PICULA HARSHLY CRITICIZES BELGRADE WHILE SHAMEFULLY REMAINING SILENT ON USTASHA REVIVAL AND PERSECUTION OF SERBS IN CROATIA

BELGRADE, JUNE 13 /SRNA/ – The Chair of the Association of Serbs from the Region, Miodrag Linta, stated that the European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, is blatantly interfering in Serbia's internal affairs and lecturing Belgrade that it should abandon cooperation with Russia, China, and the United States, while shamefully remaining silent about the rehabilitation of the Ustasha movement and the persecution of Serbs in Croatia.

Linta emphasized that Picula is well aware that Croatia does not uphold anti-fascism and other European values, nor does it fulfill the obligations it undertook under its EU Accession Treaty. He pointed out that Croatia does not prosecute those who ordered and carried out mass war crimes against Serb civilians and prisoners of war, and that even in the rare cases where final convictions are handed down, prison sentences are shamefully lenient. “On the other hand, politically motivated court proceedings are being conducted against Serb veterans, who are sentenced to lengthy prison terms on the basis of false testimony from cooperating witnesses and assumptions,” Linta said. He stressed that Croatia does not adequately punish violence and hate speech directed against Serbs, which are consequences of the open rehabilitation of the Ustasha regime and the genocidal Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, the use of Ustasha symbols, the denial of death camps, and the glorification of Ustasha perpetrators. Linta stated that numerous facts demonstrate that Croatia remains deeply trapped in its Ustasha past. He added that Croatia is obstructing the restoration of confiscated property and acquired rights belonging to more than half a million displaced Serbs and other affected citizens, thereby violating Annex G of the Vienna Agreement on Succession, entitled “Private Property and Acquired Rights”. “That annex clearly states that all citizens and legal entities must have recognized, protected, and restored the property they possessed as of December 31, 1990, in one of the successor states of the former SFRY,” Linta concluded.