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After laying down the crown, Veran Matić, the envoy of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, knelt and paid tribute to the victims in Vukovar on the occasion of Remembrance Day, which is celebrated in Croatia.
“I wanted to do more than a simple gesture and show the citizens of Croatia that there are people who, when expressing regret and showing reverence for the victims, do not do so only because of the form or because it is currently a desirable direction in mutual relations, or to be more precise, in my attitude towards commemorations. I did it because I express my continuing personal attitude towards wars and victims, “Matic explained.
He says he had a need to do it.
“I had a great need to do it regardless of the fact that I was already in Vukovar, but always again, when it comes to victims and their families and places of tragedy, I want to show a gesture of true respect. I have no political or other ambitions. kind of for the sake of “I would have done it without a fig in my pocket. It might not have been expected, but I think it’s important, “said Matic. Telegram.
Wasn’t welcome last year
This is not Matic’s first visit to Vukovar. As the person appointed by Aleksandar Vučić as commissioner for the missing, he previously wanted to participate in the Column of Remembrance, but the mayor of Vukovar, Ivan Penava, declared him persona non grata and said he was not welcome.
However, Matić came and, as a common citizen, joined the celebration of the anniversary of Vukovar’s suffering.
Matic commented on how he felt then. “I was very surprised because we had an open path of mutual cooperation at the highest level between the Croatian President and the President of Serbia, after their meetings, talks and signed memoranda. Their talks in Dalj and Subotica were good and they were expected to resonate.” . “Since Penava was also constantly talking about the missing, and we really need to talk about it constantly, but also act, I was hoping that we would work together on that,” Matic said.
“Unfortunately, there has been a stagnation for several years, a stagnation in normalization and the search for the disappeared. For more than a year and a half, the Croatian and Serbian commissions for the disappeared have not met permanently,” said Matic.
Penava’s actions are “uncivilized”
Matic’s arrival in Vukovar was not well received this year either. The mayor of Vukovar, Penava, opposed paying tribute to the Serbian victims and throwing a wreath to the Danube on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Vukovar and Skabrnja, which was attended by Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic and Milorad Pupovac, deputy and president of the Serbian People’s Party. Advice.
Penava called it a scandal like no other in the modern Croatian state.
Matic commented on how he sees the division of victims, “ours” and “their” victims.
“This is a big problem that I faced when it came to finding the missing, although, in principle, when it comes to the division of victims, rarely did anyone speak as openly as Penava. Those divisions were more in the subconscious of some or in policies that are not public. It is completely uncivilized, those people should be on the sidelines, in no way dominant in some environment, especially not in Vukovar, which has survived a terrible tragedy and where life must be built without the policies of the past, “Matic said.
In this particular case, it is about actively opposing normalization, he added.
“But it is good that the measures taken by the Croatian government and the ruling party aim to eliminate fringe phenomena as obstacles to developing better relations. They exist everywhere, it is up to us to get away from them,” he said.
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