ZAGREB, January 8, 2019 - The Croatian government condemned in the strongest terms a Facebook post by MP Josip Đakić's son Ivan, which it said spreads hate speech which incites intolerance, according to a press release issued by the government's public relations office on Tuesday.

Relevant institutions have already launched action against such behaviour, the press release said.

The 22-year-old Ivan Đakić posted a photograph on his Facebook page on Monday showing an Ustasha with the severed head of a Chetnik, under which he wrote: "Merry Christmas to all my Serb 'friends'." The Ustashas and Chetniks were respective Croatian and Serbian allies of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The post prompted widespread condemnation over hate speech.

Ivan Đakić was taken in by the police in Virovitica, 150 kilometres northeast of Zagreb, for questioning.

The ruling HDZ party strongly condemned the post as hate speech and incitement to social intolerance, announcing that it would take disciplinary action against Ivan Đakić.

Ivan Đakić resigned from party membership on Tuesday. "I see his resignation from the party today as an act of confession of this grave mistake and a realisation of the gravity of this regrettable act," said his father, Josip Đakić, who serves as chairman of the HDZ's Virovitica-Podravina County committee.

"I shared the photograph from a friend of mine and erased it within a minute. It doesn't reflect my opinion. I apologise to anyone I may have offended and wish them a merry Christmas," Đakić told the Index news website.

However, the screenshot clearly shows that Djakic did not remove the photograph within a minute and that he himself posted it.

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

ZAGREB, January 8 (Hina) - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) parliamentary deputy and HVIDRA war veterans' association leader Josip Đakić on Tuesday condemned in the strongest terms an anti-Serb post which his son Ivan Đakić put on his private Facebook wall, and apologised for the shameful and insulting content of the post, whereas his son decided to leave the HDZ which his father sees as an act whereby his son admits to having made a huge mistake.

"Following the shameful and insulting post on the private Facebook profile of HDZ member and my son Ivan Đakić, I hereby condemn in the strongest terms such conduct on the part of any HDZ member, including my son, and I apologise and express my regret at the incident and the thoughtless conduct of the young man, who was not brought up to hate or spread hate speech," reads Josip Đakić's statement.

The 22-year-old Ivan Đakić on Monday posted on his Facebook wall a shocking photograph showing a person wearing Ustasha insignia holding the severed head of a person wearing Chetnik insignia. "Merry Christmas to all the Serb 'friends'," he wrote under the photograph.

On Monday evening, the HDZ condemned the post and said it would launch disciplinary proceedings against Đakić as his conduct was contrary to the party statute.

Ivan Đakić deleted the post soon after making it public. In a statement to the Index web portal, which contacted him, he admitted to having posted the photograph, adding that he apologised to all whom he had insulted. "I shared a friend's post and deleted it after one minute. That is not my opinion and I apologise to all whom I have insulted and wish them a merry Christmas," Đakić said.

On Tuesday morning, Ivan Đakić resigned from the HDZ branch in Virovitica. His father interprets this as his son's admission that he made a mistake.

Ivan Đakić was taken in by the police in Virovitica, 150 kilometres northeast of Zagreb, on Tuesday for questioning over hate speech in his Facebook post.

The leader of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) Milorad Pupovac on Tuesday strongly condemned the Facebook post written by Đakić. Pupovac expressed doubt that judicial authorities would prosecute that incident ex officio.

The SDSS leader insists that the incident also amounted to glorification of the Ustasha regime and was an insult to the victims of that 1941-1945 Nazi-allied regime, which is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years.

Pupovac said that the situation in the judiciary did not instil any optimism about the outcome of the prosecution of that incident. "There is too much tolerance for such things," said Pupovac, adding that such messages are being made despite messages from the state leadership and the attendance of the prime minister and ministers at the Orthodox Christmas reception and the meeting between President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović and Serb Orthodox Church dignitaries in Croatia.

Pupovac said that the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic enjoyed his support. As for the forthcoming meeting of the ruling coalition, Pupovac expressed hope that all relevant topics, including the incident involving Ivan Đakić, would be on the agenda.

