SWC Urges Croatian President to Condemn Public Praise for Ustasha Pro-Nazi Past

Wiesenthal Center Urges Croatian President Mesić to Condemn Display of Ustashe Symbols and Praise for Convicted Mass Murder at Recent Funeral of Former JasenovacCommandant Dinko Sakić

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon Croatian President Stjepan Mesić to condemn the organizers of the recent funeral of convicted Croatian mass murdererDinko Sakić, the former commandant of the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp, for turning the event into a celebration of his Ustasha crimes. In a letter sent today by itschief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to the Croatian president, the Center stressed the affront to all Ustasha victims and people of conscience the world over whena mass murderer is buried in his Ustasha uniform and praised by a priest as being “a model for all Croatians.”

According to Zuroff:
“To the best of my knowledge, no public official of any significant stature has spoken out against this outrageous display of unrepentant racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Itherefore urge you, in your capacity as president of the republic and knowing full well your unqualified and unequivocal opposition to the crimes of the Ustasha, to publicallycondemn the organizers of the funeral and the priests who conducted it.

“Under these circumstances what Croatian society needs is a clear and unequivocal reminder that Dinko Sakic was a mass murderer and brought shame to the Croatian people, that oneof democratic Croatia’s greatest achievements was his prosecution and punishment, and that only by totally repudiating the legacy of the NDH [Independent State of Croatia1941-1945] and its fanatic Ustasha extremists will Croatia become a welcome member of NATO and the European Union.”

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