Selakovic: The position of Serbs in Croatia is much worse than the position of Croats in Serbia

Serbia has been consistently committed to promoting relations with Croatia, and therefore we emphasize, on this occasion as well,that it is important not to present the position of the Serbian community in Croatia and the Croatian community in Serbia in a distorted and untruthful manner, but that we instead work together on this issue on a realistic basis.

In the spirit of good-neighbourly relations, our state reacted favourably to the wish of Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman to meet with representatives of the Croatian national minority in Subotica, since the position of national minorities is a litmus test of our bilateral relations,and we need to work consistently on improving their position because that is our shared civilizational obligation.

If the Head of Croatian diplomacy, when he stated that the status of the Croatian minority in Serbia was not even close to the status of the Serbian minority in Croatia, wanted to say that the position of Serbs in Croatia is much worse than the position of Croats in Serbia, I will completely agree with my Croatian colleague.

Namely, for the Serbian people in Croatia, two and a half decades after the end of the war, the rights guaranteed to them by the Erdut Agreement and the laws of the Republic of Croatia are not available in practice.

The attitude of the majority people towards the Serbs in Croatia is still predominantly a negative one, which is why Serbs still continue to be marginalized, discriminated against and often stigmatized and treated as second-class citizens.

Let us just mention the fact that there is an aggressive resistance to the use of the Serbian language and script in parts of Croatia, as well as that the right to foster the Serbian national and cultural identity is a forbidden topic in many areas where Serbs live.

The attitude towards the Cyrillic script, Serbian language, culture and tradition is still, to put it mildly, discriminatory in parts of Croatia, and there are no indications that sincere and consistent work is being done to create a social climate in which Serbs could feel as equal citizens.

On the other hand, the list of things that Serbia has done to make Croats in our country feel at home, because they are indeed at home here, is long, and cannot be annulled by arbitrary and stereotypical assessments made by those who wish the Croatian people not to be well in Serbia, so that this topic could be misused for daily political purposes in Croatia.

The rights of Croats as well as the rights of other national minorities in Serbia are in line with the most advanced European traditions and practices and Serbia is even ready to further promote the position of the Croatian minority in the spirit of friendship and trust not because someone asked us to but because this is the right thing to do.

Representatives of the Croatian authorities will, in the future as well, have partners in the authorities of Serbia in efforts to raise the relations between our two countries and peoples to the highest level, but, on the other hand, we need a clear confirmation of the sincere desire of our partners to actually take that path, because more and more often we receive completely opposite signals.