The Chetnic Movement, which basically teamed up with the Germans in the region of Serbia, while in Bosnia-Herzegovina and a little bit in Croatia it went sort of back and forth, many times collaborating with Italians, was active from 1941 to 1945 and its leader Draza Mihailovic was convicted of war crimes.
The proposal on the equating the rights was moved by the Serb Renewal Party (SPO) led by Vuk Draskovic, the current foreign minister of the state union of Serbia-Montenegro.
In the 250-seat assembly, 176 MPs voted for the law, which was adopted in urgent procedure, while 24 deputies of the Socialist Party of Serbia led by the UN war crimes tribunal's indictee Slobodan Milosvic, and nine deputies of Nebojsa Covic's Social Democratic Party were against the motion. Another nine PMs were not in the parliament during the voting and four abstained.
The sponsor of the law said that the law was based on the historical truth and that it was necessary to grant equal rights to everybody who fought against occupiers, Fascists and Nazis.
The law also provoked a heated debate in the Serbian public. Members of anti-Fascist war veterans' associations branded the law as "a national offence", adding that Serbia "is the first country in Europe to declare a quisling movement as being liberating and anti-Fascist".