The nongovernmental organization called the Antifascist League (AFL) warned on Thursday of the danger of attempts to downplay Ustasha symbols and the criminal character of the WW2 Nazi-style Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and called for opposition to their glorification.

“For the vast majority of those who suffered and perished in Ustasha camps, our commitment and determination to oppose the relativisation of the criminal nature of the ideas that led to their suffering would be more important than any candle lit or flower brought,” the AFL said in a press release  on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the breakout of inmates of the Ustasha-run World War II concentration camp Jasenovac.

It recalled that it had been warning for years of the danger of such relativism, “the impotence of responsible state institutions” to oppose the glorification of notorious Ustasha symbols such as the salute “For the Homeland Ready”, and it asked what had happened in the meantime, since last year’s commemoration.

The Antifascist League warned in the press release signed by its president Zoran Pusic that “the memory of the victims of the Ustasha ideology and the attitude towards it has not only to do with Croatia’s past but also with its present and future.”