ZAGREB, February 12, 2019 - Austria's Federal Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday stated that it had extended a list of banned political symbols to include, among other things, two Ustasha symbols.

The list of the banned insignia, posted on the ministry's website, includes 13 flags and symbols of which most relate to Islamist and terrorist organisations, whereas two are symbols of the 1941-1945 Nazi-style Ustasha regime in Croatia.

The initiative to forbid by law those two symbols was launched by the regional authorities in Carinthia, where every year in mid-May a commemoration is held in Bleiburg in memory of victims killed in the wake of the Second World War by the Tito-led Partisans. During those commemorative events, some appear in Ustasha uniforms, display Ustasha insignia or perform the Nazi salute, for which they are regularly arrested by local police.

Austrian members of the European Parliament have requested the ban on symbols of WW2-era pro-Fascist regimes in Europe.

The list of the proscribed symbols includes also insignia of the Society of the Muslim Brothers, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Kurdish PKK party and the Turkish Grey Wolves.

The maximum fine for using the proscribed insignia is 4,000 euro, and those who repeat the offence can be fined up to 10,000 euro.

More news on the Bleiburg commemorations can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, October 4, 2018 - The Austrian federal coalition government on Wednesday sent to parliament a bill expanding the list of banned extremist symbols, including the insignia of Croatia's World War II Ustasha regime.

ZAGREB, May 30, 2018 - Three of five Croatian nationals who are currently in custody in Klagenfurt, Austria for displaying banned WWII insignia during a memorial ceremony at Bleiburg in mid-May will go on trial in late June, a Klagenfurt court said on Wednesday.

ZAGREB, May 29, 2018 - MP Hrvoje Zekanović of the far-right HRAST party told a news conference in parliament on Tuesday that he was dissatisfied with the conduct of the Austrian police which detained Croatian pilgrims for several hours at the border while they attempted to attend a commemorative event in Bleiburg and the Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry for not caring about several Croats detained in Klagenfurt.

ZAGREB, May 16, 2018 - Five Croatian and one Slovenian national are in custody in Klagenfurt, Austria, on suspicion that they broke an Austrian law banning the display of fascist and Nazi symbols at a commemoration at Bleiburg on Saturday, Austrian media said on Wednesday.

ZAGREB, May 13, 2018 - Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin on Saturday evening commented on the commemoration in Bleiburg, saying that "Croatia has once again chosen which side it is on", the media in Belgrade reported.

ZAGREB, May 13, 2018 - Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Saturday that the national legislature would continue providing patronage for the annual mid-May central commemoration of victims killed in the Austrian Bleiburg field in the wake of the Second World War, and underscored that those developments in the aftermath of the WW2 were a difficult chapter of the complex Croatian history.

ZAGREB, May 12, 2018 - About a hundred activists from Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Austria gathered in the southern Austrian town of Bleiburg on Saturday to protest against the memorial service in nearby Bleiburg Field for tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH) who were killed in the aftermath of World War II, saying that they saw the ceremony as "an Ustasha event".

ZAGREB, May 12, 2018 - A ceremony was held at Bleiburg, southern Austria, on Saturday to commemorate tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) who surrendered to allied forces there in May 1945, but were handed over by British troops to Yugoslav forces. Many were executed on the spot, while many perished during so-called death marches back to Yugoslavia.

ZAGREB, May 8, 2018 - The Honorary Bleiburg Platoon (PBV) on Tuesday presented measures and a code of conduct adopted in cooperation with the Catholic Church and state authorities in Austria in order to maintain the dignity of Saturday's commemoration of the victims killed in the Bleiburg field and during 'Way of the Cross' in the wake of the Second World War.