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The already strained relations between Serbia and Croatia have taken another turn since Croatia refused to allow Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to pay a private visit to the Jasenovac concentration camp.
Jasenovac is usually called “Croatia’s Auschwitz”. Tens of thousands of Serbs were killed in the camp built by the pro-Nazi Ustashar regime during World War II.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Sunday that it was unacceptable that the Croatian government had only learned of the visit through unofficial channels. A visit by a foreign head of state must be the subject of official communication and agreements by both sides, he emphasized.
In Serbia, the message provokes furious reactions. “A brutal violation of freedom of movement,” claims Prime Minister Ana Branabic.
– I do not know how our relations will be in the future, This sent a scary message, she says to Serbian TV.
Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin says that from now on, all Croatian representatives must announce all entries into and transit through Serbia.
Relations between the two neighboring countries have remained strained since the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Both countries accuse each other, among other things, of not having settled their history from the Second World War.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman calls the right-wing populist Vucic’s planned visit a provocation, which is not about honoring the victims in Jasenovac.