Recently, Croatian MEPs have organised events in Brussels appearing to gloss over controversial issues linked to terrorism and Nazi collaborators from Croatian history. Željana Zovko, a representative from the Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, attended a seminar last week as part of the European People Party group series of events at the European Parliament. According to the panel’s premise, they would focus on the secret services of former communist nations, since “totalitarian regimes of the past may no longer exist, but their secret services and networks live on,” said Zovko. The event featured a presentation by Zdravka Bušić, a member of the Croatian National Resistance or Otpor during the 1970s, a far-right organisation responsible for several terrorist attacks across the world. “I’m sure she [Bušić] will contribute significantly to this seminar with her deep knowledge and personal experience on this issue,” Zovko continued. Otpor was founded by Vjekoslav “Maks” Luburić, the notoriously brutal head of several concentration camps found in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi puppet state that briefly on the territory of today’s Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia during World War II. Zdravka’s brother took part in the hijacking of Trans World Airlines plane in September 1976 heading from New York to Chicago and planted a bomb in Grand Central Station in New York City, demanding a plea for Croatia’s independence not be published in leading US papers. The plane was rerouted to Montreal and then to Newfoundland, where 35 passengers were released. After negotiations with the US ambassador in Paris, the attackers surrendered. A New York policeman was killed dismantling the bomb and the perpetrators were convicted of air piracy.
via euronews: Why are Croatian MEPs in Brussels downplaying terrorism and Nazi crimes?