Tue, 3 Jul 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
American Croatian Association
of So. California
13272 Orange Knoll
North Tustin, CA 92705

hmfgsf@juno.com