Cape Argus

Croatian visit canned

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SARAJEVO: Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin called off his visit to a memorial service for victims of a World War II exterminat­ion camp yesterday after Croatia said he was not welcome.

The two ex-Yugoslav republics began trading barbs last week when a Croatian delegation cut short a trip to Serbia after a Serbian radical lawmaker tried to rip up the Croatian flag.

The visit had been part of an effort to heal ties between the two neighbours, hostile since Croatia fought a war of independen­ce from Yugoslavia in the 1990s in which around 20 000 people were killed. Vulin said Croatia’s barring of his visit to Mlaka, near the site of the WWII camp at Jasenovac, was an attempt by Croatia to silence those speaking about crimes committed there. – Reuters

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