Following the initiative of MEP Romana Tomc, the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament has adopted petition 718/2023 by Dr Mitja Ferenc, the first signatory, on the right to burial and respectful remembrance of the victims of the post-war communist killings in Slovenia. The petition is now available for electronic signature of support.
In the petition, Dr Mitja Ferenc calls on the European Parliament to show respect for all victims of the communist killings in Slovenia and for their relatives, who do not have a grave, a death certificate or a good name, because they were denied respect by the authorities in their own country, Slovenia.
MEP Romana Tomc said: “On the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Communism, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, under the leadership of Robert Golob, annulled the decision to declare a National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist Violence at a correspondence meeting. The importance of preserving the memory of the past was also stressed by the European Parliament in its Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, and the 23rd of August was declared a Europe-wide day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian dictatorships in Europe. Without truth and remembrance, there can be no reconciliation. But according to the Resolution, the victims are not to be differentiated among.”
During the decades of communist rule, the people of Slovenia suffered all forms of violations of human rights and freedoms. Genocide was committed against a part of the Slovenian nation. Members of the Yugoslav Communist secret police carried out numerous extrajudicial executions in hidden locations throughout Slovenia, and the National Assembly’s Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia has so far recorded more than 750 locations of hidden mass graves.
“I am delighted that the European Parliament has approved the petition for publication. The victims and their relatives are not recognised in Slovenia as having a right to remembrance, and I would like them to have the small satisfaction of knowing that the memory of the innocent victims of the massacres will be commemorated in the European Parliament. I would like as many people as possible to support the petition.”
You can sign the petition by registering on the Petitions Committee website – here: https://bit.ly/3Tecy9p
C. Š.
