ZAGREB, May 12, 2019 - Antifascists from Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia on Saturday staged a protest rally in Bleiburg, Austria, asking the Austrian government to ban what they described as a gathering of "Ustashas and fascists" in the Loibach field near that town in the southern region of Carinthia.

The Honorary Bleiburg Platoon nongovernmental organisation traditionally organises in May, and the Croatian Parliament sponsors, a commemoration for civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia killed in the aftermath of World War II.

Last year Austrian police introduced harsh penalties for participants in the commemoration who display Ustasha and Nazi symbols, and the local church in Carinthia recently denied permission for the commemoration to be held as a religious gathering, saying that it harms the reputation of the Catholic Church.

Speakers at today's protest, which drew about 150 people and was held in the central square in Bleiburg, asked the Austrian government to respect its constitution and the European policy of fighting fascism and neo-fascism, and to ban the commemoration, which is to be held on May 18.

"We have gathered again this year to raise our voice against an event that is being promoted as a gathering of believers who want to pay tribute to innocent victims killed in the aftermath of WWII, but it is not that," said Franjo Habulin, head of the Association of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists of Croatia (SABA).

"The gathering in Bleiburg is nothing but a lament for the failed Ustasha para-state, a movement and ideology that severely compromised Croatia's name and left a blood trace," said Habulin. He said that "both the Catholic Church in Croatia and the Croatian state are participating in that deceit."

"Any family has the right to mourn their loved ones who were killed, regardless of who they were or how they ended up. However, no civilised European country has the right to participate in commemorating the fall of Nazi-Fascism. And gatherings in Bleiburg serve exactly that purpose, with the blessing of the Church in Croatia," said Habulin.

Representatives of World War II antifascist fighters from Italy, Slovenia and Austria, too, spoke against the Bleiburg commemoration.

The commemoration in Bleiburg has been held since 1952, and since 1995 it has been held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament, with the exception of the period from 2012 to 2015 when the Social Democratic Party was in power.

The Honorary Bleiburg Platoon on Monday called on all who planned to attend the commemoration to refrain from using any symbols or chants that are in contravention of Croatian and Austrian laws.

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

ZAGREB, May 8, 2019 - On the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Zagreb from fascist occupation, candidates of the We Can! political platform, the New Left and the ORaH party, who are running together in elections for the European Parliament, on Wednesday displayed on one of the Zagreb bridges a banner reading "Antifascists of Europe, Unite", telling citizens that despite new fascistisation trends, plans for building a Europe of equal people must not be given up.

"It is exceptionally important to mark Zagreb City Day, the day which marked the closing of the possibly most shameful page in Croatia's history - the Independent State of Croatia," Rada Borić of the New Left told a news conference in Zagreb.

She recalled that Europe Day would be marked on May 9 to commemorate "the end of the fascist terror in Europe", and expressed regret about the downplaying of Croatia's past and signs of real fascism. In that context, she cited attacks on Roma by skinheads throughout Europe, calls by sports fans in Croatia for the lynching of those who are different, and the cult of nation and traditionalism, which, she said, particularly restrict women's rights.

Borić added that because of this one had to show that Europe could be different and that Europeans had to be equal.

Sandra Benčić of the We Can! platform recalled European Parliament President Antonio Tajani's statement "Long live Italian Istria and Dalmatia", made at a commemoration for Italians killed in the aftermath of World War II, saying that such statements were prompted by the glorification of Ustasha ideology in Croatia.

"Croatia does have people who always oppose fascism. Resistance to fascism today and tomorrow," Benčić said.

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

ZAGREB, May 2, 2019 - The Jewish community of Bet Israel and other religious organisations in Croatia paid tribute to the Holocaust victims at Jasenovac, the site of a World War II concentration camp, on Thursday marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The ceremony commemorated "six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as victims of Nazi Germany and its helpers" and "Jews who took part in armed resistance across war-torn Europe," Bet Israel's president Aleksandar Srećković said.

He said that Jasenovac was the site of the worst atrocities committed against the Jewish people in the region during WWII.

"Racial, ethnic and other biological differences are irrelevant, but society creates them and often uses them to justify hatred, oppression and killing of others, using racism as an argument in promoting stereotypes and prejudices along the lines of 'us and them'," Srećković said.

"It is our duty to keep reminding ourselves of that time. It is our duty never to forget what one person is capable of doing to another in the name of higher causes and in the name of an ideology that forgot the ethical values which we all invoke," he added.

