ZAGREB, April 23, 2018 – Serbia will respond in kind, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučuć said on Monday in a comment on Croatia’s decision to ban Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin from attending a commemoration held this past Sunday at Jasenovac, Croatia, for the victims of the concentration camp that operated there in World War II.
Commenting on Zagreb’s position that Vulin is not welcome in Croatia, Vučić said that the decision was “hasty and nervous”, and announced that the Serbian government would impose counter-measures on Thursday. “We will introduce reciprocal measures. I assume the decision on the matter will be made by the government at a session to be held on Thursday,” Vučić said, stressing that he wished the decision on Vulin had not resulted from the statement he made.
“I would not want this to be the case, that someone in the European Union is introducing verbal offence and deciding arbitrarily if someone’s opinion is to their liking or not,” Vučić said, recalling that during his visit to Croatia in February he promised that he would not say anything bad for the next three months. “I believe that that period expires on May 26. I will not say anything bad, especially not anything insulting,” said Vučić.
He added that despite the recent developments, Serbia would continue building good relations with Croatia.
Vulin had earlier announced that he would visit the area of Jasenovac this past Sunday, but the Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry said last Saturday that he was not welcome at the moment because he had stated that it was the Serbian Army’s Supreme Commander rather than Croatian ministers who would decide on whether he would visit Croatia.
Croatia’s Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović said on Sunday that Vulin was a politician who “keeps making statements that are not conducive to good neighbourly relations, settlement of outstanding issues and anything else the two neighbouring countries should be doing.”
“As for the broader context, he is not the only such politician, but in this situation, especially after what happened during the Croatian parliament speaker’s visit to Belgrade, Croatia has made the only possible decision,” said Božinović.
