Serbia Appeals to EU Leadership Over Croatian 'Nazi-Glorifying' Policy

Serbia has sent a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn and other senior EU officials, including foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, over what it terms as Croatia's Nazi-glorifying policy.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) — The statement comes amid heightened tensions between Serbia and Croatia. On Tuesday, Balkan media outlets reported that the Croatian Foreign Ministry had sent a note of protest to Serbia after critical statements from Belgrade regarding the rehabilitation of Catholic Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who had been supported by the Croatian pro-Nazi Ustashas regime during WWII while in the post of the Archbishop of Zagreb.

"In this letter, we only ask to tell where Serbia have made a mistake, what we have done wrong, I am really looking forward to this response. But we will not get a response. And on the other side, there will be fresh statements that we are continuing Milosevic's policy, and that we are the heirs of the Serbian aggressor," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters.

According to Vucic, Croatia's policy was glorifying Nazi collaborators, terrorists and the 1990s war criminals.

Earlier in the day, the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade refused to accept two notes of protest issued by the Serbian Foreign Minisirty in regard to two separate cases — one of them concerned the decision of the Croatian Supreme Court to revoke former right-wing politician Branimir Glavas’ conviction for committing a war crime against civilians, in particular against Serbians, in the 1990s.

Belgrade also expressed protest over the unveiling of a monument dedicated to Miro Baresic, a Croatian national who had been convicted for the murder of the Yugoslav Ambassador to Sweden Vladimir Rolovic in 1971.