20.05.2020, Sarajevo.
Member of the Canton of Sarajevo parliament from the main Bosnian Muslim party in the country, The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Samra Ćosović-Hajdarević demanded that protesters who had held an action condemning the rehabilitation of fascism in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) be punished. The protesters held their action during a Catholic mass for the Nazi collaborators killed in Bleiburg (commonly known as the Ustaše militia or Black Legion*), reports the Portal N1 News Agency on May 18.
“I call on all those responsible for maintaining public peace and order to identify and punish all persons who committed a misdemeanour and violated a banning order, based on video recordings,” said Cosovic-Hajdarevic during an online session, arguing they thus threatened the epidemiological situation in the Canton.
Cosovic-Hajdarevic also asked who will bear the responsibility in case the number of COVID-19 patients rises drastically.
The event took place last Saturday, on May 16, when about 5,000 people participated in a protest rally against the mass held by Bosnia’s Croat Cardinal Vinko Puljic for those killed at Bleiburg, in World War II. The protesters gathered in front of the Philosophy Faculty and then walked to the Monument to Yugoslav Partizan near the Eternal Flame Memorial.
* The Ustaša (Croatian Revolutionary Movement), commonly known as Ustaše, was a Croatian fascist, ultranationalist and terrorist organization, active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945. The Black Legion was formed in September 1941 as the 1st Ustaša Regiment. It consisted largely of Bosnians and Croatians, and it numbered between 1,000 and 1,500 men. The Ustaše also enacted racial laws and systematically persecuted Serbs, who were Orthodox Christians, as well as Jewish and Roma populations throughout the country. It established a concentration camp system, the largest of which was Jasenovac, where 77,000–100,000 people were murdered. Around 29–31,000 Jews, or 79% of their pre-war population in the NDH (the Independent State of Croatia was declared with the backing of Hitler and Mussolini.), were killed during the Holocaust. In 1945 Croat troops and civilians mostly used escape routes toward Mežica and Bleiburg, and across the Kamnik Alps toward the Jaun Valley in Austria. Bleiburg was located some four kilometers northwest of the border of Austria and Yugoslavia. Parts of the columns were attacked by the Partisans on 12 May. After World War II, the Ustaše movement was split into several factions. The term “ustaše” is today used as a derogatory term for Croatian ultranationalism – translator’s note
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
