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, February 8, 2019 - The Zadar Police have filed a report with juvenile prosecutors against a 15-year-old male student of a local secondary school who, using a lighter, branded a fellow female and a fellow male student with the letter U. The minor was reported for inflicting physical injuries.

The Science and Education Ministry on Thursday sent an inspection team to the Zadar school. Police said the injuries sustained by the two students were light.

The chair of the parliamentary Committee on Human and Ethnic Minority Rights, Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), on Friday condemned an incident in a secondary school in Zadar where a student branded his two fellow students with the letter U, telling one of them that "she can now say that she is an Ustasha", and called for a prompt response from the ministries of education, the interior and justice.

"This disturbing act constitutes a breach of the Constitution with regard to ethnic equality and unobstructed exercise of rights related to ethnicity, the Non-Discrimination Act and Article 325 of the Penal Code, which bans any incitement of hate and violence," Pupovac said.

It is clear that school institutions lack the awareness of the nature of the problem and what needs to be done to prevent similar incidents and make students fully aware of what is allowed and what is unlawful, he said.

The most worrying aspect is that there are people in the school system that obviously do not mind incidents of this kind and, on the other hand, people who are afraid of such situations. "This requires additional education to make teachers, students and the public aware that displaying the Ustasha symbols and salute is not and cannot be tolerated," said the Serb minority MP, adding that the incident in Zadar bore witness to how serious the situation in society was in general. "That kind of symbols must not be legal anywhere, especially not among children and students."

Pupovac also said that even though minors were concerned, police should act and not downplay the problem, the more so as parents of students attending the school in question had repeatedly complained about peer violence.

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

ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 - The Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, Nada Murganić, on Thursday commented on an incident in a Zadar high school where a male student on Wednesday, using a lighter, branded a fellow female and a fellow male student with the letter U, saying that the school should have reported the incident to the police, parents and social workers.

Murganić stressed that local social workers would carry out an inspection of the student's domestic circumstances.

She said that this was "an ugly and violent act" towards a fellow student which bore evidence of the need to prevent bringing up a generation of young thugs who deal with their partners in a violent way.

In a message to opponents of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Murganić said that cases of violence against women were very difficult to deal with once they reached the stage at which a crime had already been committed. "We must identify problems and deal with them much sooner," she said, underlining the importance of prevention and education.

Commenting on the case of a young man who has been found guilty of brutally beating up his 18-year-old girlfriend in Zadar and who will be released from custody on Sunday, Murganić said that the state can and must protect the victim from the threats she was receiving.

Police said on Thursday that they were investigating the incident while the principal of the school where it happened told the media that he had been told at a class meeting that "it was just a game."

More news on the extremism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 31, 2019 - The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has praised the Catholic Church in Croatia for having held the commemoration last Thursday in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and underscored that "is emboldened by the strong address delivered by Cardinal Josip Bozanić."

"The World Jewish Congress deeply welcomes the powerful commemoration held by the Catholic Church of Croatia last week in honour of the victims of the Holocaust and is emboldened by the strong address delivered by Cardinal Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zagreb, in which he declared it unacceptable to permit the re-emergence of antisemitism,” WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singerwas quoted as saying on the organisation's website.

"In the 74 years since the end of the Holocaust, the Jewish world has been duly concerned by the Catholic Church of Croatia’s glorification of Ustasha nationalists and the horrific crimes that they carried out in collaboration with the Nazis, and by its repeated tendencies to whitewash the tragedy endured by the Jewish community and other minorities during World War II," Singer was quoted as saying.

“In the current climate of rising antisemitism and Holocaust revisionism in Europe, it is essential that the Catholic Church of Croatia lead the way in coming to terms with the crimes of its countrymen and ensure that its perpetrators are not rehabilitated in anyway. It is also imperative that the Church work together with the government, hand-in-hand with the Jewish community, to stop the obfuscation of history and the glorification of Nazi collaborators."

"The official commemoration held on 24 January at the Cathedral of Zagreb is without a doubt an encouraging and almost miraculous step forward by the Church in addressing the darkest moments of its history, something that the Jewish community of Croatia has been waiting for more than seven decades," Singer added.

At the commemoration, Cardinal Bozanić paid tribute to victims of inhumane conduct in the past and condemned attempts aimed at annihilating the Jewish people, while representatives of the local Jewish community welcomed the cardinal's move as a historic event.

