Serbian Ambassador Walks Out of Serb National Council Reception in Zagreb in Protest of Laureates’ Letter

Jelena Milic (BETAPHOTO/HINA/Tomislav Pavlek)

Serbia’s Ambassador to Croatia Jelena Milic walked out of a reception in the country’s capital Zagreb, traditionally organized on Christmas Day by the Serb National Council, protesting the absence of reaction of Council’s members to the letter of the laureates, who thanked the young people in Serbia, according to Croatian media reports on Jan. 7.

This year’s laureates of the Svetozar Pribicevic award for promoting Serbia-Croatia relations are writer Jasminka Petrovic and director Radivoje Andric, who are connected by the book titled The Summer I Learned to Fly, focusing on the consequences of the war on a large Serb-Croat family. As the laureates could not attend the ceremony, they had written a letter thanking the young people and the Serb National Council for having recognized the message of reconciliation. “We thank children across the region who see further than us and whose views are prettier than ours. Also, we thank the young people in Serbia who have recently been teaching us how to fly and shine.”

Milic said she had walked out of the reception as she “did not like” the reaction of the Serb National Council, adding that she had understood it as “a direct association to student blockades” in Serbia. Milic added that she supported “drives when young people assemble in squares and do not block institutions, and also when they demand that justice be served for unjust acts,” but disapproved of blockades, calling Serbia a tyranny, or branding the president and top officials as killers. Milic stressed she had responded to “flagrant insults to the state,” noting that any other ambassador would do the same.

Dejan Jovic, the Council’s top official and professor of political sciences in Zagreb, described Milic’s conduct as scandalous, saying that she would “never see the Serb National Council censor a letter of any of its laureates,” stressing that “attacks on the citizens of the country she represents, including professors, artists and students in the media of her host country, are beyond inappropriate.”