100,000 flock to pro-Ustasha singer's concert
31 May 2008 | 18:00
ZAGREB -- Last night’s concert by Marko Perkovic, a.k.a. Tompson in Zagreb, dedicated to the capital’s defenders, was attended by a crowd of over 100,000, media say.
Even though the Croatian Helsinki Committee, Jewish associations, and even President Stjepan Mesic all objected to the concert because of the preponderance of Ustasha and fascist insignia, he was welcomed on stage with chants of “Kill, kill the Serb”.
Several members of Croatia’s political and acting community were also in attendance.
Despite police warnings prior to the concert that anyone carrying Ustasha or fascist insignia would be arrested, caps and scarves with ustasha iconography were scattered all around, particularly on the heads and around the necks of euphoric teenagers, while one Tompson fan even turned up with a swastika flag in his hands.
The most vocal were a group of young fans going through their regular repertoire of chants, including “Anyone sitting down is Orthodox”.
In spite of the fact he and his army of fans greet each other with raised right fists, the controversial singer claims that his fans are big anti-fascists.
After the concert, Perkovic was unable to explain why he had been banned from holding concerts in Austria and Switzerland.
The president of the Association of Disabled Croat Soldiers of the Homeland War called on the media to be objective, and to write that there had been no outlawed insignia or songs.
Or This"
Policeman in trouble for reporting pro-Nazi singer
11 June 2008 | 15:18 -> 18:06 | Source: FoNet
ZAGREB -- Josip Gašparac, a long-serving inspector in the Zagreb police, has been suspended for reporting singer Marko Perkovic, Tompson, writes Jutarnji List.
A criminal complaint was filed on suspicion that Tompson had been guilty of racial and other forms of discrimination during a concert on Bana Jelacica Square in the Croatian capital on May 30, “to the detriment of Croatia, its citizens and national minorities,” writes the Zagreb daily.
The complaint applies to Tompson as well as other “unknown perpetrators” who are suspected of complicity in these crimes.
The Croat singer has been criticized for glorifying Croatia's WW2 Nazi puppet Ustasha regime, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Romas and Jews.
Among other things, it is said that the complaint was filed on the grounds that certain lyrics at the concert had led a significant number of visitors “to make outbursts displaying hatred to other national minorities with calls to murder,” citing as proof footage of the concert broadcast on several TV channels.
Right after learning of his suspension on June 6, for which he received no written explanation, Gašparac was forced to hand over his badge and weapon, and leave his place of work.
The inspector was told that disciplinary proceedings had been launched against him “for serious breaches of discipline and unbecoming conduct on duty and off.”
Today, reacting to the reports, Croatian police denied that the suspension had anything to do with the Tompson case.
But president of the Croatian Jewish Community Slavko Goldstein wrote in Jutarnji List that Gašparac knows the exact reason for his suspension without any need for detailed explanations—his decision to report the singer.
In accordance with standard procedure, Gašparac first informed his immediate superior that he would file such a complaint, and then, on the orders of his superior, held consultations with the deputy public prosecutor, before sending to Crnomerec police station an application signed by his superior for Tompson to be brought in for questioning.
However, the police station in question responded that “the immediate reasons had stopped, and that the summons did not need to be delivered to Perkovic.”
This order was allegedly issued by the deputy chief of Zagreb police, says Goldstein.