BELGRADE URGED TO LAUNCH REPORT PROJECT ON NAZISM REHABILITATION IN CROATIA

BELGRADE, AUGUST 5 /SRNA/ - President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta, emphasized that Serbia should initiate a project to produce annual reports on the rehabilitation of Nazism, hate speech, and violence against Serbs in Croatia.

According to Linta, the reports should be translated into foreign languages and submitted to the Council of Europe, the European Commission, all Members of the European Parliament, relevant international organizations, EU member states, other countries, prominent individuals, and global media. "For the past 35 years, Croatia has actively pursued historical revisionism and the rehabilitation of the Ustasha ideology of the genocidal Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, glorifying prominent Ustasha figures, symbols, and insignia. Croatia has failed to confront its genocidal past and has not become a modern state that respects fundamental values," Linta said. He stated that the criminal nature of Croatia’s military Operation Storm was confirmed during recent events such as the concert by Marko Perković Thompson in Sinj and the football match between "Hajduk" and "Istra" in Split, where 150,000 Thompson fans and some 30,000 Hajduk supporters celebrated the suffering and expulsion of Krajina Serbs by glorifying the Ustasha legacy. At both events, Linta noted, crowds openly shouted the Nazi salute "For Homeland ready!" while raising their right hands, singing Ustasha songs such as "Go, Ustashas, go!" and others, wearing black shirts and displaying Ustasha insignia, and chanting anti-Serb slogans. He recalled that as early as 1993, Croatia adopted a decision to pay pensions to surviving Ustasha members and their families for crimes committed during the genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Linta also pointed out that Croatia’s 1996 Law on Public Holidays designates May 15 as the "Day of Remembrance for Croatian Victims of Freedom and Independence," marking the 1945 capitulation of remaining Ustasha forces at a castle near Bleiburg. "Through these decisions by the Croatian Parliament, Ustasha criminals were declared fighters for freedom," Linta emphasized. He concluded that the Croatian Government, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, has merely continued the rehabilitation of Ustasha ideology, a process initiated by Franjo Tuđman upon taking power in 1990.