Foreign minister Antonio Tajani and premier Giorgia Meloni were set to attend the Italian government's ceremony in Basovizza in the province of Trieste, northeast Italy on Saturday to commemorate the victims of a World War II massacre by Yugoslav communist forces.
The ceremony is being held at the 250-metre deep former mining shaft in Basovizza, down which Yugoslav partisans threw and unknown number of people in May 1945 after their summary executions.
Saturday marks the annual 'day of remembrance' for the victims at Basovizza and the thousands of others killed during the 'foibe' - the name of deep caves where Yugoslav partisans dumped the bodies of thousands of people murdered in 1943-1945.
The 'day of remembrance also commemorates the exodus of Istrians, Fiumeans and Dalmatians from their lands as Yugoslav forces moved into the Istria and Dalmatia regions which had been part of fascist Italy since the 1920s.
Tajani and Meloni are attending the ceremony in Basovizza together with other ministers and representatives of the regions and local institutions and Tajani will lay a laurel wreath on behalf of the foreign ministry.
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