Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers

>By CHRIS HEDGES >>
>>

SPLIT, Croatia -- The old fascist marching songs were
>>sung, a moment of silence was observed for all who died
>>defending the fatherland, and the gathering on Thursday
>>was reminded that it was the 57th anniversary of the
>>founding of Croatia's Nazi-allied wartime government.
>>Then came the most chilling words of the afternoon.
>>

>> "For Home!" shouted Anto Dapic, surrounded by
>>bodyguards in black suits and crew cuts.
>>

>> "Ready!" responded the crowd of 500 supporters, their arms
>> rising in a stiff Nazi salute.
>>

>> The call and response -- the Croatian equivalent of "Sieg!"
>> "Heil!" -- was the wartime greeting used by supporters of
>>the fascist Independent State of Croatia that governed the
>> country for most the Second World War and murdered
>> hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Croatian
>>resistance fighters.
>>

> On Thursday, the final day of campaigning before local
>>elections on Sunday, supporters of Croatia's Party of Rights
>> used the chant as a rallying cry. But the shouts of the
>>black-shirted young men -- and the indifferent reactions of
>>passers-by -- illustrated a broader aspect of this country's
>>self-image.
>>

>> President Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic
>>Union party rose to popularity and power on the strength
>>of its appeals to Croatians' national pride. Now, six years
>> after the war that won Croatia its independence from
>>Yugoslavia, Tudjman's party continues to cast the World
>> War II fascist regime as patriots and precursors of the
>> modern Croatian state.
>>

>> The Party of Rights took only 7 percent of the vote in the
>> last election, but it is the closest ally of Tudjman, who is
>>reported to be suffering from cancer and who has actively
>> participated in the campaign.
>>

>> Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia
>> to come to terms with its fascist legacy. While the
>> French celebrate a resistance movement that was often
>>dwarfed by the widespread collaboration with the Vichy
>> regime, and while the Austrians often act as if the war
>>never happened, the Croats have rehabilitated the Croatian
>> fascist collaborators, known as the Ustashe.
>>

>> The Ustashe was led by Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator
>> whose picture was plastered on walls in Split in preparation
>>for the rally.
>>

> "A majority of the Croats oppose this rehabilitation," said
>>Viktor Ivancic, editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly, The
>> Feral Tribune. "But they are afraid. These neo-fascist
>>groups, protected by the state, are ready to employ violence
>> against their critics."
>>

> Ustashe veterans receive larger pensions than old Partisan
>> fighters, who waged a savage fight against the German
>>and Croatian fascist armies. Former Ustashe soldiers are
>>invited to state celebrations, like the annual army day, while
>>Partisan fighters are ignored. And state authorities have
>>stood by as pro-Ustashe groups have dismantled or
>>destroyed 2,964 of 4,073 monuments to those who died in
>>the resistance struggle, according to veteran Partisan groups.
>> >> The identification with the quisling regime does not stop there.
>>The Croatian currency is the kuna, the same instituted by the
>> fascists. And the red and white checkerboard on the flag,
>>taken from medieval Croatian emblems, previously adorned the
>> Ustashe uniform.
>>

> The president recently proposed bringing Pavelic's remains
>>from Spain, where he died in exile in 1959, for burial in Croatia,
>>a move rejected by Pavelic's family. And Vinko Nikolic, an
>> 85-year-old former high-ranking Ustashe official who fled into
>>exile after the war, was appointed by the president to the
>>Croatian Parliament.
>>

> The transformation is all the more noticeable because of
>>widespread participation by many Croats in the Partisan
>>guerrilla movement led by Josip Broz Tito, himself a Croat.
>>
>> "A huge number of Croats fought the Nazis and the Ustashe,"
>>said 77-year-old Partisan veteran Milivoj Borosa, who defected
>>in his bomber in 1942 from the Ustashe air force and dropped
>> his pay load on a German unit during his escape to the
>>Soviet Union. "But today those who should hold their heads in
>> shame are national heroes."
>>

>> The Partisans, who included among their ranks a young
>>Franjo Tudjman, committed what today is viewed as an
>>unforgivable sin. They built a united, communist Yugoslavia.
>>
>> And while the Ustashe state may have been a Nazi puppet, it
>> had as its stated aim the establishment of an independent
>>Croatia, although it was forced by the Axis to turn over large
>>parts of Croatia, including much of the Dalmatian coast, to
>>the Italians.
>>
>> In the current campaign, Tudjman sought to reconcile the
>>country's wartime divisions by arguing that the fascist and
>>anti-fascist Croatians performed equally valuable service for
>> their country.
>>
>> A general who became a historian after leaving the Yugoslav
>>army, Tudjman is among the leaders of a revisionist school
>>of history that has sought to counterbalance the communists'
>>relentlessly dark view of the fascist years.
>>
>> But many Croats, especially those who had relatives killed
>>by the fascists, smolder with indignation over the glorification
>> of a regime that slaughtered opponents with a ferocity that
>>often shocked its Italian and German allies.
>>
>> "You cannot reconcile victims and butchers," said Ognjen
>>Kraus, the head of Zagreb's small Jewish community. "No one
>> has the right to carry out a reconciliation in the name of
>>those who vanished."
>>
>> The climate has become so charged that those who oppose
>> the rehabilitation of the Ustashe do not dare raise their voices.
>>
>> And there have been several attacks carried out against
>> members of the Social Democratic Party, the old communist
>> party, currently fielding candidates for the municipal
>>elections. Many of the black-uniformed bodyguards at the
>>rally fought against the Serbs as members of the Croatian
>> Liberation Forces, a brutal right-wing paramilitary unit
>> formed by the party.
>>
>> The Ustashe supporters also have a powerful ally in the
>>Catholic Church in Croatia. The church, led during the war
>>by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, was a prominent backer
>>of the Ustashe regime. It forcibly converted tens of thousands
>> of Orthodox Serbs and did not denounce the government's
>> roundup and slaughter of Jews and Serbs.
>>
>> During the war, Jews and Orthodox Serbs were subject to
>>racial laws. The Serbs had to wear blue armbands with the
>> letter "P" for "Pravoslav" -- Orthodox -- before being
>>deported to death camps like Jasenovac.
>>
>> After the war, many priests, rather than condemn the
>> brutality of the fascist regime, went on to set up an
>>underground network known as "the rat line" to smuggle
>>former Ustashe leaders, including Pavelic, to countries like
>>Argentina.
>>
>> The church, persecuted by the communists, has now
>> re-emerged as one of the most powerful institutions in the
>>country, in large part because religion is the only tangible
>>difference separating Serbs, Muslims and Croats. Several
>> priests have enthusiastically joined the rehabilitation
>>campaign, portraying Pavelic as a pious leader who
>>championed Christian values.
>>
>> "Ante Pavelic was a good Catholic," said Father Luka Prcela,
>>who has held a memorial mass for the former dictator in Split
>> for the last four years. "He went to mass daily in his own
>> chapel. Many of the crimes alleged to have been committed
>>by his government never happened. These stories were lies
>>spread by the communists. He fought for a free, Catholic
>>Croatia. We have this state today because of him."
>> >>