Croatia Charges Six over Anti-Serb Banner in Zagreb
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The Zagreb Municipality’s State Attorney’s Office filed an indictment on Monday accusing six members of a Dinamo Zagreb fan group of inciting violence and hatred after they hoisted a banner in the city’s Kustosija district on June 11 declaring “We’ll f*** Serbian women and children” and bearing a ‘U’ symbol of the World War Two fascist Ustasa movement.
According to local media reports, the men also held flags of the Croatian Defence Forces, a paramilitary unit that fought in Croatia’s 1991-95 war and which uses the Ustasha slogan ‘Za dom spremni’ [Ready for the Homeland] on its legally-recognised coat of arms.
Croatian photographer Nikola Solic, who photographed the incident, said the men were chanting ‘Kill, kill’.
In a press release, the State Attorney’s Office said: “The six defendants are charged that they, along with other unknown persons – motivated by intolerance towards members of another national minority and with the intention of provoking violent forms of behaviour, intolerance and hatred towards persons of other nationalities – with lighted flares, raised a banner made by the first defendant and shouted out loud words calling for violence and hatred.”
Boris Milosevic, a Croatian Serb politician and the country’s deputy prime minister, condemned the incident at the time.
“This is creepy and disturbing for everyone, not just Serbs,” Milosevic told regional broadcaster N1 TV on June 12.
“It is sad to see that young people in Zagreb are filled with so much hatred that they write such disgusting messages.”
He said the Serbian National Council, the biggest organisation representing Croatia’s Serb minority and which he is president of, had warned “countless times about hate messages, about chants at matches and about graffiti that is becoming more and more disgusting.”
