New York Times article re Perkovic concertHilda M. Foley
letters to editors
July 3, 2007
Subject: article "Fascist overtones from Blithely oblivious rock fans"New York Times
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
As usual, readers are being subjected by NYT's reporter Wood with a biased report on Croatia, as he ignores facts that were presented to him and chose only ones that fit his preconceived notions. His very introduction to the article is totally misleading, implying Croatians being Fascists, with some still celebrating the Nazi Ustasha puppet regime of WWII. "Fascist Overtones From Blithely Oblivious Rock Fans" (7/2).
In the first paragraph he clearly states that "thousands of fans in a packed stadium gave a Nazi salute..." Why such deliberate falsehood? Only further down the report mentions that there were at the most 4 or 5 people either saluting or wearing Ustasha regalia. - Out of 40 to 60 thousand people at the concert !
Looking for the needle in the haystack to find a photo of a young teenage girl with some old Ustasha insignia on a cap. Not even her mother could have been born during WWII. By the way, raising both arms are not Nazi salutes, that's what fans do at all rock concerts. That's what that audience did too.
To compare today's Croatia with the WWII Nazi puppet state is inexcusable. Even during that time only 2% of the population supported the Ustasha regime. Croatians have never been known as antisemites. In the interview with the rock star Perkovic, the singer reiterated that he was a patriot, which has no connection with Ustashas and he objects to any such notions. He explained that the salute "for the Homeland - ready" predates WWII, yet Mr. Wood does not seem to accept it, as he writes that the singer "claims" it. It seems Mr. Wood knows more about Croatian history than Croatians!
The Serb minorities' leader objected to the concert shown on TV, worrying "it would strike fear into his children"! One has to ask why he is not more concerned that Croatian Serbs who rebelled against Croatia, killed and ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Croats from these Serbs' illegal statelet, would not strike fear into Croatian children?
Today, Croatia has to be more concerned about the communists still in the government and Media who thrive on "Ustasha" stories undermining Croatia's democracy, still celebrating Tito, featured as number 10 on the list of the bloodiest dictators of the last century. It would behoove the world to investigate the killings of thousands Croatians who opposed communism in Yugoslavia. Mr. Zuroff and NYT reporters ought to turn a long overdue investigation of the Serbian antisemitism and their WWII concentration camps killing tens of thousands of Jews, instead of concentrating unfairly on one nation only.
Sincerely,
Hilda M. Foley
Formatted for CROWN by Marko Puljiæ
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