The leader of a Serb party and a member of the Croatian Parliament, Milorad Pupovac, said on Saturday that Serbs who work or used to work in the city administration in Vukovar had been exposed to pressure since 1997 and that the purpose of the recent war crimes arrests in that eastern Croatian town was to cause disturbance and legal insecurity.

The arrest and the indictment of a few Serb citizens who worked for the city administration are the results of pressure by a certain number of people from Vukovar, whose identities are known, the head of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) said at a news conference on Saturday.

On Thursday morning, five ethnic Serbs from Vukovar were taken in for questioning on suspicion of having committed war crimes in 1991. The SDSS and the Joint Council of Serb-majority Municipalities (ZVO) expressed concern over their arrest.

The Interior Ministry said on Friday that police and the Osijek County Prosecutor’s Office had completed an investigation, pressed charges and arrested former members of Serb paramilitary units, aged 63 and 64, who are suspected of crimes against civilians in the Vukovar neighbourhoods of Petrova Gora and Sajmiste in September 1991.

They allegedly took part in the unlawful detention and torture of local civilians.

Pupovac criticised the current Vukovar mayor and his advisers for being the first local officials to take the helm of the campaign against local Serbs which had been in place since 1997.

The SDSS leader went on to say that using the judiciary as a tool for causing legal insecurity was against the Constitution and laws.

He said that exploiting traumatic and serious problems from war crimes trials to acquire and strengthen political power is also against the Constitution and immoral and that it is dishonest to exploit the deaths of other people for the purpose of staying in power.

Pupovac called for the judiciary to prosecute those who were responsible for the Serb victims from July to November 1991 in Vukovar.

He said that the father of one of the two indicted Serbs had been held captive in Borovo Commerce in October 1991 and executed on November 4 on the bank of the Danube.

If his son is guilty of something, his guilt should be established. However, those responsible for the death of his father should also be held accountable, Pupovac said.

He reiterated the dissatisfaction of the Serb community with the performance of the Croatian judiciary regarding the prosecution of war crimes committed against its members.

“We will not point the finger at anybody, we will not mount pressure on the judiciary, but we are going to use international and local legal tools to seek justice for those who were accused although they were innocent and for those who were killed or arrested and abused by those who now enjoy the legal protection of the order of the Republic of Croatia,” said Pupovac.