Croatia protests plaque honouring wartime Yugo army officer

ZAGREB, Croatia – Croatia has formally protested the unveiling of a plaque in Serbia honouring a Yugoslav army commander who took part in attacks on the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar during the 1991-95 war.

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said in a statement that it has filed a diplomatic note with the Serbian embassy in Zagreb to protest Friday’s ceremony at the army complex in Serbia’s northern city of Novi Sad.

Former Novi Sad corps commander Maj. Gen. Mladen Bratic was killed in November 1991 during the attacks in Vukovar, which was devastated in the war. Yugoslav army troops took over the town that same month after constant shelling.

More than 10,000 people died in the war, which erupted when Croatia declared independence from the Serb-led former Yugoslavia.