Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac said at a news conference on Friday that after the recent assaults against ethnic Serbs in Croatia, he would contact international institutions to inform them about the violations of the rights and freedoms in Croatia.

He referred to the incidents in two cafes near Knin on Wednesday evening when gusts who were watching a football match of the Belgrade-based Crvena Zvezda club were exposed to insults and to beating. In the meantime the police arrested two suspects who insulted the owner and guests of one of those two cafes.

The latest incidents seriously undermine “the principles of international order in Croatia”, Pupovac said.

Regardless of everything,he said he would find enough strength for the struggle to make sure that the Croatian Constitution is complied with.

Pupovac added that he would fight for a Croatia in which peace reigns and in which no one is persecuted based on their ethnicity, religion, political views or gender or sexual orientation.

He said that the attacks against Serbs started escalating in 2014 when the then leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Tomislav Karamarko, said that there would no longer be “disgraceful and degrading coalition with the SDSS”. Pupovac holds that Croatia is more or less in such an atmosphere nowadays.

He went on to say that the current government has tried to restrict hate speech, intolerance and violence.

“The police are trying to react more promptly than before. Unfortunately all that is happening around us is stronger than what the government does,” the Croatian Serb leader said.

When asked whether he also did not like the collocation “the Great Serbia aggression” following Serbian President Aleksanar Vucic’s confession that he had asked his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic not to use that term, Pupovac said that he did not want to participate in inter-state games.

“I would like if politicians can see that citizens in Croatia are becoming victims of ‘ Great Croatia that is Small Croatia aggression’,” he said.

Pupovac criticised some media outlets for failing to make distinction between those who had nothing to do with the Slobodan Milosevic policy and those who followed him.

Two suspects arrested for ethnic based incident near Knin

Sibenik-Knin police said in Friday morning that they had arrested a 28-year-old and a 25-year-old suspects who insulted the owner and guests in a cafe in Knin on Wednesday evening based on ethnicity while an investigation into an incident that occurred in another cafe near Knin that evening in which the owner of the cafe and several guests were injured, is still continuing.

The police on Friday reported that the two suspects have been indicted for disturbing the peace and order.

An investigation into the incident established that the two entered the cafe under the influence of alcohol and then insulted the 62-year old owner of the cafe based on ethnicity and in that way disturbed the peace and order.

The two were later brought before Sibenik Municipal Court.

The police are still investigating an incident in Uzdolj near Knin when a group of masked thugs attacked guests in a cafe who were watching a Serbian football match.

Five people were slightly injured in that incident including a 9-year old minor and material damage was caused to the cafe.

The police have arrested several suspects in connection to this incident.