Croatia: Serbs insulted during peaceful protest

Croatia: Serbs insulted during peaceful protest

GLINA -- A group of Serbs were verbally attacked and insulted during a peaceful protest in Glina, Croatia, Tanjug is reporting.

The local authorities there decided to ban memorial services and commemorations at the site where the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin once stood, and in which Croatian fascist Ustasha troops in 1941 massacred 1,500 Serbs.

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...