The Serb Orthodox Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Porfirije Perić, said that people, regardless of their differences, belong to the same, human species.

"The line that divides good and evil does not run between nations, states or races. The line that divides good from evil is in the heart of every one of us. It is there that the battle is fought and where a decision is made on whether we are human or not," Perić said.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Požega, Antun Škvorčević, said that several million Jews had been killed during WWII as part of an inhumane system of violence and persecution, and that a certain number of them had met their end in Jasenovac.

"Feeling the full gravity of misused human freedom and impotence in the face of the destructive irrationality of crime, we stop at the challenge of innocent victims. It is precisely because of them that any word of revenge, any expression of hatred or manipulation with their number is inappropriate for commemorations in Jasenovac. It would be a testimony of being captured by evil, yet another humiliation of the victims," Škvorčević said.

Writer and scientist Jasminka Domas, who conducted the commemoration, said that respects should be paid out of humility. "Forgiveness is individual, just as is responsibility for the world we live in. Without hiding behind politics and ideologies, we should turn to the good and dignity of every person while we still can," she said.

The prayer service began with pupils from a Jewish primary school from Zagreb and a Catholic primary school from Požega lighting six candles for six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and remembering the names of people killed in the genocide in WWII Croatia.

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

ZAGREB, April 28, 2019 - A commemoration for the Bleiburg victims will be held in the Loibach field near the Austrian town of Bleiburg this year again, despite strong opposition in Austria, but contrary to what the organiser, the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon, had hoped for, the event will not be treated as a religious gathering, says the Večernji List daily of Sunday.

The event will be officially treated as a public assembly, which implies stronger police presence, the daily said quoting participants in a meeting held between a delegation of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon and officials of Voelkermarkt District, to which Bleiburg belongs.

"This means that the Austrian authorities did not accept the position of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon which guaranteed the Austrians, with the support of the Croatian authorities, that the event to be held in the Loibach field would be exclusively a religious gathering, namely a prayer and a procession without any political speeches. According to unofficial information, the district authorities have a different position on the matter largely due to the position of Engelbert Guggenberger, administrator of the Gurk-Klagenfurt Diocese, who was asked by the local authorities for a final assessment on whether the event is really a religious gathering. He answered in the negative, which is why the regime to be in force during the event will be different," Večernji List says.

It notes that this is not the first time the diocesan administrator in Klagenfurt has opposed the Bleiburg commemoration, scheduled for May 18.

The daily recalls that Guggenberger previously turned down a request by the Croatian Bishops Conference for a Croatian bishop to serve Mass at the commemoration.

The new official interpretation of the nature of the Bleiburg commemoration is also in line with a letter which Peter Kaiser, the Social Democrat governor of the federal state of Carinthia, where Bleiburg is located, sent to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, asking the federal authorities to prevent potential incidents at and in connection with the commemoration which, he said, could harm Austria's international reputation.

Kaiser also asked Kurz to apply the law on public assembly to the commemoration, which has evidently been accepted, Večernji List says.

The Bleiburg commemorations are held in tribute to tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi 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.

The Catholic Church in Carinthia, or rather the Gurk-Klagenfurt Diocese, in March denied permission for this year's Mass in the Loibach field as part of the annual commemorative event.

"If permission for Mass were granted, the overall perception of the event could rightfully be used as a basis to accuse the Catholic Church of Carinthia of instrumentalising a religious service for political purposes and not distancing itself from the Fascist worldview," the diocese said.

More Bleiburg news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 15, 2019 - GLAS president Anka Mrak Taritaš said on Sunday "it's necessary to deal with the past so that we can have a future," while Croatian Peasants Party leader Krešo Beljak called out the government, saying it "tolerates flirting with fascism."

Both opposition officials supported Ognjen Kraus, president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, who said on Friday that historical revisionism in Croatia was continuing and that, because of the inaction of state institutions, the extreme right was becoming increasingly aggressive, calling on the government to stop that and respect Croatian laws.

Speaking in Rijeka, Mrak Taritaš said "the prime minister wants to find favour with everyone" and that it was "unacceptable" to have two commemorations for the victims of the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp. There will be two commemorations as long as the government doesn't ban the Ustasha salute "For the homeland ready," she added.

She said President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited the Jasenovac Memorial Site alone on Saturday "because she evidently doesn't want to go with either side because she wants the votes of both."

