The incident occurred at around 14:00 in central Zagreb.
As Slobodna Dalmacija writes on the 28th of September, 2018, the Serbian National Council released a statement stating that about 14:00 today at Dolac in the very heart of Zagreb, Milorad Pupovac was attacked. From their statement, it seems that nobody physically hit Pupovac, but food items were thrown at him from the Amfora bistro.
We have translated the statement of the Serbian National Council, and it reads as follows:
”On the 28th of September, 2018, between 14:00 and 14:10, representatives of the Independent Democratic Serbian Party in the Croatian Parliament, prof. dr. Milorad Pupovac (President of the Human Rights Committee and the Rights of National Minorities in the Croatian Parliament) and Boris Milošević (SDSS Parliamentary Club President) passed the Amfora bistro at Zagreb’s Dolac market from the direction of the ribarnica (fish market) heading towards Ban Josip Jelačić Square, following the end of the parliamentary session.
At one point, prof. dr. Milorad Pupovac felt a blow to the right side of his body, from the neck, down to the wrist of his right hand, and when he turned to look at what it was, he saw that he’d been struck by the larger and smaller remains of food, some of which had remained on his clothes, and some had run down from his neck, shoulders, and his hands, and fallen on the ground.
According to the strength and precision of the blow, prof. dr. Milorad Pupovac presumes that the food was thrown at him from one of the nearby tables for the guests of the Amfora restaurant.
This is not the first, neither verbal nor physical encroachment on the SDSS president and Serbian National Council president, prof. dr. Milorad Pupovac, but this was the first [such incident] to include one of his closest associates, Boris Milošević. Given that this attack occurred in the presence of numerous people, as well as in a location through which Pupovac and Milošević pass almost every day, [this situation] contains not only a lack of regard, but also the character of a potentially dangerous physical attack on them [Pupovac and Milošević].
Judging from the way in which [this act] was performed, the assault on the target showcased an open manifestation of hatred, public humiliation, and the physical endangerment of prof. dr. Milorad Pupovac, a parliamentary representative and the president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party, as well as his colleague, Boris Milošević, the president of the club of representatives of SDSS in the Croatian Parliament.
Given the political and media campaign that has been ongoing for a long time, and especially over the past few weeks against Pupovac and the Independent Democratic Party of Serbia, this attack shouldn’t come as a surprise, because this campaign is such that it encourages people not only to feel hatred, but also to incite violence against him and to the institutions he leads, and thus to the people he represents.”
