(Fwd) Croatia angry over Italy honouring fascist rulers
Ivo Skoric
ivo at reporters.net
Sat Oct 27 22:13:51 CEST 2001
As if Croatia doesn't have enough of their own fascists, now since
Berlusconi took over Italy, Croatia has to deal with renewed Italian
fascism as well. Fortunately, there are no Nazis in sight yet to take
over Germany.
ivo
Subject: Croatia angry over Italy honouring fascist rulers
Croatia angry over Italy honouring fascist rulers
ZAGREB, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Croatia said on Friday it was angry over Italy's
decision to award military honours to fascist administrators who ruled the
Croatian coastal city of Zadar during World War Two.
"It is an unfortunate move which has rightly angered Croatia...and we hope
Italy will revise its course of action," Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told
reporters.
Picula said Zagreb would not take any immediate diplomatic measures because
it wanted to give Italy a chance to rethink its decision.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who recently visited Croatia, decided
last week to decorate the last Italian administration to rule Zadar up to the
end of World War Two, according to media reports.
The reports said Ciampi wanted to honour the Italians who lived in Zadar,
many of whom perished in Allied bombing of the city. Some Italian survivors
now live in Italy.
"We must express big surprise at this act, which is contrary to everything
(Zagreb and Rome) have agreed so far," Picula said.
Zagreb immediately announced it would not sign a Partnership and Cooperation
Agreement with Italy scheduled for October 29, the same day Croatia signs an
association agreement with the European Union.
The medal awarding ceremony, slated to take place on November 13, appeared to
have been postponed in the face of Croatian protests, Croatian media reports
said.
Zadar, along with Croatia's other coastal regions including the northern
Istrian peninsula, fell under Italian rule in 1918 as Rome's part of the
spoils after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in World War One.
The territory reverted to communist Yugoslavia in 1945 and most Italians in
the region fled to Italy.
The issue of the return of their property, confiscated by the communists, has
yet to be fully resolved by Croatia, which seceded from the Yugoslav
federation in 1991.
08:24 10-26-01
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