LINTA: USTASHA SKEJO ACQUITTED IN AN ANTI-CIVILIZATIONAL RULING

BELGRADE, JULY 15 /SRNA/ - President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta said that in Croatia it is permissible to express fierce hatred towards Serbs by chanting the Ustasha salute "Za dom spremni" /"For the Homeland Ready"/, and that this was confirmed by the latest anti-civilizational ruling of the court in Split concerning members of the Croatian Defense Forces /HOS/.

Linta stated that the Split Misdemeanour Court had issued a pro-fascist and anti-civilizational ruling acquitting neo-Ustasha figure and wartime commander of the HOS formation Marko Skejo and 12 of his followers, finding that they had not committed even a public order offence in Knin during the commemoration of the criminal Operation Storm.

Linta reminded that four years ago, during the commemoration of Operation Storm in Knin, Skejo and his supporters chanted the official salute of the Ustasha regime and the genocidal Independent State of Croatia, "Za dom spremni" /"For the Homeland Ready"/, according to a statement from the Alliance of Serbs from the Region.

He said that the ruling came as no surprise and noted that in June 2020 judges of the High Misdemeanour Court in Zagreb had issued a scandalous ruling that Marko Perković Thompson, the leading promoter of Ustasha ideology, had not violated the law by using the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland Ready" at the beginning of the anti-Serb song "Bojna Čavoglave.“

"The High Misdemeanour Court, through its ruling, confirmed the undisputed fact that the Croatian judiciary is actively contributing to the complete rehabilitation of the Ustasha movement and the genocidal Independent State of Croatia," Linta said.

He noted that the use of the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland Ready" in Croatia is not even considered a public order offence, although it is clearly a criminal act motivated primarily by hatred towards Serbs and everything Serbian.

He recalled that Article 325 of Croatia's Criminal Code stipulates that anyone who incites hatred or encourages violence may be sentenced to up to three years in prison, but added that no one in Croatia has been punished under that provision.

Linta added that several Croatian institutions have legalised the Ustasha salute and pointed out that in 2017, the Ministry of Public Administration issued an opinion confirming that associations whose statutes and emblems include the salute could be registered.

Linta also recalled that in 2018, the Croatian Government's Council for Dealing with the Consequences of the Rule of Non-Democratic Regimes adopted a decision allowing the use of the salute in certain circumstances.

He said that all these rulings confirm the undeniable truth that Croatia is not a modern and democratic state because universal values, international conventions, the Constitution and the law are not respected there.

"Croatia is essentially a chauvinistic state in which it is permissible to express fierce hatred towards Serbs by chanting the Ustasha salute 'For the Homeland Ready' and in many other ways as well," Linta said.