Beljak said that Kraus's appeal to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković "to respect Croatian laws in the way he will respect Austrian laws" was frightening and that "for this to pass without consequences is a disgrace for the Croatian prime minister."

Beljak said today's state commemoration for the Jasenovac victims was "ridiculous when open flirting with fascism is tolerated more and more every day." The government is doing nothing and it's sad that minorities, people who were killed in WWII, have to ask the government to respect Croatian laws, he added.

He said the constitution cited antifascism and that "allowing such rampant revisionism of WWII, the Ustasha etc shows what kind of people are at the helm of the state."

Mrak Taritaš and Beljak were in Rijeka to present their Amsterdam Coalition's platform for the European Parliament elections, which highlights tolerance, freedom, equality, EU enlargement and Croatia's joining the euro area.

Commenting on the questioning of parliament deputy speaker and HDZ vice president Milijan Brkić in connection with the fake text messages case, Beljak said that "in any normal state, such a party would be banned and everyone participating in such scandals would be eliminated from any public activity."

Mrak Taritaš said it was unacceptable that the ruling party "is using state institutions to settle scores within its ranks." Plenković should run the country and not settle scores with opponents in his ranks via institutions, she added.

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

ZAGREB, April 14, 2019 - The official state commemoration for the victims of the WWII Ustasha-run Jasenovac concentration camp was held at the Jasenovac Memorial Site on Sunday under the auspices of the Croatian parliament, with the families of the victims and top state officials attending.

Wreaths and flowers were laid at the Stone Flower monument by victims' families and representatives of the state authorities, numerous embassies, counties, towns and municipalities as well as institutions and associations.

The commemoration was attended by Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, a number of ministers, Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić, and Roma MP Veljko Kajtazi, who also attended a commemoration on Friday, organised by associations of ethnic minorities and antifascists in memory of the breakout of Jasenovac inmates.

There were no speeches by officials and politicians at this year's official commemoration. Instead, actors interpreted testimonies of inmates Helena Pachl Mandić and Erwin Miller.

Speaking to the press, the prime minister said, "We came to pay our respects to the victims of the Ustasha-run camp Jasenovac, to all the inmates, to those who, 74 years ago in April, broke out, when, unfortunately, many were killed."

"We are here once again to condemn the crime and the regime under which such camps existed, and to say that today we must work on inclusion in society, on reducing divisions, on tolerance and dialogue, on nurturing the culture of remembrance and on the education of young people about important moments in Croatian history, notably from World War Two," Plenković said.

Therefore, I'm glad that we have created a new history curriculum which has been received well by everyone, experts as well as politicians, he added.

He regretted that today's commemoration was not a joint one and recalled that its date was set mainly by the Jasenovac Memorial Site Council, which includes members of ethnic minorities.

"I'm not glad there are two commemorations, but we are talking and I believe these talks will bear fruit next year," Plenković said, reiterating that it would be healthy and good for society and the emancipation of these topics in present-day Croatia.

"I don't see this as a topic with two sides," he said when asked about the commemoration held on Friday. "I think the circumstances are markedly different since the moment representatives of Jews, Serbs, Roma and antifascist associations decided to hold a separate commemoration."

Regarding the government's policy, he said "our common wish is to commemorate these events appropriately, with much respect for the victims and with the wish to work, only through dialogue, talks and the culture of remembrance, on preventing something like this from happening again."

Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak said in Jasenovac on Sunday it was important to have a national consensus on jointly commemorating the victims of all totalitarian regimes, and called for finding a joint platform on how to commemorate them so that "it becomes a place of unity, not a place of division."

Speaking to the press at the official commemoration for the victims of the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp, Divjak said the focus should be "on victims, and we should realise together that this is not just part of history, we must pay special attention so that history doesn't repeat itself."

Divjak said she disagreed with the assessment by Ognjen Kraus, president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, that the government was more concerned about this year's commemoration for the Bleiburg victims than the one in Jasenovac.

As for the small number of high school students visiting the Jasenovac Memorial Site, Divjak said education about the 20th century must be much clearer and more extensive. The new history curriculum is much more advanced concerning WWII, she added.

"Totalitarian regimes, including the totalitarian regimes on Croatian territory, are particularly highlighted. On the other hand, concentration camps and death camps are clearly put in the curriculum, and Jasenovac is something that should have its place in the regular programme," said Divjak.

Additional funds will be set aside for eighth graders as of the next school year so that they can visit the Jasenovac Memorial Site if they wish to do so, she added.