The dignitary said that the ideology of racism was directed against God and the human beings and was "created on the untruth about the man and about the Jewish people."

During the prayer, a 60-metre-long and 5-metre-wide banner was displayed on the cathedral's walls with the text from Biblical verses written by Isaiah about the remembrance of victims saying "I will give them – within the walls of my house – a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear!".

"We thank the Catholic Church of Croatia for this unprecedented move, and hope that it is the start to a new era for Holocaust memory and the fight against antisemitism in the country," Singer added.

 More news on the Jewish issues in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

The European Court of Human Rights has refused to discuss the lawsuit filed against Croatia by former football player Josip Šimunić. The former footballer sued Croatia at the court in Strasbourg because of the final verdict issued by the High Misdemeanour Court in December 2016, with a 25,000 kuna fine against Šimunić for his chanting of the Ustasha salute "For Homeland - Ready" (Za dom - Spremni) at a football stadium after the end of the football match between Croatia and Iceland, reports Jutarnji List on January 30, 2019.

As a well-known footballer and an idol to his many fans, Šimunić had to be aware of the possible negative impact of the chant in the eyes of the public and should have refrained from it, the court in Strasbourg said in its verdict, expressing satisfaction with the 25,000 kuna fine that Croatia’s High Misdemeanour Court ordered.

After the football match held in November 2013, Šimunić raised his hand and said over the microphone “For Homeland”, (Za dom) three times, with the audience answering three times "Ready" (Spremni).

The final verdict of the High Misdemeanour Court, issued by Judge Branka Žigant Živković, which Šimunić failed to overturn at the European Court of Human Rights, states that the chant symbolises the official greeting used during the times of the totalitarian regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, considered to be a Nazi-puppet state in Croatia during the Second World War) and as such represents a demonstration of racist ideology, contempt towards other people because of their religious and ethnic affiliation, and the trivialisation of the victims of numerous crimes against humanity which took place during those years.

In a lawsuit sent to the court in Strasbourg, Šimunić claimed that the verdict had violated his right to a fair trial, namely Article 7 of the Human Rights Convention, which states that it is not possible to be sanctioned for something which is not expressly prohibited by law.

In his lawsuit, Šimunić argued that the "For Homeland Ready" slogan was not explicitly prohibited by any Croatian law, that his right to freedom of expression had been violated, and that Croatia had discriminated against him because many others in Croatia were not punished for using the same slogan.

Rejecting Šimunić’s lawsuit, the Human Rights Court stated that it was not within the jurisdiction of that court to analyse the way in which local courts enforce laws and domestic jurisprudence. Šimunić did not appeal to the Croatian judiciary based on the fact that the usage of the Ustasha salute was not criminalised under Croatian law. That means that he cannot sue on those grounds in Strasbourg.

The Municipal Misdemeanour Court in Zagreb initially imposed a fine of 5,000 kuna, but the High Misdemeanour Court later increased the penalty to 25,000 kuna. Šimunić was convicted under the Law on Fighting Disorder at Sports Venues.

Translated from Jutarnji List (reported by Slavica Lukić).

More news on the historical issues stemming from the Second World War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2019 - The Croatian government on Sunday joined in marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, which commemorates the 1945 liberation of the biggest Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, saying that the protection of every person's dignity was a joint duty and obligation towards Holocaust victims and underlining the importance of educating young people about the mindless tragedy of the Jewish people across occupied Europe.

"International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the darkest period in human history - the systematic persecution, genocide and horrible suffering, primarily of the Jewish people, as well as of other victims of the Nazi regime. As a notion, the Holocaust is the full negation of humanity as well as of all cultural and civilisational attainments and fundamental moral values of humankind," the government said in a statement.

Recalling that International Holocaust Remembrance Day provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the millions of innocent women, men and children killed only because their religion or ethnic background were different, the government called for educating young people about the suffering of innocent victims and the tragedy of the Jewish people across occupied Europe.

This also refers to education about the 1941-1945 Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and the Ustasha-run concentration camp of Jasenovac and other places of suffering, where thousands of Jews and members of other ethnic groups, as well as Croatian antifascists and democrats, were killed, the government said.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day also provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the 117 Croatian Righteous Among the Nations, who during World War II risked their own lives to save Jewish fellow citizens, the government said.

