Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Del Vechio, was summoned for consultations to Zagreb after his attendance at the controversial celebration of the “RS entity day” in Banja Luka, although that holiday in the Serb entity was declared unconstitutional by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court.
Wednesday’s celebration was also marked by the posthumous awarding of decoration to ex-JNA officer, Slavko Lisica, who was sentenced to 15 years for war crimes in the Croatian city of Sibenik. In 1998, the local county court found Lisica guilty of shelling that Adriatic city in September 1992. In the shelling launched by JNA units under Lisica’s control, a woman was killed and the city’s landmarks, including centuries-old churches and monuments in the city centre, were damaged.
War Veterans’ Affairs Minister Tomo Medved and Defence Minister Damir Krstičević on Thursday strongly criticised Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivan Del Vechio for attending Wednesday’s celebration of Republika Srpska Day in Banja Luka, HINA reports.
Officially, Croatian government dismissed Del Vechio on Friday because he attended the controversial celebration of the Republika Srpska Day in Banja Luka earlier this week.
On the day January 9, 1992 in Sarajevo, the then Assembly of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina issued the Declaration of the proclamation of the Republic of Serbian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The republic has been proclaimed on the territories of Serbian autonomous regions and areas and other Serbian ethnic structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the areas where Serbs were constituting a minority.