Croatia’s Disrespect for Jasenovac Victims Has a Long Tradition

But why did the boycotts start in 2016 - why exactly that year? Did it maybe coincide with the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, taking power in Croatia?

Is it maybe because the HDZ government, when it came to power, appointed a culture minister called Zlatko Hasanbegovic who once wrote that the Ustasa were martyrs? Or because Hasanbegovic never came clean about what he said (until weekly news magazine Novosti reported on it)? Or because he never apologised?

Was it maybe the fact that the government tolerated the presence of a plaque with the Ustasa chant 'Za dom spremni' ('Ready for the Home(land)') engraved on it, within walking distance of the former concentration camp, for nine months? Or because the government had to beg an open admirer of the Ustasa, Marko Skejo, leader of the 1990s veterans of the Croatian Defence Forces, the HOS, to allow the authorities to remove the plaque?

Could one of the reasons for the boycott be that government hid behind an expert council which confirmed that the 'Za dom spremni' slogan can be used in commemorations of fallen HOS soldiers? Or is it maybe the funeral for Ustasa soldiers with full military honours near Plitvice lakes in September 2018?

Undoubtedly one of the reasons for the continuing boycott could be the fact that the government gave 6,700 euros to the Society for Research of the Threefold Jasenovac Camp, an NGO that distorts the facts about Jasenovac, claiming, without academic basis, that up to 50 times fewer people died there than the Jasenovac Memorial Site has established.

But it could also be because 2,700 euros was given to the Association of Police Veterans from the 1990s war - who have somehow become WWII experts as well - to unscientifically claim that an Ustasa...