One of the events during Prince Charles’ visit to Croatia raising tensions between Croatia and Serbia.
On Monday, Prince Charles came to Croatia for a two-day visit. While the itinerary was not considered to be particularly controversial, there was one element which caused quite a stir in Serbia. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić protested against the fact that, during Prince Charles’ visit to Banski Dvori palace in Zagreb, the seat of the Croatian government, Croatia’s Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković described the palace as a place where Serbian rebel leader “Martić’s missiles hit the headquarters of the Croatian Government” in 1991, reports tportal.hr on March 16, 2016.
That is not fair, said Aleksandar Vučić during a meeting of the organizing committee for the visit of Prince Charles to Serbia, which immediately follows his visit to Croatia. “How would it be if we were to take Prince Charles all over Serbia, and there is not a single village in Serbia in which there are no Serbian refugees who fled from Croatia?” asked Vučić. Still, he insisted that Serbia should “be a gentleman and talk about the future”.
During Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to Zagreb, Prime Minister Orešković showed them photos which depicted the consequences of the attack on the Banski Dvori palace which happened on 7 October 1991, as well as two books illustrated with photographs of cultural monuments from the times before the war, as well as the testimonies about the cultural heritage destroyed during the war in Croatia.
In the courtyard of the Banski Dvori palace, the distinguished guests also saw the memorial plaque which marks the point of impact of the rocket that hit the palace. Mario Braun, director of the Croatian Conservation Institute, informed them about the reconstruction of the part of the palace which was damaged during the rocket attack.
