Disir
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Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Tuesday accused Croatian officials of “anti-Serbian hysteria” as the dispute continued between the two countries over the new statue of Yugoslav People’s Army Major Milan Tepic in Belgrade.
Dacic described Zagreb’s displomatic protest about the monument to Tepic, who blew up an ammunition warehouse in Croatia, killing himself and 12 other people during the war in 1991, as an example of “madness”.
“Compared to [Croatian officials], he is a moral giant,” Dacic said of Tepic in an interview on Serbia’s public broadcaster, RTS.
The row started after the monument to Tepic was unveiled on Friday, in the presence of the Serbian defence and labour ministers.
Tepic, together with another Yugoslav army soldier, refused to surrender to Croatian troops in September 1991, blowing up an ammunition warehouse in the Croatian town of Bjelovar instead.
The two men died, together with 11 Croatian soldiers. Tepic’s actions also potentially threatened civilians’ lives.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry issued a note of protest about the unveiling on Monday, saying that the statue confirms that Serbia “still isn’t ready to confront the past and its role in the bloody breakup of the former [Yugoslavia]”.
Controversial Major’s Statue Causes Serbia-Croatia Row :: Balkan Insight
I don't think this is one of those things that anybody can just put behind them.
Dacic described Zagreb’s displomatic protest about the monument to Tepic, who blew up an ammunition warehouse in Croatia, killing himself and 12 other people during the war in 1991, as an example of “madness”.
“Compared to [Croatian officials], he is a moral giant,” Dacic said of Tepic in an interview on Serbia’s public broadcaster, RTS.
The row started after the monument to Tepic was unveiled on Friday, in the presence of the Serbian defence and labour ministers.
Tepic, together with another Yugoslav army soldier, refused to surrender to Croatian troops in September 1991, blowing up an ammunition warehouse in the Croatian town of Bjelovar instead.
The two men died, together with 11 Croatian soldiers. Tepic’s actions also potentially threatened civilians’ lives.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry issued a note of protest about the unveiling on Monday, saying that the statue confirms that Serbia “still isn’t ready to confront the past and its role in the bloody breakup of the former [Yugoslavia]”.
Controversial Major’s Statue Causes Serbia-Croatia Row :: Balkan Insight
I don't think this is one of those things that anybody can just put behind them.
