BOSNIĆ: "BOJNA ČAVOGLAVE" BECOMING CROATIA’S UNOFFICIAL ANTHEM DUE TO USTASHA SALUTE

BELGRADE, DECEMBER 13 /SRNA/ – The song “Bojna Čavoglave” by controversial singer Marko Perković Thompson, because of the Ustasha salute “Za dom spremni/For homeland-ready!”, is turning into Croatia’s unofficial anthem, said Mile Bosnić, the head of the Association of Displaced Serbs from Croatia.

Bosnić stressed that the euphoria in Croatia, triggered by a new series of Thompson’s concerts at which both he and the audience continue to shout the Ustasha salute “Za dom spremni” in the song “Bojna Čavoglave,” shows that Croatian society, or at least its majority, is sick and incapable of understanding what it produces by glorifying the worst criminals. Commenting on statements by HDZ councilors in the Zagreb city assembly who claim that Thompson’s song “Bojna Čavoglave” is, as they say, “a work of art created in the 1990s with no connection to the Second World War,” Bosnić said it is well known which profession is competent to give such so-called assessments. “Croatian historians themselves have clearly said that ‘Za dom spremni’ is an Ustasha salute from the time of the NDH, when horrific crimes were committed. It is enough to mention the killing of more than 100,000 children in over 100 different ways, and yet someone defends and even glorifies that. That is already a serious stage of illness and pathology,” Bosnić told SRNA. Speaking about the City of Zagreb’s regulation banning the use of the Ustasha salute and announcements of a possible ban on Thompson’s New Year’s concert, Bosnić does not believe this will happen and says that even if a ban is imposed, it would only embolden Thompson and his followers to promote the criminal salute and Ustasha ideology even more strongly. If there is a ban, Bosnić assessed, other cities will rush to invite Thompson to perform there. “I think all of this is a well-thought-out move that gives Thompson additional strength. It only pumps up the euphoria around Thompson, and the song ‘Bojna Čavoglave,’ because of the Ustasha salute, is turning into a kind of unofficial anthem of Croatia,” Bosnić said. He believes that Thompson was chosen to carry this entire story because a person with even a little sense and morality would not be able to do this, but emphasized that this is not only about the Ustaše and the NDH, but about Croatian history in general and its complexes, which create a need to constantly invent enemies and always place Serbs at the top of the list. “Serbs are always to blame for everything for them, both because they sing and because they are not allowed to sing,” Bosnić said, adding that “Thompson’s concerts are Catholic-chauvinist-Ustasha performances.” He also pointed out that, due to his popularity, Thompson has almost been turned into one of the main interpreters of Croatian history, and assessed that the main sponsor of this controversial singer is the Catholic Church, which supports numerous fabrications not only from the time of the NDH but throughout Croatian history. “The Church fuels all these stories about the arrival of Croats to these areas as early as the fourth century, about false baptisteries and all other historical falsifications, especially regarding the NDH and its role. The Catholic Church cannot realistically speak about the NDH when at that time there were mass forced conversions of Serbs, especially children,” Bosnić emphasized. He believes that the forced conversion of Serbs in Croatia is still being carried out today, and that Serbs in cities are being pressured to change their religion and their names. He also believes that Serbs themselves are partly responsible for the resurgence of neo-Ustashism in Croatia because Ustasha crimes in the NDH were not named by their true name in time - genocide.