There are around 600 military graveyards listed in the state registry. This year in June another area situated at the military airport at Cerklje ob Krki was added to the list. In April construction workers discovered the first 10 skeletons while digging. Since then archeologists have discovered 150 skeletons, excavated from four former army trenches. One can only guess the total number of those killed and buried after the end of WWII, as there are no records available from that time. And as there are no more funds to continue the support of the excavation, the question remains whether we'll find out the total number at all.

Luka Rozman, in charge of archeological excavations at the Archeological Bureau Skupina Magelan, explains the discoveries so far: »With the help of different objects found beside the victims, the evidence until now shows that around 150 soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) were tied and killed in the four listed trenches. In May 1945 NDH soldiers were retreating through this territory into the Austrian Carinthia region.«

The great deal of found objects, including a large number of ammunition remains, testifies that the victims were most likely killed expeditiously in that area. Archeologists will now stop excavating, even though the Government Commission for the Issues of Hidden Mass Graves is convinced that the whole area should be probed and that Croatia should be informed about the findings.

The excavated human remains are temporarily being kept at the military airport. A process to identify the victims by age, sex and cause of death will be carried out. Meanwhile the modernization of the airport, to be concluded until the end of November, is rapidly continuing. The Defence Ministry of the Republic of Slovenia assures that the airport's renovation is not under question because of the findings. According to present plans, they have no intention of continuing with construction work on those areas where the hidden graves were discovered.