ZAGREB, August 15, 2019 - After the High Magistrates' Court confirmed that a local singer, by chanting the salute 'For the homeland ready' while performing a song by pop singer Marko Perković Thompson, had committed a misdemeanour, Public Ombudswoman Lora Vidović said that this was the first time a higher court had stated its position on Thompson's song "Bojna Čavoglave".

The High Magistrates' Court on Wednesday published its ruling upholding a decision by a lower court that Mario Roso, a singer from Makarska, had committed a misdemeanour at a celebration of Homeland Thanksgiving Day in 2015 by chanting the salute "For the homeland ready" while performing the song authored by Thompson.

The High Magistrates' Court thus upheld the lower court's opinion that by chanting "For the homeland" and "For the homeland ready" as part of the song "Bojna Čavoglave", Roso had breached the law on offences against public order.

The High Magistrates' Court published its ruling two months after handing it down and ten days after Thompson performed the song with the salute at a concert in Split.

This is not the first ruling of the High Magistrates' Court regarding the salute "For the homeland ready" but is the first ruling of a higher court on the chanting of the contentious salute as part of the song "Bojna Čavoglave", Hina was told by sources at the Office of the Public Ombudswoman.

The High Magistrates' Court earlier ruled on four occasions on the contentious salute, each time deciding on earlier rulings by different lower courts.

In each of those cases, the High Magistrates' Court upheld the sentencing verdicts of the lower courts for the use of the salute in situations other than the latest one, stating explicitly in each ruling that the salute is unlawful.

"The High Magistrates' Court stated clearly in its rulings that the "For the homeland ready" salute symbolises hatred towards people of a different race, religion and ethnicity and is a manifestation of a racist ideology and belittles victims of crimes against humanity, as confirmed by the Constitutional Court, but many have seemed to disregard the two courts' positions and messages or still do not hear them clearly," the Office of the Public Ombudswoman said.

Under the practice of the Constitutional Court and the High Magistrates' Court, any chanting of the salute is contrary to the law, the Office of the Public Ombudswoman said, noting that police had to do their job and file misdemeanour charges against anyone chanting the salute, regardless of the occasion, just as courts had to do their part of the job.

So far, police have quoted court practice in cases when they failed to press charges against Thompson for chanting the salute as part of his song "Bojna Čavoglave".

In August 2018, the Sisak-Moslavina County police failed to press charges against Thompson after a concert in the town of Glina, saying that "according to the court practice so far, (the chanting of the salute) did not constitute incitement to hate."

Police in Split-Dalmatia County, too, failed to press charges against the singer after his recent concert in Split.

Commenting on the High Magistrates' Court ruling, deputy chief police director Josip Ćelić said on Wednesday that police had to enforce laws and that it was not their duty to interpret them. "In line with uniform court practice, the police will enforce laws," he said.

Asked if police would press charges against Thompson if he continued using the salute at his concerts, Ćelić said that he did not have a copy of the High Magistrates' Court ruling, adding that "if such a decision is made, we will certainly act in line with the law."

Asked if that meant that police would file misdemeanour charges, Ćelić said: "Absolutely".

Attorneys Anto Nobilo and Alan Sorić commented on the relevance of the High Magistrates' Court ruling, stressing that the salute in question was a fascist, Ustasha salute.

Nobilo welcomed the ruling, saying that the highest misdemeanour court had finally taken the right position, while Sorić said that the decision was wrong as it would restrict freedom of speech.

"I really hope it will help all lower courts to rule in the same way, but primarily that it will motivate police to simply start working in line with the law," said Nobilo, who believes that the latest ruling is actually binding on all lower courts.

Sorić believes that aligning decisions of lower courts with those of higher courts is desirable but notes that that is not always the case because a ruling of a high court is not binding on other courts.

Sorić also believes that the High Magistrates' Court's ruling is wrong because one should take into account the context in which "For the homeland ready" is chanted.

Completely outlawing a slogan leads inevitably to restriction of the freedom of speech, says Sorić, adding that protecting the freedom of speech is more important than outlawing a slogan, regardless of how much shameful and scandalous it might be.

In a comment on the High Magistrates' Court ruling, Thompson's lawyer Davorin Karačić said that the court was known for making different decisions on the same type of cases. He said that the doctrine of precedent did not exist in Croatia and that it was possible that one and the same case could have a different outcome before a different panel of judges of the High Magistrates' Court.

