PETITION TO BE ISSUED FOR REMOVAL OF MONUMENT TO USTASHA OFFICER

KARLOVAC, Dec 7 (Hina) - On Dec. 10, international human rights day, activists of the Karlovac Human Rights Committee and the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights will submit to local county leaders and the Slunj mayor a petition for the removal of a monument to Juri Francetic, an Ustasha official, in Slunj, a town 80 km south of Zagreb. "We wish to encourage the residents of Slunj who are afraid to raise their voice against the ustashisation of Slunj and create a new climate in their environment so that we can finally remove this disgraceful monument," the chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee of Karlovac, a nearby town, Jelka Glumicic, told reporters on Friday. She said the monument to Francetic, an Ustasha criminal, extolled national and religious hatred and other forms of intolerance, which is banned by the Constitution. The monument to Francetic (1912-1942), a politician and Ustasha officer who formed the Black Legion in 1941 and was killed in a conflict with the partisans, was erected by the Slunj association of war veterans Hrvatski Domobran in June 2000. Early in November, non-governmental organisations from Karlovac, the Human Rights Committee, the Croatian Helsinki Committee, and the Association of Anti-Fascist Fighters initiated the signing of a petition for the removal of the monument and memorial plaque. (hina) ha sb