ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - The committee for the removal of the monument to senior Ustasha military commander Jure Francetic in Slunj expects the government to take "resolute and prompt" action to remove the monument, the head of the
Centre for Peace Studies and committee member, Vesna Terselic, said on Friday.
ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - The committee for the removal of the monument
to senior Ustasha military commander Jure Francetic in Slunj expects
the government to take "resolute and prompt" action to remove the
monument, the head of the Centre for Peace Studies and committee
member, Vesna Terselic, said on Friday.#L#
"Removal of that disgraceful plaque would indicate that Croatia cares
for human rights and wants to be a responsible member of the
international community in which criminals such as Hitler, Pavelic and
Francetic are condemned and not glorified," Terselic said at a press
conference.
She hailed Monday's statement by government spokesman Ratko Macek that
the government also wanted the monument removed.
Commenting on a statement by Party of Rights (HSP) member of
Parliament Ante Djapic, who referred to the committee as "Chetniks",
Terselic asked how citizens could express their views freely if
representatives of civil organisations were labelled like that.
The chairman of the Civil Committee for Human Rights, Zoran Pusic,
said they were considering bringing a lawsuit against Djapic for
defamation. He recalled that his committee had been calling for the
removal of the monument since 2000 when it was erected.
"It is bad that residents of Slunj have said in a survey that they
heard nothing bad about Francetic," Pusic said, adding that it was
also bad that the dissemination of intolerance and hatred and the
glorification of people who had carried out pogroms were treated as
political views.
The head of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Zarko
Puhovski, said that "people in Croatia live in a perpetual lie about
their own past," citing as an example the inscription on the monument
that referred to Francetic as "a legendary fighter against Chetniks".
"Not a single battle between Ustashas and Chetniks was recorded during
World War Two," he underlined.
The chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee from Karlovac, Jelka
Glumicic, said that over the past few days her committee had been
inundated with telephone threats and intimidation, and that the police
had been notified of the case.
(Hina) vm