Ustaše

a nationalist, separatist organization of Croatian fascists.

The Ustaše was founded outside Croatia in 1929 by A. Pavelic, a leader of the Croatian Party of Rights; it had bases in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and other countries. In Marseille in 1934 the Ustase carried out a plan organized by the Hitlerites to assassinate the Yugoslav king Alexander and the French foreign minister L. Barthou. After the seizure of Yugoslavia in 1941 by fascist forces, the Ustaše, supported by the occupiers, created the “Independent Croatian State” on the territory of Croatia, Bosnia, and Hercegovina. The puppet government, headed by Pavelic, organized the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs. After the liberation of Yugoslavia from fascist occupation, many members of the Ustase were sentenced to death.

Terrorist acts have been carried out against representatives of socialist Yugoslavia by Croatians who live in other countries and adhere to the principles of the Ustaše.