Govt approves creation of Foibe Remembrance Museum

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 31 - Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet on Wednesday approved the creation of a Museum of Remembrance of the Fiobe, the massacre of the thousands of Italians and the forced exile of others by Tito's partisans in ethnic cleansing at the end of World War II.
    The 'foibe' refers to mass killings of the local Italian population, mainly in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmatia during and after the war.
    Foibe are narrow Carsic pits or gorges into which victims were thrown, sometimes alive.
    The new museum was proposed by Meloni and Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.
    "The creation of the museum is a historical duty towards the Istrian, Fiuman and Dalmatian exiles who suffered under Tito's communist dictatorship," said Sangiuliano after the cabinet meeting.
    "These tragedies must not be forgotten. They are an important part of Italian history and must be known and understood by the new generations".
    He said the Lazio region, which Rome belongs to, has pledged to make a building available for the museum.
    Many of the 'foibe' victims were thrown into the narrow mountain gorges during anti-Fascist uprisings in the area and the exact number of victims of these atrocities is unknown, in part because Tito's forces destroyed local population records to cover up their crimes.
    Italy did not have a Foibe Remembrance Day, held on February 10, until 2005, as the tragedy had been swept under the carpet by anti-Fascists in the postwar years. (ANSA).