Only young people who have been made aware of and have been taught lessons from the past will be able to build a modern society, free of any hate and intolerance, in line with democratic and European values, reads the government statement. "Further strengthening the freedom and equality of all people as well as protecting the inalienable dignity of every person should be a joint duty and obligation towards all Holocaust victims," the government says.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jewish people.

Croatia has actively participated in commemorating the Holocaust as well as in Holocaust education and research through its membership of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and many other initiatives.

More news on the Ustasha regime in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance of Holocaust Victims, a prayer-commemorative gathering was organised by the Zagreb Archdiocese and the Hatikva Jewish Information and Educational Centre in front of the Zagreb Cathedral. The event was attended by the Archbishop of Zagreb Cardinal, Josip Bozanić, reports HRT on January 26, 2019.

“The memories in Judaism and Christianity connect the past and the present because, while we remember the victims of inhumane treatment and the attempt to destroy the Jewish people, we encounter the secret of evil, but we are not looking at it only in the framework of the past, but we are aware of it in the present as well,” emphasized Cardinal Bozanić.

“The ideology of racism, directed against God and man, was born in the falsehoods about the man and the Jewish people, spread by hatred, and turned into an inexpressible measure of suffering, which neither words nor images can express,” added Bozanić.

Bozanić also recalled the suffering of the Jewish community in Croatia. “We need to pay special attention to what has happened in our midst, in Croatia, emphasising without any reservation the truth about the horrors of Jasenovac and other camps, where innocent people suffered. Now, 74 years after the end of the Second World War, we also remember the great suffering of the Croatian Jewish community, especially the Jews in Zagreb, which are deeply woven into the life of our city. Of 11,000 Jews, less than 2,000 survived.

He added that it is entirely unacceptable to allow any form of anti-Semitism to be awoken today, although such ideologies exist even now. “They are growing based on the untruths with devastating results of the conflict, intolerance and hate, with the consequences of suffering not just for individuals and certain groups but also the entire peoples.”

The Centre leader Julija Koš said that the rabbi was not present in Zagreb and that she was there as his representative. She read a song saying that each Holocaust victim has his or her name because for the Jewish people the name of the person is the identity, which can be brought back by our memory. “Today's event is so important that its meaning cannot yet be comprehended. Each sentence of the Cardinal's address contains a message what we need to do to heal the society, and messages for future generations that will be more similar to other young Europeans,” said Koš. “Teachers and parents will see where we have lost 25 years of upbringing for good and where we let many forces lead the youth towards the evil that has passed a long time ago,” she said.

Some of the descendants of the perpetrators are aware of the truth, some are not, but none of them are guilty, she said, adding that in other European countries more descendants are aware, while there is a small part of those who advocate for their forefathers who committed the crimes. “In Croatia, we have a small percentage of these, but they are sometimes very loud," added Koš.

Answering the question about the Catholic Church providing venues for the promotion of books that deny the Holocaust, Kristijan Lepešić said that this event had marginalized them. “The most important thing is that this is the largest such event we have seen in Europe. This is a major step forward for the Catholic Church not just in Croatia, because Cardinal Bozanić is a member of the Roman Curia, and I think this is the best way to marginalise the forces that promote such books,” said Kristijan Lepešić.

The event was attended by ministers Marija Pejčinović Burić and Nina Obuljen Koržinek, as well as Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and Speaker of Parliament Gordan Jandroković.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked on January 27, in memory of the day in 1945 when the Soviet Red Army liberated the largest and the most notorious Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, where more than a million and a hundred thousand people were killed. During the Holocaust, more than six million Jews were killed.

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

 ZAGREB, January 25, 2019 - The Croatian Parliament began its session on Friday with a minute of silence to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed on January 27. "On that day the whole world pays deep respect for the victims of the Nazi persecution and genocide of the Jews and minorities, as well as for all the victims of the Nazi and fascist regimes during World War II," Speaker Gordan Jandroković said at the start of the session.

Recalling the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp 73 years ago, he said that that infamous place also symbolised all other places where genocide had been committed against Jews and where other undesirable groups had been systematically exterminated by the Nazi and fascist regimes. "Auschwitz symbolises the death of six million innocent people whose only guilt was that they were different from the chosen ones," Jandroković said.

