BOSNIĆ: BANS AND VIOLENCE PART OF A DRIVE TO STRIP SERBS OF PROPERTY AND ERASE THEM IN CROATIA

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 16 /SRNA/ – The President of the Association of Displaced Serbs from Croatia, Mile Bosnić, stated that the growing number of bans on exhibitions and performances by folklore and singing groups from Serbia in Croatia, as well as physical attacks on Serbs, represents preparation for the final phase of erasing Serbian traces in Croatia, including the confiscation of land.

Bosnić stressed that the explanations offered by Croatian ministers Ivan Anušić and Davor Božinović—claiming that exhibitions and events cancelled after pressure and attacks by extremists were not problematic because of their content, but because they coincided with commemorations in Vukovar and other locations, are arrogant and insulting. “Croatians would never be able to sing on any day whatsoever if we were to count every date between 1941 and 1945 when they were killing Serbian civilians. That is why such explanations are arrogant and idiotic,” Bosnić told SRNA. He emphasized that the ban on the exhibition ‘Serbian Women – Heroines of the Great War’ in Vukovar, the cancellation of the ‘Days of Serbian Culture’ event in Split, preparations for an attack on young karate athletes from Serbia in Rijeka, and the attempted entry of extremists into an exhibition dedicated to academic Dejan Medaković in Zagreb are all part of a continuous policy of discrimination and persecution of Serbs in Croatia. Highlighting that similar incidents occur almost daily—along with baseless arrests of Serbs, bans on various gatherings, and physical assaults—Bosnić said this is a deliberate policy aimed at preventing the return of Serbs to their homeland. “Their explanations that something cannot be held today because it coincides with Škabrnja, and tomorrow because of something else, and so on without end, are unbelievable, just like our attitude toward everything that is happening,” Bosnić said. He added that he cannot understand how many people in Serbia are thrilled that someone in Croatia managed, at the last moment, to prevent young karate athletes in Rijeka from being beaten. He also noted the absurdity of Croatians attacking academic Medaković over a non-existent memorandum about which they know nothing, while deliberately ignoring the fact that his grandfather Bogdan was once Speaker of the Croatian Parliament. According to Bosnić, this is further proof that Croats seek to erase all traces of Serbian presence in Croatia—from taking over or appropriating Serbian cultural heritage to confiscating land. Bosnić pointed out that this is why exhibitions, church celebrations, ojkača festivals, and similar events are being banned, and why Croatians object to the fact that some of these gatherings draw as many as 10,000 people from around the world, prompting them to introduce numerous prohibitions. He believes that part of the final phase of erasing Serbian traces in Croatia also includes a project to remove monuments with inscriptions in Cyrillic or anything else they find objectionable. He said that there has been no proper response to any of this, including from the Government of Serbia, which he believes should be reacting far more forcefully. “Everything that has culminated in recent days began with the scandalous event on Jasenovac held in the Croatian Parliament, which received no adequate reaction. Why didn’t Milorad Pupovac and those around him react? They should have walked out of Parliament and taken the issue to the EU,” Bosnić said. He emphasized that one must not overlook the Thompson concert in Zagreb, where hundreds of thousands of Ustasha supporters, mostly young people, gathered, calling it a tragedy. “They glorify Jasenovac and its perpetrators at that concert, and we mostly remain silent. Not only us, but also that so-called democratic Europe. It’s horrifying. That is why Croatians have gone so far with bans and attacks on Serbs, and their only problem is that it has now become publicly visible. Still, that will not stop them from carrying out their plan to erase Serbs from Croatia,” Bosnić concluded.