News: Exhumations in Slovenia reopen the question of the identity of victims, including Montenegrin Chetniks?

The exhumation and transfer of remains from mass graves in Slovenia, which the Croatian authorities claim belong to victims of liquidations at the end of World War II, primarily members of the NDH army and to a lesser extent civilians, has reopened the issues of identification and nationality of the victims, including the possible presence of Montenegrin Chetniks among the exhumed remains, writes the Croatian portal Novosti.

According to the media outlet, as part of the research and exhumations conducted so far at nine locations in Slovenia, in addition to members of the armed formations of the Independent State of Croatia, the remains of members of other armies and nations are also mentioned, including Montenegrin and Serbian Chetniks.

Croatian Minister of Veterans Affairs Tomo Medved announced that the recent takeover of 500 mortal remains from Slovenia was only the first handover, announcing continued cooperation with the Slovenian side on exhumations and identification.

As reported by the Novosti portal, research to date shows that the remains at certain locations have been mixed up, and that in many cases it is not possible to precisely determine the nationality of the victims, which further complicates plans for their transfer to Croatia.

Detailed descriptions of each individual grave are listed in the book "Hidden Graveyards of Croats in Slovenia", which was published last year by Školska knjiga and with the financial support of the Croatian Government.

The information is mostly quoted from the work of the official Slovenian Commission for Resolving the Issue of Concealed Graves. One of the book's authors, historian Mitja Ferenc, is a long-time member and collaborator of that Commission and probably the most knowledgeable person on the subject of post-war mass graves in Slovenia. He personally led exhumation projects in a number of Slovenian mass graves.

As reported, thanks to Ferenc's publications, Novosti two weeks ago denied Medved's claim that they were all victims of murder without trial and were unequivocally Croats.

Research has shown that the situation in the graves found near Glažut, Huda Jama, Kamniška Bistrica, Podstenice, Maribor, Ljubljana, Celje, Lobnica and Mostec is quite complex. While a roundtable discussion in the Croatian Parliament claimed that these were partly or entirely members of the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia, the official Slovenian report on the analysis of the objects from Huda Jama states that "the majority were of German and Italian origin and from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia", and that "there were also several objects that can be linked to the Independent State of Croatia". The experts therefore concluded that "there is a high probability that the victims in the pit were also members of the Slovenian Home Guard", Novosti writes.

The remains of 1.179 victims were exhumed from the Tezenski gozd grave near Maribor. Slovenian researchers estimated that these were soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia, but also "certainly members of the Montenegrin People's Army (the so-called Montenegrin Chetniks) who were included in the Croatian Armed Forces, who were also captured near Bleiburg". "The anti-tank trench probably also contains some members of Muslim militias, German soldiers and military units of Hungarian and Albanian nationality (Hungarian Legion and Skanderbeg Legion), which were part of the Croatian Army", describes Ferenc in the book "Hidden Graves of Croats in Slovenia", citing official data from Slovenian researchers.

In 2006 and 2007, several graves were found near the settlement of Lobnica in the municipality of Ruše (near Maribor). In one of them, the remains of 190 men were exhumed. Rare personal items prove that Croats were among those executed. "Based on the items found with the victims, we can assume that they were members of the German army, the army of the Independent State of Croatia, and possibly Serbian or Montenegrin Chetniks."

The remains of German soldiers are evidenced by the remains of German navy uniforms with gold-plated buttons. The buttons with the U and NDH markings indicate affiliation with the armed forces of the NDH, and the found footwear (remains of opanaks) could belong to the Montenegrin Chetniks, states Ferenc in the book "Hidden Graves of Croats in Slovenia", citing official data from Slovenian researchers, Novosti writes.

The text reminds us that for years there has been a political and scientific debate in Slovenia and Croatia about the interpretation of post-war liquidations, as well as the manner of burial and marking of graves, with sharp political divisions present.

As reported, Slovenian authorities have in the meantime amended the legislative framework relating to clandestine graves, which has opened up additional discussions about the burial sites of exhumed remains, including the location in Ljubljana.

According to Novosti, the question of the exact identification of a large number of victims still remains open, among whom, according to research, could have been members of different armies and nationalities, including Montenegrin Chetniks.