Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its opposition to the screening tonight in prime time by Croatian state television (Channel 2) of the recent (June 17) concert by rock singer Marko Perkovic (“Thompson”), at which numerous members of the audience displayed Ustasha uniforms, symbols, and banners. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the screening of the concert and especially in such an attractive time-slot would “encourage Croatian extremist nationalists by giving official sanction to an event which constituted a brazen display of the symbols of Croatian racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”
According to Zuroff:
“The widespread display of Ustasha and ultranationlist symbols at Thompson concerts is no mistake or coincidence. A singer who sings nostalgically about Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic and favorably about Croatia’s worst World War II concentration camps Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska, is openly urging his fans to identify with the genocidal Ustasha regime which sought to liquidate Croatia’s Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies as well as their Croatian political opponents. By broadcasting Thompson’s concert on state television in prime time the government is in essence expressing its approval for his hateful message.”
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