Any cooling of Serbia-Croatia relations undermines the position of the Croatian minority in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, making Croatian President Ivo Josipovic's visit to the Vojvodina Croats all the more important, political analyst and journalist Tomislav Zigmanov told the Croatian media in Vojvodina on Wednesday.
Josipovic is scheduled to visit the Srijem region on Thursday. In the villages of Sid municipality, from which the highest number of local Croats was driven out in the early 1990s, he will encourage the local Croats ahead of a population census in Serbia.
"The visit is important for raising awareness of the fact that the Croats in Vojvodina were also the victims of the 1990s. Twenty-five were killed and 35,000-40,000 permanently left their homes not of their own will. As victims, they should be honoured in a dignified fashion," said Zigman.
Commenting on the polemic between Serbian and Croatian state leaders about Kosovo, he said such tensions hurt the Croatian minority, making its members feel insecure again and reluctant to participate in public life.
Zigman said the problem was that this was happening ahead of a census at which the Croatian community would hesitate to state their ethnicity.
He added that, although political relations between Serbia and Croatia had cooled again, economic and cultural ties would not be severed.
