LINTA: EU HAS OBLIGATION TO CALL ON CROATIA TO CONDEMN USTASHISM

BELGRADE, AUGUST 26 /SRNA/ - President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta said that the EU has an obligation to call on Croatia to unequivocally condemn Ustashism, refer to the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/ for what it was, a genocidal Ustasha regime, and finally acknowledge and commemorate with dignity the suffering of the Serbian people.

On the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, observed on August 23, Linta stressed that it was unacceptable to speak only about communist crimes while the crimes of the genocidal Ustasha regime were deliberately sidelined.

He stressed that Europe must not be a place where some victims are remembered while others are ignored, the Alliance of Serbs from the Region said in a statement.

He believes that the first important step in that direction must be for Croatia to adopt a law banning and criminalising the use of Ustasha symbols, denial of concentration camps and death camps, and the glorification of Ustasha criminals.

Linta stressed that concerts by singer Marko Perković Thompson at which the Ustasha salute “Za dom spremni” /For the Homeland Ready/ and other Ustasha symbols are used, and the Ustasha regime and Ustashism are glorified, must be banned.

He considers it particularly hypocritical when Croatian politicians invoke European values and condemn totalitarianism while, at the same time, Croatia has for many years pursued a policy of rehabilitating and relativising Ustashism and the NDH, promoting Ustasha symbols, and downplaying and denying the suffering of the Serbian people.

“This year again, we have witnessed a policy of selective remembrance in Croatia, where government officials once again spoke exclusively about the crimes of the communist and Italian Fascist regimes, while ignoring the crimes of the genocidal Ustasha regime and the mass and systematic persecution and suffering of Serbs, Jews and Roma,” Linta said.

He pointed out that Croatian institutions are taking steps to locate, exhume and provide dignified burials for the remains of members of the Ustasha regime, while Serbian victims of the Ustasha genocide are still waiting for exhumation, identification, dignified burial and for the numerous sites where they were killed to be properly marked.

Linta noted that, on the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance, Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković visited Goli Otok and Rab, sites where victims of the communist regime suffered, but did not visit Slana and Metajna on the island of Pag, where Ustasha camps were located.

He recalled the research of historian Đuro Zatezalo, according to which more than 8,000 Serbs and Jews were killed at the Slana camp in less than two months in 1941.

Linta stressed that the policy of double standards towards totalitarian ideologies clearly demonstrates that Croatia has not truly and comprehensively confronted its criminal past.

He pointed out that the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, observed on August 23, should be a day of truth, remembrance and equal respect for all innocent victims.