The Croatian authorities have exempt from paying tax the paper
"Hrvatski Vijesnik" which is printed in the town of Vinkovci and
which glorifies the ustashas (Croatian fascists), the fascist
ideology, and writes about the Serbs in the worst possible way.
Thus, there will be no tax obligation for a paper whose
subheading previously said: "Serbs, be damned wherever you are",
while now it reads "Serbs, Russians, Greeks ... wherever you are".
One wonders whether the omitting of the words "be damned" was a
sign to the Culture Ministry to exempt "Hrvatski Vjesnik" from paying
sales tax, as opposed to the Split weekly "Feral Tribune" which has
failed to show any "improvement".
"Feral Tribune", one of the rare papers which dares criticize
the Zagreb regime, has to pay taxes for publishing "trash", as Zagreb
officially announced last summer.
At that time, fascist paper "Hrvatski Vjesnik" was also ordered
to pay taxes. Its latest issue "proves" it has "changed its approach"
and that this is why it has been exempt from paying taxes, Zagreb
said.
The paper's latest issue carries a front-page "Ultimatum to the
Serbs" to hand over all arms to the nearest police station by noon on
March 15, because only this can "guarantee their lives along with the
expulsion of all who are not war criminals to the so-called Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia" and with the confiscation of all their
property.
The ultimatum says that the Serbs will be allowed to take only:
"two pairs of underwear and undershirts, a pair of trousers, a shirt
or jacket, two pairs of socks, a pair of shoes (these with only one
leg will take only one shoe, but will be allowed to keep their crutch
or cane), and one blanket. Women will be allowed to take one bra if
they are able to prove (with the help of two non-Serb witnesses) they
had worn one before the war..."
The ultimatum is only a moderate introduction into what follows.
The paper's editor Zvonimir Sekulin, who calls himself "an
independent ustasha", writes that he saw "animals on the side of the
road which included two cats, one dog and three Serbs".
A front-page photograph shows ustasha leaders, the commanders of
the notorious ustasha Black Legions, Jure Francetic and Rafael Boban.
The caption says that the picture was taken in 1941 "in eastern
independent state of Croatia, somewhere close to the holy river
Drina".
During World War Two the ustashas declared the puppet fascist
state, the independent state of Croatia, where in the Jasenovac
concentration camp alone over 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were
killed.
"Hrvatski Vjesnik" writes in detail about ustasha ideologist
Milo Budak, portraying him as "one of the best Croatian authors ever"
and "the creator of the famous Croatian saying: hang the Serbs on
willows".
Budak also introduced the Ustasha principle "kill one third of
the Serbs, convert the other third and expel the reminder". This
principle was widely used by the independent state of Croatia as a
solution for the serb question.
Culture Minister Zlatko Vitez said "Feral Tribune" had not been
exempt from paying taxes because, he said, that in that case, he
would "have clashed with the President (Franjo Tudjman)". (Tanjug's
"Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, March 16, 1995)