SWC Israel Director Meets Croatian President Stjepan Mesić in Jerusalem

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff met today in Jerusalem with visiting Croatian President Stjepan Mesić to discuss various issues of mutual concern related to the Holocaust, Nazi and other war crimes, anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict.

President Mesić expressed his unequivocal support for the continued prosecution of Croatian Nazi war criminals and promised to update Dr. Zuroff on the ongoing investigations of Milivoj Asner (discovered in the framework of “Operation: Last Chance”) and Ivo Rojnica. Mesić emphasized the particularly significant educational dimension of such trials, not only of World War II criminals, but also for those who committed crimes in the recent wars in the territory of former Yugoslavia, also noting their important potential to assist in the postwar reconciliation process. He expressed total agreement with Dr. Zuroff’s call for the expedition of the investigations of Asner and Rojnica in view of their advanced age.

On the subject of anti-Semitism, President Mesić expressed his great satisfaction that Croatia has hereto not experienced the problem, which has been so prevalent elsewhere in Europe. Upon Zuroff’s request, he agreed to positively consider adding his support to the Center’s initiative to declare suicide bombings crimes against humanity.

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