Locals remove hate speech banner in border town

The banner, placed on a private building near the Sid-Tovarnik border crossing, read: "We have faith, Storm will blow in the opposite direction."

Residents who removed the banner told N1 they were disturbed by what they called its inflammatory content. The banner was displayed at the entrance to Sid, where a Croatian minority lives and which is crossed daily by travellers from Croatia.

N1 reported that the same slogan appeared a day earlier on banners held by a group of young men calling themselves "Vojvode", who posed for photographs at several Serbia-Croatia border crossings, including Batrovci, Sid, Backa Palanka and Erdut.

The incident came a day after commemorations marking the 31st anniversary of Operation Storm, the Croatian military offensive that the Serbian regime says forced more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs to flee Croatia in 1995.