(ANSA) - ZAGREB - The statements made in recent days in
Argentina by president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who has called
''patriots'' the pro-Nazi Croats who fled to South America in
1945 , sparked row in Croatia.
During a meeting with the Croatian community in Buenos Aires,
Kitarovic said ''that many Croats after the Second World War
found a place of freedom in Argentina where they were able to
witness their patriotism''. This statement has aroused
widespread condemnation in a large part of Croatian public
opinion, since it is well known that after the victory in
Yugoslavia of the antifascist and communist movement led by
Marshal Tito, under the protection of the pro-fascist and
authoritarian regime led by Juan Peron in Argentina, the Croat
'Duce', the Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic, ally of Hitler and
Mussolini, many other collaborationists, both politicians and
officers, and thousands of Ustasha and fascist sympathizers
found a refuge.
Kitarovic also claimed to ''be proud of all generations of
Croats who went to Argentina and who shared the fate of the
Croatian people under the Yugoslav communist regime''.
Effraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in
Jerusalem and famous 'Nazi-hunter', also reacted with an open
letter. Zuroff asked Kitarovic if she was also proud of the
many war criminals, first of all the Croatian leader Pavelic.
Through a press release, Kitarovic rejected criticisms, calling
them ''mischievous'', and underlining that she personally
condemned Pavelic's Ustasha regime several times. (ANSA).
© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved