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DSHV condemns initiative for monument to WWII Chetnik movement leader

Author: Roberta Mlinarić

ZAGREB, 18 Sept (Hina) - The Democratic Alliance of the Vojvodina Croats (DSHV) on Wednesday expressed concern about a plan to erect a monument to World War II Chetnik movement leader Draža Mihailović, stressing that it would have a negative impact on the process of reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks.

Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić said on Monday that he would put forward an official proposal to erect a monument in tribute to Mihailović in downtown Belgrade.

In response to the initiative, the DSHV said that it had caused not just "disbelief but also unease, notably among Serbian citizens who are members of certain minority communities, including Croats."

"We believe that the complex and multiethnic society of the Serbian capital, which has a population of two million, should be developed in line with values that no not threaten or make anyone feel unsafe," the DSHV said in a statement.

"We are concerned that such an act could further burden the reconciliatation processes between Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks, and nobody needs that," the DSHV said.

The Serbian society should be based on the positive values of antifascism, the Croat minority party said.

"They are also the legacy of the Croat people in Serbia, whose numerous members, especially in Bačka and Srijem, were antifascist fighters and many of whom were killed. In that context, the DSHV expresses concern about the possible negative consequences of erecting a monument to Mihailović in Belgrade," the DSHV says.

Presenting the initiative for the monument, Šapić said that in 2003 a law was adopted that equated the Chetnik and Partisan movements.

"My grandfathers were members of the Partisan movement, Partisans fought against Germans, against Fascists, and they were subsequently misused to a large extent," Šapić said, according to the Danas paper.

Dragoljub Draža Mihailović was sentenced by the Yugoslav Communist authorities to death in 1946 for war crimes and for collaboration with Nazi Germany, after which he was executed.

Radio Free Europe says that a Belgrade high court rehabilitated him in May 2015, saying that his trial had been a political and ideological process by the Communist regime, but that it was not within the remit of the court to determine if he had been a war criminal.

A monument to Draža Mihailović already exists in Belgrade, erected in October 2023 on a private property.

(Hina) rml

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