There is a news item which has gotten virtually no coverage in the United States but which I, as a member of the Board of the Jasenovac Institute consider very important. The World Cup Soccer Tournament, the most important athletic tournament on earth, is held every four years, This year it will be held in Brazil.
The petition below in both English and Serbian calls for disciplinary action against an individual and the Croatian National Soccer team for reviving fascist chant, quite similar to Sieg Heil or even Heil Hitler used at a rally for the German national team today or, in U.S. terms, a hooded Klansman leading a rally for the U,S, National Team with a Burning Cross.
The petition is a call for anti-racist action by FIFA(the global Soccer Association) against both the player/leader of this action and the Croatian National Team itself.
It should be noted that many European nations still have various laws against racist and fascist incitements and provocation, although in a number of Eastern European countries and former Soviet Republics, Nazi collaborators and local fascist parties have been rehabilitated by governments and part of a general anti-Communist anti-socialist revision of history that has followed the restoration of capitalism in these countries
Nowhere is this greater than in Croatia, whose separatist leader, Franjo Tudman, supported by the U/S/ NAT bloc and its bombers, not only "rehabiltated" Ustasha figures but also denied the existence of the fascist genocide in Europe which the world today calls the Holocaust.
The Jasenovac Institute was founded to educate people through its website and publications about the Holocaust in Yugoslavia, which was different than in other areas of Europe because of the central role played by the Croatian fascist Ustasha, not simply as collaborators and enforcers for the Nazis but as initiators of mass murder
was the third largest murder camp in Europe, after Auschwitz and Treblinka. But it was run by the Croatian Fascist Ustasha, not by Hitler’s SS, as all the other murder camps were. In Jasenovac, over 600,000, people, the overwhelming majority of whom were Serbians, along with tens of thousands of Jewish and Roma(Gypsy) people, were murdered.
Large numbers were from the Serbian ethnic minority in the former Yugoslav province of Bosnia, which Hitler had given to his Ustasha fascist allies in 1941, when he invaded Yugoslavia after it refused to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, and created the Ustasha “Independent State of Croatia” which then carried out Hitlerite persecutions of Serbian Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Roma(Gypsies) . For these reasons, the actions of the Croatian National Soccer team should both outrage all of us with any understanding of history or any moral sensibility,
For those who are interested in further reading on this neglected part of history, whose repercussions continue to today, I would suggest that they read Barry Lituchy, ed. Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia:Analyses and Survivor Testimonies(New York: Jasenovac Institute: 2006). Barry Lituchy, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing for many years, was and is the key organizer of the Institute. For those interested in a broad overview of Yugoslav history leading up to and following these events, I would recommend my own article, "Yugoslavia: A Historic View" in the Peoples World, February 9, 2007, which is available on the Internet.
As a postscript to these sordid and tragic events, Andrija Artukovic, the Minister of Justice in the Ustasha regime directly involved in the mass murder during WWII, was able to get to the U.S. under a temporary visa after the war(his brother was a California businessman). After he was exposed and the U.S. launched deportation proceedings against him in 1851(the fact that Yugoslavia had broken with the Soviet Union and, compared to all other Communist led nations at the time had relatively good relations made this possible) his lawyers were able to bloc extradition for the next thirty five years using the Catch -22 argument that he would face persecution by the Communist government of Yugoslavia since he had ordered the torture and murder of Communist partisans{among of course many many others} in his official capacity aas Minister of Justice. Today, he would be if he were still alive an honored guest at the Croatian National Football Team, probably giving the Fascist salute in response to the chants of the crowd as he did in response to the uniformed Ustasha troops and crowds during WWII.
Please foreward this petition as far and wide as possible. Not to do that would be to give the Ustasha regime, the perpetrators of these crimes, a posthumous victory
· Petitioning FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association)
FIFA: Take disciplinary proceedings and a monetary penalty against Josip Simunic (personal) and against Croatian national football organization, suspend the Croatian team from Brazil 2014!
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2. Petition by
Dear FIFA members, FIFA committee
Thank you that you finally started the disciplinary proceedings against Simunic and Croatian football organization. We fully support your action and wish that you come to a result soon.
Enough is enough. Simunic saying "for the homeland" and the public masses answering "ready" - and using this phrase FOUR TIMES - which was the chant during the Ustasha pro-nazi regime 1941-1945 during the World War II. Under that racist regime thousands of thousands Serbian, Jewish and Roma people were murdered by the Ustasha. Imagine, in Berlin someone of the German national football team would say in the 21st century "Sieg, heil"...this would be a great scandal and people worldwide would see it as a comeback of Nazi-time. We have to speak up loud against public hate speech wherever it is used in public. Remember, "Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process." (Eight stages of Genocide, by Gregory H. Stanton)
In the last months, the new EU member state Croatia is going more and more into anti-serb attitude and handling. It is socially acceptable to destroy tables in Cyrillic letters, it is acceptable to share posters saying "Serbian family tree" and picturing a human being hanging on the tree - which associates of the fact that Serbian people, among other kinds of murder, hung on trees during the WW II - and now it seems to be acceptable that one can stay in front of a mass audience and speak out loud "for the homeland..." "ready" AND doing this FOUR TIMES. Quo vadis, Europae?!
