Croatian Police Charge Men for Chanting Anti-Serb Songs

After an incident on Sunday, Orthodox Easter, in the village of Borovo in eastern Croatia, when a group of men chanted anti-Serbian songs, Croatian police announced that they will charge the suspects.

Police on Monday said that they had arrested 14 men from the Vukovar-Srijem County "on suspicion of … public incitement to violence and hatred".

The incident occurred when several dozen young men, suspected of being Dinamo Zagreb football fans, after laying wreaths at the monument to 12 Croatian police officers killed by Serb paramilitaries 30 years ago, chanted: "Oh, my Croatian mother, we will slaughter the Serbs" and "Kill the Serbs".

The event was documented in a video posted later on the town's Facebook account.

Many observers were shocked that the video shows the people singing the songs being followed by police in a car who did not stop them.

Policija zbog sramotnog skandiranja u Borovu privela 14 osoba! Više na: https://t.co/gbCfgB85rC pic.twitter.com/ecJWOZIhoY

— TV N1 Zagreb (@N1infoZG) May 3, 2021

Police insisted they were waiting for the right movement to intervene. "The group was under the supervision of police officers who assessed the most favourable moment to act," police said, explaining their action on Sunday.

The government condemned the incident on Sunday. There is "no place in Croatian society for such savagery and intolerance towards members of the Serbian national minority … or any other minority", it said.

Milorad Pupovac, MP and president of Serbian National Council, which represents the Serbian minority in Croatia, said the incident was part of efforts "to maintain a sort of state of war", which he said was encouraged by some members of parliament and...