Croatian President Ivo Josipovic on Thursday visited the village of Kukujevci, in the western part of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, close to the border with Croatia. There he visited the now destroyed Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Trinity and met with representatives of local authorities, leaders of the Croat National Council (HNV) in Serbia, and the Bishop of Srijem.
Thanking Josipovic for paying a historic visit to the Croat community in the region of Srijem, Srijem Bishop Djuro Gasparovic recalled the suffering of local Croats who had to leave their homes in the 1990s due to threats.
Gasparovic said that around 20,000 Croats were expelled from their homes in Srijem, including entire Croat populations in some parishes. He thanked the clergy for staying with their people, and the Vojvodina authorities for their efforts to protect local residents who received threats.
HNV president Slaven Bacic said the Croat community in Serbia wanted President Josipovic to visit the Kukujevci church, a symbol of suffering of the Vojvodina Croats, and expressed confidence that "such times are behind". The church in Kukujevci is one of the oldest churches in Vojvodina.
A representative of the association of people who hail from Kukujevci, Milan Cindric, recalled the abuse local residents had been subjected to, even at the police station in Sid, and called on Serbian authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.
The village of Kukujevci is one of the villages in the region of Srijem that was ethnically cleansed of the local Croat population in the 1990s. The leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj, is standing trial at the Hague war crimes tribunal for those crimes. Before the 1990s war, 500 Croat families lived in Kukujevci, and today there are only five.
After visiting Kukujevci, Josipovic was to travel to the municipality of Sid to meet with local officials and representatives of local Croat associations and the Croat community.
