Editor of Serbian Holocaust Education Project Receives Death Threats

CONTACT: Cali Ruchala,
Editor, The Pavelic Papers
cali [at] diacritica.com>cali [at] diacritica.com
http://www.pavelicpapers.com


Editor of Holocaust Education Project Receives Death Threats


CHICAGO - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - On Monday, May 5th, 2003,
Cali Ruchala, creator and editor of a Holocaust education and
research project called The Pavelic Papers
http://www.pavelicpapers.com),
received another death threat associated with his investigation into the
history of the Croatian fascist "Ustase" movement.

"Most of the threats I've received in the past were vague -
just 'I'm going to get you,'" editor Cali Ruchala says.
"This one said, directly, 'Delete this website or you'll
end up with a bullet in your head.'"

The Pavelic Papers is a Holocaust education and research
project studying the history of the Ustase movement, the
Nazi-allied regime of the World War II-era Independent
State of Croatia. The project takes its name from
Ante Pavelic, the "poglavnik" or fuerher of the regime, and
is the most extensive archive of its kind, publishing scores
of declassified documents and translations.

The Ustase was responsible for the murder of at least 30,000
Jews, 29,000 Roma and 600,000 Serbs during World War II.

The latest threat is the third such communication received
since the launch of The Pavelic Papers website
(http://www.pavelicpapers.com) in October 2002, but the first
logged with the Chicago field office of the FBI. (Phone:
312-431-1333)

"In the past, I looked at this as one of the risks of the
trade," Ruchala says. "Much of it is probably the equivalent
of internet grafitti. But I'm no longer taking any chances."

He points out that organizations founded by the principle
Ustase leaders - many of whom escaped to South America
following the war - are still in existence.

As late as the 1980s, six members of an Ustase successor
organization named "Otpor" - founded by Maks Luburic,
the commandant of the Jasenovac concentration camp in
Croatia - were convicted in New York State under the
Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
(RICO). Among their other crimes, the six conspirators were
convicted of attempting to assassinate prominent
Croatian-American leaders who disagreed with the Ustase's
hardline, neo-Nazi worldview, including a journalist and
a Catholic priest. The court papers associated with that
trial were recently published on The Pavelic Papers website
http://www.pavelicpapers.com/documents/ljubas/al0001.html).

"I never understood why it was so difficult to find information
in English about Pavelic and the Ustase," Ruchala says. "That
was one of the reasons I began this project. Now, I understand
why that could be." The death threat originated in Croatia,
he says, which leaves some doubt as to what United States
law enforcement could do.

"But whoever's behind these, whether it's some thug upset
that the truth is being exposed about his heroes,
or some kid who really needs better adult supervision,
they should know that these kinds of messages will only
encourage us. The project will continue."


-----

The complete, unedited version of the latest death threat is
attached to this message.

Warning: Graphic language is used.




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Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 04:02:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ante Pavelic neo_poglavnik [at] yahoo.com
Subject: stici ce vas bozja pravda
To: editors [at] pavelicpapers.com


vec ce vas stici bozja pravda kad tad jer ce vam suditi kaznjenicka bojna
!!! siriti neistinu i blatiti hrvatsku ,naplatit cete to glavama ! ! ! ! ! !
! 

btw, if you red star commies motherfuckers dont understand croatian here
is the message for you.

you all will be no longer alive , you all bastards will get bullet in head
so i reccomand you to delete this web site cause youll than have big
problems, by the way tell me who are you ,some motherfuckin
commie organisation ?????

Y O U RED STAR COMMIE M O T H E R F U C K E R S ! ! ! ! ! ! !
DIE YOU SERBOCOMMUNIST SCUMS ! ! ! !