President of the Republic Participates in Commemoration Marking 78th Anniversary of Italian-Chetnik Massacre in Omiš Hinterland
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated in a commemoration marking the 78th anniversary of the Italian-Chetnik massacre of the residents of Gata and outlying Poljice villages in the Omiš hinterland. After laying a wreath and lighting a candle at the Memorial to the victims, President Milanović said those responsible for the massacre must be known: “the instigators, the executors, the Nazis who committed it in cold-blood and most brutally without any motive”.
“I heard about Gata from my late grandfather and of the massacre that took place in the village of Otok, near my place of origin. It was always a story about terrible suffering and a massacre committed by the Germans against the villagers of a village that wasn’t even partisan. Pardon me, in this case it was the Chetniks and the Italians. I asked my grandfather – where were the partisans to defend them? I never did get an answer to that question”, President Milanović said in his address at the commemoration held near St. Cyprian church in Gata.
“Human evil is guilty. Italian fascists are guilty because it disturbed them that the partisans were active in this area. They simply hired 150 Chetniks. And to make it more unreal, a month earlier they signed an agreement of cooperation in the fight against the communists and the partisans with the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), they were given weapons and money and then came here to kill the Croats”, President MIlanović said.
“These people didn’t deserve this and one should have stood more energetically in their defense. From there my childhood question to my grandfather: Where were you, the partisans? Your homes are your most holy possessions. I’m not religious, but I know what God and faith and the homeland mean to you. The homeland means a lot to me. We have our army, our police, we have our armed forces. We have our state and this will never happen again. But the events of October 1942 speak of the atrocity of history in this small village and those responsible must be known”, President Milanović concluded.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek