"Ustasha snake doesn't sleep" - Croatia's ex-president

"Ustasha snake doesn't sleep" - Croatia's ex-president

ZAGREB -- Croatia's now former president has spoken about the results of his term in office and the situation in Croatia, saying that "the Ustasha snake does not sleep."

The Ustashas were in power in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) - a WW2-era Nazi-allied entity responsible for running death camps.

Asked "where he saw the Ustasha snake," Ivo Josipovic told the N1 broadcaster that it was "not here on the floor, it is not slithering, it is not the one from the 1941-1945 (period)."

He went on to explain that he also did not have in mind "the posting of Ustasha symbols on Facebook and other websites, or dressing up in Ustasha uniforms" - but rather "the tendencies that lead to intolerance toward others and what is different."

"It is visible in our society that there are some tendencies that follow the essence of what was advocated then. It is intolerance toward others and what is different, totalitarian tendencies, a desire to diminish human rights, and we've also seen people being threatened to change the truth about history," Josipovic was quoted as saying.

According to him, "some influential circles" are making attempts at "historical revisionism" - i.e., "to distance Croatia from the winning Second World War coalition and turn it into the loser."

Josipovic, who in 2010 in Sarajevo apologized for "Croatia's participation in a policy that in the 1990s attempted to partition Bosnia-Herzegovina," also said that during his presidential mandate he "improved relations with Serbia."

"Just think back to my speech in Sarajevo and how conflictual or undesirable it was in the ruling circles then. I said it, others did not. Not before, not...