More news about Ustasha revisionism can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 14, 2019 - The Jutarnji List daily on Wednesday ran an article on a decision of the High Magistrate Court to fine a local singer, Mario Roso, for uttering the salute "For the homeland ready" while singing the song of Marko Perković Thompson "Bojna Čavoglave" during a celebration of the Operation Storm's anniversary in the town of Makarska.

The daily newspaper says that it has obtained a copy of the June 13 final ruling of the High Magistrate Court which reads that the above-mentioned salute had been used as the official salute of the 1941-1945 Ustasha movement that was based on racism and therefore symbolises hatred to people on the basis of their race, religion and ethnicity.

According to the daily, the court dismisses the defence's claims that the salute sung by singer Roso was identical to the form used in the original text of the song "Bojna Čavoglave" and it holds that the defendant should have been aware of possible negative effects of chanting that salute. The court also holds that the defendant "should have refrained from such behaviour".

The court says in its ruling that chanting that salute in this case was therefore in contravention of Article 39 of Croatia's Constitution that reads that "any call for or incitement to war or use of violence, to national, racial or religious hatred, or any form of intolerance shall be prohibited and punishable by law."

The fact that the mentioned salute was a part of a song that is considered an artistic creation does not alter the fact that the salute also symbolises hatred for other people due to their religious and ethnic background, the explanation says.

The court holds that chanting that salute "creates a latent danger, unease and anxiety among persons who do not belong to a majority ethnic or religious or group".

Roso was fined 765 kuna plus court costs of 200 kuna, the daily reported.

More news about Ustasha revisionism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 8, 2019 - A source at the Ministry of the Interior has shifted onto courts the blame for the failure of the police to act following the chanting of the "For the homeland ready" Ustasha salute earlier this week in Knin and Split, saying that courts do not act on police reports, the Jutarnji List daily issue of Thursday reported.

"The police are definitely not the problem, I don't know why they are being blamed so much," a high source at the Ministry of the Interior said on the condition of anonymity, after asked by the daily about the fact that two police departments said after celebrations of the Operation Storm anniversary in Knin and a concert by pop singer Marko Perković Thompson in Split that they would not press charges against the singer or against former members of HOS units for chanting in public the "For the homeland ready" salute, used in the World War II Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

The salute was chanted at Thompson's concert in Split last Sunday by the singer and his audience (some of whom displayed Ustasha insignia), and on the following day, former HOS fighters chanted the salute at the central commemoration of the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin, the daily recalls.

Police are ceasing to press misdemeanour charges because they did not get confirmation from courts in any of the previous cases when they filed reporters over the chanting of the controversial salute, that their actions were right, the source said.

"If magistrates' courts or judges who have studied law for five years do not want to respect the position on the salute taken by the High Magistrates' Court and the Constitutional Court, why do you expect police officers on the ground to do so?" the source said.

As for claims that by failing to appeal against acquittals in such cases the police, too, have become responsible for such court rulings becoming final, the source said that in some cases concerning Marko Perković Thompson and former HOS fighters, police did appeal against acquittals but that the High Magistrates' Court had still not delivered final verdicts.

Two years ago, on July 5, 2017, during celebrations of the Operation Storm anniversary in Knin, former HOS fighters, led by Marko Skejo, chanted the "For the homeland ready" salute outside a monument dedicated to the 1995 military operation in the town centre, after which they crossed the street and continued shouting the salute in a cafe.

The police filed a misdemeanour report, and a local court in May 2018 made an unusual ruling - it fined Skejo and former HOS fighters for chanting the salute in the cafe but acquitted them for chanting it outside the monument.

The source at the Ministry of the Interior claims that in June 2018 the police appealed against the acquittal. The High Magistrates' Court has confirmed that it received the appeal in June 2018, saying that a ruling is pending.

A decision on an appeal lodged by the police against a court ruling acquitting Thompson for chanting the salute at a concert in Knin in 2015 has still not been made either, the daily said.

More news about the Ustasha revisionism can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 7, 2019 - Public Ombudswoman Lora Vidovic has said that failure to file criminal reports over the chanting of the 'For the homeland ready' salute by former HOS members in Knin and at a concert of pop singer Marko Perković in Split would amount to "gross violation of Croatia's' legal order".

