SOME WOULD LIKE TO WRITE NEW HISTORY WITH NO PLACE FOR MINORITIES

ŠIBENIK, NOVEMBER 4 /SRNA/ – The Diocese of Dalmatia stated, following the violent disruption of the Days of Serbian Culture event in Split, that some people would like to rewrite history and create new pages in which there is no place for minorities.

The Diocese expressed hope that those who remain trapped in the jaws of the past, those who justify hatred with patriotism and call for the return of darker times will, in the future, become a minority. "The worst part is that most of the participants in that event have as much to do with the events of the 1990s as `last year's snow` has to do with Split and Dalmatia. And that is concerning," the Diocese of Dalmatia emphasized. Although many figures from the cultural and political spheres condemned the incident in Split, the Diocese pointed out that there were also those who supported the attackers, claiming that the Days of Serbian Culture was a provocation and that the hooligans were "patriots" defending the Croatian state and its founding values. "It is more than obvious that such reasoning involves a reversal of logic, committed by the supporters of nationalist tendencies in their narrow-mindedness, unable to understand that loving one's people and country does not mean hating those who do not belong to the majority, but rather respecting the richness of diversity that coexists in this region, and accepting the fact that not all Croatian citizens are of the same ethnicity. That does not mean, however, that they love their homeland any less," the Diocese of Dalmatia stated. They reminded that the tradition and culture of the Serbian people in Croatia are woven into every segment of its history, as evidenced by centuries-old Orthodox churches and the many distinguished Serbs who have left an indelible mark in these areas. Condemning the incident in Split, the Diocese expressed hope that such events will not happen again and that the Croatian state will respond in accordance with the law, and not merely with "weak statements posted on social networks for the sake of formality". Around a hundred men dressed in black, most of them masked, disrupted the Days of Serbian Culture program in Split on Monday evening, shouting the Ustasha salute "For the homeland – ready!," insulting participants on ethnic grounds, and forcing them to disperse. The Days of Serbian Culture event in Split was organized by the Split branch of the Prosvjeta Serbian Educational and Cultural Society. Split police detained three men yesterday suspected of being part of the masked group that prevented the cultural event from taking place in the hall of the Baltine City District in Split.