LINTA: USTASHA AND NAZI SYMBOLS IN OTIŠIĆ HATE CRIME

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 2 /SRNA/ - President of the Union of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta said that painting Ustasha and Nazi symbols on traffic signs and signposts in the Serb village of Otišić near Vrlika in Dalmatinska Zagora is a hate crime against the small number of Serbs there.

Linta said this is a systematic, organized and planned intimidation of Serb returnees, causing a justified sense of fear, insecurity and distress.

He believes it is necessary for the European Commission to ask the Croatian Government to stop tolerating Ustasha symbols and historical revisionism, and to guarantee Serbs the right to live without fear, threats and humiliation.

Linta pointed out that Ustasha and Nazi symbols appear frequently in the village, which had around 1,200 inhabitants before the war and today has only about twenty permanent residents.

He reminded that Otišić shared the fate of many Serb villages whose populations were expelled, and that instead of the remaining Serbs being guaranteed security, they are once again confronted with symbols of hatred that awaken the darkest memories of the suffering of the Serb people in the genocidal NDH and in the 1990s.

"I once again appeal to the European Commission Representation in Croatia to condemn this hate crime in the strongest terms and to demand that the competent Croatian institutions and police urgently find and punish the perpetrators, remove the Ustasha symbols and publicly condemn this anti-Serb act," Linta concluded.

Last weekend, Nazi and Ustasha symbols signed "Torcida" were painted in the Serb village of Otišić. Graffiti with swastikas and the Ustasha letter "U" appeared on most of the signs.