PICULA IS A CONFIRMED SERB-HATER, DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE SHOULD BE LAUNCHED

BELGRADE, JANUARY 28 /SRNA/ - The European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula has in recent days confirmed himself as a Serb-hater, and therefore must no longer have any say, while Serbia must launch a strong diplomatic offensive to remove him from both that position and the Serbian path, Mile Bosnić, President of the Movement of Krajina Serbs, told SRNA.

Bosnić believes that the Serbian Government must respond and point out that someone who participated in the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia in the 1990s, boasts about it, denies the genocide against Serbs in the NDH /Independent State of Croatia/, and disregards the results of the anti-fascist struggle, cannot be the one to decide how far Serbia has progressed in European integration.

He said that the fact that Serbia has formed an Operational Team for the EU and announced an intensification of work on this process means nothing if Picula continues to have a say.

"If you do not acknowledge that there was a genocide and that you were the one who drove us out at gunpoint, you cannot report on whether we are ready for Europe or not," Bosnić said in a statement aimed at Picula.

He emphasized that he is more than certain that Picula was "reprimanded" by Jewish representatives for initially refusing to visit the exhibition on Jasenovac during his recent visit to Belgrade, and that his statement yesterday on Holocaust Remembrance Day was, at the very least, hypocritical.

Reacting to Picula’s statement that respect for Holocaust victims must be shown every day and without using them for political purposes, Bosnić pointed out that it was precisely Picula who insulted and mocked Jewish victims during his visit to Belgrade, and that he is now "sprinkling himself with ashes."

Bosnić is convinced that Picula was misinformed, believing that the focus of the Jasenovac exhibition in the hall of the Serbian Parliament was on Serbian victims of genocide, which he does not recognize, and that this is why he attempted to avoid the exhibition.

"Since the exhibition is actually dedicated to the Holocaust and he was criticized by the Jewish community, his mouth is now full of reverence for Holocaust victims, while the Serbian victims of genocide, according to him, never even existed," Bosnić said.