There is outrage in Croatia over a memorial plaque in Republika Srpska

Croatia sent a note of protest to Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with the opening of a memorial to Yugoslav People's Army Major Milan Tepic on the street of the same name in the capital of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka.

This was reported by Politika, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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A memorial plaque in honor of the last People's Hero of Yugoslavia, Major Milan Tepic, was inaugurated in Banja Luka on the street named after him by the mayor of the capital of Republika Srpska, Drasko Stanivukovic, in the presence of the hero's son, Alexander Tepic.

The note from the Croatian Foreign Ministry states that “it is unacceptable to glorify the terrorist act of a person who, in a suicide attack, caused the death of a large number of Croatian defenders and civilians and enormous material destruction in the city of Bjelovar.” At the same time, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that he was “horrified” by the installation of an “inappropriate” memorial plaque, the mayor of Bjelovar, Dario Hrebak, said that “while young politicians build their political path on myths, our neighboring country will be buried in the past,” and the zupan (governor) of Bjelovarsko-Belogorsk Marko Marusic called the hero a “fanatic,” seeing in the veneration of his memory that “the ideas of Greater Serbia are alive.”

In turn, the Republika Srpska recalled that plaques in honor of the Nazi ideologists of the Independent State of Croatia, such as Mile Budak, still hang on Croatian streets.

At the same time, the adviser to the Serbian member of the Presidium of BiH Milorad Dodik, Radovan Kovacevic, noted that those people whom the Croats “call heroes, we perceive exclusively as notorious and ruthless war criminals,” and Major Tepic “keep his word, saved many Serbs from the fate of the Serbian people in Pakrac, Gospić, Siekovac."

In September 1991, Major Milan Tepic and a group of Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) soldiers defended the Barutana depot in the Bedenik forest near Bjelovar, which was attacked by Croatian separatist National Guard forces in order to obtain ammunition and explosives. Realizing that there was a danger that the ammunition would fall into enemy hands, Major Tepic ordered the soldiers to leave, deciding to blow it up. However, Private Stoyadin Markovich refused to carry out the commander’s order and, being wounded, remained to cover him until he was killed. After the militants entered the warehouse, the major blew it up along with himself and them.

Private Stojadin Markovic and Major Milan Tepic.

Major Milan Tepic was posthumously awarded the Order of the People's Hero, becoming the last People's Hero of Yugoslavia, and soldier Stojadin Mirkovic was awarded the Order of Merit in the Field of Defense and Security, first class.

Mile Budak is a Croatian xenophobic writer, assistant to the Croatian Fuhrer (Poglavnik) of the NDH Ante Pavelic, ideologist of the genocide of the Serbian people. Before the war, in his books he called the Serbs “slaves” and “beggars.”

After the Ustasha victory, he became the Minister of Education, Religion and Cults, introduced the slogan “Serbs to the willows!” into Ustasha usage, he is credited with the ideological scheme: “Kill a third of the Serbs, expel a third, convert a third to Catholicism!” After the defeat of the Ustashe regime, he and his family were executed by Yugoslav partisans. The streets of many cities in modern Croatia bear the name of this Nazi figure, and memorial plaques have been erected to him.