used without permission, for "fair use" only
HSP Arrives to Jagodnjak!
by J. Nikolic
Glas Slavonije, Osijek, Croatia, July 29 1999
JAGODNJAK - After the founding of a local organization of the Croatian Rights Party [Hrvatska Stranka Prava, HSP; a Croatian neo-Ustashe political party] in Knezevi Vinogradi last week, the Rightists from the region of Baranja are getting ready for their most difficult post-war task: the founding of a municipal organization in the village of Jagodnjak. In that village, in 1991, at a SDS [Serb Democratic Party] rally adorned with Chetnik [Serb anti-Communist guerrillas during WWII; committed crimes against Croats and Bosnian Muslims] flags and insignia, Milan Paroski told the local Serbs: "If anyone tells you that this is not a Serb land, you can kill him like a dog!" That sentence horrified the Croatian public, but received enthusiastic approval by the Serbs from Jagodnjak. The events that followed have branded Jagodnjak as a place in Baranja from where hatred against everything non-Serb had been disseminated. And when before the first democratic elections in the occupied parts of the Danube valley region in 1997, the then temporary administrator, General Jacques Paul Klein, giving in to the pressures of Serb nationalist politicians gave the status of a municipality to Jagodnjak, the expelled Croats were convinced that Jagodnjak would be a part of Croatia but that Croatia would never be in Jagodnjak. Hence, the announcement of the Rightists that they intend to organize a local organization in the next forthnight in the Jagodnjak municipality caused concern regarding the possibility of inter-ethnic incidents. Because of the reputation of Jagodnjak, most of the inhabitants of Baranja were convinced that the Rightists would have many problems in the organization and holding of the gathering. However, the recent events indicate that everything should go smoothly. During the founding of the "The ancestral club of Zagorans [Zagorje, region in north-western Croatia] in Baranja" in the village of Ceminac, "fired up" with wine which was consumed at that festival, Zagorans of Baranja jumped onto a bus adorned with Croatian flags and headed for Jagodnjak [Jagodnjak is a more than 90% Serb village]. In the center of the village they got off the bus and, waving their flags, sang as loudly as they could "Jure and Boban" [Croatian Ustashe song from WWII; Ustashe were Croatian fascists who during WWII murdered several thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma in their version of the final solution]. However, the locals did nothing. It is interesting that by chance at that moment, as witnesses say, half of the village was gathered in the center of the village, waiting for some delegation from Vukovar. However, none of them even tried to stop the singing of Croatian songs. Only a municipal official called the police and told them that a bus full of people had arrived to the village and that they were singing Croatian songs and waving flags. To the question of the policeman on duty about what flags they were waving, the official responded: "Well..., our flags!" Because of that, there should be no problems at the HSP rally. Because, if the Serbs from Jagodnjak referred to the Croatian flag as "our flag" they should not be bothered by the spreading of the political pluralism on the territory of their municipality.
Translated on 9/19/99
