ZAGREB (AFP) - A proposal to turn a former communist gulag island off the Croatian coast into a tourist camp drew protests from an independent group which is investigating crimes committed by the communist Yugoslav regime.

"It is unacceptable that a tragic place of execution like Goli Otok, where Tito's Yugoslav communist regime killed over 30,000 political prisoners, will be used in future as a tourist destination," the Center for Investigation of Communist Crimes said in a statement.

A study recently ordered by the government envisaged "hard-labour holidays" on Goli Otok, a rocky and inhospitable island that was virtually abandoned following the dismantlement of a detention camp there as the Yugoslav federation crumbled in the late 1980s.

The aim would be for guests to survive long enough to receive a certificate at the end of the 'holiday' proving they had done their time.

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