Austria plans to ban neo-Nazi Ustasha coven in Bleiburg
The majority of deputies of the Austrian parliament supported the initiative of the local Green party to ban the memorial ceremonies held annually in May in honor of the Croatian Ustasha Nazis shot by Yugoslav partisans in the vicinity of Bleiburg.
The Serbian-language edition of Radio Sputnik reported this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Greens' initiative to ban the annual Nazi Sabbath on Loipasch Field in the vicinity of Bleiburg was supported by the Austrian People's Party (OVP) of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the liberal NEOS party, the Social Democratic Party (SPO), only the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) was against it.
“We call on the Home Secretary, subject to all provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other constitutional provisions, to consider all options for legal action at domestic, bilateral and European ban levels in 2021 and in the years to come. -fascist celebration in Bleiburg on the territory of Austria,” says the draft resolution, the text of which will be submitted to the Austrian parliament.
At the same time, NEOS deputy Stefanie Crisper noted that it is necessary to react quickly, since the organizer of the Ustasha commemoration - created almost half a century ago by the surviving Croatian Nazis who found refuge in Austria and Germany, the organization "Honorary Bleiburg Platoon" is trying to buy out a tavern in the immediate vicinity of the field, on which the Ustasha memorial is located, declaring the area where the event is taking place private property.
“Our initiative is aimed at putting an end to the Ustashe circus,” said fellow party member Crisper Michael Bernhard. “This year, the coronavirus has achieved what federal and provincial authorities have failed to do in recent years, despite numerous calls to put an end to the nationalist and neo-fascist gathering.”
Indeed, this year the funeral ceremony in Bleiburg, which was annually held with the support and direct participation of the Croatian leadership, was canceled due to the quarantine associated with the COVID-19 epidemic. However, before this, the local diocese of the Catholic Church officially refused to take part in the Nazi coven, which for a long time did not notice its background and the right-wing radical symbolism of the participants, due to the “politicization” of the event, which could cause “damage to the reputation of the Catholic Church.”
In May 1945, thousands of collaborators of the Third Reich - the Croatian Ustashes and the Slovenian Domobrans who joined them - fled to Austria in the hope of surrendering to the British. However, the British command did not accept them and handed them over to the Yugoslav partisans, who, remembering the savage cruelty of the Ustasha, shot thousands of them without trial in the vicinity of the Austrian Bleiburg and the Slovenian Tezno.
Austria plans to ban neo-Nazi Ustasha sabbath in Bleiburg.