Serbian officials condemn Zagreb decision on Vucic

Tanjug / Slobodan Miljević

Serbian state officials on Monday condemned official Zagreb’s decision to stop President Aleksandar Vucic from visiting the Jasenovac death camp memorial site.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the pro-regime TV Happy that the decision is humiliating for Croatia, adding that Vucic would have been allowed to visit any Adriatic resort but not Jasenovac. “Croatia’s message to all Serbs is clear to me,” she said adding that this means that WW2 Croatian Ustase (Nazi collaborators) greetings are welcome at the Jasenovac memorial but not the flowers Vucic planned to lay there. Members of neo-Ustase organization put up a plaque with the WW2 greeting on it at Jasenovac a few years ago.

Brnabic demanded an explanation from the Croatian government about the ban on what Vucic said was a private visit to the site of the death camp where, according to Brnabic, one of his grandparents died.

Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said that the decision is “the direct result of that the Nazi creation, the Independent State of Croatia did and represented ideologically”. According to him, someone wants to prevent the spreading of the truth about Jasenovac and its importance to the history of the Serb people. “The authorities in Croatia hate Vucic not only because he made Serbia respectable and economically strong but because he speaks openly about the sacrifices of the Serbian people,” the foreign minister said.

The Serbian President was not allowed into Croatia for what official Belgrade said was to have been a private visit.