The Knin police will press criminal charges against an unidentified perpetrator who took a Croatian national flag from the mast at a memorial cross above the Krcic waterfalls in the Knin hinterland, spokeswoman for the Sibenik Knin county police Marica Kosor said on Friday.
A police investigation showed that the flag had been torn in pieces and the police and the local prosecutors decided to launch criminal proceedings against an unidentified perpetrator over the damage done the reputation of the Republic of Croatia.
This incident caused an outcry among local war veterans who condemned in the strongest terms the damage done to the Croatian flag.
"Being outraged, we deplore this barbarian act of damaging the Croatian flag in the situation when are witnessing to the ritual and shameful burning of the Croatian flag by those who cannot accept the (Serbian) defeat in the Homeland Defence War," the Knin-based association of war veterans who suffered from the post-traumatic stress disorder said in a statement.
The Croatian ministry for war veterans' affairs on Friday joined in the condemnation of the damaging of the Croatian state flag at the memorial monument erected in tribute to the fallen Croatian soldiers in the Knin hinterland.
"The Croatian flag is a symbol of the Croatian statehood and of the unity of Croatian citizens. Vandalism against the Croatian flag and the coat-of arms is an act of vandalism against the Republic of Croatia, its institutions and citizens," the ministry said.
The ministry hopes that the relevant authorities would find the perpetrators and penalise them.
