Sarajevo protests Mass for slain Nazi allies with march for their victims

Police officers stand guard, as they secure a protest against a mass for the Nazi collaborators in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 16, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Thousands marched through Sarajevo on Saturday to commemorate victims of the Ustasa regime, a puppet state founded by Croat fascists and allied to Nazi Germany, and to oppose a Catholic Mass held in the city for Ustasa and their families, slain at the end of World War Two.

The Mass is part of annual commemorations that Croatia introduced three decades ago for the tens of thousands of Croatian and Bosnian Ustasa members and their supporters, who were reportedly killed by the partisans of Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito at the end of the war.