ŠTRBAC: CONTINUED HATRED TOWARD SERBS IN CROATIA

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 7 /SRNA/ – In Croatia, all hatred is directed toward Serbs, and the latest threatening graffiti near a school in Split is the result of continuous indoctrination of young people, Savo Štrbac, director of the Veritas Information and Documentation Center, told SRNA.

He noted that November, when Croatia observes the "Days of Remembrance for Vukovar and Škabrnja," is yet another month in which Serbs hide in basements or flee to Serbia, as all hatred is directed at them. "In Croatia, they are producing a flawed product – youth who, from preschool through schooling, are taught that Serbs are bad, that they hate Croatia, and that they destroyed it and killed Croatians," Štrbac said. He pointed out that this results in groups of men violently disrupting events such as the Serbian Cultural Days in Split, shouting the Ustasha salute "For the homeland - Ready!" and verbally abusing participants on a national basis. "The outcome is a person who, 30 years after the war, sees nothing wrong with these actions, thinking `they are Serbs, and they are not allowed to sing Serb songs in November,`" Štrbac said. Štrbac said that on November 18, as in previous years, the so-called "Memory Convoy" will be organized, traditionally led by Croatian flags alongside HOS flags with Ustasha symbols. He believes the recent events in Split reflect the Jasenovac round table held in the Croatian Parliament, which attempted to rehabilitate Ustasha ideology. Štrbac emphasized that in Croatia, despite claims by the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament that there is no legal way to ban such gatherings, there is actually no political will to do so, while the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković appears to flirt with supporters of pro-Ustasha ideology.