On the recent occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, the National Assembly’s Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia called on the government to take the initiative to set a location at the Ljubljana’s Žale Cemetery for the grave of the remains from the abyss under Macesnova Gorica as soon as possible and do everything in its power to ensure that the remains will actually be buried. The burial of those murdered in Kočevski rog at Žale has long been opposed by the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, and this time is no different. But his friend and political companion Robert Golob, the Prime Minister, can arrange for this to happen.
The Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, has stated in the past that there is no suitable place at the Žale Cemetery, which is Slovenia’s largest cemetery, for the burial of those brutally murdered after the Second World War.
Janković let down the murdered Roma people
In recent years, the Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia has also submitted several petitions or applications for the burial of the remains to the Municipality of Ljubljana through the relevant ministry, starting in 2017 for the victims, mostly of Slovenian ethnicity, from several mass graves across Slovenia. In 2017, they also submitted an application for the victims of Slovenian and Roma ethnicity from several mass graves near Ljubljana.
But Janković refused to do what the Commission asked him to, so in 2018, an initiative was launched to bury 65 Roma victims from Iška and Mačkovec in two group graves. However, Janković is also opposing that.
Everyone deserves a decent grave
The number of victims that were dug up in the abyss below Macesnova Gorica already exceeds two thousand, and the Commission is working hard to ensure that the victims get their own grave at Žale. They pointed out that this is a national tragedy, and the capital must have both national glory and national tragedies in its greatness. According to the testimonies, the preliminary investigation and the excavation of more than 70 kilograms of objects, as well as a thorough detector examination, it is highly probable that there are also remains of murdered Slovenians in the abyss.
The remains are expected to be exhumed from the abyss this year, and the government is expected to allow the victims to be buried at Žale in 2023.
The Commission has for several years now been calling for the victims of this war crime and crime against humanity to be given a grave in the capital of Slovenia. The excavation of the remains of the victims from the abyss beneath Macesnova Gorica makes this initiative all the more justified. Namely, the capital of the country should encompass all the extremes of the nation in its symbolic circle.
Moja Dolenjska
