Italy summons Croatian envoy over wartime killings

ROME, Feb 12 (Reuters) The Italian government today summoned the Croatian ambassador as a row escalated between the two countries over the World War Two killings of thousands of Italians in disputed territories that are now part of Croatia and Slovenia.

Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano at the weekend called the 1943-45 massacre of up to 15,000 Italians by Yugoslav partisans ''ethnic cleansing''. He said it was motivated by ''a wave of bloodthirsty hatred and fury as well as a Slavic annexation plan''.

Croatia fired back today by accusing Napolitano of making ''openly racist'' comments, prompting Italy's foreign minister to summon the Croatian ambassador for talks to be held on Tuesday.

A statement from the office of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said he was ''unpleasantly surprised by the content and the tone'' of Napolitano's remarks.

''It is impossible to overlook elements of open racism, historical revisionism and political revanchism in those statements which hardly fit in a declared wish for improvement of bilateral relations,'' the statement said.

The Italian foreign ministry called the Croatian president's remarks ''unacceptable''.

The tragedy is known in Italy as the ''foibe'', from the local name of the deep caves in which many of the victims were dumped, and to this day remains a very sensitive episode in the country's history.

After the killings, some 150,000 Italians fled from Istria and Dalmatia, regions which were occupied by Italy during the war and that now belong to Croatia and Slovenia, or were expelled and had their property confiscated.

But for decades the violence was banished from Italy's history books and hushed up by politicians keen to heal its war wounds and portray Communist partisans as national heroes who saved the country from being entirely tarred by its alliance with Adolf Hitler.

Two years ago, however, the Italian government created a ''Remembrance Day'' in memory of the killings. It was at this year's ceremony last Saturday that Napolitano, a former communist, made his unusually strongly-worded speech.

Italian officials have said that Croatia's talks to join the European Union, of which Italy is a founding member, must involve issues like compensation for lost Italian real estate and opening the local property market to Italians.

Reuters AD VP0205