Croatia bans international extreme-right rally in Zagreb

by: AFP and EJP Updated: 13/Apr/2012 08:01

Croatia's minor extreme-right HSCP party announced it would host a meeting Friday of several European ultra-right parties and associations. They included Hungary's Jobbik party as well as some minor groups from Belgium, Bulgaria and France.

ZAGREB (AFP-EJP)---Croatia on Thursday banned an international extreme-right conference and march in support of convicted war criminals set for the weekend, declaring gatherings that incite

violence were illegal.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic announced the decision at a session of the government, noting that the reasons for the ban had to do with one's world view and political positions.

"Those who in their platforms call for destruction of Croatia's constitutional order and lay claims to parts of Croatia's territory - and such people have been announced as participants (in the gatherings) - they can visit Croatia as tourists, but they cannot come here as political opponents," Milanovic said explaining the decision to ban the rallies announced for April 13 and 14.

"The government will act very clearly in such situations,” he said.

Milanovic said that the government had a responsibility towards its citizens to oppose such ideologies.

"Such things won't be tolerated, not now and not ever," he said.

Croatia's minor extreme-right HSCP party announced it would host a meeting Friday of several European ultra-right parties and associations. They included Hungary's Jobbik party as well as some minor groups from Belgium, Bulgaria and France.

The participants were also due to take part in an HCSP-organised march through the capital Zagreb on Saturday in support of two former Croatian generals convicted by a UN court of war crimes committed during the 1990s conflict.

However, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, jailed in 2011 by the UN tribunal to 24 and 18 years respectively, had distanced themselves through their lawyers from the march.

Announcements of the events prompted strong criticism from several non-governmental organizations and citizens' groups that were to hold counter-protests on Saturday.

Croatia's interior ministry said the goals of the extreme-right gatherings were illegal and could disturb public order.

"Those who were to take part (in them) incite violence which is against the law on public gatherings," Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said.

The organizers of the extreme-right events said they would file a complaint with the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights and other European institutions.

The HCSP party is known for glorifying Croatia's World War II pro-Nazi regime that killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Romas and anti-fascist Croatians.