According to a press release the police issued this morning, the police caught the four boys carrying sabres and daggers and a home-made automatic gun in front of the Serb Orthodox church in Trpinja during last night's celebration of Christmas Eve by Serb Orthodox believers who celebrate it according to the Julian calendar.
According to the press release, another three boys in Borovo put up a Serbian flag with a two-headed eagle and four 'S' letters written in the Serb Cyrillic script in front of a building housing the offices of local administration.
Also in Borovo, a column of several dozen cars, with some carrying flags with a two-headed eagle, passed through the village. A few participants in the column also had hats with the Chetnik cockade. These incidents were also reported on Thursday evening.
An ethnic Serb representative to the Croatian parliament, Milorad Pupovac, who is the vice president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), most strongly condemned the incidents in Borovo, adding that this proved that Croatia urgently needed a law banning the glorification and displaying of fascist symbols, particularly Ustasha and Chetnik insignia.
He told Hina on the phone that his party expected the police to establish all the facts as soon as possible and punish perpetrators if there was ground for punishment.
Another SDSS official, Boro Rkman, told Hina's correspondent in Vukovar that "it is the right of the police to assess whether they should intervene and press petty offence charges against the four Serbs" after they were caught carrying the said weapons in front of the Orthodox church in Trpinja.
"According to the available information, those boys were visiting houses to extend Orthodox Christmas greetings. Sabres, daggers and the home-made gun which they were carrying are part of the Orthodox Christmas iconography," Rkman said.
Rkman linked the events in Borovo with the local Serb population's tradition of celebrating Christmas.
He accused the police of applying double standards, stating that they failed to intervene in recent incidents in Zadar when persons wearing Ustasha uniforms marched through the city.