Milanovic: Croatia is not successor to NDH

JASENOVAC - Today's Croatia is not a successor to the (Nazi puppet state) Independent State of Croatia (NDH), Zoran Milanovic has said at a commemoration marking 70 years since the break-out of inmates from Ustasha-run death camp Jasenovac.

On this occasion on Sunday, Milanovic challenged all those who refuse to accept this fact to throw their weight behind the introduction of the Independent State of Croatia into Croatia's Constitution, stressing that he has not yet seen anyone "brave" enough to come forward and say that publicly.

As far as I am concerned, there was only one Croatian army in World War II- Croatia's Partisans, Prime Minister Milanovic said.

He noted that his predecessors in Dalmatia joined the Partisans in 1941 as patriots and freedom fighters "against the occupation of their Dalmatian and Croatian brothers, for the protection of Serbs who suffered terror."

When a politician elected by the Croatian people describes as magnificent the atmosphere at a football stadium marked by chants "For the homeland" (Ustasha salute), he or she had better not have said anything or left the stadium. "That is not a magnificent atmosphere, that is a sad, bleak atmosphere," Milanovic said.

Photo Tanjug/S. Ilic (archive)