On this day, 66 years ago (1948), The Roman Catholic Bishop of Mostar, Pietro Cule, was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment by the Mostar provincial court on charges of having organized and assisted the Ustachi (Croat Fascist) organization during the war. During the same trial, eight other priests and nuns were also sentenced to periods from 6 months to 8 years, under the same charges. Formed in 1929 by Ante Pavelić, Ustachi was a fascist and ultraconservative Croatian movement which functioned as a terrorist organization before World War II. With the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941, the Axis forces exploited ethnic divisions in Yugoslavia, and presented themselves as liberators of the Croats setting up a puppet state , the Independent State of Croatia, which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the parts of Dalmatia not annexed to Italy. With the installation of Pavelićs Ustachi in power, the Axis powers found a valid ally. After the initial enthusiasm for Croatian Indipendence, the Ustachi commenced a ruthless persecution of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and dissident Croats somethimes even with the collaboration of Catholic clergy. Learn more about the events in 1948 in our chronology on: coldwar.hu/html/en/chronologies/1945-1991/Chronology_1948.html Read more about Ustachi movement in English on: serbianna/columns/savich/049.shtml In the picture below, Ante Pavelić leader of the Ustachi movement: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/Ante_Pavelic_portrait_in_uniform.jpg
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 09:34:08 +0000
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