Geelong community group supporting Thompson tour
From the Geelong Advertiser:
Britt Smith
A GEELONG-based community group is at the centre of an international race-hate storm over its sponsorship of a Nazi-supporting Croatian rock group set to tour Australia.
The band, Thompson, has been banned in the Netherlands for its anti-semitic lyrics, in which frontman Marko Perkovic uses hate speech and pays homage to concentration camps.
Perkovic, known to perform the Nazi salute onstage, has been accused of sympathising with the Nazis and the nationalist Croatian party Ustashi, both responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people including Jews.
The Geelong-based Australian Croatian Association is under pressure to withdraw its support for the band, and a prominent Jewish anti-defamation group has appealed to authorities to deny the band entry to Australia.
Geelong’s ethnic community leader Michael Martinez also expressed concern. The Diversitat CEO was not aware of the band but said he disapproved of its actions.
“If they are promoting racism, whether anti-semitic or not, we don’t support that,” he said.
The Croatian association’s president, Frank Skoko, denied he knew Thompson promoted racial hatred, saying he first heard about its anti-semitic antics in a Sunday newspaper at the weekend.
Mr Skoko refused to comment on the sponsorship deal, but the association’s logo heads a promotional poster of the band’s Melbourne concert at Festival Hall.
The president directed the Geelong Advertiser to the association’s secretary, Ivan Herceg, who could not be reached yesterday despite repeated attempts.
Jewish human rights organisation, B’Nai B’Rith Anti-Defamation Commission, has called on the Federal Government to deny Perkovic entry to the country.
The commission’s executive officer, Manny Waks, said the band’s racist antics were “common knowledge”, and was disappointed the Croatian association had invted them to Australia.
“Perkovic has a track record of offending the Jewish community. We don’t want to see him here,” he said.
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