Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MP Nikola Mazar on Wednesday condemned journalist Boris Dezulovic's column about Vukovar, published on N1, but also criticised Vukovar Mayor and right-wing DP party leader Ivan Penava for deterioration of inter-ethnic relations and quality of life in that eastern city over the past year.

“The HDZ branch in Vukovar has already issued a statement condemning Boris Dezulovic’s column. From mid-September to the end of November, we who live in Vukovar and neighbouring communities light candles and commemorate the innocent victims of the Great Serbian aggression on a daily basis. An attempt to devalue that sacrifice and respect for Vukovar will not succeed but will only increase the strength and pride of all Vukovar residents and all those who have Vukovar in their hearts,” Mazar told reporters in the parliament.

Mazar also commented on Vukovar Mayor and DP party leader Ivan Penava’s statement that first Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, had defeated the Great Serbian policy and that the incumbent government was restoring it.

“The fact is that in the past year inter-ethnic security and quality of life have been brought into question and that people felt safer in 1998 than over the past year. We witnessed police cars standing a hundred metres apart and we continue to witness police vans escorting children going to school as well as violent incidents and fights,” said Mazar, adding that responsible politicians, notably in a town like Vukovar, should not allow that.

Asked if he considered Penava responsible for the deteriorated security situation in Vukovar, Mazar said that “local authorities are definitely the most responsible as regards local policies and everything that has been going on in Vukovar.”

Dezulovic’s column, headlined ‘F*ck Vukovar’ and published by N1, was prompted by a decision by the organisers of an actors’ festival in Vinkovci to cancel a concert by actor Rade Serbedzija, which was to have taken place on November 15 at the end of the festival, following a request by Mayor Ivan Bosancic of the HDZ party that the concert not be held “in the week when we remember the biggest tragedy of the Croatian people in the more recent history, and when we pay tribute to the victims of Vukovar in peace and with respect.”