Ljubljana - Commenting on President Borut Pahor's formal apology to the erased, the newspaper Dnevnik says on Saturday, on the 30th anniversary of the erasure, that this comes after state officials wanted to further erase those 25,671 people to silence them. It is ironic it was Pahor who apologised, the paper points out.

For 30 years it was not self-evident to state representatives that the erased even exist, notes Dnevnik, adding that "it will go down in history as an irony that it was Pahor who apologised to the erased on behalf of the country", since he was one of those contributing to the political spin on the matter and making them wait even longer to get the apology.

Pahor was the parliamentary speaker when the National Assembly, under unusual circumstances, "missed" the deadline for filing a constitutional review of the referendum on the erased twenty years ago. This paved the way for another series of political attacks on the erased.

They had received apologies for the erasure by senior officials even before Pahor's apology on Friday, but this marked the first time an apology was formal, given in a written form.

The erased and their relatives now call for an honest reflection on the matter by those who were responsible for the erasure and for this deed to get a place in history textbooks, to be recognised as part of Slovenia's history.

"The erasure was rooted in war, and it continues in wars. New crimes are riding on the horizon in our direction. We will have to confront them as well. And stop them," says the commentary under the headline Crimes on the Horizon.