More news on the status of Serbs in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 28, 2018 - Parliament will debate the SDP-sponsored interpellation on the work of the government on Thursday, in which the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) accuses the government of not confronting historical revisionism in Croatia.

SDP requests a parliamentary debate on that topic and asks the government to undertake actions that will prevent the use of symbols and salutes that are banned in Croatia by the Constitutions, laws and obvious court practice.

SDP proposes that parliament should adopt a conclusion defining the said salute as the official salute used by the Ustasha and WWII Independent State of Croatia (NDH) totalitarian regime.

The opposition party asks the government to remove the plaque for HOS volunteer fighters, which has the salute "For the Homeland Ready," incorporated in it. The plaque has been put up in Jasenovac, the site of a WWII death camp, among other things.

The plaque erected for eleven HOS Homeland War defenders with the salute was taken down in September 2017 in Jasenovac and relocated to the Trokut memorial site in the nearby town of Novska.

In September last year, the government said that it proposes to the parliament not to endorse the conclusions put forward by SDP. The government said then that the claims by the SDP that the government was downplaying Ustasha crimes were not correct.

The government wholly rejects the arguments in the SDP interpellation and one of the fundamental starting points of its programme for the 2016-20 period is the condemnation of all undemocratic systems which in the past century caused the persecution and execution of political opponents, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said then, adding that the government had clearly said that on many occasions.

For more on historical revisionism in Croatia and the events during the Second World War which are still often debated in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 27, 2018 - Parliamentary deputies Giovanni Sponza and Tulio Demetlika of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) called on Monday on Croatian authorities to state a clear position on Nazism and Fascism based on the model of developed and law-based countries, noting that the authorities' response to the historical revisionism in Croatia "must be resolute and uncompromising because otherwise room is being created for a revision of the nature of the NDH (WWII Independent State of Croatia)."

"Last week Croatia was given a few stern lessons – two by the international community and one by its own human rights ombudswoman who in a courageous and comprehensive report underlined the responsibility of state institutions that are ignoring the glorification of Ustasha ideology in Croatia and failing to respond appropriately," Sponza told a news conference in the parliament.

"Representatives of state authorities did not utter a word about that report. That can be interpreted as currying favour with extremist groups," said Sponza.

In recent years, books have published, panel discussions organised, documentaries made and TV shows broadcast in which the NDH's criminal nature is negated or downplayed. "Except for the human rights ombudswoman, not a single state institution has responded to that. Those who do not condemn such phenomena are tacitly approving them," said Sponza.

He said the Austrian government had given another lesson to Croatia by amending a law to expand the list of banned symbols to include symbols of the Ustasha regime.

Sponza said the historical revisionism in Croatia was a serious social problem that required a decisive response by the state, including criminal sanctions. "The situation is getting out of hand by the day, and tolerance of Ustasha ideology is rising by the day at the expense of historical facts," Sponza said. He added that it was worrying that the latest surveys on political literacy in the final high school years showed that half of respondents were not sure if the NDH had been a fascist regime.

IDS member Tulio Demetlika said the government's response should be decisive and uncompromising because otherwise an atmosphere was being created that enabled the downplaying of horrible Ustasha crimes and creating room for a revision of the NDH's nature.

He said that Australia, too, had shown Croatia its position on the tolerance of Ustasha ideology by cancelling a visa to a man wearing Ustasha insignia. "In October 2017, the IDS forwarded to the parliament a bill proposing, on the model of developed European countries, a ban and proper sanctions against the promotion of the Nazi and Fascist regimes and consequently the Ustasha regime and all related symbols and slogans," Demetlika said, criticising Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for not putting the bill on the parliament's agenda.

He said that he was confident this was so because the HDZ was trying to avoid a debate on that topic. "We want the bill to be put on the agenda immediately and we want Croatia to be like countries that have zero tolerance for Fascism," said Demetlika.

He said that if Jandroković did not put the IDS bill on the agenda soon, the IDS would seek support among MPs to collect more than 30 signatures to ensure that the item was put on the parliament's agenda within seven days.