She told the Jutarnji List daily on Wednesday that in the event the police persisted in not lodging a criminal report for the two cases, then the Interior Minister and the Prime Minister should get involved in the matter.

Recently Hina learned that the police will not file a criminal report against members of the 9th HOS Battalion who on Monday morning chanted the salute 'For the homeland ready' in front of a monument dedicated to the 1995 Operation Storm in Knin during the celebration of the national Victory Day.

The Šibenik-Knin County Police Department confirmed that while paying tribute to fellow fighters killed in the 1991-95 war, HOS members, led by Marko Skejo, chanted the "For the homeland ready" salute, which was used in the World War II Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH). "There is nothing contentious about it, they chanted the salute in front of the monument. It would be contentious if they used it outside commemorative events, in the city streets," spokeswoman Marica Kosor said in her explanation.

As for the concert at Split's Riva, the local police told the daily that all songs performed during the event were not prohibited and that there was no accident against public peace and order. The Split-Dalmatia police also said that they acted in line with final rulings of the magistrate courts regarding this matter.

However, according to the Jutarnji List daily, Ombudswoman Vidović insists that the rulings of the High Magistrate Court and the Constitutional Court have made it clear that the salute 'For the homeland ready' is punishable in all circumstances and without exception.

The decisions made by the Constitutional Court are obligatory for all, Vidovic was quoted by the daily as saying.

If the police decide not to file criminal reports, it is an act of political opportunism, she said.

Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said on Tuesday that he found the Ustasha salute 'For the homeland ready' to be unacceptable, and that one should avoid using it, however, each case has its and circumstances which is why it is necessary to consider place and time of its use.

"I find that salute to be unacceptable. Anyway, it evokes hard times, the (1941-1945) Independent State of Croatia (NDH). I think it should be avoided," the minister told the commercial RTL broadcaster.

Asked by the anchorwoman to explain whether it was unacceptable to use that salute during the central commemoration of Victory Day in Knin on Monday, the minister went on to say that "each case has its specificity and circumstances".

"We have a situation that makes us realise that things should not be seen in black and white only, as some would like to present. We had the HOS units as part of the Croatian army. They were legal, they have a legal coat of arms that includes the salute 'For the homeland ready'. So when this salute is uttered, one should look at the circumstance, the place and the time where and when it is uttered. If this happens in a commemorative space in connection with HOS members, too, then that cannot be prosecuted," the minister explained.

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ZAGREB, August 2, 2019 - A memorial ceremony was held on Friday at the Roma cemetery in Uštica, about 100 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, for more than 16,000 Roma killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp during the Second World War.

The commemoration, organised by the Roma organisation Kali Sara and the Council of the Roma Minority in Croatia, was held on International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the Porajmos, which is marked in Croatia on August 2.

Attending the commemoration were Deputy Prime Minister Davor Božinović on behalf of the government, Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivan Žinić as President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's envoy, Deputy Parliament Speaker Sinisa Hajdaš Dončić, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić as well as members of the diplomatic corps.

After prayers, Božinovic and MP Marija Mačković laid wreaths and paid tribute to the Roma victims.

Addressing those gathered, the representative of the Roma community in the Croatian parliament, MP Veljko Kajtazi, said that he was pleased that after seventy years, people started talking about the Roma victims of the Ustasha-run Jasenovac concentration camp.

He added that he could not be completely satisfied with the status of the Roma community in Croatia but that he hoped that the operating programme for the Roma would be implemented in cooperation with the government before the end of its term.

"We hope that with the assistance of the City of Zagreb and the Croatian government next year we will open a Roma Memorial Centre here," Kajtazi said and added that Roma in Croatia can significantly contribute to Croatia's economic development along with other citizens.

More news about the Jasenovac concentration camp can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 1, 2019 - A court in Klagenfurt, Austria on Thursday sentenced a 48-year-old Croatian citizen to 18 months' imprisonment for repeating the offence of displaying Nazi symbols, i.e. showing the Hitler salute at this year's Bleiburg commemoration, Austrian media reported.

The man pleaded guilty and said the Hitler salute would be "perceived more mildly" in Croatia, but conceded that he had drunk too much and done a "really stupid thing."

He has been in custody since mid-May. Two months of the 18-month sentence are non-suspended.

Prosecutor Christian Pirker said the salute was a deliberate act of provocation because it was done after the commemoration.