I feel responsible to all the innocently murdered Serbian, Jewish and Roma people, they cannot speak for themselves - we have to arouse our voices that we condemn every action which can lead in the end to holocaust and genocide.
FIFA, please open your eyes and mind and say NO to racism and hate speech!
Please think about it not only punishing Simunic and the Croatian team by money penalty, think about it if you really want to have at the world football games 2014 in Brazil a pro-Ustasha football player on that games! Think about the exclusion of Simunic from the World Games in Brazil! We don't need rascist players at an international event. It would be an award for him if he would be allowed to go to Brazil!
Thank you in advance,
Mira Jovanovic
Petition in Serbian:
Петиција упућена: ФИФА (Међународној федерацији фудбалских асоцијација )
ФИФА: За покретање дисциплинског поступка и новчаног кажњавања Јосипа Шимунића (лично) и против националне фудбалске организације Хрватске, за суспендовање екипе Хрватске са Мондијала, Бразил 2014 !
Петицију покреће:
Нефиш Хаја
Образовање о холокаусту и геноциду, пробудити свест против говора мржње
Поштовани чланови ФИФА и ФИФА одбора,
Хвала вам што сте коначно почели дисциплински поступак против Шимунића и фудбалске организације Хрватске. У потпуности подржавамо вашу акцију, желећи да ускоро донесете одлуку.
Доста је било. Шимунић каже: "За дом(овину)" а публика одговара "Спремни" – и, понавља ову фразу ЧЕТИРИ ПУТА – фразу која је била поздрав током Другог светског рата, за време усташког про-нацистичког режима 1941-1945. Под тим расистичким режимом усташе су убиле хиљаде и хиљаде Срба, Јевреја и Рома. Замислите да у Берлину фудбалски репрезентативац Немачке у 21. веку узвикне: "Зиг, Хајил" ... био би то велики скандал, а људи широм света би га разумели као повратак нацистичких времена. Морамо се громогласно супротставити кад год се у јавности проговори говором мржње. Запамтите, "Геноцид је процес који се развија у осам етапа које су предвидљиве, али не и неумитне. Процес није линеаран. Превентивним мерама може бити заустављен у свакој етапи. Логично, каснијим етапама морају претходити раније етапе. Али све етапе настављају да делују током целог процеса." (Осам етапа геноцида, Грегори Х. Стентон)
Последњих месеци Хрватска, нова чланица ЕУ, све више напредује у антисрпском ставу и поступцима. Постало је друштвено прихватљиво уништавати ћириличне табле, прихватљиво је делити плакате "Српско породично стабло" који приказују људе обешене о дрво – подсећајући на чињеницу да су Срби, поред осталих начина убистава, били вешани на стабла током Другог светског рата – а сада, изгледа да је прихватљиво стати пред публику и узвикивати: "За дом(овину)..." "Спремни" И, учинити то ЧЕТИРИ ПУТА. Quo vadis, Europae!?
Осећајући се одговорним за све невино убијене Србе, Јевреје и Роме, оне који не могу да проговоре у своје име – морамо подићи свој глас и осудити сваку акцију која на свом крају може довести до холокауста и геноцида .
Чланови ФИФА, молимо вас, отворите очи и ум и кажете НЕ расизму и говору мржње !
Молимо вас, размислите не само о томе да новчано казните Шимунића и репрезентацију Хрватске, већ и о томе желите ли про-усташког фудбалера на Светском фудбалском првенству у Бразилу 2014! Размислите о искључењу Шимунића са Светског фудбалског првенства у Бразилу! На међународним такмичењима нам нису потребни играчи-расисти. За такве, награда је ако им се дозволи да оду у Бразил!
Хвала унапред,
Мира Јовановић
За:
FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), Tel : +41-(0)43 222 7777, Fax : +41-(0)43 222 7878.
Покрените дисциплински поступак и новчано кажњавање Јосипа Шимунића (лично) и националне фудбалске организације Хрватске, суспендујте репрезентацију Хрватске са СП у Бразилу 2014!
Срдачно,
[Ваше име]
To:
FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), Tel : +41-(0)43 222 7777, Fax : +41-(0)43 222 7878.
Take disciplinary proceedings and a monetary penalty against Josip Simunic (personal) and against Croatian national football organization, suspend the Croatian team from Brazil 2014!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
News
1. Rea
