Quote of the day

Lino Veljak, interviewed by Milanka Šaponja-Hadžić in Monitor:

"...if somebody justifies a crime committed half a century ago in the name of the nation they proudly belong to, then in moral and human terms they lose the ability to condemn the crimes that others commit against their nation today. And when everybody does it, then everything is relative and nobody is responsible. How many times have I heard, both in Croatia and in Serbia, at the mention of some massive crime committed in the nineties, the counter-question: and what did they do to us? They justify their own crimes using the crimes of their legionary comrades who fought on the other side, and it all serves to make people forget how that legionary brotherhood solidarily enriched itself on the suffering of their own and other people. They did not fight one another, they fought against the civilian population. The proof of it is the brotherhood and unity that flowers in Scheveningen, which people in our countries hardly know about. Unfortunate and naive people defend criminals and profiteers, who are either directly or indirectly (by means of their colleagues on the opposing sides) contributed to their suffering. The hero Gotovina, the hero Pavković -- and these so-called heroes, quite rightly, cynically laugh at them. That's a tragedy, in the spiritual sense even greater than the tragedy brought on by destruction in the war."

The rest of the interview is at Monitor's web site.