The human rights activist recalled the mass pogrom of Serbs in the Croatian Zadar
The chairman of the Union of Serbs in the region, Miodrag Linta, called on the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office to open an investigation and bring charges against the former leaders of Zadar and local police for facilitating the pogrom of the Serb community.
The bloody incident began thirty years ago on May 2.
“After the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union - the nationalist separatist party of the country’s first president Franjo Tudjman - ed.) came to power in Zadar in May 1990, the most brutal pressure on the Serbs immediately began in the form of telephone threats, insults, and hate letters , mental and physical harassment,” said Linta. “Then the arrests, torture and liquidation of Serbs began. The attitude towards the Serbs in Zadar is one of many proofs of the Ustashe character of the Tudjman regime.”
The human rights activist recalled that the peak of the confrontation with the Serbs came on May 2, 1991, when an angry crowd began to attack the Serbs and destroy their property. Then several hundred people arrived in Zadar on a dozen buses, armed with clubs and rods, singing Ustashe songs and shouting Ustashe slogans.
Large quantities of explosives were also used, which at the time were under the control of the police, who did nothing to protect Serbs and Serb property. On that and the following day, he adds, 89 private shops owned by Serbs, 37 private Serbian houses, 22 shops of companies from Serbia and 42 houses and cottages in Bibinje, which is located a few kilometers from Zadar, were destroyed.
Numerous facts, according to Miodrag Linta, indicate that the destructive campaign against Serbs and Serb property was well organized and planned in advance in cooperation with local influential people and the authorities in Zagreb.
Linta states that on that and subsequent days, about 10 thousand Serbs were expelled from Zadar and about 200 Serbian houses, boarding houses, commercial enterprises and stores of companies from Serbia were destroyed.
The liquidation of Serbs and the bombing of Serbian homes and businesses continued until 1992. According to the city commission for a census of demolished houses, about 470 Serbian houses and other buildings were mined and destroyed.
“At least 34 Serbs were killed in Zadar, of which 15 were civilians and the rest were JNA soldiers in Zadar,” Linta added.
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