ZAGREB - EUROPE DAY MARKED WITHOUT INCIDENTS

ZAGREB, May 9 (Hina) - About a thousand Zagreb residents marked Victory Over Fascism Day and Europe Day in the capital's downtown Victims of Fascism Square. Unlike previous years, the marking proceeded peacefully despite provocation from the New Croatian Right (NHD). The gathering was read a letter from President Stipe Mesic, paying tribute to all who had gathered in Victims of Fascism Square in the past to show there is a democratic and anti-fascist Croatia and who helped the world realise there is a Croatia different than the one symbolised by the policy of the former government. That policy renamed the square in a mindless attempt to downplay the crimes of the 1941-1945 Independent State of Croatia, the letter reads. The foundations of present-day independent Croatia were laid in World War Two, it adds, stressing the anti-fascist past must not be kept secret as only a democratic and anti-fascist Croatia can enter the united Europe. Responding to shouts by NHD member Mladen Schwartz and his "black shirts", the secretary of the Victims of Fascism Square Committee, Zoran Pusic, said he did not object to remarks like "Gypsies, Gypsies." "For us it is not an insult, and between them and you we shall always chose the just side," he said. He reminded the Committee had organised similar gatherings for the past 11 years, and that this year it was held for the first time after the square had been given back its original name. Speaking of recent assaults on Romany children, the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights, Zarko Puhovski, said racism had made Croatia part of united Europe, where the most vulnerable in society, like the Jews and the Romany, were also attacked. Speaking on behalf of the Croatian Romany Association, Vid Bogdan said the Romany are the living monuments to the evil of fascism and called for the prevention of that evil from happening again. Addressing the NHD, Vesna Terselic of the Anti-war Campaign said she wished "no police cordons between you and us in the future, but for us to discuss the past, but even more the future together, in tolerance and with arguments." (hina) ha sb