That statement gained in importance only after on June 21, David Lewis, head of the British company "Lewis Trust Group Limited", which has made an extremely attractive offer for purchase of a controlling stake in "Hotel Srebreno", reacted to it. Mr. Lewis is a Jew.
According to head of the Zupa Dubrovacka municipality Ivo Miletic and president of the local council Mato Previsic, all councilors attending the said meeting were surprised by Zec's statement and consequently failed to immediately react to it. It is undeniable that the conclusions of the meeting do not include a single xenophobic word, which could be an indicator that the official stance of the local council is totally different from the councilor Zec's statement. However, the conclusions also do not contain a single word of condemnation of Zec's chauvinist and anti-Semitic statement. Only president of the HFP Damir Ostovic remained consistent in his condemnation of Zec's statement.
We were unable to obtain an official reaction of the HDZ county organization for Dubrovnik, since president Franjo Matusic and his deputy Dubravka Suica were detained by their official obligations. However, president of the county organization of the HSP Zeljko Kulisic volunteered an interesting reaction:
"If that is an individual reaction of a councilor, how come president of the local council and head of the municipality did not condemn it at the meeting? We believe that Zec's statement is inappropriate and unacceptable. It would be sad if Zec's words reflected HDZ's views," Kulisic said.
The statement demands that the city authorities, which built the monument, to within 48 hours remove the "soil and grass carpet" around the monument. Otherwise, the statement says, war veterans will remove "Serb grass and soil" on their own.
President of the Coordination Of Organizations Related To The Homeland War for Makarska littoral Damir Zukic, signatory of the statement and deputy president of the Croat war veterans' organization HVIDRA stated that it is true that "soil and grass carpet" used to cover the area around the monument had been brought from the Republic of Srpska, free of charge. He also stated that they are trying to find out the name of the Banja Luka company that delivered the turf for the monument.
"We are adamant in our demands that the soil and grass be removed immediately. If the city authorities fail to do so we shell do it. We already have a man in Osijek who will deliver grass for the monument," Zukic said.
This is what mayor Ante Novak has to say about the incident:
"What does it matter where the grass is from? We got the grass as a gift from Bosnia. I am not sure who provided it, but I think it came from a Croat from Duvno or Livno. I don't understand why the organizations are now making up problems and alarming the public".
He added that the veterans' organizations are welcome to replace the soil and grass if they wish to do so.
However, while these destructive elements burnt and murdered, others, we could almost say, chose these crazy times to test their entrepreneurial skills! Namely, as is well known, Serbs left Croatia in August of 1995 in columns of tractors and cars, but naturally, could not take all their property with them. Many cars and machines were left behind, parked on Knin streets and in Serb villages, left to the mercy of Croat soldiers who were advancing from all sides.
Namely, until November 2000. Before that date certain Petar Ivic, commander of a company stationed in the barracks "Bribirski knezovi" on several occasions attempted to warn his superiors about the existence of a duty free shop in his barracks, from where officers took whatever took their fancy. As later turned out, they even organized a lottery in which certain Joso Marinovic, colonel of the Croatian Army, from a hat pulled winning numbers corresponding to various prizes - cars, tractors, trailers, and even an overboard boat engine!
Ivic then met General Josip Ignac, chief inspector of armed forces, but that also turned out to be futile, although the conversation in which Ivic gave a detailed description of a bizarre military-criminal store set up in the barracks "Bribirski Knezovi" was recorded and archived at the Ministry of Defense.
At that point Ivic had enough. He got in one of the tractors in the military duty free shop and drove it outside the barracks in an attempt to warn about crime taking place within. He did not intend to keep the tractor for his personal use. Of course, competent services reacted immediately, as at that point it was impossible to claim that nothing was going on. They charged Petar Ivic with theft!
Ivic is today in court. The next hearing has been scheduled for May 14, and the defense will call General Ante Gotovina as its witness. General Gotovina was chief inspector after the "Storm" and had the duty to know everything that Ivic unsuccessfully tried to report.
In the meantime, no one has been charged or held responsible for the theft and looting of Serb property valued in millions.