Due to the enormous response to Ben Gelinas’ article entitled “Supposed Edmonton website sells “fascist” Croat material: Activist” (Read here), the Serbian Youth League of Canada has decided to issue a statement.
To summarize the recent events, the Serbian Youth League has alerted several media outlets of a store – CroStore.com - selling Ustashe (Fascist movement in Croatia during World War II) memorabilia and presenting Ustashe pride as Croatian pride (Their slogan is “Proud to be Croat”). Our beliefs, that this does not represent how Croats feel, were echoed in the article, but it sparked a fierce response from many who do support the Fascist Ustashe.
Despite CroStore’s repetitive claims that our attacks were on the Croatian people and Croatia, anyone who carefully reads the article will see that we are only against the promotion of a fascist movement that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and others. CroStore’s response does not provide an answer as to why they support the Ustashe, a known Fascist movement during World War II, but rather attacks Serbs and Chetniks. While the Serbian Youth League condemns any crimes committed by any side in all wars in the Balkans, equating crimes of the Ustashe with Chetnik crimes is simply not possible.
Furthermore, the Ustashe crimes can not be justified by Chetnik or any other crimes committed in the name of Serbs. Regardless of that, the Serbian Youth League has nothing to do with the Chetnik movement and our purposes are clearly laid out in our Statute. We are not Chetniks, nor are we affiliated with any Chetnik movement.
As far as the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s are concerned, the Serbian Youth League strongly condemns all crimes committed on all sides. We also believe that these crimes were individual, not collective, and it is impossible to blame an entire ethnic group for individual actions. We are not a political movement, we are a non-profit organization promoting friendly values and fighting against all forms of hatred.
The Serbian Youth League promotes friendship between Serbs and people of all nationalities, including members of the Croatian ethnic group. Unlike the owners of CroStore, who believe that all Serbs must be Chetniks (our organization was even named the Chetnik Youth League), we know that there is a very small minority of Croats who support the Ustashe, while a large majority have nothing against Serbs and hope for better relations with our people, as do we.
The Serbian Youth League of Canada
December 16, 2008
SECOND OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Since CroStore has elevated their attacks on the Serbian Youth League, it's executives and family members, as well as all Serbs, the Serbian Youth League has decided to take decisive action.
Our aims are not to engage in a historical discussion, as we believe that it's up to historians to investigate what happened in the past, and not up to those to have a concrete interest in presenting history in a way that suits their business. As a non-profit organization, we once again emphasize that we are not a political movement, nor do we gain any profit from our work, unlike CroStore.
Our investigation has concluded that the name "Dr. Mate Banovac" is most likely non existant, since the website is registered under the name of Tomislav Krizanac from Landshut in Germany. We have also talked to proper authorities in Canada, Germany and Austria (Since "Mate Banovac" is also registered on eBay selling Ustashe memorabilia from Austria) and found that "under the Criminal Code of Canada, s.319(2) entitled Hate Propaganda, it is illegal to “willfully promote hatred against any identifiable group”. Such a crime is an indictable which can lead to a term of imprisonment of up to two years" and also that "section 86(1) of the German Criminal Code reads: “whosoever within Germany disseminates or produces, stocks, imports or exports or makes publicly accessible through data storage media for dissemination within Germany or abroad, propaganda material […] shall be liable to imprisonment of not more than three years or a fine.” Under Section 9 of the Austrian constitution, the government is mandated to do all it can to eradicate fascist symbols and propaganda".
Also, personal attacks are in violation of Internet hate speech laws and will be futher investigated. To answer some of CroStore's questions, we are in good relations with a number of Albanians, one of which is a member of the Serbian Youth League. Also, we have not been presented with a single act that would describe us as a "Chetnik" movement, and the only thing that CroStore really has agains us is that we are a Serbian organization. We are glad that CroStore has removed the description "Young Chetniks of Canada" and wrote what we are - the "Serbian Youth League".
All personal beliefs of Tomislav Krizanac should not be a matter of public interest, as long as those beliefs don't break laws or threaten individuals or an ethnic group. Again, we have shown good will towards the Croatian people on many occasions, by hosting a soccer game between the local Croatian and Serbian club, as well as an evening of music from both Serbia and Croatia. But this doesn't matter to CroStore, because his business depends on continuing his illegal actions which will be stopped soon enough. This is why we kindly ask CroStore to close their website right now.
The Serbian Youth League of Canada
December 19, 2008
® Serbian Youth League is a registered name . Web Site made by Boris Malagurski