Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac said on Tuesday that they would use all means available to have the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland Ready" and Ustasha insignia banned and to create a moral sentiment in society that would no longer tolerate the use of this salute in public.

Pupovac was speaking at a ceremony in Srb, about 220 km south of Zagreb, marking 80 years since the uprising of local Serbs against the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime.

Addressing those gathered, Pupovac said that what was lacking for this moral sentiment to become dominant in Croatia was public awareness of why such sentiment was needed at all and why it was necessary to arouse a feeling of shame in those who still saw the Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH) as a serious state project.

“This can be done in various ways and we are discussing them. One of the ways is to organise gatherings like this,” Pupovac said.

Commenting on the police action in Srb following yesterday’s special press conference by the Serb National Council, Pupovac said that the police had taken an important step and removed the troublemakers from the town.

“Another thing that needs to be done is for this siege of Srb by the police to become unnecessary and for the judicial authorities to do their part of the job and politicians to do theirs,” he said.

“This strong police presence, along with acts of provocation, obstruction and intimidation that lasted for days, the use of the For the Homeland Ready salute, young (Serb) men being taken in by the police and calls on social media inciting to violence against them, that is totally unacceptable,” Pupovac said.

Asked by the press what he was doing so that the Serbs could feel free to declare their ethnic origin, Pupovac said that those coming to intimidate the Serbs in Srb, in the Lika region and elsewhere in Croatia were certainly working against their freedom to speak freely.

“You will be informed soon how we will contribute to the forthcoming census and to helping people to rid themselves of the feeling of fear and hate and intolerance,” he said.

Asked what the SDSS was doing to improve the living standards of the Serbs in this area and beyond, Pupovac said that programmes had been launched allowing people in underdeveloped parts of the country to obtain funding for their family farms from the ministries of agriculture, regional development and economy.

“This funding is increasing from year to year. What we expect in particular is funding from the EU Solidarity Fund which will reach HRK 800 million (€106m) this year. This is a huge amount of money and we will do all we can to ensure that some of it reaches these people too,” Pupovac said.

Ombudsman to ask for police report on Srb incident

Ombudsman Tena Simonovic-Einwalter said in a statement later on Tuesday that she would request a report from the police after a camper displaying Ustasha insignia was set up in Srb to provoke the local population.

Simonovic-Einwalter noted that the existing legislation included mechanisms to punish the public use of symbols of hatred but that it was necessary to specify by law that the public use of such symbols was unacceptable considering lack of uniformity in case law on the matter.

She said she supported the initiative by representatives of the peoples who had suffered at the hands of the Ustasha regime to have the use of Ustasha insignia, including the For the Homeland Ready salute, outlawed.