Serbia sends protest note to Croatia over ban on minister’s visit to Jasenovac

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns in the harshest terms the ban on entry to Minister without portfolio in charge of coordinating activities and measures in the field of relations between the Republic of Serbia and the diaspora Djordje Milicevic to the Jasenovac Memorial Site,” said the Ministry is a press release.

“With this act, the Republic of Croatia, a member of the European Union, denied freedom of movement, which is one of the basic rights on which the European community rests,” it said.

The Ministry stressed that “such a move is particularly unacceptable because it denies the right of the Republic of Serbia to pay homage to the victims of the terrible Ustasha crimes, among which the most numerous were Serbian victims.”

“This inadequate treatment of a minister in the Serbian Government carries an extremely negative message and does not contribute to the further development of relations between Serbia and Croatia,” it added.

The Ministry emphasized that Serbia remains committed to conducting a good-neighborly policy with Croatia, “based on the principles of mutual appreciation and respect for European and anti-fascist values, with the expectation that the Croatian state respects the aforementioned values.”

The Croatian Internal Affairs Ministry said that the Croatian police did not allow the Serbian minister to visit the Jasenovac Memorial Centre because the visit was not announced in the program made available to them earlier, reported the Hina news agency.

Given that the note announcing the visit did not state that a visit to Jasenovac was planned, and in accordance with security protocols, the visit could not be approved, the Ministry of the Interior said, Hina reported.