Serbia protested strongly on Monday against the unveiling of a statue in Croatia honoring an extreme nationalist who was convicted of assassinating a Yugoslav ambassador to Sweden in 1971.
The monument for Miro Baresic was unveiled in a seaside Croatian village on Sunday, with two Croatian government ministers and numerous prominent public figures in attendance.
EU member Croatia has seen a surge of far-right sentiment, including admiration for the World War II Ustasha Nazi puppet regime that was responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies in concentration camps.
Baresic, a pro-Ustasha who strived and fought for Croatia’s independence from Yugoslavia, shot Yugoslav ambassador Vladimir Rolovic inside the Yugoslav embassy in Stockholm.
He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court, but another group of Croatian far-right radicals hijacked a Scandinavian Airlines passenger plane in 1972, forcing the release of Baresic and five others who took part in the attack.
Baresic found refuge in Paraguay, but was eventually captured again and extradited to Sweden in 1980, where his life sentence was converted to 18 years. He returned to Croatia in 1991, where he was killed in fighting against Serb-led forces.
In Serbia, Baresic is considered a terrorist, while Croatian nationalists revere him as a hero.
“Miro Baresic is a great Croatian patriot whose devotion and sacrifice we have to respect,” Croatian Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said during the life-size statue’s unveiling in the village of Drage in central Dalmatia.
The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday demanded that the statue be removed.
“The ministry considers the erection of a monument to a convicted terrorist [sentenced] for the gruesome murder of the Yugoslav ambassador in Sweden Vladimir Rolovic as an improper and uncivilized act unprecedented in modern Europe,” a ministry statement said.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he has written to EU officials urging reaction and warned that Croatia’s “anti-Serb” policies could endanger peace and stability in the Balkans.
“We expect a reaction from the EU,” Vucic said. “How is it possible that the terrorist Baresic, who was convicted by a democratic Swedish court, has turned into a hero?”
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