"That doesn't mean it's obligatory, but it is encouraged given that funds are set aside and the ministry makes a special recommendation. Even more importantly, the history curriculum is implemented under a national standard and equally for all students in Croatia," said the minister.

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

ZAGREB, April 13, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday it would be healthy for Croatian society to have a joint commemoration in Jasenovac, adding that his government had invested a lot of effort to have that happen, but that the other side also must make some effort.

Plenković dismissed accusation which the head of the Coordinating Body of Jewish Municipalities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, made at a separate commemoration, that historical revisionism in Croatia was continuing and that, because of the inaction of state institutions, the extreme right was becoming increasingly aggressive.

Plenković said he was making a lot of effort so that the victims were commemorated in the right way and that the Ustasha regime was unambiguously condemned.

He said it would be healthy for Croatian society to have a joint commemoration, stressing that it takes two side for that to happen.

He also rejected criticism from his coalition partner, the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) that the government had not done enough to reduce the negating of the Holocaust and prevent revisionism.

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

ZAGREB, April 12, 2019 - The head of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, on Friday accused "high-level officials at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs" of having phoned ambassadors to Croatia to talk them out of going to the commemoration held today at the site of the Jasenovac World War II concentration camp by ethnic minority groups and antifascist organisations which boycotted the official state commemoration for the fourth consecutive year.

"It happens even that high-level officials at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs called ambassadors not to attend our commemoration," Kraus told reporters after the commemoration for the victims of the Ustasha-run concentration camp.

He confirmed that he stood by these grave accusations because "he was informed of that," however, he would not say who they referred to because he "could be sued."

Despite the alleged phone calls not to attend the commemoration, representatives of foreign embassies did attend. The ambassadors of Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, France and Australia and the Council of Europe's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, attended the commemoration.

"I think that the number of people who came to Jasenovac today should make us ask ourselves if we are pursuing the policy that needs to be pursued," Kraus said.

Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac confirmed that he had heard of the alleged calls to ambassadors not to attend the unofficial commemoration.

"I heard that that had occurred and if that did indeed occur and was done by representatives of state authorities, it does them no credit and shows how deeply they misunderstand the meaning of this gathering and what their job is," Pupovac said.

"We didn't gather here to cause harm to our country and to celebrate this disgrace. We gathered here so we can free our country of those who spread that disgrace and cause harm to Croatia," Pupovac said.

Kraus warned Croatian authorities that historical revisionism in Croatia is continuing and that, because of the inaction of state institutions, the extreme right is becoming increasingly aggressive, calling on the authorities to stop that and respect Croatian laws.

Kraus said the associations of the descendants of the victims of the criminal NDH (1941-45 Independent State of Croatia) were alone at the commemoration for the fourth year and that they would not attend official commemorations "until the salute 'For the homeland ready' is outlawed."

Addressing the surviving inmates as well as families, guests, ambassadors and Council of Europe human rights commissioner Dunja Mijatović, Kraus said the situation had deteriorated over the past year.

"Two days ago, an Ustasha party was held in Split on the occasion of April 10, the anniversary of the HOS unit Rafael Vitez Boban and the NDH, with all the honours and the presence of the HDZ-led town government as well as police protection. On the same occasion, an MP published a letter which ended with the familiar salute 'For the homeland ready.' There's been no response," Kraus said.

"Until when, police minister? Mr prime minister? Are we here to file complaints at the prosecutor's office based on Croatian laws?"

He told the authorities they "probably would have been in Jasenovac together" this Sunday for the official commemoration had they made the same effort with the associations commemorating the victims today as they had concerning the commemoration for the Bleiburg victims.

Kraus said the organisers of today's commemoration had never equated the Croatian people with the NDH, Ustashism and genocide, but that they would never accept the equation of the victims of Jasenovac, Bleiburg, Tezno and Macelj.

"The Ustasha army, which did not surrender on May 9, when the Third Reich capitulated, was killed there. Other Quisling armies of the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia were killed at those places too, the Chetniks, White Guards and other such units. Nobody talks about that and nobody commemorates those victims," Kraus said, adding that "only Croatian victims are talked about."

"Only one thing should be done, respect and enforce Croatia's constitution and laws, which you don't abide by, but you will respect and abide by Austrian laws," he told Croatian authorities, referring to the Bleiburg victims commemoration to be held in Austria next month. He told politicians, MPs, government members and the president that their actions should speak louder than words.

