The Croatian Antifascist League and a score of civil society organisations urged lawmakers on Wednesday to as soon as possible start the process of adopting a law to ban and criminally prosecute the use of Ustasha insignia, denial of WWII concentration camps and glorification of pro-Nazi Ustasha war criminals.

The initiative was launched on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed on 27 January.

The organisations demanded that the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs stop financing the Society for Research of the Threefold Camp Jasenovac, which they claimed denied the war crimes committed by the Ustasha during World War II. It also called on the Zagreb City Assembly to put an inscription on a monument being built in central Zagreb saying “To the victims of the Nazi and Ustasha regime 1941-1945”, in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets and the Roma and Hebrew languages.

They also demanded better education about the Holocaust in schools and urged the government to finance school trips to the Jasenovac Memorial Centre.

These and some other demands were read out by Antifascist League president Zoran Pusic at a gathering in Victims of Fascism Square just days after the Jewish Community of Zagreb initiated a discussion on a bill to outlaw Ustasha insignia and glorification of war criminals.

The list of demands was signed by about 20 civil society organisations from throughout Croatia, including the Serb National Council, Documenta and Zagreb Pride.