The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia expressed its strong protest over the series of incidents, threats and provocations by the members of the pro-Ustasha oriented Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP) and its supporters on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the anti-fascist uprising in Srb on 27 July, which are only the most recent examples of hate speech against members of the Serbian ethnic minority and citizens of the Republic of Serbia, caused by ethnic intolerance.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia considers the speech delivered at this gathering by D. Keleminec, despite his six-month ban to enter Srb, deserved every condemnation, and in which he referred to this important anniversary as “a ball of vampires held in front of a Chetnik monument”, demanding that the Independent Democratic Serb Party be prohibited from organizing gatherings and calling for the chanting of the Ustasha salute “For Home ready”, after which the crowd started shouting: “Slaughterers, killers, criminals”.
Moreover, it is of particular concern that General of the Croatian Armed Forces and Croatian Sabor’s representative Z. Glasnovic crudely attacked President of the Anti-Fascist League Z. Pusic, calling him “a moral cripple” and claiming that his presence at the anti-fascist gathering glorifies “Greater Serbia – Chetnik – imperialistic aggression”. Furthermore, a group of about fifteen women interrupted the speech of former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic several times by singing nationalist songs of far-right singer Marko Perkovic Thompson, while the supporters of the A-HSP and HOS (Croatian Defence Forces) blocked the road leading from Knin to Srb prior to the gathering.
The Republic of Serbia maintains that the fact that the competent Croatian authorities failed to act and that a public censure by Croatian officials is missing significantly contributes to inciting ethnic hatred and incidents targeting Serbs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia expects a prompt response from the competent Croatian authorities regarding the ethnically motivated incidents in Srb and throughout the territory of the Republic of Croatia, along with a report from the Republic of Croatia’s competent authorities on the undertaken legal actions and sentences passed on the perpetrators of these incidents.