Several minor political parties and organisations representing ethnic Serbs in Croatia have backed President Ivo Josipovic over his recent strongly-worded letter in which he accused Milorad Pupovac of having monopoly in the representativeness of the Serb minority and of "dysfunctional policy".
Leaders of five political parties and organisations and Pozega-Slavonia Deputy County Prefect said on Monday that "as Croatia's citizen it's his right and as Croatia's President, it's his duty to speak out about the suffocation of democracy within the Serb community in Croatia and about abuse of power by Milorad Pupovac when, on behalf of our community, he trades off with our past, our present and our future only to his own benefit and the benefit of his people,"
The letter signed by Svetozar Livada, the head of "the Union of Serbs" in Croatia, the Serb Democratic Forum president, Veljko Dzakula, the Our Party president Jovan Ajdukovic and some other Serb representatives, calls on President Josipovic and other institutions to help the Serb community to be freed of the cult of the personality of Milorad Pupovac.
"The Serb community in Croatia is more numerous than the population of some of the European Union member-states and has the right and need to exercise the political pluralism within itself."
They accuse Pupovac and the Serb People's Council (SNV) whose president he is of stifling the expression of different opinions in the Serb community.
"Everyone who has had a different opinion (from Pupovac and the SNV) has been defamed, excluded and prevented from further action," they said in their open letter.
As for the "alleged care for" freedom of the media, which Pupovac expressed, the signatories of today's open letter say that in the case of the so-called independent Serb weekly "Novosti" there haven't been any freedom and independence for years.
Prompted by Josipovic's criticism Pupovac said that Josipovic had decided to turn his conflict with the Novosti weekly into his conflict with him and accused the head of state of trying to limit media freedoms and undermine minority institutions.
The "Novosti" weekly is "a semi-private bulletin" of Milorad Pupovac and the newspaper is prepared by reporters and others whom he hires and pays wages, using taxpayers' money for that purpose, the signatories of today's open letter said, accusing Pupovac of misuse of funds intended to the Serb minority.
