Ustasha
fascist movement that nominally ruled the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. In 1929, when King Alexander I tried to suppress the conflict between Croatian and Serbian political parties by imposing a personal dictatorial regime in Yugoslavia, Ante Pavelić, a former delegate to Parliament and an advocate of Croatian separatism, fled to Italy and formed the Ustaša (“Insurgence”) movement. Dedicated to achieving Croatian independence from Yugoslavia, the ustaše modeled themselves on the Italian Fascists and founded terrorist training centres in Italy and Hungary.
