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ThePečovnik Mine is a defunctcoal mine inZvodno,Slovenia. It is alleged that the site was used as amass grave andcrime scene whereYugoslav Partisans killed 12,000Croats by forcing them into the mine and covering them with concrete in 1945.[1]
DuringWorld War II, the mine worked under the direction ofGermans.[citation needed] After the defeat ofThird Reich in 1945,Yugoslav partisans captured the mine. Shortly afterward,Josip Broz Tito ordered theYugoslav Army to close it, although the local community argued that mine still had plenty ofcoal and was not ready to be closed. Before the mine was closed withconcrete on 8–9 May 1945, partisans forced 12,000 Croats to enter it, including 2,000 women and children. The next day, the partisans closed the mine, leaving them underground to die fromchoking,dehydration, orhunger.
Some local Slovenes were arrested and prosecuted for reportedly givingtestimony about the Pečovnik and Matjaževa pits to international journalists.[1]
Roman Leljak, with group ofarcheologists andhistorians, made the first investigations and archaeological excavations of victims in the early 1990s. They were supported and financed by theCroatian government until 2000.[citation needed]