"We are gathered here to remember the human rights of many people, whose number has not been fully established, the human rights of their families and the human rights of every person. Those people were killed without a court trial, without charges and without a right to defence," Kosor told reporters after a wreath-laying ceremony in the Bleiburg field.
However, Kosor condemned people who appear in fascist uniforms at memorial sites such as Bleiburg. "Those killed should be remembered in a dignified way, so I condemn those who come here, and sometimes to other places as well, wearing fascist uniforms. That certainly won't help in shedding full light on what happened here."
She was referring to Croats still nostalgic about the Ustashe past, who turned Bleiburg into a nationalist and anti-Serbian symbol.
In mid-April, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said he would not go to Bleiburg as long as the place was politicised and visited by "people in black who want to change history" (EurActiv 15/04/10).
The prime minister cited the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly resolution that condemned crimes committed by communist regimes, and the Croatian Parliament Declaration of 2006 which referred to crimes committed between 1945 and 1990.
Kosor said "it's time the whole and real truth was told about every event in Croatia, without anyone being afraid". She said she was against any revision of the role played by the antifascist movement, but called for the crimes committed by the communist regime in the post-war period to be taken into account too.
The prime minister was accompanied by Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko and Education, Science and Sport Minister Radovan Fuchs.
Huda Jama mass grave
Asked if there was any news about exhumations at Huda Jama, a WWII mass grave site in Slovenia, Kosor recalled that Croatia and Slovenia had signed an agreement on marking mass grave sites and that Zagreb would insist on the full implementation of that agreement.
"We have the right to know the whole truth and all the facts and to fully investigate everything," she said, adding that the agreement with Slovenia provided for the possibility of such sites being marked so that the truth should be known.
Kosor expressed hope that something would be done in the foreseeable future "for the surviving families who were not allowed for decades to speak in public about what had happened to their family members," and that the victims would be identified.
Asked about the opening of a section in the Serbian Military Museum in Belgrade devoted to Serbian WWII war criminal Draza Mihajlovic, where he is portrayed as an antifascist fighter, Kosor said that the position of the Croatian government was that "historical facts should not and cannot be changed because it can be very dangerous".
"Draza Mihajlovic headed a quisling movement and countless horrendous war crimes were committed under his command, which is a historical fact. We find any revision of such facts worrying, especially if it happens, as we can see, under government patronage. We are concerned about it, but hope that it won't be a general trend. It's very clear to us whose side Draza Mihajlovic was on. By committing a series of war crimes, he sided with those the antifascists fought against," the Croatian prime minister said.