"It's time to look each other in the eye and if we agree, as you yourselves say, that the NDH was a shameful and criminal entity, the display of its symbols should be banned and any attempt at its revision prevented. Let it be clear that it was a state with racial laws which had on its territory concentration camps where people were killed under those laws because they were of different faith, ethnicity or political affiliation, that both the Holocaust and the Samudaripen happened here, in Croatia, not somewhere else. And that those who negate that must suffer the consequences. Let's look up to Germany, at how it resolved this and how it applies adopted laws," said Kraus.

He recalled that according to data established by March 2014, 83,145 people were killed at Jasenovac, and said he expected Croatia to be a country where the constitution and laws were respected and enforced.

"We expect our homeland to be a modern European country and not to be ashamed of the country we live in," Kraus said on behalf of the associations which organised the commemoration which drew thousands of people: the SABA alliance of antifascist fighters and antifascists of Croatia, the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, the Serb National Council and the Kali Sara Croatian Roma Alliance.

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

ZAGREB, March 19, 2019 - The head of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said on Tuesday he would not attend together with the government this year's commemoration for the victims of the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp, while the head of the SABA alliance of antifascist fighters, Franjo Habulin, said SABA would decide on Thursday whether to attend a joint commemoration.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković last week invited representatives of SABA, the Jewish community, Serbs and Roma to take part in a joint commemoration. Kraus said the Jewish community would not accept.

"Nothing has changed over the past year. Nothing new has happened," he told the press, citing historical revisionism and the government's stance on the Ustasha salute "For the homeland, ready".

"There is a wish to be together as well as arguments against it," Habulin said, adding that a joint commemoration would be useful.

"It would be a sort of coming closer to opening the possibility for talks and for resolving through talks the problems concerning historical revisionism and the negativism which has accumulated over 20 years and more in Croatia, which isn't good," he said.

An argument against a joint commemoration would be the fact that nothing has been done over the past year and SABA members believe the situation is worse than last year, added Habulin.

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

ZAGREB, March 18, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday that the government would go to Jasenovac this year to pay tribute to the victims of the WWII Ustasha-run concentration camp, adding that he would not go to Bleiburg because he had "another major obligation scheduled for that day."

"We have spoken with the Antifascist Federation, with Mr Habulin, at his request, and have again expressed our desire for one single commemoration to be organised. We think that that would be good. We have also spoken with the president of the Jewish community and conveyed the same message to him. They will certainly have consultations and decide what to do. Our position is very clear: we will go to Jasenovac to pay tribute to the victims of the Ustasha regime, clearly and unequivocally as we did in the newly-adopted history curriculum," Plenković said in an interview with the RTL commercial television channel on Sunday evening.

He said he would not be going to Bleiburg, a town in southern Austria where tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Ustasha regime surrendered to allied forces 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.

"I have something else scheduled for that day, but it is too early to make it public," the prime minister said.

Responding to the interviewer's remark that he had not visited Bleiburg in the past two years either, Plenković said that the parliament president, his ministers and envoys had been there. "I know at this point that I have another major obligation scheduled for that day," he added.

"Our position is that a commemoration should take place. Whether a Mass will be celebrated or not depends on relations between the Croatian and Austrian bishops' conferences. I think that that would be good and believe that they will find the best solution through dialogue. What is crucial is that those who will go there do not politicise the commemoration, do not wear unlawful insignia and do not try to misuse the event," Plenković said, recalling that the Croatian parliament was the sponsor of the commemoration.

Speaking of the forthcoming election for the European Parliament, set for May 26, Plenković said that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović would formally call the election on March 26, adding that his HDZ party was preparing it. "I am certain, and many surveys indicate so, that the election will reaffirm the HDZ as a dominant force among serious pro-European parties on the Croatian political scene," the PM said.

Asked if he had spoken with Milorad Pupovac, the leader of the Independent Democratic Serb Party, who did not show up at a meeting of the ruling coalition last week and who had announced earlier that his party might leave the coalition, Plenkovic said that he had not.

"I am still here, waiting for his call," Plenković said and added: "In any case, I want all minority MPs to be part of the parliamentary majority and the ruling coalition. I want them to be part of the common efforts of this government in many projects, plans and activities for which the minority MPs have made useful suggestions. I want every Serb, Bosniak, Albanian, Slovak, Hungarian and Roma to feel good in Croatia in 2019 and to want to live here."

Plenković said that there were certain political forces who constantly wanted to polarise society. He would not name them, saying he did not want to promote them.

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