ZAGREB, April 22, 2018 – Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Irinej on Sunday held a liturgy for the victims of WWII Ustasha concentration camp in Jasenovac, in the local church in Mlaka near Jasenovac, and blessed the St Elijah temple.
The event marking the 73rd anniversary of the break out of Jasenovac inmates was attended by the speaker of the Bosnian Serb entity parliament Nedjeljko Ćubrilović, numerous Croatian Serb and Bosnian Serb officials and the Serbian Ambassador to Croatia Mira Nikolić.
Ćubrilović told the press after the liturgy that there had been a women’s camp in Mlaka with horrific conditions and added that a break-out took place on 22 April 1945 by the last prisoners in Jasenovac.
Asked to comment on the Croatian Foreign Ministry’s decision not to allow Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulic to enter Croatia, Ćubrilović said that there was no place in the world where people are held responsible for verbal offence. He believes the incident could have been resolved through good neighbourliness.
Vulin said on Saturday that “it is only the Serbian Army’s supreme commander, Aleksandar Vucic, who can decide on his travel to Croatia and that this cannot be decided by Croatian ministers”. After that, the Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry issued a statement saying that Serbian Defence Minister Vulin, who has announced his arrival in Jasenovac for Sunday, is not welcome in Croatia for the time being, condemning his statement. Such statement given by Vulin has made him persona non grata until further notice, the Croatian ministry said in its explanation.