Judge Gernor Kugi took the perpetrator's high intoxication as a mitigating circumstance and called the sentence as "preventative" for participants in future Bleiburg commemorations.

The commemoration is held annually in Loibach Field near the town of Bleiburg for soldiers of Croatia's Nazi-allied Ustasha regime who were killed there at the end of World War II.

This year's gathering was held under tighter security after Austria added symbols of the 1941-45 Independent State of Croatia to the list of banned symbols from the Nazi period.

The Croat sentenced today was the only offender at this year's commemoration. Last year, seven persons were arrested for displaying Nazi symbols.

More news about the Bleiburg commemoration can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 10, 2019 - A memorial plaque was unveiled at the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in Zagreb on Wednesday to commemorate doctors and nuns who had treated and hidden Jews during World War II, saving many of them from concentration camps and death.

The inscription on the plaque bears the names of the hospital's then director Bogoljuba Javzo and doctors Vatroslav Folrschultz, Aleksandar Blašković, Vinko Panac, Milan Žepić, Kurt Huhn and Josip Glaser.

The information on the Jews treated at the Sisters of Mercy Hospital during WWII was collected by Zagreb lawyer Marko Danon while researching the history of his own family.

According to documents he received at the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade, by May 1943, or the deportation of Zagreb's Jewish community to Auschwitz, 250 Jews had been treated in the hospital, 70 of whom survived the war.

Danon highlighted the important role of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who frequently visited the hospital.

The hospital's present director Mario Zovak said that there were many personal accounts indicating that even in the darkest of times people showed their humanity and mercy. He noted that not one doctor or nun had informed on any of their Jewish patients.

The Speaker of Parliament, Gordan Jandroković, said that these witness testimonies cast a new light on the events from WWII and the role of Cardinal Stepinac and nuns in helping Jews. "This is a story of noble people who risked their own lives to save others. This is a story of good people in difficult times, in terrifying times, and they deserve great respect," he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Order of Sisters of Mercy, mother superior Miroslava Bradica said that today's event cleared the name of Cardinal Stepinac and the nuns who had done all they could to help, even at the cost of their own lives. She said that despite that, 95 nuns were forced to leave the hospital in 1945 and seven were killed.

More news about events from the Second World War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 2, 2019 - Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić said on Tuesday that the monument to be erected in Zagreb to commemorate Holocaust victims would be in line with the project design that had been selected as the best, adding that the inscription on the monument would "say what it should say."

"The monument project that has won the tender will be installed at the selected location. We will do it and we owe it to all Holocaust victims," Bandić said.

He added that the inscription on the monument would say "what it should say" and that talks on the matter were proceeding as planned.

"Croatia will decide on the matter on its own and no one will set any conditions to it," he said.

Work on installing the monument, designed by Dalibor Stošić and Krešimir Rogina, has not begun yet and the city authorities plan to erect the memorial near the Central Railway Station in Branimirova Street in tribute to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, with the message that the past must not repeat itself.

The Jewish Community of Zagreb (ŽOZ) recently condemned the decision by the Zagreb City Assembly to erect the monument.

The World Jewish Congress joined ŽOZ in denouncing the decision, saying that its purpose is to conceal the truth about the killings of Jews in the Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor has criticised the decision as well.

ŽOZ and the WJC believe that the decision aims to conceal the crimes of the Ustasha by giving the false impression that Nazi Germany alone was responsible for the horrors of the Holocaust.

Mor has said that although the idea to commemorate the Jews who perished in the Holocaust is always a positive sign, it is also important that every country in which Jews were murdered face its own history without trying to embellish it.

More info about Holocaust in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2019 - A ceremony was held in Jadovno, about 20 kilometres west of the central town of Gospić, to commemorate over 10,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croats killed in an Ustasha-run concentration camp there in 1941.

The commemoration was organised by the Serb National Council, the coordinating body of Jewish communities in Croatia, the Serb Orthodox Eparchy of Upper Karlovac and the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists (SABA), whose leaders warned of war crimes committed by the Nazi-allied Ustaha regime being denied in present-day Croatia.

"We want the whole truth about these horrifying death camps to reach the Croatian public and the international community, especially young people who know nothing about them, neither what the (Ustasha-ruled) Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was nor what it was founded upon," said the coordinator of the Jewish communities of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus.

