Veselinovic: Croatian president's statement - dangerous

BELGRADE - Chairman of the Serbian Parliament's Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region Janko Veselinovic said Saturday that a recent statement by the newly elected Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, in which she said that all Serbs in Croatia were Croats, was dangerous.

During the election campaign, Grabar-Kitarovic addressed all citizens of Croatia as "Croats." After being criticized for that, Grabar-Kitarovic said for Interview 20, a talk show broadcast by the Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina channel BHT1: "In my opinion, citizens of Orthodox faith and Serb nationality are Croats as well ? They are Croats in terms of Croatian citizenship."

"If this is not a serious ignorance of the difference between national and religious affiliation on the one hand and citizenship on the other, then this statement is even more dangerous," Veselinovic said Friday.

He pointed out that Grabar-Kitarovic's statement was revivifying the ideas of the 19th century Croatian Party of Rights leader Ante Starcevic, stressing that it was something that could cause serious problems to the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as it could abolish the national identities of the Croats and Serbs in that country.

Ante Starcevic, Croatian politician and MP from 19th century, ideologist of Greater Croatia nationalism and proponent of racist theories of that time, stirred hatred against the Serbs and Jews.

He labeled the Serbs in Croatia as "lower breed" and "thrash," while at the same time embracing certain Serb kings, heroes and renowned figures as "Orthodox Croats."

Claiming that Serbs are a destabilizing factor, Starcevic was adamant that the only solution for "the Serb issue" was their extermination.

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