"Today we also respect the memory of all those who suffered and died at the hands of people who were blinded by fear and hatred. We also remember their families, as well as those who survived those atrocities and who were and are forever marked by the memory of the days of horror and shame they survived and who, despite the immense trauma, tried bravely to return to normal life. It is our debt to them," Jandroković said.

He recalled brave people who had risked their own life and the lives of their children, their safety and freedom, to unselfishly help the Jewish people. Among them are 117 Croatian 'righteous among the nations'. "Those were people of different religious, political and other convictions, but first and foremost they were morally upright. They can be an example to us today that everyone can and must be righteous among the nations," he stressed.

Jandroković said that the lessons learned from the Holocaust were especially important four young people as future leaders and opinion makers. "That's why it is of vital importance for them to fully understand the meaning of the Holocaust and how a learned experience can help in creating a more tolerant, more just and inclusive society in the future. They need to be taught to be against hatred and intolerance of any kind and to respect other people and their diversity," he said.

"Today we remember not only the victims of the Holocaust but also the victims of Vukovar, Škabrnja, Srebrenica and all other places of war crimes, and we send a message of hope that we have learned from the past and that in our societies we want human values to triumph over human destructiveness," Jandroković concluded.

Before the Parliament meeting, Jandroković laid a wreath in the Jewish section of Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb.

More news on Croatia’s history can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 25, 2019 - The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić, on Thursday organised a prayer event in front of the cathedral to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and on that occasion he paid tribute to victims of inhumane conduct in the past and condemned attempts aimed at annihilating the Jewish people, while representatives of the local Jewish community welcomed the cardinal's move as a historic event.

During the prayer, a 60-metre-long and 5-metre-wide banner was displayed on the cathedral's walls with the text from Biblical verses written by Isaiah about the remembrance of victims saying "I will give them – within the walls of my house – a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear!".

Today, we are encountering the secret of the evil, and we do not look at it only within the frames of the past but we are also aware of the present day," said Bozanić who added that the ideology of racism was directed against God and the human beings and was "created on the untruth about the man and about the Jewish people."

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an international memorial day on 27 January commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War when tan estimated 6 million Jewish people were killed. The day is observed in memory of 27 January 1945 when Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army.

The cardinal calls for giving special attention to what had happened in Croatia and pointing out the truth, without any reservations, about the horrors in the Jasenovac death camp and other camps where innocent people lost their lives.

"We are here to recognise the evil and hate speech and to resist them and to build together mutual respect and love, to the well-being of our Croatian society and the whole humankind," Bozanić said.

The dignitary spoke about the Jewish community in Croatia and especially in the City of Zagreb and their contribution to and integration in the life and culture of city. He recalled that the data show that less than 2,000 Jews survived WW2 from the 11,000-strong community in Zagreb.

He says that he sympathises in his prayers and thoughts with the Jews who survived and who have borne the burden of their personal experiences of human cruelty and he also extended his sympathies to the whole Jewish people.

The Zagreb Archbishop also underscores that the descendants – children and grandchildren – of the perpetrators of war crimes should be mentioned in prayers and that they also need the purification by truth. Christianity excludes any hatred towards the human being and other people, he said.

The head of the Jewish Information and Education Centre Hatikva, Julija Kos, sad that the event being held in front of the cathedral was of extremely great importance. "Each sentence of the cardinal's speech has a single message about what we should do to make our society healthy," she added.

Some descendants of the perpetrators are aware what their ancestors did, and some are not aware, and they are not to blame for that, she said.

Kos said that only a small portion of the descendants of perpetrators in Croatia still glorified their ancestors. There are only few of them but they are loud, she added.

Kristijan Lepešić commented that the banner on the cathedral's walls was the biggest of this kind in Europe. This is a great step forward made by the Catholic Church, he said.

In attendance at the commemoration were Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and envoys of top state officials.

More news on the World War II as it happened in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 24, 2019 - Croatian Parliament will join in the marking of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed on January 27.

At the start of a parliamentary session on Thursday, Speaker Gordan Jandroković called on MPs to attend a ceremony of laying wreaths at the Jewish section of the Zagreb's central Mirogoj cemetery at 0845 hours Friday.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorated the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jewish people, 5 million Slavs, 3 million ethnic Poles, 200,000 Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005. The resolution came after a special session was held earlier that year on 24 January 2005 during which the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust.

More news on the Croatian history can be found in the Politics section.