BELGRADE (Sputnik) – The Croatian Embassy in Belgrade’s Plenipotentiary Minister Stjepan Glas has refused to accept two notes of protest issued by Belgrade in regard to two separate cases, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
“The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent today two protest notes to the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, which charge d'affaires Stjepan Glas refused to accept, and which the Ministry submitted in a regular manner, meaning that the notes have formally been delivered,” a statement on the ministry’s website said.
According to the ministry, one of the notes concerns the decision of the Croatian Supreme Court to revoke Branimir Glavas’ conviction for committing a war crime against civilians, in particular against Serbians.
Glavas, a former right-wing politician, was found guilty of war crimes he committed in 1990s in 2009. Since he was declared free of charges, Glavas announced his intention to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
According to the statement, the decision to elect a monument devoted to him is “an inappropriate and uncivilized act, unprecedented in the modern Europe.”
The statement comes amid heightened tensions between Serbia and Croatia. On Tuesday, Balkan media outlets reported that the Croatian Foreign Ministry had sent a note of protest to Serbia after critical statements from Belgrade regarding the rehabilitation of Catholic Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who had been supported by the Croatian pro-Nazi Ustashas regime during WWII while in the post of the Archbishop of Zagreb.
