The SDSS president strongly condemned the four suspects accused of setting fires in the Zadar area but also warned of a hate campaign spreading against the Serbian community.
The president of the SDSS and Member of Parliament Milorad Pupovac held a press conference in Zagreb on Tuesday, where he strongly condemned the arson attacks in the Benkovac, Zadar, and Biograd areas. Four suspects have been arrested-three Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality, aged 46, 45, and 42, and a 33-year-old Polish woman-who are charged with starting fires at ten locations in Zadar County.
Pupovac noted that the suspects also set fires in villages with both Croatian and Serbian majority populations, and that one of the suspects lives in one of those villages. "The fact that they were intoxicated under these circumstances is for the court to decide how to treat. As far as we are concerned, they have done great harm to their homeland, to the people they belong to, and ultimately to themselves," said Pupovac.
Two of the arrested, Vladimir Ćupić and Daniel Stegnjaić, are members of the Donja Biljane Local Committee, which belongs to the City of Benkovac. The president of that committee is Aleksandar Vukša, and among its members are Duško Pupovac and Miroslav Lakić. According to the same source, Ćupić and Stegnjaić have admitted to setting the ten fires, but the motive is still being determined.
Hrvatska Danas also reports that Croatia rebuilt Stegnjaić's house and that he received around 44,000 euros in incentives for his family farm, while Ćupić's land had a pile of toxic slag that Croatia remediated. Other sources do not mention these details, focusing instead on the legal classification of the offense.
In addition to condemning the perpetrators, Pupovac specifically warned about what has been spreading on social media and in certain media outlets since the arrests. "Regardless of whether it's about Serbs today or someone else tomorrow, this is unhealthy for society. It is dangerous for social security and social relations. Turning such a dangerous phenomenon as summer fires into an opportunity to stoke religious and interethnic hatred, as some media and portals are doing, is also arson," he said.
He added that those who shift responsibility onto Serbs "are harming Croatia and every one of its communities." He also emphasized that volunteer fire departments from areas where Serbs live participated in extinguishing the fires alongside their Croatian colleagues, regardless of the ethnic makeup of the burned areas.
At the beginning of his address, Pupovac expressed condolences to the families of all those who perished in the fires, especially the young woman from Bosnia and Herzegovina who died, and support for the firefighters and civilians who were injured. "Fire does not discriminate, just as it did not discriminate against Dragana Antešević in the Omiš area. Unreasonable people do not discriminate; reasonable people do," he said.
He called on the state to consider strengthening the capacities of volunteer fire departments, as the danger of fires, he said, increases year after year. He also commented on a possible emergency session of Parliament on waste in Gospić, saying that the SDSS would attend if it is convened and would discuss it with the highest degree of responsibility.
The four suspects remain in investigative detention in Zadar for one month. They are charged with a serious criminal offense against public safety, but this is an initial legal classification that may be changed during the proceedings, even to the criminal offense of terrorism.
