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Harshest condemnation of exhibition, conference on Stepinac in EP

Belgrade, 15 June 2016

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic condemned in the harshest terms the opening of the exhibition and conference called "Croatian Saint Cardinal Stepinac" in the European Parliament and underlined that this act does not contribute to reconciliation, but is an attempt at rehabilitating the Ustasha movement.

Dacic also stated that it is incomprehensible that an exhibition is opened in the centre of the European Union for someone who participated in the pogrom of thousands of Serbs, Jews and other non-Croat population and who was sentenced in his country to 16 years in prison and deprivation of all civil rights for a period of three years.

The First Deputy Prime Minister stressed that this exhibition is an attempt at removing responsibility from Stepinac and rehabilitation of the Ustasha movement and is not a step towards reconciliation nor to the truth, but on the contrary, it only deepens the division.

We are witnesses that the world is now faced with an attempt to revise and make relativisiation of victories and defeats, of crime and punishment, he said and added that Serbia, as a victim of such efforts at the international level, has an obligation to fight against it.

Dacic said that Head of the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the EU Ambassador Dusko Lopandic was instructed to send a harsh protest.

Lopandic sent the Letters of Protest to President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, to Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament Elmar Brok, President of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber, and he will also inform about the above-mentioned Rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister, the shadow rapporteurs and other EU members, he said.

In these letters, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out that it is unacceptable to organise an exhibition to glorify the figure and work of Cardinal Stepinac, who is presented there as a “true gem of the Catholic Church and the Croatian people”.

The Serbian people and the Serbian Orthodox Church consider Stepinac responsible for mass crimes against the Serbian and other non-Croat population during the Second World War in the territory of the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH), the First Deputy Prime Minister stated.