Foibe Killings - Investigations

Investigations

No investigation of the crimes had been initiated either by Italy, Yugoslavia or any international bodies in the post-war period until after Slovenia became an independent country in 1991.

In 1993 a study titled Pola Istria Fiume 1943-1945 by Gaetano La Perna provided a detailed list of the victims of Yugoslav occupation (in September–October 1943 and from 1944 to the very end of the Italian presence in its former provinces) in the area. La Perna gave a list of 6,335 names (2,493 military, 3,842 civilians). The author considered this list "not complete". The study has, however, been the subject of criticism, in that its "list of over 6,000 dead includes not just those who disappeared in the foibe or Yugoslav concentration camps but also legitimate wartime casualties, executions after due process of Fascist officials, Germans or German collaborators. Finally, many Slovenes or Croats are listed as Italians because they happened to be Italian citizens; the fact that they were from the South Slav nations persecuted by the Italian Fascists does not seem to bother the author".

A 2002 joint report by the Rome "Society of Fiuman studies" (Società di Studi Fiumani) and the Zagreb "Croatian Institute of History" (Hrvatski institut za povijest) concluded that from Rijeka and the surrounding area "no less than 500 persons of Italian nationality lost their lives between 3 May 1945 and 31 December 1947. To these we should add an unknown number of 'missing' (not less than a hundred) relegated into anonymity due to missing inventory in the Municipal Registries together with the relevant number of victims having (...) Croatian nationality (who were often, at least between 1940 and 1943, Italian citizens) determined after the end of war by the Yugoslav communist regime."

In March 2006, the border municipality of Nova Gorica in Slovenia released a list of names of 1,048 citizens of Gorizia (Nova Gorica's Italian half) who disappeared in May 1945 after being arrested by the Partisan 9th Corps. According to the Slovene government, "the list contains the names of persons arrested in May 1945 and whose destiny cannot be determined with certainty or whose death cannot be confirmed".