ZAGREB, 6 Jan 2021 - A man who attacked a Croat family from Subotica has been convicted to three months house arrest, the Croatian National Council (HNV) said on Thursday, underscoring that this is the first conviction for an ethnically motivated crime against members of the Croat minority in Serbia.

HNV recalled that the incident occurred on 2 August 2021 in downtown Subotica when the man, identified as B.P., hurled several insults based on ethnic grounds and then physically attacked Zoran Brajković, throwing him to the ground.

HNV welcomes the professionalism of the High Court in Subotica, underscoring that this is the "first conviction that has had a positive result related to the prosecution of an ethnically-motivated crime against members of the Croat community in Serbia."

HNV recalled that after the incident occurred, local media and officials in Subotica reacted with untruths, denying that the crime was ethnically motivated.

The police too then did not qualify the incident as being ethnically motivated which hampered the entire investigation, HNV added.

HNV hopes that now, after this conviction, other ethnically motivated attacks against the Croat community will be resolved positively.

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ZAGREB, 7 Aug, 2021 - A democratic and safe country is recognised by the response to ethnic incidents, the head of the Croat National Council (HNV) in Serbia, Jasna Vojnić, said on Saturday in a comment on an assault on Croatian nationals in Subotica.

The assault occurred early on 2 August, with a man lunging at passengers, including three minors, in a car with Zagreb licence plates, saying he would "slaughter all Ustasha", and attacking a local Croat from Subotica, according to eye-witnesses.

Police arrived at the scene soon and arrested the attacker.

Vojnić said ethnic incidents happened in the best organised countries but that "a developed, democratic and safe country is recognised not by the number of such incidents but by the way it responds to them."

She said that what was problematic in Serbia was the lack of condemnation of ethnically motivated incidents against ethnic Croats by government officials and media turning the victims into the culprits.

The leader of the Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina Croats, Tomislav Žigmanov, said one was again witnessing the competent authorities downplaying incidents, a reference to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior describing the incident as a row over a parking space.

This is yet another convincing reason why Croats in Serbia do not trust institutions that deal with and prosecute incidents, said Žigmanov.

Police dismiss allegations man was injured

Subotica police said that the allegation about the man, identified as Z. B., having been attacked, was not true and that the Croatian nationals in question did not report any physical attack, the subotica.com portal reported.

Soon after the incident was reported, police arrived at the scene and interviewed Z.B., who said that a man had shouted insults at him and grabbed him by the throat due to a misunderstanding over a parking space, but made no mention that his relatives from Croatia were attacked or injured, police said.

Police interviewed six people, members of Z.B.'s family, who "at no moment said that the man had physically attacked them."

Police said they identified and located the assailant, a 63-year-old man, in half an hour. He was interviewed and the case was forwarded to the local prosecutorial authorities.

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ZAGREB, 7 Aug, 2021 - Five Croatian citizens have been physically and verbally attacked and a cousin of theirs lightly injured by an unknown man in Subotica, northern Serbia, the Croatian National Council (HNV) said on Friday, but local police denied it.

The incident occurred on 2 August when the man physically attacked the passengers in a car with Zagreb licence plates, saying he would "slaughter all Ustasha" and swearing at them, said Darko Baštovanović, an official of the HNV, the Croatian minority's umbrella organisation in Serbia.

Asked by the passengers' cousin, Z. B., why he was doing that, the man grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground, lightly injuring him. Z. B. then called the police, which arrived on the scene but did not give him a report on the attack, Baštovanović said.

Subotica police, however, said in a statement the claims that Z. B. was injured were incorrect and that the Croatians did not report being physically attacked, the suboica.com website said.

Police said Z. B. told them "that a man insulted and grabbed him by the throat over a parking disagreement, but did not mention that his cousins from Croatia had been injured or physically assaulted."

Officers spoke to six of Z. B.'s family members who "did not complain about being physically attacked by that man."

Police said they identified the perpetrator, a 63-year-old man of Subotica, in half an hour, interviewing him and sending the case to the prosecutors.

According to suboica.com, the police called "on all local subjects" to contact them "for correct and verified information, instead of spreading incorrect and unverified information in public, because in that way they are harming the good inter-ethnic relations that are traditionally nurtured in Subotica."

The HNV said it stuck by its claims despite the police statement, condemning "the brutal attack on ethnic grounds" and saying "it is yet another in a series of attacks against the Croatian community in Serbia, which we believe have also been caused by the continuous negative coverage on Croats in Serbian media."

The HNV said the latest case showed in what conditions the Croatian community lived and to what it was exposed, adding that it was especially worried that the attack occurred in Subotica, a multiethnic city and the cultural centre of the Croatian people and Croatian institutions in Serbia.

Baštovanović said Serbian authorities were obliged to respond appropriately because this time Croatian citizens were attacked also, adding that taking appropriate action would prevent inter-ethnic incidents and the further deterioration of Croatian-Serbian relations.

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