New Statesman - 28 February 2000
The New Statesman is the premier left wing political weekly in the UK.
Is there no end to Serb myths about "fascist" Croatia (Letters, 14 February)? The Ustasha were exiles put into power by the Axis in 1941. Exiles weren't needed in Serbia, one General Nedic willingly did the job.
Other Serb collaborators were the Chetniks who fought communist partisans and massacred thousands of Croat and Bosnian civilians. Croat partisans under Andrija Hebrang liberated much territory. There are memorials to partisans all over Croatia; 22 June is a national holiday to remember them. Last year, the Croats imprisoned the commandant of the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp. This is fascism?
Croatian independence was due to the Serbs annexing one-third of Croatia. The majority of Croatian Serbs (12 per cent of the population) did not even live in the occupied territories. Hundreds of thousands of Croats were ethnically cleansed, up to 20,000 slaughtered. All this for "Greater Serbia". If that's not fascist, what is?
Brian Gallagher
London