国际英语新闻：10,000 "anti-fascists" gather at Tito's birthplace in Croatia

BELGRADE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 10,000 "anti-fascists " gathered to celebrate a "day of youth and joy" before the birthplace of the former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito on Saturday, reported the Serbian news agency Beta.

Before Tito's childhood home in Kumrovec, Croatia, the mainly elderly crowd celebrated the anti-fascist Yugoslav movement of World War II, personified in the image of its wartime leader, Tito. War veterans and supporters reportedly also came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia.

Tomislav Badovinac, president of the "Josip Broz Tito Society" said that although anti-fascism was not synonymous with communism, "without communism there would not have been an organized resistance."

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Tito, and his memory also evoked a less appreciative view. Police provided a buffer between the main celebration and a nearby counter- demonstration of about 100 youths, sponsored by the right-wing Croatian Party of Law.