More than 5,000 people marched in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, against a church mass to in memoriam of Croat fascists who fought alongside Nazi Germany during World War II, media reported Saturday
BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2020) More than 5,000 people marched in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, against a church mass to in memoriam of Croat fascists who fought alongside Nazi Germany during World War II, media reported Saturday.
Anti-fascist chants were heard and some people wore red scarfs instead of face masks in the first mass gathering since the coronavirus restriction measures began to lift, Balkan Insight reported.
The Catholic mass they were protesting was held to honor the Croat fascists, known as Ustasa, that were killed by partisan Yugoslav socialists at the end of the war at the behest of Josip Broz Tito.
The protesters marched through Tito Street to the eternal fire dedicated to the 10,000 Sarajevans who perished at the hands of the Ustasa regime.
The controversial mass is held annually in the Austrian town of Bleiburg but was moved to Sarajevo due to restrictions on gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mass was criticized by the US and Israeli embassies in the country, as well as a host of Jewish organizations, the Insight reported.
The World Jewish Congress slammed the mass, saying it was "used to glorify individuals who supported or were actively involved in the activities of a regime which had executed hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children only because of their ethnic or religious identity."
The Ustasa regime formed the short-lived Independent State of Croatia where they perpetrated ethnic cleansing of Jews, Serbs and other minorities.
Much of the regime's leadership fled to Austria after defeat where they met their fates at the hands of Tito's partisans.