Kraus warned of groups systematically denying that the NDH was a criminal creation, stressing that they were being assisted in this by media and political office holders.

"A few days ago, the president of Croatia received representatives of the pro-Ustasha initiative Hrvatski Obredni Zdrug Jazovka for whom Jadovno is a lie," Kraus said, emphasising that all war crimes should be condemned but should be differentiated and never equated. "It should be made clear who was the victim and who the executioner, who was the fighter and victor and who the criminal and defeated."

The head of the Serb National Council, Milorad Pupovac, also brought attention to the downplaying of war crimes committed by the Ustasha regime, wondering if there was any other country in the EU where the prime minister was called the murderer of Croatia and Croats because he had sent a wreath to commemorate Partisans killed during the 1943 Battle of Sutjeska.

Pupovac said that what was left of the ethnic groups who had suffered at the hands of Ustashas would continue to oppose those who kept denying Ustasha crimes and glorifying the Ustasha regime.

Criticising state officials for not attending today's ceremony, Pupovac said it was not enough to visit Jasenovac, while ignoring more than 50 other Ustasha concentration camp sites such as those in Koprivnica, Kerestinec, Đakovo, Lobor Grad, Sisak and Jastrebarsko. He said that the Jadovno camp was the cruellest of them all.

SABA president Franjo Habulin said that a lot of problems had accumulated in Croatia that needed addressing, such as history textbooks, anti-fascist monuments and Catholic clergy saying Mass for fascist criminals.

He welcomed Saturday's speech by the prime minister's envoy, Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković, at the Anti-Fascist Struggle Day commemoration in Brezovica Forest near Sisak.

"It is encouraging that Minister Bošnjaković said yesterday that the government condemns the Ustasha regime and the crimes it committed in World War II. It is an unambiguous message that present-day Croatia is not a successor to the NDH, but a country founded on anti-fascist values and the anti-fascist victory in World War II," Habulin said.

Wreaths at the monument in Jadovno were laid by delegations of Croatia, Serbia and Israel, as well as delegations of religious communities and anti-fascist organisations. The commemoration was attended by about 300 people. The religious service for Serb victims was led by Serb Orthodox Metropolitan Porfirije Perić and Bishop Gerasim, while that for Jews was led by Chief Rabbi Luciano Moše Prelević.

More news about the Second World War events can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 23, 2019 - The World Jewish Congress has denounced the plan to build a monument to Holocaust victims in Zagreb as an attempt to downplay the role of the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in the war crimes, and called on the city's authorities to scrap the plan.

"The World Jewish Congress (WJC) joins our affiliated community in Croatia in denouncing the decision of the Zagreb City Assembly to erect a monument to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust that blatantly ignores the active role taken by the Independent State of Croatia under the Ustasha regime in perpetrating these crimes during World War II," the organisation said in a statement emailed to Hina on Saturday.

The Jewish Community of Zagreb (ZOZ) said on Wednesday it had requested an annulment of this "shameful decision" because it aimed to conceal the truth about the killings of Jews in the NDH.

The Zagreb City Assembly decided on June 4 that a monument would be erected in Branimirova Street near the Central Railway Station to commemorate the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

In response to the decision, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said: “The authorities in Croatia have continuously attempted to rewrite history and absolve the Ustasha regime of its indisputable complicity in the brutal mass murders of Jews, Roma, and ethnic Serbs during the period from 1941 to 1945. While there is always enormous value to honouring all victims of the Holocaust, the city of Zagreb’s new monument is a distortion of the historical record and an insult to the memory of the men, women and children who perished at the hands of the Ustasha and its leader, Ante Pavelic. The Croatian authorities are once again making every effort to conceal the monstrous crimes of the Ustasha by giving the false impression that Nazi Germany alone was responsible for horrors of the Holocaust.”

“One cannot speak of the Holocaust in Croatia without highlighting the central role of the Ustasha regime in enacting and implementing the racial laws that subjected Jews, Roma, and ethnic Serbs to persecution, torture, and death. In addition to publicly commemorating the victims of Hitler’s war against the Jews, Croatia must also pay specific tribute to the victims of the Ustasha regime,” Lauder said. “We call on the Zagreb City Assembly to scrap its plans for this memorial and begin again from scratch, this time in full coordination with the local Jewish community.”

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.