VELJUN VELJUN, May 8 (Hina) - Karlovac police reported Monday about an incident when they prevented a conflict between Croats and Serbs in Veljun on May 6, who had gathered in two different locations at commemorative meetings for
victims of World War II. Police said in a statement they had undertaken the necessary precautions at the two locations, and by setting a police cordon, had successfully disabled a physical conflict between the two groups of citizens. A participant of the rally, Biserka Legardic, born in 1950, had "behaved in an exceptionally impudent and impolite manner", police said. A request for the initiation of criminal proceedings has been forwarded against her, for the disruption of public peace. The commemoration for the 520 Serbs killed by Ustashi on May 6, 1941, in Veljun was organised by the Serb society Prosvjeta and the Serb Democratic Forum. The commemoration for a five-member Croatian fami
VELJUN, May 8 (Hina) - Karlovac police reported Monday about an
incident when they prevented a conflict between Croats and Serbs in
Veljun on May 6, who had gathered in two different locations at
commemorative meetings for victims of World War II.
Police said in a statement they had undertaken the necessary
precautions at the two locations, and by setting a police cordon,
had successfully disabled a physical conflict between the two
groups of citizens.
A participant of the rally, Biserka Legardic, born in 1950, had
"behaved in an exceptionally impudent and impolite manner", police
said. A request for the initiation of criminal proceedings has been
forwarded against her, for the disruption of public peace.
The commemoration for the 520 Serbs killed by Ustashi on May 6,
1941, in Veljun was organised by the Serb society Prosvjeta and the
Serb Democratic Forum. The commemoration for a five-member
Croatian family who had been killed in the night between May 5 and 6,
1941, by Serbs from Veljun, was organised by the veteran
association Hrvatski domobran in the nearby Blagaj.
Following the commemoration in Blagaj, its participants moved
towards the gathered Serbs carrying banners and verbally abusing
them.
According to newspaper reports, tension accumulated when the
leader of the Serb Democratic Forum, Milorad Pupovac, arrived to
lay a wreath at the monument.
That is when Biserka Legardic, a 70 per cent invalid, urinated on
the monument.
She said her husband was an invalid and her 26-year-old son had been
killed during the Homeland War.
The commemorative meeting in Veljun was to be continued on Tuesday,
but the gathered citizens left.
The Hrvatski domobran association had announced it would, as a sign
of good ill and in order to defuse tensions, lay wreaths on the
monument erected in memory of the victims of the Ustashi crime, but
had not done so.
A representative of the association, Nikola Mujic, explained to
reporters that they had given up on their intention because the
organisers of the commemoration had not restored the monument to
its previous state before a recent restoration.
Mujic said when the monument was restored, the original plaque with
the text in Latin script, speaking about the victims of the people's
liberation war had been removed including a red star, while a text
in the Cyrillic script was added telling about the number of victims
and the mother of "Jugovic" (a Serb epic character of a mother whose
nine sons had been killed by the Turks).
He added the wreaths would be laid and respects paid only after the
monument is restored to its original form, and Serbs from Veljun
respond to the question as to the whereabouts of the graves and
remains of Croats from Blagaj killed in 1941, but also those of
soldiers and residents killed during the Homeland War.
After a one-hour wait for the ceremony of laying wreaths to start,
some dozen reporters and a television crew, as well as that many
police officers and 50 residents of Veljun and Blagaj, peacefully
left the centre of Veljun where the monument is located.
(hina) lml jn