Croatia: Serbs insulted during peaceful protest

Croatia: Serbs insulted during peaceful protest

According to a release issued by the SPC Diocese of Gornji Karlovac, the protesters were verbally attacked and insulted by "certain fellow citizens."

The Diocese noted that insults shouted out at Serbs included some offensive ethnic labels and threats of expulsion.

The attack took place on December 10, the International Human Rights Day, which represents another in a series of instances of deprivation of rights for Serbs in Croatia and many other areas.

The protest in front of the Memorial home in Glina was organised by the Anti-Fascist League and it gathered a handful of Orthodox believers from the Glina parish, although most Serbs did not attend the protest out of fear. During the protest, the crowd was addressed by President of the Serb National Council Milorad Pupovac.

After the half-hour meeting, the protesters went away peacefully and the individuals who shouted insults against the victims and protesters folded out the flags and continued yelling out offensive slogans and insults, the Diocese stated in its release.

In the territory of Glina, in once mostly Serb-populated region of Banija, Ustashas slaughtered around 1,500 Serbs soon after the constitution of the Nazi creation called the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

In the first massacre on May 10 and 11, 1941, Ustashas executed most male Serbs under 12 and communists from Glina. In late July and early August, around 1,260 Serb civilians from Kotari, Topusko and Vrginmost were brought to the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin where they were slaughtered.

The Orthodox church in Glina, built in 1846, was completely destroyed after the execution of Serbs by Croatian Ustashas.

After the war, the communist government in Croatia did not issue a permit for reconstruction of the church at the same spot and a Memorial home honouring the massacre of Serbs in Glina was built in 1967 at the plot of land where the church once stood.

Following Operation Storm during which around 250,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia in August 1995, the local government changed the name of the Memorial home in Glina into the Croatian home. On October 21, they banned Serbs from commemorating the victims at the site of the destroyed church in which the heinous crimes were committed.