ZAGREB, 01. AUG. 2016 – The unveiling of a monument honoring Croatian Nazi Ustasha terrorist Miro Baresic has been attended by two Croatian ministers, the N1 broadcaster has reported. Baresic was jailed in Sweden in 1971 for the murder of Yugoslav Ambassador in Stockholm Vladimir Rolovic. The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was a Nazi-allied WW2 entity led by the Ustasha regime and Ante Pavelic, that operated death camps for Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Baresic was killed 25 years ago, during the war in Croatia. The unveiling of the monument in Baresic’s hometown of Drage was attended by Croatian Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic and Minister of Veterans Tomo Medved who addressed the crowd to say that Baresic was “one of the biggest Croatian patriots” and “a symbol of the struggle for freedom.”. According to N1 only former war Croatian general Ante Gotovina, also in attendance, received more applause than Hasanbegovic. Those gathered included Croatian generals Josip Lukic and Ljubo Cesic Rojs, Ante Deur, and several officials of the extreme right Croatian Party of Right Ante Starcevic, as well as members of the Croatian Assembly. Minister Meved stressed that Baresic “fought for years, abroad and during the Homeland War, for a free and independent Croatia, and never gave up on his idea, although he for years felt the injustice that was being inflicted systematically on the Croats”. Describing the 1971 murder in Stockholm, Beta agency said that “when Baresic saw that that the police were coming he realized that the original plan to take the ambassador hostage had fallen through” and that, as the police stormed the embassy building, “the other assassin Brajkovic took a pistol, put it in Rolovic’s mouth and shot him in the head.” “After that they both surrendered without resistance, shouting: ‘Independent State of Croatia’ and ‘Long live Ante Pavelic’,” said the report. The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was a Nazi-allied WW2 entity led by the Ustasha regime and Ante Pavelic, that operated death camps for Serbs, Jews, and Roma. As reported in Croatian media, Baresic was killed on July 31, 1991 near the town of Benkovac in Croatia, “under mysterious circumstances”. Reacting to the decision to build a monument in honor of the Ustasha terrorist, head of the Association of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta said it represented “merely yet more proof that the NDH is the foundation of today’s Croatia.” “Statements by the (Croatian) president and right-wing politicians that they supposedly condemn the Ustasha ideology are only declarative and intended for the outside. Most of Croats and their politicians today see Ustashas as the real Croatian army and fighters for freedom of the Croatian people, and the (WW2) anti-fascist Partisans as criminals and occupiers,” said Linta. A court in Sweden sentenced Baresic and Brajkovic to life in prison, but the government of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in October 1985 reduced the sentence handed to the terrorist to 18 years, “for good behavior.” After Croatia’s secession in 1991 and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Baresic returned from South America and joined former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman’s National Guards (ZNG) armed forces.
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