"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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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 ! ! ! !
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Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 04:02:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ante Pavelic
Subject: stici ce vas bozja pravda
To: editors@pavelicpapers.com
