THOMPSON TONES DOWN ACT, POLICE MANAGE CROWD

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000730 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL HR HUMAN RIGHTS SUBJECT: THOMPSON TONES DOWN ACT, POLICE MANAGE CROWD REF: ZAGREB 623 (U) Sensitive but unclassified; please handle accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: At the July 27 concert of nationalist pop star Marko Perkovic (aka - "Thompson") in Split's Stari Plac Stadium, police and Perkovic himself succeeded in preventing the displays of Ustashe symbols and salutes that marred his performance in Zagreb 10 days earlier (reftel). Perkovic seemed on his best behavior, going so far as to instruct his fans to refrain from using the Nazi salute but not hesitating to dish out attacks against his critics. Thorough police searches at stadium entrances kept out banned symbols, so Perkovic's young fans experienced a conservative concert focused on family values and reverence to God, expressions of national pride, and songs celebrating the 1995 victory in Croatia's war of independence. While many of his supporters gravitate toward the far right of the political spectrum, the minority who use banned WWII symbols clearly represent misdirected youth -- perhaps in compensation for having been too young to have served in the war -- rather than the makings of a neo-fascist movement. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. EMBASSY EYES ON CONCERT FANS, SAFEGUARDS -------------- ¶2. (SBU) After criticism of Perkovic's Zagreb concert, Post decided to send a summer intern and Pol FSN to the Split concert to gauge the political significance of Perkovic and his right-wing fans while evaluating government efforts to control the display of illegal symbols of Croatia's WWII pro-Nazi Ustashe movement. As he had in Zagreb, Perkovic refrained from unacceptable slogans or salutes, telling the crowd to do the same. Instead, without using names, he used the concert to fire back at his detractors (namely various anti-fascist associations, Jewish community leaders and the Simon Wiesenthal Center),claiming they knew little about his band and Croatia and that it would be best if they would just leave him alone. ¶3. (SBU) Unlike the concert in Zagreb, the attendees in Split, mostly aged 15-30, were inspected by security and police, who confiscated banned symbols and paraphernalia. The result was a crowd virtually free of illegal symbols but rich in Croatian flags, banners, and t-shirts featuring either Thompson or Hague-indictee Ante Gotovina. The concert proved not to be radical in nature, but it was decidedly right wing, with songs celebrating military victories in the Homeland War mixed with themes of religion, patriotism and criticism of liberal politics. ¶4. (SBU) Recently Perkovic has begun to slowly distance himself from his radical past. He has stopped performing certain highly inflammatory songs and toned down his rhetoric, but he has yet to publicly condemn Croatia's WWII government or fully acknowledge its war crimes. BRADTKE