Zagreb, (IKA) – On November 16 at the Secretariat of the Croatian Conferences of Bishops, a statement by the Justitia et Pax (Justice and Peace) Commission of the CCB was presented on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The statement is entitled Against Negationism – On the Need for Investigating, Recognizing and Prosecuting the Crimes of All Three Totalitarianisms: Fascism, Nazism and Communism. The president of the Justice and Peace Commission, Auxiliary Bishop Vlado Košić of Zagreb; the secretary of the Commission, Dr. Gordan Črpić and Commission member, Dr. Dubravka Petrović Štefanec, participated in the presentation. In the statement, the Commission emphasizes how it is neither good nor just that 64 years after the end of the Second World Word and the establishment of communism by violence, the war crimes and postwar crimes of communist totalitarianism during its 45-year reign of terror are still being concealed and denied.

The Commission noted that this year the European Parliament proclaimed August 23 as the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, an occasion was passed over in silence in our country, which, as the Commission points out, is not good for a country where these problems are powerfully and painfully relevant. The Croatian Parliament, albeit regrettably seventeen years after the first multi-party elections, did proclaim the Declaration on the Condemnation of Crimes Committed during the Totalitarian Communist Movement in Croatia from 1945 to 1990 but, in reality, that statement was merely an expression of verbal support for the resolutions of the Council of Europe. It does not contain rulings on the investigation of crimes, a list of the victims of communist totalitarianism – which has never been compiled, or the punishment of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which the statute of limitations does not expire. There is no indication of the need for the society to undergo collective therapy, as in Germany regarding the attitude toward Nazism, noted the Commission.

The recent war in defense of the Croatian nation showed that the disavowals of the crimes perpetrated against Croats during the Second World War and postwar period were repeated during the Homeland War. Therefore, it is possible that mass war crimes and crimes against humanity in our country are being denied in cases when entire villages, national groups and religious groups have been liquidated, crimes of genocide, as well as the organized and planned character thereof. All of us should be worried by the phenomenon of negationism, the denial of communist crimes perpetrated which are subject to law and severely punished in the democratic world, emphasized the statement. It is astonishing to hear in Croatia today that the partisans fought exclusively for freedom. This can be rightly said about part of them, especially in Dalmatia and Istria. However, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as a section of the Communist International, subjected them to its ideology and discipline, so that, unfortunately, they subsequently fought for the victory of a totalitarian ideology, dictatorship and against the freedom of their nation.

Nazism did not conceal its criminal intentions but communism did. Nevertheless, this verbal distinction does not diminish the magnitude of the crimes of communism but merely reveals its hypocritical nature. During and after the war, it was precisely the communists who persecuted and liquidated dedicated anti-fascists, anti-Nazis and anti-communists, including Christian personnel, civil democratic politicians and intellectuals, worker and peasant leaders, priests, nuns and monks. This is how history is falsified. This is not revisionism because the revision of history is the right and duty of historians when heretofore unknown historical facts are established, as is the case with the discovery of communist crimes. This is negationism, i.e., the negation of confirmed mass crimes, emphasizes the statement, adding the following: “Even if we were able to ignore all the horrors and human tragedies of forced collectivization, de-Christianization and the totalitarian control of the state and society, we should not forget the crimes at the end of the Second World War and postwar period, and the testimonies concerning mass liquidations. … It is even worse, however, when the crimes are not merely denied but they are still being publicly defended and justified. Therefore, when someone announces that he is sure that many who were killed without trials deserved to be condemned to death, this represents an apologia.”

The Commission agrees that the crimes of the occupier and its domestic allies should not be forgotten and, precisely for the same ethical and legal reasons, the investigation of communist crimes should not be prevented and the monopolization of anti-fascism by its twin brother, communism, should not be permitted. The Croatian nation and the Church have painfully experienced all three totalitarianisms directly and have fought against them, enduring enormous sacrifices and paying a high price. Therefore, this nation and its citizens have the right and duty to condemn negationism and apologiae for the crimes of all three totalitarianisms, emphasizes the statement of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops.
Following the presentation of the statement, Bishop Košić and Dr. Črpić responded to questions from journalists.

At the end of the presentation, it was announced that a dual language anthology of statements issued by the Justitita et Pax Commission entitled In the Service of Justice and Peace will be presented in Zagreb on November 23.