ZAGREB (AFP)---The
Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre voiced outrage Monday
after a concert by a nationalist Croatian folk singer renowned
for glorifying the country’s pro-Nazi WWII regime.
The Los Angeles-based organisation expressed "outrage
and disgust in the wake of a massive show of fascist salutes,
symbols and uniforms at a rock concert by popular ultra-nationalist
Croatian singer Thompson," a statement said.
The concert, which took place in Zagreb on Sunday, was attended
by some 60,000 people, among them officials including Education
and Science Minister Dragan Primorac, it added.
Marko Perkovic, alias Thompson, is seen as an icon by Croatian
nationalists and is supported by right-wing politicians.
He is known for sympathising with the 1940s pro-Nazi Ustasha
regime at his concerts where, dressed in black, he gives
a Hitler-style salute and shouts Ustasha slogans.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Israel director, Efraim
Zuroff, called for the banning of concerts by singers who
glorify fascism and racism.
"The time has come to prohibit public concerts by those
who write songs of nostalgia for Jasenovac (concentration
camp) and inspire the show of Ustasha symbols," Zuroff
said in letter to Croatian President Stipe Mesic.
"I believe that only if someone of your stature and
outstanding anti-fascist credentials will lead the efforts
to combat this ugly wave of revived fascism, can this extremely
dangerous new trend be stopped before it engulfs Croatia."
In the past, Perkovic has been known for his song "Jasenovac
and Gradiska Stara," Croatia’s two notorious World
War II concentration camps.
The song glorifies the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime and its
leader, Ante Pavelic, and abuses Serbs.
According to local media reports, during Sunday’s
concert Perkovic refrained from pro-Ustasha references and
Hitler-style salutes.
Hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, anti-fascist Croatians,
Gypsies and others were killed by the Ustasha in the Croatian
concentration camps.
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