crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

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Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes 7. Besides all those who had direct contact with the victim, there are also the persons who decide on the execution. And these were the persons who were the subject of our investigation. Preserved documents regarding the command responsibility of these persons in the actual camp in the actual time period are crucial for the identification of these persons and for proving the connection with the victims. These documents are, however, non-existent. The few camp victims still living do not know those responsible. We are therefore faced with the situation where we have no documents on the execution of the killings, and we can not prove guilt by gathering information from the people. At the same time, we have numerous gravesites and human bones proving that the killings actually took place. We can only ascertain that, in the framework of the investigation of post-war killings in Slovenia, 600 discovered gravesites and tens of thousands of victims do not suffice to prove that at least one still living person was responsible for criminal offence(s) that does not fall under the statute of limitations. The police have so far conducted several thousand interviews, 12 exhumations of gravesites and filed two criminal complaints against known perpetrators, but the prosecution’s request for initiation of an investigation was rejected in both cases. Despite the failure to prove the perpetrator’s involvement in the criminal offence, the findings of the police with regard to events in the first month after the war were important to shed some light on the historic events. Based on the data gathered during the investigation it was possible, for the first time, to reconstruct the groups of victims and identify the methods of execution. Also relevant to the matter at hand is that, from the data gathering at individual gravesites, some perpetrators on the institutional level came to the surface: it became evident which killings are the responsibility of the Slovenian OZNA and which killings were performed by the Yugoslav Army units penetrating the Slovenian territory. 4. Categorisation of gravesites and the victims 2 Based on the time of origin, we divide the gravesites and the graves into three basic groups. Within these groups, we can distinguish between subgroups according to their status and social affiliation; these groups were treated differently due to their status. The gravesites and the victims can be categorised as follows. 4.1. Inter-war executions 4.1.1. Individuals Based on the decree “Odlok Glavnega štaba NOV in POJ o postavitvi rednih brigadnih in odrednih vojaških sodišč” (decree regarding the establishment of military courts) of October 1943, the VOS units conducted arrests and tried, before so-called military courts, individuals who were accused of collaborating with the occupier, of treason or of resisting the partisan fight. Some documents pertaining to these executions or at least to people who were executed, are in the Archives of Slovenia. However, not all executed persons were tried based on the adopted decree. 4.1.2. Gravesites containing several bodies This group includes the killings of groups of people during World War Two. The same applies both for the civilians and for individuals, however, the group of occupying soldiers includes executions of captured soldiers and is not the result of military conflict: – Of occupying soldiers; – Of Slovenian civilians; – Of anti-partisan units; 2 Pavel Jamnik, “Akcija sprava”: ugotovitve policijskega preiskovanja povojnih pobojev: zaključno poročilo, Ljubljana 2004. 210
Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes 4.2. Gravesite containing the victims of the final military conflicts In the last days of World War Two, there were military conflicts in the Northwest and Northeast of Slovenia; many people were killed. Due to the fact that both sides were sovereign regarding military tactical possibilities and decisions to engage, the victims of these conflicts can not be regarded as killings against the principles of war. The situation in Koroška is a bit more specific; there, the fleeing civilians joined the soldiers. However, these conflicts, in which both soldiers and civilians were killed, must still be regarded as military conflicts – the final military conflicts. 4.3. Post-war Killings When the communists gained control of the government, Slovenia witnessed the so-called “cleansing within”, in which the authorities systematically arrested and prosecuted all ideological opponents. 4.3.1. Individuals 1. Civilians and employees. These are the people who disappeared at work or somewhere on the way, and there is no data regarding their possible arrest and detainment in one of the camps or prisons. 2. Released arrestees. These are the people who were released from assembly camps or from prisons, and upon arriving home, were captured and killed by local authorities or individuals. It is not clear whether these were ordered killings or if they were merely the result of vengeance due to old resentments and economic interests; the authority of that time could have prevented such killings. 4.3.2. Mass gravesites 1. Defeated occupying forces. Individual partisan units executed groups of captured German soldiers immediately after the military conflicts. The responsibility is on the side of individual partisan units which captured the soldiers or on the side of the town command, since the town command commanded also the partisan units in its area. 2. The fleeing groups of “ustashe”, “chetniks” and other soldiers from the Yugoslav area and the civilians. During the liberation of Slovenia, the 3 rd and 4 th Yugoslav Armies penetrated through our territory. Their destinations were Koroška and Trieste. After the military conflicts ended, the Yugoslav army, together with Slovenian units, intercepted or captured several thousand fleeing members of military formations that fought against the partisans during the war. These fleeing units were accompanied by their relatives, civilians. According to the data gathered, the Yugoslav army members captured and executed the fleeing soldiers and the civilians. There is no information regarding special selections pertaining to these killings. Some say that these selections could include separating the “ustashe” from the Croatian Home-guards; “ustashe” were executed immediately. The next possible selection was among the Croats, the Serbs and the Montenegrins. According to findings now available, some of the Croats were taken over by the Croatian partisans and led on foot towards Zagreb (the Croats refer to this trail as “Križev put”); during the walk individual executions were performed. Part of the column that made it to Croatia was executed there (for example at the Jazovka cave and elsewhere). So far we have not managed to retrieve data regarding the transfers of the Serbs and Montenegrins; they were allegedly executed on the territory of Slovenia. Some members of the captured units, above all minors, were included in Yugoslav army units and were used for locating fleeing refugees or even for executions. The commanding authority in the executions was OZNA within the Yugoslav Army. It is possible that individual Slovenian units were involved in the killings; however, their members had no say in the executions. 3. Members of the Home-guard, returned from Koroška. The consideration of most of the military formations of the Slovenian Home-guard is special because its members were returned from Koroška, where they had fled after the end of the war. Among them, there were many civilians returned by the British from Koroška. The returned Slovenian members of the Home-guard were received or taken over by the Yugoslav Army members; they were assisted by the Slovenian units. The executions started during the transport (for example behind the Karavanke Tunnel), without any selections. In Slovenia, the members of the Home-guard were put in assembly camps in Kranj, Škofja Loka, Teharje and 211
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CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN RE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Lovro Št
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IV. REMEMBRANCE, RECOGNITION AND PU
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crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

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