The Flooding of Bleiburg Field.

The only thing that confounds me more than what has slowly come to light over the past two months, since I was first informed of this scenario, is the fact that not a single utterance has emerged about it from the homeland.

Yes, you read correctly, I now have it on good authority that the Austrian Government, has over the past many months, instigated infrastructure works which are designed to turn Blieburg field into a permanent lake flooding the sacred ground where for the better part of 70 years generations of Croatians have congregated each year on or around May 12th to remember our Croatian Holocaust.

I still hope that this story is fictitious, but the reality is that numerous independent reports are coming in from associates of mine that the work, although unassuming and undeclared, is happening in earnest.

If true, then we need to ask the question who exactly within the Croatian government is aware of this as it is incomprehensible that our ministry of external affairs would be oblivious to it. In 2018, while attending the Bleiburg commemoration, I experienced first hand just how fragile a situation the event was in terms of the propaganda being spread about its intent and participants, and how Croats in attendance were treated, not as free European citizens, but rather masses not dissimilar to arriving cross border illegal immigrants contained and herded on the ground by overwhelming numbers of Austrian Police while Choppers flew overhead scanning the masses.

Since that time however, with the global pandemic causing its cancellation, rumors started that the probability of its continuance into the future was under a cloud, and indeed discussions as recently as November 2022 in the Austrian parliament, cemented it as not a case of if, but rather when. What we could never have suspected however is that rather than leaving this ground “In Situ” and just banning any public gathering there, that a diabolical plan would be hatched ensuring that no human could ever step foot on it in homage again.

I’m not going to carry on about the travesty unfolding here, I still hope the information is unfounded, but the sources I have verify otherwise. These are locals involved in artifact retrieval across Austria and Slovenia, and their interest in, and observation of the area is equivalent to a spy network.

They have sighted the works underway, have been advised of the works intent by the contractors and put a time frame of completion and flooding somewhere in the latter part of 2023. Something needs to be done sooner than later, the clock is ticking, but this needs to be an initiative beyond the few and by the many on a global sense.

The key to any success in stopping this project would be to rally patriotic Croats both within the homeland, and in the Diaspora, yet this is another problem for we technically no longer have a robust communal committee of organisations ready to call upon local embassy representatives of Croatia to even lodge a complaint let alone upward manage our dissatisfaction to Zagreb.

Nevertheless, I will be officially writing to the Croatian Consulate General’s in both Sydney and Melbourne in the next 24 hours requesting their urgent responses to the following questions.

• Is the Croatian Government aware of Austrian Government plans underway to render no access to the Bleiburg Field of remembrance by means of a permanent man-made lake?

 

• If not, that they verify in writing that they are, or are not aware, and in either instance either provide public comment regarding what is known or make further enquiry so as to confirm and provide further information via diplomatic dialogue.

 

• Advise the Australian (And International) Croatian Diaspora of any and all mechanisms available so as to lodge official complaint with a view to curtailing these works through Croatian and Austrian Diplomatic channels and or Judicial arbitration.

Should we receive confirmation that this indeed is underway, I will be calling upon patriotic Croats globally to join in establishing a working group tasked with exploring and utilizing all available channels (Including application to the European Court of Human Rights) in calling upon the Austrian Government to cease and desist, and likewise, the Croatian Government to either step forward and lead diplomatic efforts to do the same or show cause and reason why they refuse to.

I ask every Croat, and those that are friends of the Croat cause to copy and paste the link to this editorial and forward it to all of your loved ones so as awareness and urgency grows around this issue.

We have only months to stop this should it, or when it is, confirmed.

Za Domovinu Spremni / For Homeland Ready.

John