Remains Found in Konfin Mass Grave Already Identified
The mass grave located in the Konfin pothole in Kocevski rog (SE) differs from other mass graves which resulted from post Second World War killings, in that experts have already identified the remains of the 88 murdered people.
The corpses belong to a group of injured and sick people who were brought in June 1945 from the central prisons of the Yugoslav Security and Intelligence Service (OZNA) in Ljubljana and were killed on the edge of the Konfin pothole.
A criminal investigator and member of the government commission on concealed mass graves Pavel Jamnik told the press on Monday that every new piece of evidence found during the exhumation would form the basis for new prosecutions and to supplement ongoing cases.
The identities of the murdered individuals were established following an analysis of the OZNA prison records. According to Jamnik, the records indicate that the prisoners were taken to the place of execution on 20 June 1945 at one o'clock in the morning.
According to anthropologist Petra Leban Seljak, the preliminary analysis indicates that the corpses were of men alone, half of them younger than 25. None is said to have been younger than 16 or 18.
As the experts also established, at least 30 skulls show evidence of damage caused by firearms. An indication that there were sick, disabled and injured people among those killed is supported by the fact that crutches were found in the grave.
As part of the current criminal investigation, possible eyewitnesses and people who might know more about the killings of injured and disabled people and patients who were brought to the prisons from the hospital in Ljubljana have already been interviewed.
Cavers removed about 40 cubic metres of material from the mass grave in the Konfin pothole and reached the bottom, which is 40 metres deep. Archaeologists and anthropologists began work in the pothole a week ago.
Leading cave rescuers from the speleological societies of Domzale and Ribnica and Krka began removing material from the pothole in the first half of August.
The extracted material was piled up alongside the pothole as proof against the perpetrators who threw logs onto the corpses and blew up the pothole to conceal their crime.
Head of the commission for concealed mass graves Joze Dezman said that the human remains will be brought to Slovenska Bistrica, but there were plans for provincial ossuaries to be built.
The murder of POWs, injured, sick and disabled in June 1945 at the Konfin pothole is in Dezman's opinion one of the worst crimes committed against disabled and sick people.
As most of the victims are Slovenians, the Labour Ministry has decided together with the commission and in cooperation with the Justice Ministry, to exhume the human remains.
There are thought to be around 400 similar graves around Kocevje, and as many around Ribnica. The current findings of the government commission indicate that there are probably between 400 and 500 similar graves in the rest of Slovenia.
The commission has as its long-term goal the exhumation and re-burial of all Slovenian victims in Slovenia. It is planning another exhumation at the Lovrenska grapa gorge near Skofja Loka.
Post-WWII summary killings have been a contentious political issue in Slovenia ever since the country gained independence in 1991.
Nobody has been yet charged for the killings - thought to be mostly of suspected members of the Home Guard, who were accused of collaborating with the occupying forces - although the prosecution recently asked that a court order an investigation into the actions of a former high ranking Slovenian communist official.
However, the Ljubljana District Court threw out criminal proceedings against Mitja Ribicic for his alleged involvement in post-war killings due to a lack of evidence. The verdict was questioned by some senior government officials.
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