Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Sunday called on Croatian officials to take the recent attacks on Serbs in the country seriously, saying that the public had to clearly condemn all incidents.

“We are calling on all Croatian officials, on all levels, to take every incident and attack on Serbs seriously. There have been enough jokes,” Dacic told the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti.

His comment came after carnival-goers in the Adriatic town of Kastel Sucurac, near Split, re-enacted earlier on Sunday a recent attack on three professional water polo players from the Belgrade-based Crvena Zvezda water polo club, who were on a visit to the city for a regional league game against the local Mornar water polo club.

Two of the assailants were remanded in month-long custody, while the third was released awaiting trial. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had condemned the incident and said he hoped the hooligans arrested would be processed and properly sanctioned.

An effigy of the Serb minority leader in Croatia, Milorad Pupovac, was also burned during the Sunday carnival in Kastel.

“If an attempt to lynch the Crvena Zvezda water polo players resulted in a sketch for the masses, should we also fear that the “joke” with burning the Pupovac effigy may be a final rehearsal for something they are preparing for the Serb leader?” Dacic said.

He said the recent attacks justified the claims of an “anti-Serb” campaign being waged in Croatia, and added this was a consequence of the fact that such incidents are never clearly condemned, but “there is always someone who will justify and relativise them.”

On Monday, Pupovac also commented on the effigy, saying the burning did not have much in common with the carnival tradition of ridiculing power, but was instead an example of growing hatred, prejudice, and incitement to violence.

“This was not the humorous, creative Dalmatian carnival which pokes fun at the government, this was unfortunately a manifestation of a nationalistic and chauvinist story,” Pupovac said.

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