, who had families, lived and worked, and then, whether civilian or military, most of whom forcibly recruited by the state authorities, disappeared in anti-tank ditches, pits, karstic caves, karstic sinkholes (foibe) etc. Thus they became “nonexistent persons” because the totalitarian regime saw them as real enemies or potential rivals, or even as dangerous notables or persons with threatening significance. The painful but significant fact is that these “unpersons” have only “appeared” for the first time in recent, cautious, demographically-based estimates of war and postwar victims by two authors, one abroad (B. Kočović), and the other in Croatia (V. Žerjavić), and then by other demographers, as well as partial, frequently narrow local investigations.

The 2011 population census is the last opportunity for the number of victims to be established in a somewhat certain, simple and scientific manner for the whole Republic of Croatia. Without this, the facts of the liquidation of entire families, even villages, as well as the general aging and displacement of people and families will hinder this process and with time make it impossible. The next opportunity will be the 2021 census but by then it will be too late to compile any serious list of the victims of communism. Therefore, our commission recommends and expects the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Croatia not to miss this unique opportunity to enter all the unlisted and unacknowledged victims into the 2011 population census. How? It is up to statisticians and demographers to find the best way.

Our proposal is neither based upon any morbid idea of turning over bones nor the “balance of crimes” and the horrors of the three totalitarianisms. It has quite the opposite aspirations, to stop these victims from being subjected to negation, disparagement and scorn, and from the other side to stop the peddling of human suffering and family tragedies. This is a duty required of us by basic piety as well as Christian humanism. This is the requirement and necessity for agreed-upon historical truth and non-conflicting historical remembrance. Such recognition of the facts would provide a modest basis for somewhat more peace in the hearts of the families of the victims, for reconciliation and sustainable peace in our nation and among all our fellow citizens, as well as for building sound relations with the peoples of neighboring countries.

In Zagreb, December 7, 2010
President of the Justitia et Pax Commission
Dr. Vlado Košić, Bishop of Sisak