PLENKOVIĆ HAS NO CREDIBILITY TO LECTURE SERBIA ABOUT GENERAL MLADIĆ

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 2 /SRNA/ – Miodrag Linta, Chair of the Association of Serbs from the Region, told Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković today that he has no moral right to lecture Serbia about catharsis and confronting the past while at the same time defending and praising the main promoter of Ustasha ideology in Croatia, singer Marko Perković Thompson.

“What kind of catharsis is Plenković talking about when addressing Serbia if, at the same time, he defends a singer whose performances have for decades been associated with the rehabilitation of the Ustasha regime and the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, and at whose concerts the ‘For the Homeland Ready’ salute and other Ustasha symbols are used on a massive scale?” Linta asked.

He described it as particularly hypocritical for Plenković to take the liberty of lecturing Serbia about catharsis because of the funeral of General Ratko Mladić while simultaneously ignoring and relativizing the problem of the Ustasha legacy in Croatia.

“His government established the Council facing consequences of the rule of undemocratic regimes in 2017. Although the Council determined that the ‘For the Homeland Ready’ salute was unconstitutional, it simultaneously left open the possibility of its public use on certain commemorative occasions for fallen members of Croatian paramilitary, military and police forces,” Linta recalled.

He said that this was a shameful and anti-civilizational policy of double standards in which the Ustasha salute is formally condemned, while exceptions are then sought for its use.

“While Plenković lectures Serbia about confronting the past, Croatian state institutions continue to sponsor commemorations at which the deaths of members of the Ustasha and other armed forces of the genocidal NDH are placed at the centre of state remembrance. It is precisely the Croatian Parliament that is the patron of one such scandalous commemoration at Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb,” he said.

Linta reiterated that Plenković has absolutely no credibility to lecture Serbia about catharsis.

“Before calling on Serbia to finally confront its past, he should help Croatia confront its Ustasha legacy and the relativization of Ustashs symbolism,” he said.

Linta stressed that the first steps should be for Croatia to ban Thompson’s concerts and adopt law banning and criminalizing the use of Ustasha symbols, denial of concentration camps and death camps, and glorification of Ustasha war criminals, the Association of Serbs from the Region said.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today in Gospić that “by glorifying and potentially giving a state character to Ratko Mladić’s funeral, Serbia is demonstrating a lack of catharsis and that as such will not enter Europe.”