STA, 23 August 2022 - Slovenia marks European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes on Tuesday. Several commemorative ceremonies will be held in Ljubljana, with President Borut Pahor laying a wreath at the monument in Congress Square.
A number of ceremonies will be held in Slovenia this afternoon in memory of the victims of totalitarian regimes, organised by the Study Centre for National Reconciliation (SCNR), the Military Vicariate of the Slovenian Armed Forces and the parish of St Nicholas in Ljubljana.
One of the ceremonies will take place at the Monument to the Victims of All Wars in Congress Square in the capital, where Pahor will lay a wreath and deliver an address, the president's office said.
At the invitation of Pahor, the ceremony will be attended by high-level representatives of the five largest religious communities in Slovenia: the Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Jewish and Orthodox communities. Prior to the ceremony, the president is expected to receive the representatives at the Presidential Palace.
The victims of totalitarian regimes will also be commemorated with Mass at the Ljubljana Cathedral that will be celebrated by Ljubljana Archbishop Stanislav Zore.
The government commission for concealed mass graves meanwhile called on the government on the eve of the remembrance day to take initiative as soon as possible to determine the location of a tomb at Ljubljana's main cemetery where the remains of victims from a mass grave in the chasm in Macesnova Gorica in Kočevski Rog, a vast forest area in the south-east of Slovenia, would be buried.
Archaeologists have so far uncovered the remains of more than 2,000 victims of post-WWII executions and items found in the Macesnova Gorica chasm, where excavation started in 2017, which suggest that Slovenian war prisoners were killed there, the commission said.
In line with agreements reached, the commission expects research in the chasm to conclude this year so a funeral could be held in 2023.
The commission also expects Slovenia to continue to strive for the implementation of the right to funeral of all victims of war and post-war violence.
Before the remembrance day, the EU expressed solidarity with all victims of persecution around the world. EU High Representative Josep Borrell said that everyone should have the right to have or not to have, to choose or to change their religion or belief, and not to be subjected to discrimination or coercion as a result.
23 August was declared European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes by the European Parliament in 2009, and has been officially commemorated in Slovenia since 2012.
