The tent has caused tensions to rise between protesters, local population and antifascists.
Eight members of the Indigenous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP) were detained on Sunday morning at the police station in Donji Srb because they refused, at the request of the police, to leave the public area near the local antifascist monument, reports Novi List on July 17, 2016.
Members of a special police unit, aided by a large number of regular police, started at 7.25 am a procedure “to free the public area near the antifascist monument in Donji Srb of people and things”, said Elis Žodan, spokesman for the Zadar County Police Department.
Since the police set up a very wide perimeter, journalists from several national and local media watched the operation from a distance of about a hundred meters. Several A-HSP members passively resisted the police.
Before the operation began, the police chief of Donji Srb asked the protesters to disperse peacefully, so that force would not be used. Dražen Keleminec, the leaders of the protesters, said over the phone: “You do not need batons; we will provide only passive resistance, we will not go against our Croatian police.” The operation itself lasted for about half an hour. Near the monument, there were about fifteen police vehicles so it was clear that the police were ready for more resistance from the protesters, as well as for additional protesters to show up, which did not happen.
Keleminec, who is also the A-HSP president, called earlier over the media all Croats to come to Srb and provide support for them to remain in the area, with the clear aim to prevent members of the Serbian National Council and the Union of Antifascist Fighters to traditionally celebrate the Day of Uprising on 27 July. While he was entering the police station for questioning, Keleminec loudly protested that the police operation was a way to “enable the Chetniks to continue to celebrate”.
Police spokesman Žodan told the media that police found ten people near the monument. Two of them obeyed the police orders and left the area, while eight of them stayed there and six showed passive resistance. “The police used the minimum force and carried away the participants who sat there and refused to leave”, said Žodan. Asked what would happen with the controversial tent that was left next to the monument, Žodan said it would be removed.
Vladimir Kinđerski, A-HSP vice president, said that the party would register with the police a new public gathering and would return to the monument. He said that it was not true that no one responded to their yesterday’s call for support, but that the police at several points prevented access to Donji Srb to everyone except residents and journalists.
A-HSP is a fringe extremist right-wing party which does not have much of a support even in right-wing circles.
