The municipal office of the State Prosecutor in the nearby town of Benkovac today pressed the charges against the four men on suspicion that they committed a crime of racial and other discrimination. The prosecution also proposed that the suspects be remanded in custody in order to prevent them from influencing witnesses and repeating a similar criminal act. The prosecution charges the assaulters with planning to intimidate Serb returnees with an aim of forcing them to leave their homes in Biljani Donji.
Upon his arrival in the village, Mesic visited the families whose houses were the target of the attack of the four drunken men.
"This was not an ethnically-motivated conflict, but this was an incident caused by rogues who wanted to force the families out from their houses and (...) take those houses and farms for themselves," Mesic said during his meeting with one of the attacked families.
He said that the violent perpetrators and those who supported them must know that the Republic of Croatia cannot tolerate anybody taking the law in their own hands and "verdicts being made in a low inn".
This country will function according to European standards, Mesic added.
If some of the perpetrators were soldiers who defended Croatia, it is inadmissible that they attack the country today in this fashion, the President added.
"The stones (hurled at the houses) were thrown at you, but primarily at the Croatian state. Those who attack you, also attack the Croatian state. The crime in Skarbnja is an unheard-of crime, but that crime cannot be taken as the justification for such attacks. Those who committed crimes in Skabrnja, must answer for it," Mesic said.
The suspects of Tuesday's incident are from the nearby village of Skabrnja where Serb rebels, supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army, had perpetrated atrocities in 1991 when they massacred dozens of Croatian soldiers and civilians.
During today's meeting with Mesic, the Serb returnees informed the Croatian president about their everyday problems such as difficulties in the provision of power supplies and unemployment.
A local Serb representative, Zeljko Bajica, who is the head of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) branch in Benkovac, said that the incident should be condemned but that local inhabitants must turn to the future, adding that the state of affairs was not so serious as some described it. He pointed out the efforts of the Benkovac authorities to normalise the situation.
Before Mesic, the Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor together with some local officials also visited Biljani Donji.
About 50 men from the village of Skabrnja tried to enter Biljani Donji during the visits of the state officials, but the adjacent road leading towards Biljani Donji was cordoned off by police. The disgruntled men wanted to inform Mesic about their reasons for dissatisfaction.