Croats always on side of good, PM says at Anti-Fascist Struggle Day ceremony

Croats have always been on the right side - the side of good, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in the Brezovica forest near Sisak on Monday, addressing a commemoration on the occasion of the Anti-Fascist Struggle Day and the 74th anniversary of the formation of the 1st Sisak Partisan unit

Addressing the gathering, Milanovic said that the kind of anti-fascist uprising like the one at Brezovica on 22 June 1941 was unique, having happened even before the Communist Party of Yugoslavia organised an uprising.

The 1st Sisak Partisan unit was mostly made up of Croats, as well as of a large number of Serbs. It was owing to the unity of Croatian Communists and the Serb people that the anti-fascist Partisan movement became a massive, people's movement in the fight for freedom, said Milanovic.

"That is Croatia's history, we must look at it with our eyes open and discuss it openly, we must not indoctrinate our children and youth but teach them to think and ask questions," said the PM.

He added that these were very important things that made it possible for Croatia at the end of World War II to end up not on the side of the winners, but on the right side.

"Good had to beat evil and Croatians have always been on the right side, on the side of good, which naturally does not mean that they are born better than others because they are not. But it is a fact that they chose the more difficult path both in 1941 and in 1991. Croatia's path has been the more difficult one in the last 100 years and everything we have achieved we have achieved on our own, with nobody cutting us any slack, and we are entitled to that. That is our justice and the Partisan movement had a historically invaluable role in that," said Milanovic.

He added that it had taken Croatians a lot of time to learn the basic lesson of history and coexistence - to live together, share the same destiny, "that this is a state of the Croatian people where all minorities, including the largest, Serb minority, have all rights, that they respect, love and build that state."

"That this is our state, not the one from 1941. That was never our state," he stressed.

The PM said that the last 100 years in Croatia were marked politically by three men - Stjepan Radic, Josip Broz Tito and Franjo Tudjman, who, he noted, was a Partisan and anti-fascist too and who did not hide that fact and was not ashamed of it.

"That is the truth, whether you like it or not. What happened in 1945 cannot be compared with what happened in 1991 or 2001. Everyone who means well will tell their children so, but the main message remains - Croatia today is a modern, democratic, law-based country where all citizens have the same rights regardless of their ethnicity. That Croatia would hardly exist today if it had not been for the then Partisan movement's leadership, it would definitely not exist if it had not been for Croatian defenders and those who in 1991 led it selflessly to victory. Long live modern Croatia, long live Croatian anti-fascism. Let us love and build our Croatia," Milanovic said.

(Text and Photo: Hina)

News