"The painful affair of the foibe, and
the subsequent forced Istrian and Giuliano-Dalmatian exodus,
were acts of ethnic cleansing," said Vice-Premier and Foreign
Minister Antonio Tajani at the ceremony at the Quirinale for the
Day of Remembrance.
"In those months," Tajani argues, "at the end of a tragic
conflict, the most deterrent nationalism and totalitarian
ideology merged to dig a bloody furrow among the populations of
the eastern shore of the Adriatic. Populations that had
coexisted for centuries in a complex but fruitful balance for
those lands and people. Unfortunately, the foibe is not the only
act of ethnic cleansing that has plagued the Balkans in the 20th
century. Indeed, they can be said to have anticipated other
tragedies, which, half a century later, would mark the
dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. But of course, these
events concern us most closely, touching us most painfully."
For this reason, the minister remarked, "the Berlusconi
government in 2004 decided to establish the day of remembrance
on February 10, as a dutiful tribute to the victims and as a
warning so that similar tragedies are not repeated." Remembering
"is a moral, civil and political duty," the minister warned, "in
no way does it mean reopening old conflicts. Those responsible
for those massacres were persons long gone, framed within an
armed force, the expression of a now-dissolved state - the
Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, led by Marshal Tito - and
were inspired by an ideology defeated by history. The states
that have taken the place of the former Yugoslavia bear no
responsibility for the violence of that time."
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