By: Dr Metod Berlec
Golob’s government, on the eve of the national Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Violence, adopted a resolution to revoke the proclamation of the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Violence. The previous government, led by Janša, had declared it to be on May 17th. Let’s recall that in the justification of the resolution, it was stated that communist violence on the territory of present-day Slovenia, from the summer of 1941 to January 1946, resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of civilians and prisoners of war.
During the decades of communist rule, with all forms of human rights violations and infringements of freedoms, it affected hundreds of thousands of residents of Slovenia. They chose the date for the national day to commemorate the occasion when in 1942, partisans of the 1st Company of the Šercer Battalion brutally murdered 49 individuals of Roma and Slovenian nationality in the Iška Gorge, including 24 children. As stated by Matija Ogrin, the president of the New Slovenian Covenant, during the memorial ceremony in Republic Square in Ljubljana last Tuesday evening, “for most of the deceased victims of the communist revolution, death certificates were not written.” “These deceased individuals loved Slovenia as they knew it from their homes, from their work in the fields, from the church, and from their domestic holidays. They wanted to preserve this Slovenian world handed down to them by their ancestors. That is why they did not join the revolution. And that is why they suffered the most. The state of Slovenia, however, knows nothing about them: it does not know who they are or where they come from; it does not know their names or how many of them there are.” Therefore, it would be right for the Slovenian state to ensure that they at least receive a death certificate…
However, the ruling nomenklatura disregards the victims of communist violence, which is why they abolished the Memorial Day for the criminal deeds of their political and ideological predecessors. The SDS (Slovenian Democratic Party) strongly reacted to this, reminding that the previous government emphasised that the independent state of Slovenia “in 1991 was founded on the condemnation of all totalitarian regimes, including the condemnation of communist crimes”. Furthermore, the “European Union is also founded on the condemnation of all totalitarian regimes.” “Unfortunately, in the independent Republic of Slovenia, the attitude towards the victims of communist totalitarianism is still, or even increasingly, irreverent.” The SDS added: “With all the barbaric actions of the Svoboda, SD, and Levica coalition, which rampage across the democratic and civilised state, the abolition of the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Violence is just another expected instant guerrilla action that tramples on fundamental civilisational norms, concerning concepts of piety, justice, and truth, on which every mature state entity that is reconciled with its history should firmly stand. The government is squandering opportunities to implement necessary reforms and focus on the future. While it could seek common solutions to our problems, it prefers to fuel hatred and division, resorting to revenge, lies, concealment, and the distortion of history once again.” Even more strongly, the president of the SDS, Janez Janša, reacted to this scandalous act by Golob’s government: “Yesterday, the neo-communist government of the Republic of Slovenia announced a new civil war with this despicable act. 33 years ago, during the formation of the multi-party assembly and the removal of the statue of Josip Broz from the entrance hall of the building, France Bučar said that the civil war in Slovenia had ended. Yesterday’s regime rehabilitation of communist crimes deliberately undermines the exceptional reconciliation efforts of the generation that democratised and independentized Slovenia. The abolition of remembrance for the victims of crimes, most of whom still do not have death certificates or graves, while simultaneously rehabilitating and celebrating mass murderers, is a sinister announcement by the current regime that it is prepared to fill pits and mine shafts with those who think differently.”
The regime-controlled media and the ruling party, however, maliciously accused Janša of threatening civil war based on his words of warning. Once again, it has been shown that the “lie is the immortal soul of communism”. Additionally, we should be seriously concerned that Prime Minister Robert Golob, in response to a parliamentary question on Monday, announced the “liberation” of RTV Slovenia (Slovenian national broadcaster). When his ideological predecessors “liberated” Ljubljana and a significant part of today’s Slovenian territory in 1945, it ended with the mass killings of Slovenian compatriots and rivers of blood. Slovenia and the Slovenian nation certainly do not need another such “liberation”! And they will not survive it either! Therefore, the madness of Golob’s government must be firmly opposed with all democratic means!