Croatia: Neo-Nazis Celebrating Ethnic Victory of Balkans Wars 10. 8. 2005
Thousands of Croats in the town of Knin, Croatia gathered this week to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Croatian offensive that crushed a breakaway Serb republic in 1995.
The breakaway republic, called Krajina, had been established in 1991 during the mass confusion of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Krajina’s republican hopes were crushed in August 1995, when the Croatian army ‘cleaned’ out the area with Operation Storm. The military campaign destroyed the secessionist republic, and resulted in 300,000 refugees fleeing. One of the leading generals who commanded Operation Storm, Ante Gotavina, is now wanted for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
The celebration of this anniversary seemed a bit controversial, and ended up possibly creating more tension in Croatia’s already ethnically sensitive population. The controversy surrounding the event didn’t phase Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanadar, however, who called the Operation Storm offensive magnificent and liberating. President Stipe Mesic was slightly more conciliatory, using his speech to call for Croatia to follow a path of tolerance between its ethnic groups.
The crowd wasn’t in a mood for tolerance, however, and responded to Mesic’s words with cries of “Tzigan! Tzigan,” a derogatory word for Roma. Neo-nazis in the crowd started to call out “Ante! Ante!” both in honor of the wanted General Ante Gotovina, responsible for the murder and expulsion of Serbians, Roma, and Muslims during the conflict; as well as Ante Pavelic, the Fascist leader of Croatia from 1941 to 1945, responsible for the genocide of Roma, Jews, and other minority groups.
The situation of minorities such as Roma has not yet stabilized in the republics of the Former Yugoslavia. Part of this is symbolized by the continued refusal of these nations to hand over war criminals and to cooperate with other reconciliation programs. The EU has made the extradition of Ante Gotovina to The Hague a condition for Croatia’s inclusion in the enlargement process. (Dzeno Association)
http://www.dzeno.cz/?c_id=8352