CROATIA PROVES IT IS CAPTIVE TO FASCIST LEGACY

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 15 /SRNA/ – Miodrag Linta, President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region, stated that by lifting custody for nine Ustasha members charged with hate-motivated crimes against Serbs, Croatia has once again demonstrated that it remains trapped in its fascist past.

Linta emphasized that the scandalous, but expected decision of the County Court in Split is just one of many examples showing that the Croatian judiciary is neither independent nor impartial. “Croatia’s judicial system operates in the service of the Croatian state policy, one of whose goals is the rehabilitation of Ustasha ideology,” Linta said in a public statement. He reminded that the nine individuals released from custody were part of a group of at least 50 Ustasha followers dressed in black and wearing balaclavas who, on November 3, took the law into their own hands, forcibly entered municipal premises, and disrupted the ‘Days of Serbian Culture’ event in Split. During the incident, he noted, they shouted the Ustasha slogan “Za dom spremni” (“For the Homeland—Ready”) and “This is Croatia,” provoking participants of the event. According to Linta, members of the cultural association “Veliko Kolo” from Novi Sad—who came at the organizers’ invitation to perform at the event—along with elderly attendees and children, experienced severe stress and shock and were deeply frightened for their safety.