Asked about disputes in the ruling coalition over the foster care bill, the IDS MPs said they welcomed the new bill that was designed to improve the quality of foster care and increase foster care allowance, but noted that they respected the principle of equality. "We believe that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, should enjoy the same status and possibility to exercise their rights," Sponza said.

Reporters also asked the IDS MPs to comment on Health Minister Milan Kujundžić's refusal to reveal the composition of the task force working on the abortion bill. "As regards legislative initiatives, including this one, there is a lack of professional discussion. Also, when professionals do make comments in a public discussion, which happens rarely, the government and the relevant ministries often ignore those comments, which is not good," said Sponza.

For more on the issue of historical revisionism in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 21, 2018 - The Office of Ombudsman has warned in an analysis that attempts to downplay the crimes committed during the 1941-1945 Independent State of Croatia (NDH) led by the Ustasha regime undermine the fundamental values of the Constitution, while failure to respond to those attempts of WWII historical revisionism creates space for hatred.

"Denying the character of the NDH and the extent of the crimes committed by the Ustasha regime, posting (NDH) symbols in public space or using the syntagms showing sympathy for the regime have become so frequent in the Croatian society that they seem to be almost tacitly accepted," the ombudswoman Lora Vidović said in the analysis published on the website of the Office of Ombudsman.

Vidović calls for education and for fostering tolerance and culture of historical memory among school-age children and in this context mentions findings of a September 2015 survey conducted among senior students of secondary schools that showed that a half of respondents were not sure if the NDH was a pro-Fascist state.

Vidović recalls that European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommended in a report this year that "the (Croatian) authorities should introduce compulsory human rights education as part of civic education into all school curricula, especially as regards the right to equality and the prohibition of discrimination."

The ombudswoman calls on all stakeholders in the society to play an important role in permanent response to attempts to downplay the nature of the Ustasha state so as to make it impossible for such phenomena to participate in creating public opinions. She insists that it is full responsibility of the authorities to ensure the compliance with the Constitution and implementation of the laws so as to counter the phenomena "that symbolically or directly support or glorify the NDH and deny or downplay the crimes that regime had produced."

Vidović calls for putting an emphasis on the fact that the NDH was in contravention with the present-day Croatia.

In 2005, the Croatian Parliament adopted the declaration on anti-Fascism reaffirming Croatia's roots in and commitment to anti-Fascism and democracy and calling for nurturing anti-Fascist values, the Ombuswoman recalls.

She goes on to say that it is necessary to honour the requests of the representatives of the Roma, Serb and Jewish communities and anti-Fascist associations and create prerequisites for organising a single commemoration for victims of the Ustasha regime at the Jasenovac Memorial Centre, thus showing solidarity for the communities of the victims of those war atrocities.

Attempts to deny the crimes committed during the NDH regime and denying their extent are actually attempts to deny the past marked by hatred and violence against Roma, Serbs and Jews and opponents of the Ustasha regime, she says adding that attempts to deny crimes actually encourage hate speech that could lead to the violence against the members of the above-mentioned groups. In that way, the continuity of hatred is being fostered, which harms the values of equality, the rule of law and human rights on which the Croatian Constitution is based, Vidović writes in the conclusion of her analysis.

For more on the dark days of Croatia during the Second World War, click here.

ZAGREB, October 6, 2018 - A memorial ceremony was held at Children's Cemetery in Sisak on Saturday to commemorate the children who had perished in an Ustasha-run children's concentration camp in the town between 3 August 1942 and 8 January 1943 and to thank people who had saved many of the children.

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, September 29, 2018 - The Jasenovac Memorial Site said on Friday it was concerned about the launch of Roman Leljak's film and book "The Jasenovac Myth" which reduce the number of victims of the WWII concentration camp and sympathise with the Ustasha movement and the 1941-45 Nazi-styled Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

Deputy editor-in-chief of the Index.hr website comments on latest events.

ZAGREB, August 2, 2018 - A memorial ceremony was held Thursday at the Roma cemetery in Uštica, about 100 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, for 16,173 Roma killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp during the Second World War.