Incident at Bleiburg commemoration, one person arrested

(Patria) - The central commemoration marking the 74th anniversary of the Bleiburg tragedy, organized by the Honorary Guard of the Bleiburg Partisans, was held in Austria, with the Croatian Parliament as the patron of the commemoration.

N1 Television reported that the Austrian police recorded an incident at the commemoration in Bleiburg when one person raised their hand and gave the Hitler salute, after which they were taken to prison in Klagenfurt.

At the beginning of the week, the mayor of Bleiburg, Stefan Visocnik, expressed his disagreement with holding the commemoration at Loibach Field, calling the commemoration a "cover for celebrating Nazism and Ustašeism" and stating that the gathering, which expects 15,000 people, represents a "serious risk to public order".

In the center of Bleiburg, around 11 AM, a protest against the commemoration of the victims of the Bleiburg tragedy was also held, organized by the Carinthian branch of the Green Party and the Bleiburg branch of the Anti-Fascist Action, with about 50 people gathered.

The anniversaries of the Bleiburg tragedy are commemorated at Bleiburg Field in memory of May 1945, when the Yugoslav army liquidated tens of thousands of members of the defeated Independent State of Croatia (NDH) army and civilians, including Croats, as well as a portion of Muslims, Patria writes.

Anti-fascists believe that the gathering is held every year in mid-May under the guise of commemorating the suffering of "innocent" civilians and soldiers, but from the statements of speakers in Bleiburg, it is clear that the gathering is mainly used to mourn the defeated state.

The NDH was one of the main allies of Hitler's Nazi Germany and Mussolini's fascist Italy during World War II.

Slightly earlier, Dragan Čović, president of the HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also laid a wreath in Bleiburg.