This post is not the typical theme of this blog and is merely dedicated to a few people I came across in some other blogs, which persist in saying that Serbians lie about being harassed by Croatians, that things like that never happened or just in negligible quantity. Without judging and without the wish to dig up old stories I'd like however to show that just a few kilometers away from the tourist paths, where more and more western europeans spend their holidays, a shameful truth is still present.
These pictures are shot in the area around Knin (Republika Srpska Krajina). It shows churches and houses from the serbian ethnic community that have been destroyed by croatian separatists during the croatian independence war 1991 - 1995. 
In the lower left corner you can spot the ustashe "U"
No chance for serbians to come back. The atmosphere around the regions of Zadar (known as heartland of croatian nationalism) is very hostile toward serbians and also a lot of serbs can not legally enter Croatia (whoever was involved in the opponent side during the war and is registered is not allowed to access croatian territory).
that was a little village...
The ustashe "U" here in combination with the "catholic cross" makes reference to the fact that the catholic churche supported the fascist ustashe regime.
"there is no forgiveness for cetniks" the atmosphere is openly anti-serbian!
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is the right way to show the facts from neutral point of view.
It's not only one or two, sides story. This ugly war has heavily affected all of us. ALL.
Thanks merkat for understanding the way I posted this theme!
ReplyDeleteWhat happened during storm operation is undeniable.
ReplyDeleteAnd criminal.
The operation was planned and scheduled with a strong american support (I suggest to read Holbrooke's 'To end a war', where the author is quite clear about that).
What happened is another evidence of the real political relationship between Milosevic and Tudjman, false enemies..
It's important not to forget the beginning of problems in Krajina as well.
Anyway good post!
so why don't you show photos of Derventa countryside where serbs cleaned croats... or vukovar even better? you show three houses in ruins and that should be ethnic cleaning? how many buildings were destroyed in battle for vukovar???
ReplyDelete@anonymous
ReplyDeleteBecause if you look up Derventa and Vukovar in internet you find milions of sites already showing it.
For some reasons pictures like I show here from Krajina don't show up that often..I ask myself why!
I have three times more pictures of devastated villages with fascist logos...here in my post I show just a couple of them.
Zdravo...
ReplyDeleteI am an American but spent 4 months living in Novi Sad this year to take Serbian language courses. I think your blog is very interesting.
I have some mixed feelings on this post. It was interesting to see the collection of "leftovers" from the conflicts. Also, my Serbian friends are too nervous to visit Croatia anymore, although they long to go there for the sea so I agree with this fact.
However, these pictures of destroyed houses could be from many places in the Balkans- I saw for myself. Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia... As an American, I was confronted with the bombed buildings in Belgrade that seem to be left for purely symbolic reasons..although no one ever made me feel unwelcome.
I do not disagree that Serbs feel unwelcome in Croatia because of past conflicts, but I disagree that these images are the reason. What about discussing current problems for Serbs when they visit Croatia? Car vandalism? Fights?
Christine, thanks for visiting my blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree, these pictures are not the reason why Serbs still feel nervous to visit Croatia, I would even say, a lot of Serbs don't even know about this ghost-villages. I wanted to share that, because, also I was not aware of that.
Many are the pictures that medias showed me about Bosnia,Kosovo, also a lot of manipulated things, I see my post more as a contra-information.
And like you write: rarely Serbs are hostile about people from countries that attacked them (my country opened one of the first embassies in the illegal state of Kosovo, I never had to feel that!)
PS: My personal experience in Dubrovnik: we parked our car with serbian plates in front of a bar, when we got out of the car someone commented "What do these Cetniks want here?!" I know, it makes feel nervous.....
If you feel nervous in Dubrovnik because of a comment, maybe watching the reason for that comment will put your nervosity in perspective.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-mnp4IfjsM
Dear Pero, thanks for visiting this blog.
ReplyDeleteI know the reason for that comments, of course. It's just interesting to show, that contrary to what I constantly read in medias: hostility IS STILL an issue, if we like it or not.
I guess we just have to accept it and start from there.
Bathmate! don't spam my blog!
ReplyDeleteVery sad pictures. They remind me of the burnt out homes of Bosniacs and Croats that I saw when I travelled to Banja Luka in Bosnia last month.
ReplyDeleteBear Bob, thanks for commenting. TOf course there is no difference between burned down houses in Bosnia or Coratia. The only little subjective difference is: we know a lot about those in Bosnia (our medias remember them wery well) and there is almost no coverage about this ones in Croatia. And they are just a few km away from major touristic centers.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Croat villages within the krajina? You know, the ones that were cleansed in the early 90's by Serbs.
ReplyDeleteStrange, you're accusing "the west" of bias yet you engage in it yourself...
Zivela Velika Srbija
ReplyDeletePlease dont spread lies or half thruths.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, war was on croatian teritory - not the other way around. So called Republika srpska krajina (Knin town was always croatian city, since middle ages) was serbian proclamation on parts of croatian teritory (and bosnian where it still exist).
Just because they recently (in 20 st.) settled in Croatia those NOT mean they can claim it.
solo ora vedo questo post...
ReplyDeletestavo cercando qualcosa su skardalija..
hai qualcosa ?
Lina